Ukraine Guernica - Art Not War

2001 Receives Centenary Medal from the Australian Government for ‘service as an internationally renowned artist’
2008 Receives an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of New South Wales, Sydney
2013 The Bassel Shehade Award for Social Justice (awarded at Syracuse University, New York)
2014 Receives Award for 'Services to the Community' from the Premier of New South Wales
2015 Receives The Sydney Peace Prize
2018 Only two time recipient of the The Bassel Shehade Award for Social Justice (awarded at Syracuse University, New York)
2020 Awarded Honorary Membership to the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans Association.
Filmography
1981 Refined Fire (Experimental Short, director). Explores the issue of nuclear war and uses special effects created in-camera to extend the possibilities of painting with light on film. Nominated for Best Experimental Film at the Australian Film Institute awards; wins silver medal at the Hiroshima Film Festival, Japan; finalist in the Baltimore Film festival; and wins best cinematographer and best special effects at the Armidale Film Festival, NSW.
1982 Tracks of the Rainbow (Documentary Short, director and cinematographer). Documents a group of six Aboriginal teenagers from southern urbanised areas of Australia as they follow the tracks of the Rainbow Serpent through the Northern Territory, from Uluru (Ayers Rock) to Arnhem Land and across the sea to Melville Island.
1985 Frontier Women (Documentary, director and producer). Examines the lives of two women living in outback Northern Territory. Broadcast on Channel 10 in Australia and in the United States.
Warriors and Lawmen (Documentary, director and producer). Shot in the Northern Territory; covers two criminal cases from 1933 and 1968. Examines the relationship between European and traditional Aboriginal laws. Broadcast on ABC Television and in the United States.
Unbroken Spirit (Documentary, director and producer). Examines the lives of stockmen working on one of the largest cattle stations in Australia. Broadcast by the Channel 7 network in Australia, BBC Television in the United Kingdom and in the United States.
1987 Bullets of the Poets (Documentary, director and producer). Filmed on location in Nicaragua. Focuses on six women who recount their struggles during the Sandinista Revolution and their reliance on writing poetry in order to cope.
Visions in the Making (Documentary, director and producer) for ABC Television. Features
six of Australia’s leading artists working in painting, photography, fashion design, holography, traditional Aboriginal art and cinematography. Explores the way their practice responds to and interacts with the Australian landscape.
2005 Soundtrack to War (Documentary, director and cinematographer). Filmed throughout 2003-2004, Gittoes bypassed the U.S. military's media lockdown on the war in Iraq to capture an authentic account of the human experience of the war. Gittoes interviewed American soldiers deployed in Iraq to create an account of the role of music in the contemporary battlefield. Premieres on ABC Television. Screens at the Sydney and Berlin film festivals followed by cinema releases in Australia, the United States and Europe. Screens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
2006 Rampage (Documentary, director). Miami-based subculture of a group of African- American soldiers, and an exploration of hiphop’s musical innovations Jury Finalist, Raindance Film Festival
2009 The Miscreants of Taliwood (Documentary, director and writer). Shot in terror central in Pakistan, where Gittoes decides to shoot a local Pashto telie film right under the nose of the Taliban’s anti-entertainment forces. A clash of fundamentalism and entertainmentand a surprising, terrifying journey, into the forbidden zones of Pakistan’s explosive North West Frontier. Screens at Museum of Modern Art, New York
2010 Moonlight, Starless Night and The Flood (Documentary series, director and producer). Shot on location in Pakistan’s tribal belt. Funded by an international aid agency to assist in the restoration of the Pashtun film industry by directing and producing three Pashtun-language drama features
2013 Love City, Jalalabad (Documentary, director and writer). A wild and funny documentary showing how the progressive youth of Afghanistan are rejecting the use of armed force and see film production as an alternative means of bringing peace and social change to their war-torn and occupied country. Winner 'Best Documentary' and 'Socially Relevent Film' awards at NYC's Winter Film Awards.
2015 Snow Monkey (Documentary, director and writer). Epic portrait of daily life in Jalalabad; Gittoes recruited gangs of war-damaged children to shoot local, Pashto-style films: vibrant, colorful and infused with the violence they experience on a daily basis.
2018 White Light (Feature Documentary) Screened Nationally on ABC TV Australia. Shot with the community of South Side Chicago - Englewood - May Block Chicago.USA focussing on gun violence in the area.
Created a sequel to White Light, No Bad Guys 2021, wonderful Best Australian Director at Melbourne International Documentary Festival, Best Documentary Bridge of Peace Film Festival, screened Event Cinema's George Street Sydney for the Sydney Underground Film Festival.
2022 Filmed invasion of Ukraine March - June 2022 created 'Victory' art exhibition in the bombed Central House of Culture Irpen, Filmed New Taliban Regime Afghanistan for current film Ukrainistan Artist War.
2023 No Bad Guys selected Best Documentary Film Critics Circle Australia.