Between 1983 and 1988 he was responsible for the music appearing in over 200 Film Australia productions, including Cane Toads, also working with Gillian Armstrong and Jane Campion on Bingo, Bridesmaids and Braces and After Hours.
[6] He produced his first CDs of film scores for the Southern Cross label in 1988, working with Simon Walker on The Wild Duck[7] and Brian May on Frog Dreaming as well as Tony Bremner on The Everlasting Secret Family.
In addition to these were films about accounting for a multicultural society, "The Investigation", the supernatural drama, "The Traveller's Tale", and a documentary produced by Anthony Buckley about the famous Gulflander train (narrated by Bill Peach) which ran from Croydon to Normanton.
[12] Roger Covell, chief classical music critic for The Sydney Morning Herald, wrote in his 1990 review of the CD, "Simon Walker's Binary has a feeling of severity and power to it; Philip Powers, producer of the disc and its animating spirit, inevitably calls to mind a degree of filmic spookiness with his use of almost-human wails and sighs from electronic sources in his inventive Wired."
The article finished with praise for the concept album, Covell writing, "[t]he disc is a useful message from composers who are in the process of working out their place in Australian music.
"[13] The Australian Recording Industry Association nominated Powers and the 1M1 label for five ARIA awards:[14] Bloodmoon, Wendy Cracked a Walnut, beDevil and the highly regarded Christ Church St Laurence Choir CD Victoria.