What a Night! Engine Group Takes Best in Show at the 2025 BADC Awards
Saturday night at The Star Brisbane was absolutely electric as we celebrated the best of Brisbane’s creative talent at the 2025 BADC Awards.
Engine Group’s deeply moving “Grooming Hides Behind Harmless” campaign for Bravehearts took home the night’s biggest honour – Best in Show. Led by Mike Fritz and Aiken Hutcheson, this powerful child sexual abuse prevention campaign resonated with everyone in the room and beyond, collecting an impressive 14 medals across categories including Film TV & VOD, Integrated Media, Creative Strategy, Radio, Art Direction, Press Advertising, and Poster.
Our Judging Chair, the brilliant Sesh Moodley from Thinkerbell, captured it perfectly: “This piece didn’t behave like advertising. It behaved like the issue itself. It built trust. It held you close. Then it snapped that safety in half. It left audiences changed. It left juries rattled. And it lifted the standard for how cause-based work can move culture.”
Brisbane Creativity at Its Finest
The talent on display was absolutely world-class. National Heavy Vehicle Regulator was named Client of the Year for their “Being Dead is Boring” campaign with Khemistry – a partnership that collected 13 medals and showed what’s possible when great clients meet great agencies.
Speaking of Khemistry, they were the most awarded agency of the night with 1 gold, 9 silver, and 5 bronze medals. Hot on their heels were Engine Group (3 gold, 4 silver, 7 bronze) and Alt.vfx (4 gold, 7 silver, 2 bronze).
A special shout-out to Wendy Phan from Khemistry, who took home the Otis Recruitment Rising Star Award for her outstanding work on Being Dead is Boring. We’re so excited to see where her career goes next!
Swings & Roundabouts
Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson kept us entertained all night as our MC, perfectly bringing to life this year’s theme “It’s all Swings & Roundabouts!” – brilliantly developed by Jessamy Ross and Tyler Russell. It captured everything we know about this industry: the highs, the lows, and that incredible resilience that keeps us all creating.
Sesh summed up the judging beautifully: “The local work, and real Brisbane spirit, rose to the top, with proper Queensland pride shining through.” And honestly? We couldn’t be prouder.
Honouring Our Own
Some truly special moments made the night even more memorable.
Our incredible President, Stuart Myerscough, was named Person of the Year – a richly deserved recognition for his tireless dedication to BADC and our creative community.
We inducted Cutting Edge into our Hall of Fame, honouring 35 years of exceptional post-production work that shaped countless high-profile projects and mentored so many talented creatives. While we’re sad they went into liquidation this year, their legacy lives on in everyone they inspired.
We also took a moment to remember Ron Johanson OAM ACS, a true industry giant and Hall of Fame inductee who we lost in June. His passion for mentoring and training shaped so many careers across our industry, and his influence will be felt for generations to come.
Thank You
Stuart put it best: “The quality of world-class work once again on display from Brisbane’s creative community in this year’s awards is truly inspiring. Our judging panel had an extremely difficult job to do, and we congratulate all the medallists and finalists on their truly outstanding creative work in what was an outstanding year.”
A huge thank you to our platinum sponsor Alt.vfx for their support, and to Taxi for throwing an absolutely fabulous after party!
Ready to see all the amazing work? Browse all winners and medals by category right here.
Here’s to Brisbane’s creative community – you never cease to amaze us! 🎉
Yes….all the photos are coming!
