AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR THE MOVING IMAGE IMAGE THE MOVING CENTRE FOR AUSTRALIAN Australian Centre for the Moving Image ANNUAL REPORT 2012/13 REPORT ANNUAL Annual Report 2012/13 Art, Film, & Digital Culture Accountable Officer’s Declaration In accordance with the Financial Management Act 1994 I am pleased to present the Report of Operations for the Board of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) for 2012/13. Antony G Sweeney Chief Executive Officer and Director 30 June 2013 In accordance with the Victorian Government’s FRD30A Standard Requirements for the Design and Production of agency Annual Reports, this publication has been designed and produced to minimise environmental impacts. Art, Film, & Digital Culture 02 Introduction 05 Highlights 06 From the President and Director 08 Exhibitions 12 Film Programs 18 Public and Education Programs 32 Outreach, Online and Resources 36 Our Audiences 38 Development and Partnerships 42 Diversity 44 Commercial and Operations 48 Performance Summary 50 Administrative Reporting Requirements 56 Disclosure Index Introduction Our Vision On opening our doors in 2002, we were The moving image is a powerful a new moving image centre among expression of human experience and imagination. Capturing ideas, memories a growing number of worldwide film and reality through stories and images helps us make sense of ourselves and our and digital art centres launched in the world. previous 30 years. We aim for the highest We see the moving image as a unique arena for dynamic cultural and creative interpretive standards in representing the exchange. We seek to harness its far- reaching potential, empowering people moving image in all its forms, and their as informed communicators, critics and creators in the global culture of the evolution in the contemporary digital era. moving image. We are a leading international cultural Our Purpose To present and champion the art and organisation with a unique content culture of the moving image, inspiring people to engage richly with creative range and powerful capabilities for the practice as it evolves globally and locally. contemporary era of digital and creative We celebrate excellence in art, film, television, videogames and digital arts. We richly engage broad audiences culture, and explore their contemporary dynamics and evolving futures. We and partnership networks through support innovation by fostering new ideas and talent, learning, research and ambitious exhibitions, film screenings, collaborations in Australia and worldwide. learning and events programs, Our vibrant exhibitions, screenings, events, workshops and Collections invite Collections and online channels. As one people to experience, create and share in of Australia’s major cultural, learning today’s connected world, and help shape screen culture as it changes our lives. and tourism destinations, we contribute strongly to Melbourne’s and Victoria’s ‘world-class’ profiles. 02 ACMI 2012/13 Our Aims — Sustainability: To maintain a robust, — Integrity and Respect: We act — Cultural Leadership: To engage the entrepreneurial organisation with ethically, professionally, fairly and widest audiences and communities of diverse funding; an energetic, with integrity. We communicate interest, enabling them to experience expert, learning culture; and the openly and constructively, and value and explore excellence and new highest achievable environmental responsibly exercised freedom of perspectives in the moving image. performance. expression. We respect the diverse — Creativity and Learning: To foster values, traditions and ideas of the Our Values talent, creative skills, personal people we engage with. — Warm Welcome: Driven by expression, formal and informal — Social Responsibility: We serve enthusiasm for the moving image learning in screen literacy, and society by advancing understanding and focus on quality of experience, promote its progress in educational of the moving image’s role in we engage audiences and partners practice. reflecting and shaping our lives. We in a spirit of friendship, inclusion and hold our knowledge, capabilities, — Innovation Catalyst: To promote shared endeavour. experimentation in screen content, collections and assets in safe trust, — Sense of Theatre: We promote fresh and act as a catalyst for innovation actively managing them for the ideas, innovation and vivid memories in digital culture, through creative- benefit of society and its future. through experiences infused with industry collaborations and energy, style and pleasure. We aim Above: Egmont, one of our Visitor professional networks. Services team members to intrigue, excite and challenge our — Knowledge and Collections: To audiences to discover something collect, research and make accessible new, and to be inspired by the screen heritage and social memories, encounter. generating critical appreciation of — Passion and Depth: We believe in the field, its impacts and evolving the value of knowledge, inquiry and directions. open exchange of ideas to empower and evolve new thinking. We bring authority, rigour and an independent voice to forge a culture of informed debate and bold action with our stakeholders. ACMI 2012/13 03 Our Artistic Principles — Illuminating Context: As well — Global Dynamics: The moving image The moving image is a potent cultural as presenting iconic works is driven by worldwide networks of and creative space, rich in aesthetic, and influential makers, we add influence, exchange and collaboration expressive and experiential forms. meaning through interpretation. across the local and the global. We Our sensibility transcends traditional We explore context, evolution and champion Australian makers in the boundaries across the spectrum of trends; influences, alignments and context of global practice to illuminate art, popular culture and enabling connections; impacts on social and strengthen this vibrant dynamic. technologies. memory and engagement. Our sensibility marries subject-matter To explore new perspectives in our — Transformational Encounters: The to tone of voice in a fresh open-ended ever-changing field, we promote critical moving image is a restlessly evolving program ecology, to engage diverse and creative dialogue: across the past space where practice and theory are audiences in a compelling cultural and and present; the local and the global; in constant inter-play. We explore creative conversation. the established, the independent, the creative encounters and fusions, experimental and the avant-garde. cross-artform conversations and Above: Game Designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi plays Child of Eden Our programming, commissioning new practices, within moving image and collecting activities, centred on culture and beyond. creative content, practice and cultural — Participatory Culture: We act as engagement with the moving image, a ‘studio space’ which nurtures respond to four key perspectives: collaboration among makers and audiences, to explore and generate new directions. We provide an accessible, stimulating environment, supporting co-creative, user- generated and socially networked activity. 04 ACMI 2012/13 Highlights 2012/13 — We introduced new and improved public spaces for our visitors, Our best year yet! including a new food and beverage — We welcomed more people offer through our doors than ever — We welcomed over 23,000 visitors before - our highest ever annual to the Australian Mediatheque attendance with 1.156 Million visitors — 10,700 hours contributed by our volunteers — We celebrated our tenth birthday — 61% increase in our Facebook — We delivered two Australian likes premiere Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibitions — 55% increase in our Twitter followers — We screened films in 23 languages from 22 countries — 398 entries in our national schools filmmaking competition, Screen It, — 18 Australian or Melbourne film by 1281 students premieres — Over 27,000 visitors in 12 hours — We hosted and supported a for the inaugural White Night event record 21 film festival partners — We commissioned more contemporary artworks by Australian and international artists than ever before — The ACMI-curated Game Masters exhibition tours to New Zealand ACMI 2012/13 05 Message from As we enter our second decade, we do so as the highest attended moving image centre in the world with a record 1.156 million visitors through the doors in the President 2012/13. This result is cause for celebration, but numbers tell only part of the story. We are just as proud of our & CEO contribution to Melbourne’s international positioning as we’ve forged a unique role in commissioning and presenting contemporary moving image art and influential popular culture to Australian audiences. We have an unusual and powerful ability to engage a broad diversity of audiences beyond the It is with a sense of pride, that as Board traditional gallery and museum President and Director/CEO, we present demographic, and in particular, in attracting new and highly sought after our 2012/13 Annual Report. audience segments to our programs. The commissioning of new works by It’s been a year of milestones and records, contemporary artists was a major focus of our year, with new commissions not the least being the commemoration by Australian artists Ian Burns and Warwick Thornton featuring in our of our 10th birthday. There have been exhibitions program. A highlight of our hugely popular Gallery 1 exhibition, moments of reflection on the many Candice Breitz: The Character, was achievements of the past decade, while the international