The Outstanding Achievement Award is presented to a director who, in the opinion of the ADG Board, has created an outstanding body of work during their career, in any genre.
The 2010 Outstanding Achievement Award was presented to BOB CONNOLLY.
Bob Connolly trained as a journalist at the ABC and then spent a decade there as a foreign correspondent, current affairs reporter and documentary filmmaker. He made 30 documentaries for the ABC, winning several national awards for production and direction.
In 1978 Connolly left the ABC to work independently with Robin Anderson. Their first film together was Franklin River Journey. In 1983 they released First Contact, followed by Joe Leahy’s Neighbours (1989) and Black Harvest (1992). Shot in the PNG Highlands over ten years, these 3 films won 30 national and international awards, including an Oscar nomination for First Contact, the Grand Prix at France’s Festival Cinema du Reel, and AFI awards for Best Documentary. In 1996 Connolly and Anderson released Rats in the Ranks followed by Facing the Music (2001) which won the AFI Award for Best Documentary, and was voted most popular film at the Sydney and Brisbane Film Festivals. All five films made by Connolly and Anderson won Australian Film Critics Circle awards for Best Documentary.
Tragically, in March 2002, Bob Connolly’s wife and professional colleague Robin Anderson died aged 51.
In 1992 the Australian Film Institute awarded Connolly and Anderson the prestigious Byron Kennedy Award. In 2001 they picked up the Brisbane Film Festival’s Chauvel Award for their “Outstanding Contribution to Australian Film Making.” Later that year they were presented with the inaugural IF Living Legend Award. In 2008 Connolly was awarded the Stanley Hawes Award for his “Outstanding Contribution to Documentary Film making.”
As well as his contribution to Australian Film, Bob has written several books including Making Black Harvest ABC Books 2005 which won Walkley Award, Best Non Fiction Book 2005 and was shortlisted for the 2005 NSW Premiers Literary Awards, Non Fiction.
With co-director Sophie Raymond, Connolly has just completed his sixth feature documentary, Mrs Carey's Concert.
Past Winners
2009 Scott Hicks
2008 Bruce Petty
2007 Gillian Armstrong
2006 Phillip Noyce
2005 Tom Jeffrey
2004 Ray Lawrence
2003 Fred Schepisi
2001 Peter Weir
