The 23rd Australian Film Institute Awards (generally known as the AFI Awards) were held at the Regent Theatre, in Sydney, New South Wales on 16 September 1981. Presented by the Australian Film Institute (AFI), the awards celebrated the best in Australian feature film, documentary and short film productions of 1981. The ceremony was televised in Australia on ABC for the third year running, with John Bluthal presiding over the event. Gallipoli won nine of the twelve awards it was nominated for, including Best Film. Other films with multiple nominations were Hoodwink with eight, Winter of Our Dreams and Fatty Finn with seven, The Club with five, The Survivor and Roadgames with four, Wrong Side of the Road with three, and Grendel Grendel Grendel and with two. Phillip Adams was the recipient of the Raymond Longford Award (en)