Amanda Duthie resigns from SA Film Corporation
Film & TV
Former Adelaide Film Festival CEO and artistic director Amanda Duthie is leaving her role with the South Australian Film Corporation to return to Sydney, saying it’s time to explore new opportunities and be closer to family.
Duthie, whose previous roles have included head of content and arts for the ABC, moved to Adelaide from Sydney with her partner and daughter in 2012 to work with the Film Festival.
“We’ve had a fantastic eight years in Adelaide,” she said this morning.
“It was such a privilege to be able to work here at the South Australian Film Corporation … to have the opportunity to work with the incredibly diverse local screen sector and to be able to welcome lots of different projects to South Australia has been a lot of fun.”
Duthie was artistic director and CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival until last October, overseeing five Film Festivals, two Hybrid World Adelaide events and the 2013 Adelaide Festival of Ideas.
During that time, she commissioned 58 projects for the AFF Fund, and invested in award-winning films such as Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country, Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale, Rolf de Heer’s Charlie’s Country and Sophie Hyde’s 52 Tuesdays.
She left her role with the Film Festival at the end of 2018 to become Head of Production, Development, Attraction and Studios at the SA Film Corporation, and served as acting CEO of the corporation following the resignation in July of Courtney Gibson.
Duthie told InDaily that while she doesn’t yet have a new job lined up in Sydney, she is excited to see what comes next, with the increasing connections between the screen industry, other artforms and the technology and games sector offering a range of possibilities.
Among what she says are the “many, many personal and professional highlights” of her time in Adelaide, watching the evolution and success of local filmmaking collective Closer Studios is at the top of her list.
Its 2013 award-winning coming-of-age film 52 Tuesdays, starring rising star Tilda Cobham-Hervey, was part of Duthie’s first Film Festival program and it has since created a string of well-received productions, including what she describes as “South Australia’s first major rating TV series”, The Hunting, a four-part drama series starring Richard Roxburgh and Asher Keddie which aired on SBS earlier this year.
“I think that journey of Closer Productions and all their incredible screen content is testament to the diversity, the daring and the risk-taking.
“Closer is a great illustration of what is possible here in Adelaide, and I’m so happy to have seen all the work they’re created over the years.”
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Asked how South Australia can ensure its screen industry continues to flourish, Duthie says maintaining the diversity of the sector is key.
“It’s a delicate industry with robust and resilient and clever practitioners …
“In terms of the agenda, it’s all there, it’s just a case of continued support for all the incredible projects being generated within the state or for those who want to come to the state and bring their work here.”
Duthie will finish up with the SAFC on November 22, but she will maintain a connection with the state’s creative sector through ongoing membership of the boards of the South Australian Museum and Ukaria Cultural Centre at Mt Barker.
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