The Australian Screen Editing Awards and Accreditation Night was held Sunday, 16th December 2007. The venue was sold out, the food was delicious and the winners and accreditees were truly deserving. It was a fabulous event.
 

The night kicked off  around 6pm with arrivals enjoying canapes, wine (or beer) and great conversation. In the packed house, people slowly made their way to seats, ready for when the night officially started. Emma McCleave hosted the awards and to the room's amazement her opening speech was both funny and... formed with rhyming couplets. Much to the crowd's pleasure, Emma would rhyme her way through the entire night - some of it was cheesy, but indeed, all of it was very clever.
 

Emma introduced the President of the Guild, Peter Whitmore ASE to give his opening address. Pete talked about our editing super powers, thanked our generous sponsors and congratulated the winners and Accreditees before introducing Henry Dangar ASE to present the Accreditees for 2007 before the official ceremonies took an interval for dinner.

The three Accreditees - Jason, Bernard and Philippa all gave fabulous speeches as they talked about their careers and thanked their mentors - some whom were sitting in the audience.
 

The Australian Screen Editing Guild Accreditees for 2007 are:

Jason Ballantine ASE
Bernard Garry ASE
Philippa Rowlands ASE
 

Coming back from the break was a little different from last year, while an expectant crowd could see Emma McCleave back up on stage, they were taken by surprise as the music from the song "Rainbow Connection" started. They were even more surprised as Andrew Macneil ASE walked between tables singing the opening lines to a rewritten version of "Rainbow Connection", aptly titled, "The Loggers, The Synchers and Me" - the crowd watched in absolute delight as Andrew made his way to the stage to sing a duet with Emma.
 

Lindi Harrison introduced the Australian Screen Editing Awards for 2007. In an extremely eloquent speech, Lindi talked about the significance of the awards and the addition for 2007 of the new category - Best Editing in Television Non-Drama. She also mentioned the the category to be introduced in 2008 will be Best Editing in a Commercial.
 

In a nice touch, the inaugural winners from last year presented the Awards for 2007. Hayley Lake, Ken Sallows ASE, Nick Beauman ASE and Dany Cooper ASE all took to the stage to present, as did Jane St Vincent Welch ASE for the new category TV Non Drama.
 

Philippa Rowlands ASE pulled off the double, when following her accreditation she picked up Best Editing for TV Non Drama. All the winners gave wonderful acceptance speeches, some funny, some insightful - although Veronika Jenet stole the show when she admitted she got the job by sleeping with the Director.

The winners of the Best Editing awards for 2007 were:

SHORT FILM
Richard Greenhalgh - 25 cents

TV - NON DRAMA
Philippa Rowlands ASE – Jamie’s Kitchen, Australia, EP 5

TV-DRAMA
Veronika Jenet, ASE  – Bastard Boys
 
DOCUMENTARY
Steve Robinson – Choir of Hard Knocks

FEATURE FILM
Suresh Ayyar, ASE – Romulus My Father

 

After the awards, the official ceremonies of the night were closed but the tab ran dark into the night - with everyone hanging around to catch up and wish each other a Merry Christmas. It was a brilliant night, and many thanks must go to all those people who contributed and indeed, all those who came along - everyone was ready for a great time and certainly - a great time was had.