  {"id":17219,"date":"2008-11-14T05:01:57","date_gmt":"2008-11-13T21:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/curtin-graduate-looks-forward-to-the-black-balloon-afi-awards\/"},"modified":"2008-11-14T05:01:57","modified_gmt":"2008-11-13T21:01:57","slug":"curtin-graduate-looks-forward-to-the-black-balloon-afi-awards","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/curtin-graduate-looks-forward-to-the-black-balloon-afi-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtin graduate looks forward to The Black Balloon AFI awards"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"title\">\n<div id=\"titledesc\">\n<p>C303\/08<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span>14 November 2008<\/span><\/div>\n<p>WA film maker and Âé¶¹Ö±²¥ of Technology graduate Elissa Down can\u2019t  wait for the 2008 AFI Awards night in December.<\/p>\n<p>Her debut feature film, The Black Balloon, has received 11 nominations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the AFI nominations were announced I was in the US working on a number  of projects and preparing for the film\u2019s American release in December,\u201d Ms Down  said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI pinched myself when I heard that my film had received so many  nominations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy phone and email ran hot with messages of congratulations from my family,  friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was absolutely fantastic and I am excited that so many people involved  with this film, that is so special to me, have been receiving recognition for  their amazing contributions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am on tenterhooks in anticipation of the big night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In total, The Black Balloon has received the following nominations:<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0AFI  Award for Best Film:\u00a0 The Black Balloon &#8211; Tristram Mial<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0AFI Award for Best  Direction:\u00a0 Elissa Down<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0Macquarie AFI Award for Best Original Screenplay:\u00a0  Elissa Down and Jimmy The Exploder<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0AFI Award for Best Cinematography:\u00a0 The  Black Balloon &#8211; Denson Baker ACS<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0AFI Award for Best Editing:\u00a0 The Black  Balloon &#8211; Veronika Jenet ASE<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0AFI Award for Best Sound:\u00a0 The Black Balloon  &#8211; Ben Osmo and Paul Pirola<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0AFI Award for Best Original Music Score:\u00a0 The  Black Balloon &#8211; Michael Yezerski<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0AFI Award for Best Lead Actor: Rhys  Wakefield &#8211; The Black Balloon<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0AFI Award for Best Supporting Actor: Luke  Ford and Erik Thomson &#8211; The Black Balloon<br \/>\n\u2022\u00a0AFI Award for Best Supporting  Actress:\u00a0 Toni Collette &#8211; The Black Balloon<\/p>\n<p>Ms Down directed and co-wrote The Black Balloon, which tells the story of a  family dealing with the challenges of autism and is based on her own family. It  was released in Australian cinemas earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis film is very personal to me as I have three brothers \u2013 two of whom have  autism,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI grew up knowing in my heart of hearts that one day my family story would  make fertile ground for a film.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ms Down graduated from Curtin in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts \u2013 she majored  in Film and TV.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year has been an amazing journey for me from winning a Crystal Bear at  the Berlin International Film Festival to being recognised here with IF and AFI  nominations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The L&#8217;Or\u00e9al Paris 2008 AFI Awards will take place at Melbourne\u2019s Princess  Theatre on Saturday 6 December and will be televised on the Nine Network.<\/p>\n<p>The Black Balloon won the Script Category in the 2007 Western Australian  Premier\u2019s Book Awards recently as well.<\/p>\n<p>Attention Editor\/COS: A black and white photograph is available on  request.<\/p>\n<p><span>Modified: 14 November 2008<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WA film maker and Âé¶¹Ö±²¥ of Technology graduate Elissa Down can\u2019t wait for the 2008 AFI Awards night in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-17219","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":false,"author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Âé¶¹Ö±²¥"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17219"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=17219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}