Michael Gudinski Documentary ‘Ego’ Wins at AACTA Industry Awards

Michael Gudinski is No. 1, again.

Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story and David Williams took out the best sound in a documentary category Thursday night (Feb. 8) at the 2024 AACTA Industry Awards, beating out a shortlist that included John Farnham: Finding The Voice (Wayne Pashley).

Williams, supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer on Ego, was on hand at the Gold Coast’s HOTA (Home of the Arts) to collect the prize.

Ego was selected by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, which serves as Australia’s most prestigious film and television membership body.

Directed by Paul Goldman (Such is Life: The Troubled Times of Ben Cousins), the doco is the definitive account of the late Mushroom Group founder’s rock‘n’roll life and friends, and a look behind the curtain of the indie music giant he built from the ground up.

The likes of Jimmy Barnes, Vika & Linda Bull, Garbage, Dave Grohl, Vance Joy, Paul Kelly, Kylie Minogue, Mark Seymour, Ed Sheeran, Bruce Springsteen and Sting contributed to the project, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Mushroom Group.

Ego was initially pitched with the working title Gudinski, and was announced to the public in March 2022 – a year after the entrepreneur’s death, aged 68 – when it was approved for funding by Screen Australia.

The AACTA Awards are split across two nights.

Major categories will be announced on Saturday night, when Ego will compete for best documentary.

The AACTA Awards will be broadcast on Channel Ten at 7pm AEDT that evening. A special “director’s cut” including all awards from the ceremony will be available at 7:30pm on Feb. 11 on BINGE and Foxtel On-Demand and on AACTA TV.

The 2024 AACTA Industry Awards forms part of the inaugural AACTA Festival, a four-day celebration of Australia’s screen industry, featuring more than 90 events.