Director Julian Shaw was honoured by the Byron Bay International Film Festival and International Film School Sydney overnight with the prestigious Best Young Australian Filmmaker of the Year Award.
The prize was for his powerful dramatic short Clearing the Air, recently licensed to QANTAS In-Flight Entertainment. Set in a single hotel room overlooking Sydney International Airport, the emotionally charged film captures an exchange between an estranged father and son, played by AFI Winner Marcus Graham and AFI nominee Rhys Wakefield. The award is a happy outcome for Shaw and Wakefield, who were schoolmates at the McDonald College of Performing Arts.