Ben Cotgrove wins Milli Award for 2024 Australian Cinematographer of the Year

At this year’s Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) 54^th National Awards held at the iconic and newly restored Ithaca Auditorium in Brisbane City Hall, it was Ben Cotgrove who won the prestigious Australian Cinematographer of the Year Milli Award. Cotgrove also won a Gold Tripod in the Documentary category for his work on A Man’s Man.

On winning the award Cotgrove said, “It is a tremendous honour and great privilege to have won the Milli as the standard of entrants and indeed cinematography in Australia is at the very highest level. I am truly humbled to win this award and give my heartfelt thanks to the ACS and all of their sponsors for the awards and everything they do for cinematographers in Australia.”

The 2024 54^th ACS National Awards was, as ever, in the incredibly capable and professional hands of host and MC for the evening, Ray Martin AM. Martin as usual, charmed and entertained the packed house alongside presenters including ACS national president, Erika Addis and special guest of honour Bryan Brown AM.

Addis in turn presented Hall of Fame Awards to Nicola Daley ACS BSC, Andy Taylor ACS and Peter Menzies Snr ACS, the Life Membership Award to Yuri Sokol ACS and Miguel Gallagher and the John Leake OAM ACS Emerging Cinematographer Award to Jaclyn Paterson.

Then the Student Cinematography Award of Distinction went to Pete Moses for Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge and other Gold Tripod winners included Geoffrey Thomas who won the John Bowring ACS Station Breaks & Promos for The Invisibles promo shoot for National Geographic’s The Invisibles series about a drug cartel, Dave May ACS took home the Music Videos award for WALKER – LIFE & DEATH and Benjamin Foley who won the Neil Davis International News award for New York Times – Under Attack in Ukraine’s South East.

The Current Affairs award went to Tom Hancock for Foreign Correspondent: Fighting Back, Season 22 / Episode 29 and Josh Flavell ACS won in Entertainment & TV Magazine for Home Australia: Longhouse, Season 2 / Episode 7.

The Ron Taylor AM ACS & Valerie Taylor AM Wildlife & Nature award went to Romilly Spiers for Planet Insect – Hive Minds, Season 1 / Episode 3 and Alexander Schultz took out the gong for Short Films with Hitched.

The Gold Tripod for Drama Series went to Stefan Duscio ACS for Shantaram, Season 1 / Episode 1, Feature Films – Budget $3m and under went to Craig Barden ACS for The Rooster and then the Gold Tripod for Feature Films – Budget $3m and over was awarded to Marc Spicer ACS for We Have A Ghost.

ACS National President Erika Addis said, “I would like to wholeheartedly congratulate Ben on winning the Milli, it is an amazing achievement. I would also like to congratulate all the other entrants and award winners for their incredible work. Year after year the standard and quality of Australian cinematographers’ work never ceases to amaze me. It has been a remarkable year for Australian cinematographers and the Australian Cinematographers Society as we continue to go from strength to strength supporting our craft. Again, well done and congratulations one and all.”