Screen legends and up-and-coming talents to vie for prestigious 2024 directors’ awards

Star power, big-budget spectacle and iconic Australian landscapes will vie with reflective social narrative from emerging talent to take home Australia’s most prestigious screen directing awards, the 2024 Australian Directors’ Guild Awards, next week.

Legendary director George Miller is in the running for the top prize in the 2024 Australian Directors’ Guild Awards, with his Mad Max prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga nominated for Best Direction of a Feature Film (Budget $1.5M or over).

Robert Connolly, another global success story renowned for putting Australia’s distinctive landscapes front and centre in his films, is nominated in the same category for Force of Nature, a sequel to box office hit The Dry. Alyssa McClelland’s work on one of Netflix’s most successful series, Sex Education, acclaimed for its exploration of adolescent sexuality, relationships and identity, is among four nominees for Best Direction of a Comedy Series Episode.

Winners of the 19 categories in the 2024 Australian Directors’ Guild Awards will be announced at a star- studded ceremony in Melbourne on 22 November. The awards recognise outstanding directing in everything from online series and children’s TV drama to music video, animation or feature film. They are the only peer-judged directing awards in Australia.

This year saw record entries for Best Direction of a Drama Series Episode, with judges noting the superior standard of directing in the category as well as the inclusion of shows distributed across all platforms, from traditional live broadcasting to fully interactive, on-demand, and internet-based options.

Emma Freeman’s directing on episode 5 of Fake, an eight-part drama-thriller inspired by Australian journalist Stephanie Wood’s memoir delving into themes of deception, trust and the complexities of modern relationships, is among five nominations in the Drama Series Episode category.

Best Direction of a Children’s Series Episode saw a 75% increase in entries on 2023, with a strong combination of live action, animation, reality and experimental work. Nominations for Best Direction of a Documentary Feature had a third more entries than both of the Feature Film categories combined.

“The quality was extremely high across the board for all documentary categories, with quite a few directors switching between drama and documentary,” Australian Directors’ Guild Executive Director Sophie Harper (pictured above) said.

Those shortlisted for Best Direction of a Documentary Feature include Gracie Otto’s Otto by Otto which explores her family’s performing arts legacy and Frances Elliott and Samantha Marlowe’s Renee Gracie:

Fireproof, which documents the story of the former Supercars driver who controversially reinvented herself as an adult online content creator.

Breakthrough South Australian directors Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen are among four nominees for Best Direction of a Debut Feature for their psychological horror thriller You’ll Never Find Me, alongside Natalie Bailey’s biographical drama, Audrey.

The horror/mystery genre stood out this year, with short and long-form entries across all film and television categories, including children’s and documentary, while the two online categories combined saw a 63% increase in entries on last year.

Adds Harper: “It’s fantastic to see directors from around Australia finding commercial and critical success, whether it’s a continuation of George Miller’s incredible legacy with the latest Mad Max movie, or Robert Connolly’s films that take rural Australian stories to the world.

“There are an extraordinary number of Australian directors working on some of the biggest shows in the US and the UK and what’s really exciting is to see the exceptional entries both from those established directors and from up-and-coming Australian directors, exploring worlds and perspectives we’ve rarely seen.”

Australian Directors’ Guild President Rowan Woods said the mix of well-known and emerging directors and the diversity of subject matter among this year’s nominees demonstrates how Australian directors are making their mark not just locally but internationally by telling singular stories that resonate with and move people.

Adds Wood: “Being willing to push boundaries, to innovate and to challenge norms means Australian directors will continue to shape the narrative of what constitutes excellence in filmmaking long into the future. I congratulate each of our nominees and wish them every success in next week’s awards.”

The full list of nominations for the awards can be found here.

Tickets to the Australian Directors Guild Awards, to be held at The Astor Theatre, St Kilda from 5pm on Friday 22 November are on sale now. Purchase tickets here.