Australian Film Institute Awards - Criticisms and Controversies

Criticisms and Controversies

There have been controversial decisions of the Australian Film Institute Awards that have led to claims that it has broken its own rules, such as by including an unscreened miniseries in the 2005 awards judging:

The controversy is a blow for the institute, which after years of criticism this year revamped its awards in an effort to restore credibility. Producer John Edwards, who collected seven nominations for Foxtel's Love My Way, did not enter a second drama series, The Surgeon, because it missed the screening deadline. "If I'd known it was this flexible, of course I would have entered it," Edwards said. "Awards are useless if they break their own rules."

In 2005 with the appointment of Susan MacKinnion of the Australian government's Film Financing Agency (FFC) as jury member, the AFI was accused of again breaking its own rule, which states that jurors "should have no vested interest in any of the entries they will be voting on, and will be required to sign a statutory declaration confirming this fact."

AFIA has also been castigated for narrow selection of artists for award nominations and an unfair judging process.