Fiona Donovan APDG

The 10th year of the APDG has seen a rise in events and networking opportunities for our members around Australia.

Circulation of the APDG newsletter has grown, and with it more member interviews, which has generated greater interest from both within and outside the Guild.

This year has seen further engagement with other guilds, including a design presentation at the Australian Cinematographers Society, a masterclass with concept artist Gerhard Mozsi at AIT, a speed-networking event with the Australian Directors’ Guild, and with other guilds, a presentation to AFTRS students.

Our Melbourne branch hosted a pub night with Roscommon and more recently an exciting talk Beyond Content and Casting Trans Approaches to Design and Performance by the designer M’ck McKeague.

Jo Ford attended a special screening of Picnic at Hanging Rock in Melbourne, which she followed-up with a talk at AFTRS in Sydney, discussing her work and the design process for this award-winning Foxtel show.

I represented the APDG on a panel at the International Women’s Day celebration in Parramatta with the Women in Film and Television and Australian Writers’ Guild.

The Sydney Design Festival: Accessing Design Excellence NIDA event was organised by Dr Julie Lynch APDG.  The event saw alumni from each decade of the design course discuss their experience and each of these panels had APDG members involved including Tim Ferrier, Stephen Curtis, Xanthe Heubel and Dr Julie Lynch. NIDA and the APDG also hosted a well-attended Q&A screening with Oscar nominees including Fiona Crombie.

It has an exciting year with many members recognised for their work both in Australia and overseas.  In particular, we’d like to acknowledge Fiona Crombie for her The Favourite Oscar nomination and Peter England for his King Kong Tony nomination.

We recently welcomed the amazing Rebecca Whittington in the role of administrator and already she has helped streamline and improve processes behind the scenes. It was with great sadness we farewelled Caitlin Flett as she left to work with the Australian Writers’ Guild.

I would also like to pass on my huge thanks to our treasurer Valentina for her tireless energy; Ashleigh for her amazing organising skills for this year’s awards; and Scott Bird and Stephen Curtis for their ongoing work on the Constitution.  Finally, a huge thanks to George Liddle, our president, for his tireless commitment.