Film-maker Adam Elliot has won the Australian Directors Guild Award for best feature Mary And Max.

The Academy Award winner’s debut film opened the Sundance Film Festival this year, the first ever Australian film to do so.

The GRASS (Get Real About Sustainable Screens) Awards was presented to Sarah Watt and Bridget Ikin for the effort they made to reduce their carbon footprint when making My Year Without Sex.

The ceremony, held today (September 10), also saw four directors, including Scott Hicks, win achievement awards. Hicks’ latest feature, The Boys Are Back, will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next week. The UK/Australian co-production is a poignant story of a grieving single father (Clive Owen) struggling to raise two sons.

Meanwhile, veteran auteur Paul Cox was handed the Cecil Holmes Award, which recognises the contribution directors make through mentoring. He has made 18 features including My First Wife, A Woman’s Tale and Innocence.

Tony Ayres won the telemovie category for immigrant drama Saved, film and TV director Shawn Seet won the drama series category with an episode of crime drama Underbelly, and Rachel Perkins won the documentary awards for an First Australians, which tells the story of Aboriginal Australians.

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