Nicole Ma’s feature documentary, Puttuparri and the Rainmakers has been awarded top prize at the 2015 CinefestOZ Festival !

The CinefestOZ Festival — which awards Australia’s richest film prize of $100,000 — is held in Western Australia, and this year’s judges included co-patron and jury chair David Wenham, actress Sarah Snook, director Wayne Blair, film producer Liz Kearney and casting director Annie Murtagh Monks.

“Putuparri And The Rainmakers had a story and characters that were so compelling and emotionally engaging,” said Wenham, “told in such a way that it reinforced the power of cinema to entertain, touch us deeply and stay with us forever.”

The prodigious award will be used in part to help distribute the film to a wider audience. Producer John Moore said the prize money will allow them “to get the film out to a lot more people than we otherwise would have been able to [reach]. It’s a great boost for the people of Fitzroy Crossing who appear in the film and I hope it will encourage all Australians to value and better understand the culture of our first peoples.”