Acclaimed actress Deborah Mailman is set to be the first indigenous recipient of the prestigious Chauvel Award, honouring a film career that has spanned nearly 20 years and made her a household name in Australia.
The Queenslander will be given the award, named after influential Australian filmmaker Charles Chauvel, at the upcoming Gold Coast Film Festival and will sit down for a conversation with legendary film critic David Stratton.
"It's an amazing honour. I was really thrilled when the news came through," Mailman told AAP.
It's the first time that Mailman will have taken the time to reflect on her career, from her break-out role playing Nona in 1998 film Radiance to roles in films such as The Secret Life Of Us, Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Sapphires and popular TV series Offspring.
"It will be great to sit down with David, and it will be the first time to sit down and actually talk about the reasons why I was attracted to a project, or what sort of experiences I've had from every project over my career," she said.
Mailman is in Melbourne filming the seventh season of Offspring playing Cherie Butterfield, a role for which she won an Australian Film Institute Award in 2010.
"It's great this is our seventh season now and it's the one job where I don't get anxious, I don't get nervous I don't get stressed about how I'm going to approach this in any way," she said.
"We've built up the characters for such a long time now it's just great to get back into it. Everyone knows their gig, we're all really excited and I guess surprised that we're still going."
The series effectively ended in 2014, but returned after two years' away following high demand from the show's fans.
"We thought season five had a natural ending, so to come back again we're really excited," she said.
Mailman also plays Aunty Linda in the popular supernatural series Cleverman which was just nominated for a prestigious Peabody Award in the US.
But it was her AFI Award-winning role in her first film, Radiance, that Mailman believes catapulted her career.
"That really pushed me into the limelight so that without a doubt was a really pivotal moment in my career," she said.
Mailman now joins a list of Australian film luminaries including actors Claudia Karvan, Bryan Brown, Geoffrey Rush, Heath Ledger and critic Stratton who have also won the Chauvel Award since its inception in 1992.
But Mailman is the first indigenous recipient of the award.
"There are so many great indigenous artists so to be the first one, I'm absolutely thrilled," she said.
"But I don't think you're really isolated in any of these nominations, I know it's not just about my work but always about the collaboration around you and how that all works together."
* Deborah Mailman will be presented with the Chauvel Award on April 22 at the Gold Coast Film Festival.
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