ONE of Canberra’s highest young artistic flyers has done it again, with news out this week that Daramalan College graduate Oliver Levi-Malouf has won the $500 “College Express 7” Ray White Belconnen People’s Choice Award for his oil painting, “I Don’t Want to Die.”

This follows the announcement late last year that Heather Tu, a Year 12 student at Burgmann College, had won the $1000 first prize.

Levi-Malouf, who achieved his school’s top ATAR score by majoring in Art, Media, and double English, is now studying at Sydney’s Australian Film, Television and Radio School, a spot rarely achieved on first application, but he was at Belconnen Arts Centre yesterday (February 4) to receive the cheque from Sam Faulks of Ray White, who said the firm was committed to assisting young people in their art enterprises.

It is not the first time we’ve written about Levi-Malouf.

Shortlisted for Tropfest’s ‘Trop Jr’ for “I Know I’m A Sensation”, he later found himself sitting next to actor Sam’s Worthington on the night he was announced as second place winner in the 2013 short film competition for children and teenagers with his entry “Penelope’s Penguin.”

He went on to win a ‘Silver Remi’ award at Worldfest Houston last year for his 7-minute film, “Magic Man”, which starred his long-time drama teacher (and “Citynews” theatre critic) Joe Woodward, who says of him, “You will hear much more of this young man…I must say he is one of the most organised and talented people.”

A complete newcomer to oil painting, he took up art to support his movie making skills. Levi-Malouf told Citynews that his art teacher Jo Howard, the Visual Arts co-ordinator at Daramalan, works in oils and helped him a lot. “Now I’m doing a still life for my grandparents,” he said. Levi-Malouf told us it took him three or four months staying back at school until 7 or 8pm to complete the ambitious work.

But film is still his number one favourite – “film takes all the art forms and puts them into one,” Levi-Malouf said.