AFI apologises to Working Dog
The AFI has apologised for an error by a production assistant who neglected to usher Working Dog to the Media Room after their two wins.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
The Australian Film Institute has apologised to Working Dog for a production error on the night of the AFI Awards that meant the team who won both Best ScreenPlay in Television and News Limited’s reader award for “Favourite Australian Film” were not invited to the Media Room.
After Working Dog won the favourite Aussie film for The Castle, they were ushered back to their seats in readiness for the subsequent presentation of the Best Screenplay award, won for The Hollowmen.
But a production assistant, misunderstanding the directions for their first win, neglected to usher the team to the Media Room after they won the second award.
“As such the publicity team did not request, nor expected, the attendance of Michael, Jane, Rob or Santo in the media room during the event and Rob and Santo were inadvertently returned to their seats a second time around,” an AFI Spokesperson said.
“This was an honest mistake made during the high pressure of the event, for which the AFI is very sorry.”
Consequently, Working Dog weren’t shunning any media, and Michael Hirsh today said the team had indeed done radio interviews after the win.
He also indicated there is much more in the move of Thank God You’re Here from TEN to Seven than the exaggerated price tags that have been reported by other media.
Press Release:
In the final production meeting for the AFI Awards, the production team needed to account for the movements of nominees and winners between the auditorium, stage and media room. This is to ensure all nominees of specific awards were seated in the auditorium when those awards were announced.
Working Dog were identified as a winner of two awards and there was concern regarding them attending the media room for the first award (Australia’s Favourite Film) and potentially not being in the auditorium for the second award (Best Screenplay in Television).
Accordingly, it was decided that Michael Hirsh, Jane Kennedy, Rob Sitch and Santo Cilauro would be returned to their seats after the announcement of the first award, rather than directed to the media room.
Unfortunately one individual on the production team confused this to also mean that Rob and Santo would not be attending the media room after the announcement of the second award and so instructed the publicity team to this effect.
As such the publicity team did not request, nor expected, the attendance of Michael, Jane, Rob or Santo in the media room during the event and Rob and Santo were inadvertently returned to their seats a second time around.
This was an honest mistake made during the high pressure of the event, for which the AFI is very sorry.
As far as the AFI is concerned, the Working Dog team has been keen to participate in all facets of the publicity for the 50th AFI Awards and so it is particularly disappointing that this error occurred during what was otherwise a very smooth presentation.
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- Tagged with AFI Awards, Thank God You're Here, The Hollowmen
13 Responses
Haha, all the haters have gone silent now….
hang on a minute, is this saying that the media got it wrong? not once but thrice!?!?!
First with the whinging and moaning over the “snubbing” and labeling them to big for the boots and about ten other fabricated reasons made up by the minds of our ever so humble media, and then, they have managed to screw up the details of the move to seven, labeling it a “sell out” (even though any intelligent person knows that the pessimist and optimist say, there is no such thing as sell outs and that we are all sell outs) when in fact there is more to this deal than meets the eye, did the media have a knee jerk Hinch Glitch? Well there’s no use asking them, getting a member of the Australian Media to admit they got it wrong is like getting Howard to say sorry.
How convienient.
The biggest mistake was in organising the order of the awards, surely not putting the 2 awards next to each other with the same winner, surely they could have put the screenplay award a few awards later, or even have them in the media room while giving out the awards and have them go walk about with the camera and present it to them there.
Interesting. Are all of the people who made anti Working Dog comments on the other story on TV Tonight about Working Dog avoiding the media at the AFI going to apologise? No. Much easier to huff and puff over Working Dog’s apparent treason for moving networks.
what a load of rubbish – talk about damage control
Shouldn’t this article be titled “TV Tonight apologizes to Working Dog”. You guys sleadged them pretty hard yesterday, apparently without checking your facts first.
It’s a shame that media jump to conclusions and automatically assume that the W.Dog team were being precious and shunning the media, when there was clearly another explanation.
Why is it that the media (including this site) always assume the worst?
So why I wonder did Chris Lilley appear from backstage to accept one of his awards straight after he had won an earlier award. Plainly he had not gone back to his seat!
Honest mistake or cover up.
Shame press release came out after a lot of anger expressed at Working Dog
Why didn’t AFI say something earlier ?
Cal me cynical but I struggle to believe a lot from networks etc,,the spin they put on, so AFI lacks credibility too
The Working Dog people are the most approachable I’ve ever met. I find it amusing to read about them shunning the media or being “aloof” – the simple truth is that they are not. Your previous story about them not wanting to participate in the media room was deleted off your site and replaced with the AFI’s apology to Working Dog for a production error. It would have been nice if you kept up your comments and offered an apology as well.
David, on the weekend you described all the winners except Working Dog as gracious enough to visit the media room…have you apologised to Working Dog for the error?
Bad mistake all round.