CreateSA has announced the winners of the 2025 Ruby Awards in a ceremony presented at the Adelaide Festival Centre on 21 November.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025, the Awards honour the excellence of artists and organisations Adelaide’s arts and culture scene.

Lou Bennett, Paul Stanhope and the Australian String Quartet in association with Binung Boorigan have won the Outstanding Collaboration award for nyilamum song cycles, which received its Australian premiere at the 2025 Adelaide Festival.

nyilamum song cycles at the 2025 Adelaide Festival. Photo by Tony Lewis

In October, Bennett and Stanhope were awarded the 2025 Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize for the same work.

Adelaide Festival’s Head of Programming Lesley Newton earned the prestigious Premier’s Award for Lifetime Achievement. Newton celebrates a 30-year tenure with the Adelaide Festival this year, and has assisted in the delivery of 22 festivals. She has held the role of Head of Programming for 12 years.

Marking its 15th anniversary in 2025, Vitalstatistix’ experimental and contemporary performance platform Adhocracy earned Outstanding Work or Event Outside a Festival, while the Adelaide Film Festival’s premiering of feature-length documentary Songs Inside, spotlighting the stories of women from the Adelaide Women’s...