SAFC head of production, development, attraction and studios, Amanda Duthie, to depart
The South Australian Film Corporation will lose its head of production, development, attraction and studios as Amanda Duthie departs.
The announcement:
Amanda Duthie to depart SAFC
Amanda Duthie has resigned from her role as Head of Production, Development, Attraction and Studios for the South Australian Film Corporation, and together with her partner and daughter will return to Sydney to pursue new opportunities and to be closer to family.
Duthie leaves South Australia after more than 8 years in significant leadership roles across the Creative Industries, moving her family to Adelaide in 2012 to take up the role of CEO and Artistic Director of the Adelaide Film Festival and the Adelaide Film Festival’s Investment Fund.
In her term as Head of Production, Development, Attraction and Studios at the South Australian Film Corporation, Duthie was responsible for investment in screen content development and production, and production attraction, with a key role in driving innovation in screen storytelling for the State.
Working closely with then CEO Courtney Gibson, Duthie launched Centralised, a north-south creative collaboration in conjunction with Screen NT and established the first screen agency partnership with Audible Australia to push the boundaries of storytelling beyond screen. During her term she oversaw investments in Unjoo Moon’s I Am Woman starring Tilda Cobham-Hervey, set for Australian release in 2020, the Matchbox/Dirty Films TV series Stateless starring Cate Blanchett, Peter Duncan’s ABC TV series Fallout and SBS’s highest rating drama production to date, The Hunting, from Closer Productions.
Duthie will maintain close relationships to the South Australian creative community through her ongoing Board memberships of the South Australian Museum and Ukaria. She was previously on the Adelaide Festival Board.
Duthie’s considerable achievements during her tenure as Artistic Director and CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival include eight major events across six years – five Adelaide Film Festivals, two Hybrid World Adelaide events and the 2013 Adelaide Festival of Ideas. Through the Adelaide Film Festival FUND, one of the only funds of its kind worldwide, Duthie has enabled and presented many extraordinary new and award-winning works, championed the careers of women, artists and indigenous filmmakers in the national screen industry, and secured Adelaide Film Festival’s reputation as a major event in the international screen and cultural calendar, while building audiences locally.
Under Duthie’s leadership the Adelaide Film Festival FUND invested in and presented many high-profile, award-winning works. The Nightingale (2018) by Jennifer Kent and Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country (2017) both won the Special Jury Prize at Venice. Charlie’s Country by Rolf de Heer was honoured at Cannes; Sophie Hyde’s 52 Tuesdays won awards at Berlin and Sundance. FUND films Girl Asleep by and Jeffrey Walker’s Ali’s Wedding both won the CinefestOZ Prize and Anthony Maras’ Hotel Mumbai is currently nominated for 12 AACTA Awards. She Who Must Be Loved won the Sydney Film Festival documentary award and the American Museum of Natural History’s Margaret Mead Award.
Prior to departing the Festival role, Duthie invested in four projects that went on to premiere at Sundance (2019), Grant Sputore’s I Am Mother, Sophie Hyde’s Animals, Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding and The Nightingale. FUND films Cargo and I Am Mother were both acquired by NETFLIX, with Cargo the first Australian NETFLIX Original feature acquisition.
Duthie commissioned 58 projects for the AFF FUND with 43% representation of women directors, including 15 feature films, 9 documentary features and, unique to the AFF FUND, a spectrum of screen storytelling projects across short fiction and documentary, animation, VR, moving image and installation works.
Duthie launched the Festival’s Documentary Competition in 2013 with Flinders University and Australia’s first juried VR Competition in 2017 in collaboration with AFTRS. Duthie’s commitment to innovative storytelling saw her expand the FUND to commission VR projects including Lynnette Wallworth’s Emmy-award winning VR Collisions and the first VR work by creative team Molly Reynolds and Rolf de Heer, The Waiting Room, which world premiered in 2018.
As Head of Content & Arts at the ABC, Duthie was a founding initiator alongside then AFF director Katrina Sedgewick of the innovative HIVE Lab and HIVE Fund, a unique collaboration between the Adelaide Film Festival FUND, Screen Australia, ABC Arts and the Australia Council for the Arts to develop and fund new artist/film collaborations of national significance. Duthie’s continued championing of HIVE while heading Adelaide Film Festival and the delivery of four Labs and four rounds of the HIVE Fund, completing of 10 screen works including the only Australian film selected for Cannes in 2019, Pia Borg’s AACTA-nominated Demonic.
Minister for Innovation and Skills David Pisoni said, “The State Government thanks Amanda Duthie for her many years of outstanding service to the South Australian film industry and particularly for her work as SAFC’s Head of Production, Development, Attraction and Studios, and her leadership of the Adelaide Film Festival. I wish Amanda and her family all the best with the next chapter.”
CEO of the South Australian Film Corporation Kate Croser said, “Amanda has made a significant contribution to the creative landscape in South Australia over the past eight years and has long championed the production of innovative and bold screen content. I have no doubt she will continue to shine brightly in her next endeavours.”
Amanda Duthie said, “It has been so wonderful to work with diverse and super talented screen and arts creatives from across South Australia and to welcome the world into Adelaide through the SAFC and the Film Festival. It has been an adventure living and working in Adelaide and I thank my fine colleagues and collaborators for making it such a rewarding experience.”
Duthie departs the SAFC on Friday 22nd November.
Source: SAFC media release
