Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence: I take this opportunity to congratulate two Australian filmmakers whose work has been recognised at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It is the world’s premier and most prestigious film festival. Michael Rowe’s film Leap Year was awarded the prestigious Camera d’Or award for debut filmmakers. This is the second year in a row that an Australian filmmaker has received this award. Members will remember that last year Warwick Thornton received the award for Samson and Delilah. As well as that, Ariel Kleiman won the Kodak Discovery Award for his short film, which shows the great depth of talent we are producing in this country. I also congratulate the makers of the Australian-French coproduction, partly funded by Screen Australia, The Tree, which closed the festival. It is appropriate that we mark these significant achievements by Australian filmmakers at this very important international film festival.

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