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Member LoginHow the Milli Award came to be known...
Saturday 30 November 1968 was a bight night at the Arndale centre, Frenchs Forrest, when the NSW Branch held its Annual Christmas Party. The 180 guests who attended saw the presentation of the new “Milli” award trophy and the Kodak Plaques. Mr Ken G Hall presented the Milli trophy and a cheque for $500 to John Bale ACS from Tasmania for his film Asylum.
In the latter party of the previous year the management of the well know firm Swift and Bleakly P/L generously donated a trophy to be presented as the Society saw fit. It was to be a perpetual trophy to be competed for annually, with the name of the winner to be inscribed on the base. The trophy would remain the property of the ACS but each year a miniature would be presented to the winner, a replica to keep as his or her own.
The trophy was conceived and designed by W (Bill) Kennard senior graphic artist at the ABC Sydney and cast in heavy bronze.
Mr John Bleakly, a keen connoisseur of art, was most enthusiastic and praised the simplicity of the design, the inspired motif treatment that symbolises the equipment of the cinematographer.
Mr Dick King was equally lavish in his Praise of the design of the award that he felt sure would become as well known over the years as the Oscar.
As yet there was no name for the trophy. Naturally it could not be called and Emmie, Logie or even an Oscar.
The publishers of Industrial Photography, then the official journal of the ACS gave the Society the sum of $50 to be used as prize money for a competition to determine a suitable name for the Swift and Bleakly Trophy.
The judging panel comprise John Bleakly, Managing Director of Swift and Bleakly; Gordon Lansdown, senior News Cameraman ABC; Josephine O’Neill, Film Critic Associated Press; and Rus Findlay, Editor of Industrial Photography.
The winner of the competition to name the trophy was Mrs Audrey Cummin of Victoria, who chose the abbreviation of the word millimetre for her entry.