This week sees the 11th IF Awards handed out in Sydney. Our home page features winners from the last decade of 'people’s choice’ awards as we explore what sets the IF Awards apart from other awards shows.

The IF Awards have evolved dramatically since the first, low-key ceremony at the Rocks in Sydney back in 1999. Then, IF stood for 'Independent filmmaker’ and only a handful of awards were given, with Two Hands winning Best Independent Feature Film and John Curran named Best Independent Filmmaker for Praise. Besides a focus on independence, another point of difference for the inaugural awards was incorporating votes gathered at five film festivals.

In 2009, three times as many awards are given, with the key categories decided by over 191,000 votes received online and at more than 20 film festivals across the country. 'IF’ has long since changed to 'Inside Film’, in line with the magazine run by the same company, Intermedia. The 'independent’ ethos has survived in the form of an 'Independent Spirit’ award given to films (like Son of a Lion in 2008) made in spite of overwhelming odds. The emphasis on popular voting is in contrast to prizes decided by the industry (at the AFI Awards, established in 1958) or critical opinion (the Film Critics’ Circle of Australia has announced prizes since 1982).

While the AFI plumped for Best Picture winners Rabbit-Proof Fence in 2002, Look Both Ways in 2005 and Ten Canoes in 2006, the IF voters respectively preferred The Tracker, The Proposition and Kenny. Other IF winners – such as Innocence in 2000 and Men’s Group in 2008 – were not even nominated for Best Picture at the AFI Awards! By including films screened at festivals rather than only in national release, the IF Awards produced a surprise winner like The Jammed in 2007. The win accelerated a snowball of publicity for the low-budget film, initially self-distributed by John L Simpson (who produced Men’s Group), which went on to a wider distribution and received seven AFI nominations in 2008.

In years when the award bodies are generally in consensus, the IF Awards still pull a surprise. In 2001, Lantana won all four AFI acting prizes; IF gave a joint Best Actress prize to the film’s female ensemble (Kerry Armstrong, Rachael Blake, Daniella Farinacci, Barbara Hershey and Leah Purcell). In the year of Somersault (2004) winning every category at the AFI Awards, IF recognised Colin Friels's work in Tom White over Sam Worthington's performance. And the annual IF prize for Box Office achievement (an idea poached by the AFI in 2009) gives recognition to films that would otherwise go home empty-handed, such as The Wog Boy (2000), Crackerjack (for 2003), Strange Bedfellows (2004) and Happy Feet (2006).

This year’s nominees are typically idiosyncratic. While recognising Samson and Delilah and Balibo in numerous categories, the third Picture nominee is Cedar Boys, which garnered no other nominations. Warwick Thornton is the only director of a film nominated for Best Picture (for Samson); the other Directing nominees are Rachel Ward for Beautiful Kate and Adam Elliot for Mary and Max. Could Cedar Boys be the latest surprise 'people’s choice’ winner?

With a wider audience voting on the outcome, the IF Awards have produced a varied batch of winners, offering its own perspective on the year’s 'best’ Australian films. For more information on this year’s awards, visit the IF Awards website for more information or tune into SBS (who have televised the awards since 2001) or Showtime.