Katrina Sedgwick CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival

ADELAIDE'S KATRINA SEDGWICK NAMED AN EMERGING AUSTRALIAN LEADER BY THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE

Award presented by the Prime Minister at Parliament House today

Today the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd personally congratulated Adelaide resident Katrina Sedgwick at a lunch event at Parliament House as part of an event celebrating Australia's emerging leaders identified by The Weekend Australian Magazine.

Sydney-born and Adelaide-based Katrina Sedgwick is the CEO of the Adelaide Film Festival and also overseas its investment fund that supports local film projects including the new Sampson and Delilah.

Sedgwick attended the event where the Prime Minister addressed the assembly on leadership.

The event was the culmination of a unique 12-week initiative from The Weekend Australian Magazine and Microsoft, called The Next 100. Sedgwick and nine other category leaders will be featured in a special issue of The Weekend Australian Magazine published June 20-21.

The Weekend Australian Magazine Editor Helen Trinca said the event has true national significance.

"The Next 100 has brought attention to Australians positively influencing and impacting all aspects of our national identity. It has connected with real leaders and future leaders within the Australian community."

The emerging leaders were selected by a panel of judges including Minister for Climate Change and Water Penny Wong, demographer Bernard Salt, cancer researcher Professor Ian Frazer and Shadow Minister for Finance Joe Hockey.

Microsoft Australia Director, Corporate Affairs & Citizenship John Galligan said: "The Next 100 program is an inspiring initiative that will help encourage Australians to aspire to greatness and realise their full potential."

"Moreover, the initiative will help to expand our horizons on how leadership is typically viewed by the community and highlight that leaders can come from any walk of life."

The Next 100 celebrates ordinary Australians doing extraordinary work across 10 fields: Society, Wealth, Sport, Science, Thinking, Culture, Earth, Learning, Health and Innovation. One leader was selected in each category.

About Katrina Sedgwick

When your career as a performer begins as a nine-year-old in the Australian film classic The Last Wave, directed by Peter Weir, and your first job out of school is as a member of a travellingclown company, you might be forgiven for taking a desk job just to have a rest.

But Adelaide Film Festival CEO Katrina Sedgwick's love of unusual projects is yet to wane.

Sedgwick, who was born in Sydney but grew up in Adelaide, says her "big break" was working with Nigel Jamieson, producing the 1996 Adelaide Festival of Arts free outdoor program, Red Square.

"Good art is good art," Sedgwick says. "No matter the medium, it's just a matter of cherry-picking the best and wrangling it into a program."

She also oversees the festival's investment fund, which has supported 32 local film projects, including Ten Canoes, Look Both Ways and Samson & Delilah.

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Photo Credits *
L to R - Tracey Fellows, Managing Director, Microsoft Australia, Katrina Sedgwick and PM Kevin Rudd presenting the awards at The Weekend Australian Magazine Next 100 event at the Mural Hall in Parliament House, Canberra.
Pic SMITH KYM