Congratulations to our winners: L-R Andrew Arestides ASE, Adrian Rostirolla, Drew Thompson ASE, Alexandre de Francheschi ASE  missing are Philippa Rowlands ASE and Peter Carrodus ASE.

For the 4th year running it was a packed house at the Vanguard with many of Australia’s best editors gathering for a chance to catch up with friends and colleagues and celebrate the end of the year and to cheer on the award nominees and congratulate the winners. The night started with pre dinner drinks in the sumptuous surrounds of the moody jazz club and when it was show time and everyone had found their seats, our host the remarkable Dr.Karen Pearlman kicked the night off with an exciting new look at editing, through dance. 

Karen Pearlman with Grace Stewart

Karen, who lectures and heads up Screen Studies at AFTRS, used her extensive background in dance to choreograph a special work with her husband Dr Richard James Allen from the Physical TV Company.  With dancer Grace Stewart performing Karen demonstrated the language of editing through the movement of dance, inviting editors to create their own choreographed pieces by restructuring pre determined moves. It was a wonderful analogy and perfect for the stage, combining a sense of theatre with the cinema screen.

Karen then introduced new President Lindi Harrison to the stage to deliver her first speech to an eagerly awaiting audience. It was a beautifully presented address that spoke of the value of editing, particularly in a time when so much content is being created by pretty much everyone and uploaded to YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, et el. Lindi spoke of the art an editor can bring to the work and humorously quoted Walter Murch and Woody Allen. Lindi also spoke of the fact that no Accreditations were given this year and that it remained the highest honour given to an editor by The Australian Screen Editors Guild. In a gesture of acknowledgement Lindi invited past Presidents of the Guild to announce the nominations and present the winners for the 6 editing categories. In an ironic twist the first award to be presented was given to Peter Whitmore ASE. He was to introduce and present the winner of the new award category Best Editing in Commercials. As it happened Peter’s work was nominated in that category and with tongue firmly planted in cheek and with a touch of humour he unsuccessfully attempted to hijack the award.

L-R Lindi Harrison, Henry Dangar ASE, Denise Haslem ASE, Peter Whitmore ASE, Andrea Lang ASE stamps Andrew Arestides ASE with his Elephant stamp.

The other past Presidents presenting the Awards were:
Denise Haslem ASE presented the Award for Best Editing in TV Non Drama.
Henry Dangar ASE presented the Award for Best Editing in Feature Films.
Andrea Lang ASE presented the Award for Best Editing in Documentaries.

Lindi Harrison also presented 2 Awards, for Best Editing TV Drama and Short Films.

Acceptance speeches L-R Adrian Rostirolla, Andrew Arestides ASE, Alexandre de Francheschi ASE, Drew Thompson ASE, Lindi Harrison with Deb Peart and Stephen Evans accepting for Peter Carrodus ASE.

And the Elephant winners were: Drew Thompson ASE - Best Editing in Commercials for Toyota “Earth’s Greatest 4WD”
Philippa Rowlands ASE - Best Editing in TV Non Drama for “Charlotte & Jordans Runway to LA” Ep2
Peter Carrodus ASE - Best Editing in TV Drama for “Underbelly” Ep 9
Adrian Rostirolla - Best Editing in a Short Film for “The Ground Beneath”
Alexandre de Francheschi ASE - Best Editing in a Feature Film for “The Painted Veil”
Andrew Arestides ASE - Best Editing in a Documentary for “The Cars that ate China”

For Philippa Rowlands ASE this was to be her 2nd Elephant Award following her success last year. Unfortunately she wasn’t able to attend as she was in the USA, but sent us a delightful video acceptance speech that was shown on the night.
Peter Carrodus ASE was also unable to attend but his Award was accepted in great humour by his Underbelly co-editors Deb Peart and Steve Evans.

It was the perfect night that celebrated Editors and Editing in Australia.
Our final thanks go to all who worked on the night and particularly to Yucel Celenk for his design and to Christopher Mill and Melanie Annan for their immaculate presentation.