2002 Australian Film Institute Awards

The 44th Australian Film Institute Awards, were a series of awards presented by the Australian Film Institute. The awards celebrated the best in Australian feature film, television, documentary and short film productions of 2002. The ceremony took place at The Princess Theatre, Melbourne and was televised by Network Ten.

Winners and nominees

The nominations were announced on 19 October 2002. Leading the feature film nominees was Rabbit-Proof Fence with a total of ten nominations. All four of the Best Film nominees featured Indigenous subjects. The Secret Life of Us, Network Ten's drama about a group of friends who live in a St Kilda, gained the most television nominations with five.
Tony Ayres' directorial debut, Walking on Water, exploring the grief, tenderness, stupidity and humour that arises from death, received five awards, the most for any production. In the television category, the small-screen movie The Road From Coorain, an adaptation of Jill Ker Conway's memoir of the same name, won four awards.

Controversies

The decision to allow the unreleased drama Swimming Upstream to receive five award nominations was met with great dismay by other entrants. The distributors of all four nominees for best film were quoted as being "angry" and "disappointed" that the nominations include a film without a cinema release by the cut-off date of 26 September 2002. Another film, Garage Days, also received three nominations despite being released a week after the deadline.
Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

Non-feature film

Best Documentary	Best Direction in a Documentary
A Wedding in Ramallah – Sherine Salama *East Timor, Birth of a Nation: Rosa's Story – Luigi Acquisto and Stella Zammataro Rainbow Bird and Monster Man – John Lewis The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinski – Paul Cox and Aanya Whitehead	Sherine Salama – A Wedding in Ramallah Luigi Acquisto – East Timor, Birth Of A Nation: Rosa's Story* Michael Rubbo – Much Ado About Something* Dennis K. Smith – Rainbow Bird and Monster Man*
Best Short Fiction Film	Best Short Animation
The Host – Nicholas Tomnay *Eve of Adha – Leonard Yip Into the Night – Tony Krawitz Roundabout – Rachel Griffiths	Shhh... – Adam Robb *Into the Dark – Dennis Tupicoff Pa – Neil Goodridge Show and Tell – Mark Gravas
Best Screenplay in a Short Film	Best Cinematography in a Non-Feature Film
Cath Moore – Into the Night *Leonard Yip – Eve of Adha**** Ben Chessell – The Only Person in the World Matthew Hawkins – The Shot	Denson Baker – Jack Valeriu Campan – East Timor, Birth of a Nation: Rosa's Story* Tristan Milani ACS – Roundabout* Simon Smith – Surviving Shepherd's Pie*
Best Editing in a Non-Feature Film	Best Sound in a Non-Feature Film
Uri Mizrahi – Rainbow Bird and Monster Man *Terrence Doran – East Timor, Birth of a Nation: Rosa's Story**** Merlin Cornish – Jack Geordie Anderson – Roundabout	Robert Sullivan and Nigel Christensen – Shadow Play Shannon O'Neill – Beginnings* George Craig, Paul Pirola and Skye Ritchie – Roundabout* Sam Petty – Two Thirds Sky: Artists in Desert Country*

Multiple nominations

The following films received multiple nominations.10 nominations: Rabbit-Proof Fence9 nominations: Walking on Water6 nominations: Australian Rules, Beneath Clouds and ''The Tracker''