Al Clark, recipient of the Raymond Longford Award for 2012, said that Australia gave him a sense of belonging. The 21 awards given at the luncheon event are a pretty good portrait of what we all belong to. Dominic Case brings his wide professional wisdom to the proceedings.
The Raymond Longford award is the most prestigious award handed out in the Australian film industry’s calendar. However, it frequently goes to behind-the-scenes figures revered in the industry, but unknown to the general TV-viewing public. Furthermore, as it’s a lifetime achievement award, the recipient rarely has a popular box-office hit at the time of the award. How does that fit into AACTA’s tight schedule of awards tailored for live television coverage? Answer: it doesn’t. So they included it in the list of awards that are presented off-air, at a lunch earlier in the week.
