This year, the little award ceremony that could has grown larger and will be held at the National Art School in Darlinghurst on Thursday JANUARY 20.
The awards will be hosted by The Chaser’s Chris Taylor, and will include performances by Guineafowl, Jinja Safari, Richard In Your Mind, Heaps Decent, and a specially curated Sydney ‘supergroup’, containing members from Cloud Control, Straight Arrows, Bridezilla, kyü and megastick fanfare.
The SMAC Awards exist to award originality, creativity and innovation, and are given to the artists, musicians, promoters and culture makers who keep Sydney’s creative heart beating.
According to FBi’s Creative Director, Alice Fenton, “Finalists were chosen after a public callout for nominees and consultation with key industry fi gures. There are so many Sydney bands, artists and organisations that deserve recognition and we worked hard to make sure that people had a chance to voice their opinions on who should be nominated.”
All up, there are 13 categories spanning music, art, collective endeavours, stage performances, innovative use of Sydney’s public spaces, and – new this year – video clips.
Best Artist
• Julia Schauenburg
• Tara Marynowsky
• Joan Ross
• Beastman
• Will French
• Troy Emery
Best Arts Event
• Stephen Vitiello in Sydney Park
• (Kaldor Public Art Projects)
• Tiny Stadiums Festival
• Underbelly Arts: Public Lab +
• Festival
• Secret Wars
• Superdeluxe @Artspace
Best Collective presented by Pedestrian.TV
• Bams & Ted
• TOYS – Taste of Young Sydney
• Blood & Thunder
• Oneofour Collective
• Post
• Heaps Decent
Best On Screen
• Greedy Hen – Cloud Control, There’s Nothing In The Water
• Lucinda Schreiber and Beatrice Pegard – Midnight Juggernauts, Lara vs The Savage Pack
• Versus Media, KillaQueenz, Double Up
• Justin Kurzel & Daniel Fletcher – Bridezilla, Western Front
• SPOD – Richard In Your Mind, Candelabra
• Kiah Roache-Turner – Thundamentals, THUNDA
Best Performer
• Maeve Dermody, Our Town
• Ewen Leslie, The Trial
• Toby Schmitz, Measure for Measure
• Charlie Garber, Quack
• Nathan Lovejoy, Way to Heaven
• Robert Menzies, The End
Best Major Festival
• 17th Biennale Of Sydney Laneway Festival
• Festival Of Dangerous Ideas
• Sydney Film Festival
• Art Month
• Days Like This
Record Of The Year
• Cloud Control, Bliss Release
• Parades, Foreign Tapes
• PVT, Church With No Magic
• Richard In Your Mind, My Volcano
• Kyü, Kyü
• Straight Arrows, It’s Happening
Next Big Thing presented by Altec Lansing
• Sleepy Hands
• Jezebels
• Straight Arrows
• Ghoul
• Jinja Safari
• Guineafowl
• Spookyland
Best Live Music Act
• Cloud Control
• Kyü
• Jinja Safari
• Halal, How Are You?
• Horrorshow
• megastick fanfare
• PVT
Best Sydney Song
• Sparkadia – Talking like I’m falling Down Stairs
• Sally Seltmann – Harmony to my Heartbeat
• Guineafowl – In Our Circles
• Ozi Batla – Put It On Wax
• The Tongue – The Show
• Andy Bull ft Lisa Mitchell – Dog
• Flight Facilities ft. Giselle – Crave You
Best Music Event presented by TwoThousand
• Halfway Crooks
• Slopfrenzy
• Gold Shoulder at GoodGod
• Eclipsefest at Verge
• D25 at The Forum
• Changing Lanes
Remix The City presented by Firestick wines
• SaFARI
• Art & About for Sydney Statues and Oh Alfred! and the Laneway Art project
• Sydney Open
• Breakfast On The Bridge
• Macquarie Visions (Vivid Light)
