2021 ADG AWARDS FIND NEW HOME AT ACTORS CENTRE AUSTRALIA

The 2021 Australian Director’s Guild (ADG) Awards will unfurl at a Gala Luncheon in Sydney on October 22 at the Actors Centre Australia (ACA) in Leichhardt.

One of the local sector’s most prestigious annual gatherings will also be a virtual event, live streamed nationally and internationally. In 2020, the online-only ceremony scored solid traffic numbers and the ADG and ACA identified an opportunity to expand on that audience with a multi-tiered presentation in 2021.

“I warmly welcome ACA as our new venue partner,” said ADG Executive Director Alaric McAusland (pictured, right). “The 2021 Awards will be an important moment to celebrate all that has been achieved by our members over the past year, a year which has offered incredible challenges and opportunities to Australian screen directors, as well as the achievements of the ADG over its 40-year history.”

McAusland promises that the 2021 Awards will build on last year’s deep industry support and cross-industry engagement, which saw a record number of entries and the most diverse list of nominees in the Awards’ history. “[I want] to extend our sincere thanks to our award sponsors [for] supporting last year’s Covid-impacted event and their continued support for this year,” he said. These include principal partner Australian Screen Directors Authorship Collecting Society (ASDACS), major partner Media Super and  Government supporters Screen NSW and Screen Australia.

Securing the ADG Awards is a further coup for the ACA, which continues to establish itself as one of the Harbour City’s premium event venues. “Actors Centre Australia is thrilled to be partnering with the ADG Awards in 2021,” said ACA Chief Operating Officer Anthony Kierann (pictured, left). “This celebration of the outstanding contribution that screen directors bring to our industry aligns with ACA’s commitment to developing the finest Australian on-screen talent. We warmly welcome ADG members and nominees to the Centre, as together, the arts community steps its way out of the pandemic.”

The ADG Awards recognise excellence in the craft and art of directing, as well as honouring individual contributions by Australian screen directors to the screen industry. The Awards are the only opportunity for Australian directors and their work to be acknowledged by their directing peers. The Awards cover the breadth of screen directing with categories across feature film, documentary, television, subscription video on demand, commercial, short film, animation, online, music video and interactive media.

Submissions to the 2021 ADG Awards will open on 30th June.

BABYTEETH TAKES BITE OUT OF TRANSILVANIA F.F. AWARD ROSTER

Australian director Shannon Murphy’s striking debut feature Babyteeth, featuring a star-solidifying turn by actress Eliza Scanlen (pictured, below), continues its award-winning festival circuit run with two top awards courtesy of the 2020 Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF). The winners of the 19th annual gathering were announced last Sunday, August 9, at an outdoor event in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Selected from 12 debut or follow-up features from around the world, Murphy’s (pictured, below) fiercely original coming-of-age story earned the ‘Transilvania Trophy’ for Best Film. The top honour was voted for by an all-Romanian jury, a first for the event in the wake of an enforced COVID-19 restructure. 

Babyteeth also won the highly-coveted Audience Award ahead of a particularly strong line-up that included Tim Mielants’ Patrick (Belgium) and Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud in Her Room (China), whose helmers shared Best Director honours; Nigina Sayfullaeva’s Fidelity (Russia), which secured leading lady Evgeniya Gromova the gender-neutral Best Acting trophy; and, Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Sister (a Bulgarian/Qatari co-production), the winner of a Special Jury Prize.

 In his first Australian feature in nine years, Ben Mendelsohn stars alongside Essie Davis as Henry and Anna Finlay, the overprotective parents of gravely sick Milla (Eliza Scanlen). When their daughter becomes enamored with a local drug dealer (Toby Wallace) and begins living her waning life to its fullest potential, Henry and Anna’s life takes on a newly energized perspective.

Even by the limited opportunities presented in the truncated 2020 festival calendar, Screen Australia and production partners Spectrum Films, Jan Chapman Films and Whitefalk Films are filling their trophy cabinets with Babyteeth accolades. It has earned Shannon Murphy festival honours in Luxembourg, Palm Springs, Pingyao, São Paulo and Zurich; screenwriter Rita Kalnejais took out a Screenplay Jury Prize at the Portugese event, FEST; and, cast members Scanlen and Wallace (pictured, left) have statuettes in the mail coming from Venice and Marrakech festival organisers.

Babyteeth is currently in release in Australian cinemas via Universal Pictures Australia; with other territories to follow.

AUSTRALIAN DIRECTORS' GUILD ANNOUNCE 2020 NOMINATIONS

The Australian Directors’ Guild (ADG) Executive Director Diana Burnett addressed the dire state of the nation’s creative industries in a statement that accompanied the 2020 ADG nominations, which were announced today.

“At these challenging times, it is more important than ever that we come together as a creative community to celebrate our achievements of the past year,” Burnett said. “Australian directors are creating fine work across all forms and genres and these nominations reflect the depth of talent in this country.”

A record 202 entries were received for the 2020 honours, awards that recognise excellence in the craft and art of directing. The peer-judged acknowledgements are the only opportunity for directors and their work to be acknowledged by their Guild peers. 

The ADG singled out six filmmakers for nominations in the Best Direction in a Feature Film (with a budget of A$1million or over) category. They are Thomas Wright for Acute Misfortune; Sophie Hyde for Animals; John Sheedy for H is for Happiness; Ben Lawrence for Hearts and Bones; Wayne Blair for Top End Wedding; and, Natalie Erika James for Relic (pictured, above; Robyn Nevin, Bella Heathcote, James and Emily Mortimer).

Nominees for Best Direction in a Feature Film (budgeted under A$1million) category are: Josephine Mackerras for Alice (pictured, top); Imogen Thomas for Emu Runner; Lucy Colman for Hot Mess; Luke Sullivan for Reflections In The Dust; and, Samuel Van Grinsven for Sequin In A Blue Room.

Four factual-film craftspeople were acknowledged for Best Feature Documentary Direction - Ian Darling for The Final Quarter; Maya Newell for In My Blood It Runs (pictured, left; with the film's Margaret Anderson, right); Peter Hegedus for LILI; and, Allan Hardy for Viva The Underdogs. Directors in the mix for Best Documentary Short are Dr. Karen Pearlman for I Want To Write A Film About Women; Stefan Bugryn for War Mothers: Unbreakable; Logan Much for We’re All In This Together; and, Rob Innes for Youth On Strike!

The ADG Directors Award ceremony will be held in Sydney at the City Recital Hall on 19 October (pandemic restrictions pending), honouring nominees in a total of 19 categories across the film, television, online, music and advertising sectors. The full list can be found at the ADG’s website; a limited number of public tickets are available for the ceremony via Eventbrite.

THE NIGHTINGALE SOARS AT AACTA 2019

Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale has dominated the 2019 AACTA Awards in a ceremony held in Sydney’s Star Casino last night. The brutal account of an unlikely friendship stemming from vengeance in colonial Tasmania took home five AACTA trophies, when tallied with its win at the Luncheon Ceremony held Tuesday.

Kent’s follow-up to her global hit The Babadook has earned her a unique place in AFI | AACTA history, with her wins for Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Film (as producer) being a first for a woman across all three categories, for the same film, in a single year. (Pictured, top; from left, Aisling Franciosi and Jennifer Kent. Photo credit:Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)

The film’s lead, Aisling Franciosi took out the Best Actress prize with her first nomination against such heavyweight competition as Mia Wasikowska (Judy and Punch), Miranda Tapsell (Top End Wedding) and Teresa Palmer (Ride Like a Girl). The Nightingale also earned first-time nominee Magnolia Maymuru (pictured, right) a gong in the Best Supporting Actress category.

Denying the film an AACTA clean sweep last night were Damon Herriman winning Best Actor for Mirrah Foulkes’ Judy and Punch and Joel Edgerton winning Best Supporting Actor for David Michod’s The King. Tuesday’s luncheon ceremony, in which key technical categories were honoured, evened out the playing field a bit further with nods to DOP Adam Arkapaw (Best Cinematography, The King); Peter McNulty and Anthony Maras (Best Editing, Hotel Mumbai); Liam Egan (Best Sound, Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan); Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton  (Best Production Design, The King); and, Jane Petrie (Best Costume Design, The King). Composer François Tétaz won Best Original Score for Judy & Punch.

Australia’s entrant in the Best Foreign Language Oscar race, Rodd Rathjen’s Bouyancy (largely spoken in Thai/Khmer), won the Best Independent Film category. Daniel Gordon’s’ The Australian Dream, one of two accounts of footballer Adam Goodes’ fight against systemic racism, took out Best Documentary. Fresh off a Best Film win at the recent Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite took Best Asian Film honours.

BEST FILM PRESENTED BY FOXTEL
WINNER: The Nightingale
Hotel Mumbai; Judy & Punch; The King; Ride Like a Girl; Top End Wedding

BEST INDIE FILM PRESENTED BY EVENT CINEMAS
WINNER: Buoyancy (pictured, right)
Acute Misfortune; Book Week; Emu Runner; Sequin in a Blue Room

BEST DIRECTION
WINNER: Jennifer Kent The Nightingale
Anthony Maras Hotel Mumbai; Mirrah Foulkes Judy & Punch; David Michod The King

BEST LEAD ACTOR
WINNER: Damon Herriman Judy & Punch
Timothee Chalamet The King; Baykali Ganambarr The Nightingale; Dev Patel Hotel Mumbai; Hugo Weaving Hearts and Bones

BEST LEAD ACTRESS
WINNER: Aisling Franciosi The Nightingale
Nazanin Boniadi Hotel Mumbai; Teresa Palmer Ride Like a Girl; Miranda Tapsell Top End Wedding; Mia Wasikowska Judy & Punch

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
WINNER: Joel Edgerton The King (pictured, right)
Damon Herriman The Nightingale; Andrew Luri Hearts And Bones; Ben Mendelsohn The King; Michael Sheasby The Nightingale

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WINNER: Magnolia Maymuru The Nightingale
Tilda Cobham-Hervey Hotel Mumbai; Hilary Swank I Am Mother; Bolude Watson Hearts And Bones; Ursula Yovich Top End Wedding

BEST DOCUMENTARY
WINNER: The Australian Dream
The Eulogy; The Final Quarter; In My Blood It Runs; Mystify: Michael Hutchence

BEST SCREENPLAY
WINNER: The Nightingale Jennifer Kent 
Hotel Mumbai John Collee, Anthony Maras; Judy & Punch Mirrah Foulkes; The King David Michôd, Joel Edgerton

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
WINNER: The King Adam Arkapaw
Danger Close: The Battle Of Long Tan Ben Nott; Hotel Mumbai Nick Remy Matthews; The Nightingale Radek Ladczuk

BEST EDITING 
WINNER: Hotel Mumbai Peter Mcnulty, Anthony Maras
Judy & Punch Dany Cooper; The King Peter Sciberras; The Nightingale Simon Njoo

BEST SOUND
WINNER: Danger Close: The Battle Of Long Tan Liam Egan
Hotel Mumbai Sam Petty, Pete Smith, Nakul Kamte, James Currie, Peter Ristic; The King Robert Mackenzie, Sam Petty, Gareth John, Leah Katz, Mario Vaccaro, Tara Webb; The Nightingale Robert Mackenzie, Dean Ryan, Leah Katz, Pete Smith

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
WINNER: Judy & Punch François Tétaz
Danger Close: The Battle Of Long Tan Caitlin Yeo; Hotel Mumbai Volker Bertelmann (aka Hauschka); Ride Like A Girl David Hirschfelder

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
WINNER: The King Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton
Hotel Mumbai Steven Jones-Evans; Judy & Punch Jo Ford; The Nightingale Alex Holmes

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
WINNER: The King Jane Petrie
Hotel Mumbai Anna Borghesi; Judy & Punch Edie Kurzer; The Nightingale Margot Wilson

BEST ASIAN FILM
WINNER: Parasite (pictured, right)
Andhadhun; Gully Boy; Hello, Love, Goodbye; Ne Zha; Shadow; Super Deluxe; The Wandering Earth; We Are Little Zombies

ALYSSA DE LEO WOWS MIFF AND SAVES LIVES WITH SHORT FILM CLASSIC

Is the best film at the 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival an ad commissioned by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC)? Screening ahead of every MIFF session, ‘The Afterlife Bar’ imagines a social gathering of the celebrity souls, the drinking session quickly becoming a “How did you die?” chat. John Lennon, Che Guevara and Princess Di all recount their demise (it’s funnier than it sounds), before the camera settles on a young man named Jeremy; he admits, to the stunned patrons, he was texting while driving.

The concept and script is the inspired work of Alyssa De Leo, a 20 year-old RMIT filmmaking student. De Leo (pictured, above) penned a brilliant short-form comedy disguised as a road safety call-to-action; her script won the Split Second Film Competition and was shepherded into production by ad agency Taboo, production company Airbag and director Will Horne.  “From the beginning, I was always going to take the comedic approach,” the young writer told SCREEN-SPACE, enjoying the first high-profile creative triumph of what promises to be a fascinating film industry career….

SCREEN-SPACE: Let's go right back to the start. When/how did the inspiration for the concept of 'an afterlife bar' come to you? What was the germ of the idea?

ALYSSA: When I first heard about the competition, I knew MIFF and the TAC wanted something quite different and creative, I guess what you wouldn’t usually see in a typical TAC ad. I’ve always been fascinated by history and historical figures, especially as an avid movie watcher and reader. I enjoy biopics and would love to write one someday. As a writer I’m always thinking about characters and to me, historical figures are some of the best characters out there. So I kind of had those two ideas floating around in my head, historical figures and road safety - not things that usually go together! One day they just kind of clicked together in my head and I thought to myself ‘That’s bizarre but it could work.’ I love writing comedy and can’t help but inject it into most things I write, even if it's a serious subject. But I thought the comedic approach could be effective in getting that road safety message across, as it’s not only entertaining but educational too, and I think something like that might stick with you more.

SCREEN-SPACE: How did you settle on the 'dead celebs'? I conjured in my head a table that might have also used a more age-appropriate Paul Walker or a River Phoenix, or might that have been a bit too soon, too tragic?

ALYSSA: There was a huge mix of celebs I considered when I first came up with the idea. When writing the first draft, I looked at which celebrities had well known deaths, but also how their deaths could be interjected into jokes and punchlines effectively. In the original script I actually had Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi too, along with Princess Di, Mary Queen of Scots, Steve Jobs and Shakespeare. When I first met with Airbag and Taboo, we had a script workshop where we made a huge list of potential celebs to add - there was everyone from Charles Darwin, Neil Armstrong, and Joan of Arc. When choosing the final celebs, the key thing we looked at were people who you would recognise instantly. Cleopatra, Ned Kelly, John Lennon; you see that Egyptian dress, rusty helmet, round glasses, and you know who those people are. We also didn’t want to include anyone whose death was too recent. I remember Steve Irwin’s name came up and we just thought, too soon. I think Steve Jobs is the most recent death we have in there, but I think his part works, considering the ad is about not using your phone while driving, and he’s kind of responsible for how popular phones are nowadays.

SCREEN-SPACE: Was it tough shaping a creative vision that satisfied both you and the TAC brief? Can you envision a working life that balances both ad industry work and more independent short/feature output?

ALYSSA: I found it really rewarding working with everyone who was involved - the TAC, Airbag and Taboo. I was very involved throughout the whole process and they didn’t hinder my creative vision at all, which was great. They wanted to stick to the bone of my original script as much as possible. They were really open to any ideas I had, and while they suggested a couple of things to change or add, anything they said only made the project better. It was a super collaborative process. I can imagine myself balancing ad work and shorts and features in the future. My ideal goal would be to write for both television and film one day, but I’m super open to doing more ad work - it’s a really fun process and I’d love to make some more.

SCREEN-SPACE: Which makes me think - given its popularity and award-winning status, might you adapt The Afterlife Bar into a feature?

ALYSSA: (Laughs) It’s only a matter of time, isn’t it? I actually have thought about what an ‘Afterlife Bar’ feature film might look like. We could add a ton more celebrities, maybe explore the history of the bar, how it came to be, which celebs work there, and look at more of Jeremy’s backstory - maybe what he was like when he was alive, and the choices he made leading to his unfortunate fate. It would also be fun to expand the world of the afterlife. Afterlife salon? Afterlife stadium? Afterlife market? It could definitely happen.

FCCA 2018 WINNERS SPAN A CENTURY OF AUSTRALIAN STORIES

The Australian film sector’s long and prestigious history of period films was kept alive in 2018, according to the voting members of the Film Critics Circle of Australia. Warwick Thornton’s turn-of-the-century outback thriller Sweet Country, Bruce Beresford’s mid-century melodrama Ladies in Black and Simon Baker’s ‘70s-set coming-of-age surfing drama Breath were the big winners at the FCCA’s annual Award Ceremony, held last night in the auditorium of the Paddington/Woollahra R.S.L. Club in inner–city Sydney.

The evening was attended by some of the industry’s most revered names, with Oscar-winning DOP John Seale (The English Patient, 1996), Gallipoli leading man Mark Lee, thesps Amanda Muggleton and Andrew McFarlane and beloved acting icon Lorraine Bayly on hand to present key categories. Other guests included FCCA President Rose Capp, writer/director Ted Wilson (Under the Cover of Cloud, 2018), entertainer Paul Capsis, and actor/director Alex Lykos (Alex & Eve, 2016; Me & My Left Brain, 2019).

Sweet Country, Thornton’s brutal manhunt ‘western’, earned three of the night’s top honours, winning Best Film, Best Director and Best Lead Actor for Hamilton Morris (pictured, right; Morris with co-star Natassia Gorey Furber); producer David Jowsey accepted on behalf of all the production’s honorees. The film has been an awards season favourite since its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it took out the event’s Critic’s Prize. It has since secured the best picture trophy at the AACTA Awards and Asia Pacific Screen Awards, along with major gongs at the Adelaide and Toronto film festivals.

A hit with domestic audiences, Ladies in Black had been long in development before Beresford’s clout helped it come to fruition. The adaptation of Madeline St John’s novel won Best Lead Actress for Angourie Rice (producer Allanah Zitserman present to accept on behalf of her leading lady), as well Best Supporting Actress for industry great Noni Hazelhurst and Best Original Score for Christopher Gordon’s orchestration.

Simon Baker’s directorial debut Breath, an adaptation of Tim Winton’s acclaimed semi-autobiographical novel, earned the director the Supporting Actor trophy for his role as an emotionally troubled surfer. As the film’s only representative on the night, Baker made several trips to the podium on behalf of his collaborators; he shared Best Screenplay honours with co-scribe Gerard Lee, while editor Dany Cooper and cinematographers Marden Dean and Rick Rifici were rewarded for their contributions. (Pictured, left; Baker with co-stars Ben Spence, centre, and Samson Coulter)

One of the most successful box-office years for feature length factual films led to a hotly contested Best Documentary category. In the end, a specially selected five person jury could not split Catherine Scott’s Backtrack Boys and Paul Damien Williams’ Gurrumul for top honours, resulting in a rare ‘joint award’. A clearly moved Scott noted that her film has swept audience polls at several festivals, including both the Sydney Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival, but had not connected with voting bodies until the FCCA honour.

Nominated films that went home empty-handed but which indicate what a diverse and rich year that 2018 was for local cinema included Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke’s zombie thriller Cargo (3 nominations); Leigh Whannell’s gruesome sci-fier Upgrade (2 nominations); Alena Lodkina’s rural drama Strange Colours (4 nominations); Joel Edgerton’s family melodrama Boy Erased (3 nominations); and, Jason Raftopoulos’ West of Sunshine, for which leading man Damien Hill received a posthumous Best Lead Actor nomination.   

LADIES IN BLACK LEAD OZ PACK AS QUEENS OF U.S. DESERT FEST

Four diverse Australian works will feature at the 30^th Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF), which launches January 3 in California’s upmarket desert enclave on the western edge of the Coachella Valley. Key amongst them is veteran filmmaker Bruce Beresford’s local hit Ladies in Black, which has been honoured as the Closing Night film of the 12-day program. Set to screen 223 films from 78 countries, organisers are predicting close to 140,000 attendees for the anniversary celebrations of one of America’s most respected and relaxed festival events.

The story of the strong-willed retail saleswomen at the forefront of social change in Sydney circa 1959, Ladies in Black was a critical and commercial hit domestically, earning AU$12.5million at the Australian/New Zealand box office and scoring four AACTA Awards, including Best Actress for starlet Angourie Rice. Yet to open in other key global markets, the North American premiere at PSIFF is a strong indication of the potential for the film to play with audiences beyond these shores (pictured, above; from left, Celia Massingham, Rice and Rachel Taylor).

Also enjoying a moment in the Californian film festival sun will be Benjamin Gilmour’s Jirga, screening as part of the festival’s Foreign Film Oscar Submission strand. The AACTA-winning drama follows a former Australian soldier’s return to Afghanistan, where he seeks forgiveness from the family of a civilian man he killed while serving in the war. Writer/director Gilmour, star Sam Smith (pictured, right) and a skeleton crew shot the film guerilla-style in some of Afghanistan’s most dangerous regions, the result being a film of rare emotion, tension and beauty; it had its World Premiere in Toronto to critical acclaim. It is Australia’s official Foreign Film Oscar contender, with large sections of the film in Pashto dialect.

Certain to amp up the party atmosphere will be a retrospective screening of Baz Luhrmann’s breakout 1992 blockbuster Strictly Ballroom. The film, which earned a staggering AU$80million global box office during its initial release, has been slotted into a strand called ‘The Palm Springs Canon’, a celebration of the best of the PSIFF's first 30 years. Luhrmann’s crowd-pleaser will play alongside 32 other established classics, including Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000), Krzysztof Kieslowski’s The Double Life of Veronique (1991), Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso (1988), Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie (2001) and Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000).

Rounding out the Antipodean contingent is Jeffery Walker’s Riot, the made-for-television account of the gay activists whose fight to decriminalize homosexuality in mid-70s Sydney led to the birth of the now iconic Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Starring Damon Herriman (soon to feature as Charles Manson in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), the small-screen movie aired to a national audience via the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in June before earning Herriman (pictured, right; with co-star Xavier Samuels) and co-star Kate Box AACTA Awards last month for their lead performances. It will screen in the PSIFF strand ‘Queer Cinema Today & The Gay!LA’ alongside such festival favourites as Wanuri Kahiu’s lesbian-themed Kenyan film Rafiki and Austrian filmmaker Katharina Mueckstein’s L’Animale, one of the films vying for the festival’s New Voices/New Visions Grand Jury Prize.

The four Australian films will be seen by many of Hollywood’s major players, with studio and agency representatives attending alongside the likes of actors Timothée Chalamet, Glenn Close, Richard E. Grant, Melissa McCarthy and Rami Malek; and, directors Ryan Coogler, Spike Lee, Ali Abbasi, Emilio Estevez and Alfonso Cuarón.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival will launch on January 3 with the Opening Night film, Kenneth Branagh’s All is True, with the festivities concluding January 13 with Ladies in Black; both will screen at Richards Center for the Arts at Palm Springs High School followed by a reception at the Hilton Hotel complex.

LION IS PRIDE OF LOCAL INDUSTRY WITH 12 AACTA NOMS.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) seem poised to correct the imbalance perpetrated by their American brethren by handing the bulk of this years AACTA Award Feature Film trophies to Garth Davis’ Lion. The critical and commercial hit scored a whopping 12 nominations, leading a record-breaking 17 films in the race for this year’s top industry honours.

Starring Dev Patel as the adopted Indian man seeking his birth mother, Lion became the feel-good hit at the 2016-17 international box office yet was shut-out in the La-La Land/Moonlight Oscar sweep, despite earning six nominations. Given its A$25million local box office haul and the 34 awards it has already snared globally (including two International AACTAs), the prospect of the film enjoying it’s own sweep at the twin ceremonies on December 4 and 6 is very real.

Also in contention for the Best Film AACTA are the sleeper hit Ali’s Wedding (8 nominations) and box office non-starters Berlin Syndrome (8 nominations; pictured, right), Hounds of Love (8 nominations) and Jasper Jones (6 nominations).  Other multiple nominees include Don’t Tell (4), The Butterfly Tree (3), The Death and Life of Otto Bloom (2) and The Lego Batman Movie (2). Single nominations in several tech categories went to Australia Day, Dance Academy: The Movie, Jungle, Killing Ground, Red Dog True Blue and Osiris Child: Science Fiction Volume 1; international productions Deepwater Horizon and Doctor Strange were cited for their use of local effects houses.

Launching at this year’s ceremony will be the inaugural Best Asian Film category, a none-too-subtle attempt to wrestle regional relevance away from the annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), to be held in Brisbane on November 23. Countries represented in the category include India (Dangal; Pink; Kaasav Turtle); China (I am Not Madame Bovary; Our Time Will Come; Wolf Warrior II, pictured, left); The Philippines (Birdshot); South Korea (Train to Busan); and, Japan (Your Name).

The 7^th AACTA Awards will be held at The Star Event Centre in Sydney. The Industry Luncheon takes place on Monday December 4, to be followed by the AACTA Awards Ceremony on the evening of December 6.

The full list of nominees are:          

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST FILM
ALI’S WEDDING Sheila Jayadev, Helen Panckhurst
BERLIN SYNDROME Polly Staniford
HOUNDS OF LOVE Melissa Kelly
JASPER JONES Vincent Sheehan, David Jowsey
LION Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Angie Fielder

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTION
ALI’S WEDDING Jeffrey Walker
BERLIN SYNDROME Cate Shortland
HOUNDS OF LOVE Ben Young
LION Garth Davis

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST LEAD ACTOR
Stephen Curry HOUNDS OF LOVE
Ewen Leslie THE BUTTERFLY TREE
Sunny Pawar LION
Osamah Sami ALI’S WEDDING

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST LEAD ACTRESS
Emma Booth HOUNDS OF LOVE
Teresa Palmer BERLIN SYNDROME
Helana Sawires ALI’S WEDDING
Sara West DON’T TELL

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Don Hany ALI’S WEDDING
Dev Patel LION
Jack Thompson DON’T TELL
Hugo Weaving JASPER JONES

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Frances Duca ALI’S WEDDING
Nicole Kidman LION
Jacqueline McKenzie DON’T TELL
Susie Porter HOUNDS OF LOVE

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST ASIAN FILM
BIRDSHOT Pamela L. Reyes
DANGAL Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Siddarth Roy Kapur
I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY Wang Zhonglei, Zhou Maofei, Hu Xiaofeng
KAASAV (TURTLE) Dr. Mohan Agashe, Sunil Sukthankar, Sumitra Bhave
OUR TIME WILL COME Roger Lee, Stephen Lam, Ann Hui
PINK Shoojit Sircar, Rashmi Sharma, Ronnie Lahiri, Sheel Kumar
TRAIN TO BUSAN Lee Dong ha
WOLF WARRIOR 2 Zhang Miao, Guang Hailong
YOUR NAME Genki Kawamura, Katsuhiro Takei, Kouichurou Itou, Yoshihiro Furusawa

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY
CASTING JONBENÉT Kitty Green, Scott Macaulay, James Schamus
DAVID STRATTON: A CINEMATIC LIFE Jo-anne McGowan
DEEP WATER: THE REAL STORY Darren Dale
WHITELEY Sue Clothier, James Bogle, Peta Ayres
ZACH’S CEREMONY Sarah Linton, Alec Doomadgee

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
ALI’S WEDDING Andrew Knight, Osamah Sami
THE BUTTERFLY TREE Priscilla Cameron
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF OTTO BLOOM Cris Jones
HOUNDS OF LOVE Ben Young

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
BERLIN SYNDROME Shaun Grant
DON’T TELL James Greville, Ursula Cleary, Anne Brooksbank
JASPER JONES Shaun Grant, Craig Silvey
LION Luke Davies

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
HOUNDS OF LOVE Michael McDermott
JUNGLE Stefan Duscio
LION Greig Fraser
RED DOG: TRUE BLUE Geoffrey Hall

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST EDITING
AUSTRALIA DAY Nick Meyers
BERLIN SYNDROME Jack Hutchings
HOUNDS OF LOVE Merlin Eden
LION Alexandre de Franceschi

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SOUND
JASPER JONES Liam Egan, Trevor Hope, Robert Sullivan, Yulia Akerholt, James Andrews, Les Fiddess
KILLING GROUND Serge Lacroix, Cate Cahill
THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE Wayne Pashley, Rick Lisle, Fabian Sanjurgo, Michael Semanick, Gregg Landaker
LION Robert Mackenzie, Glenn Newnham, Nakul Kamte, Andrew Ramage, James Ashton, Mario Vaccaro

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE
ALI’S WEDDING Nigel Westlake
BERLIN SYNDROME Bryony Marks
THE BUTTERFLY TREE Caitlin Yeo
LION Volker Bertelmann, Dustin O’Halloran

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
BERLIN SYNDROME Melinda Doring
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF OTTO BLOOM Ben Morieson
JASPER JONES Herbert Pinter
LION Chris Kennedy

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST COSTUME DESIGN
BERLIN SYNDROME Maria Pattison
DANCE ACADEMY:THE MOVIE Tess Schofield
JASPER JONES Margot Wilson
LION Cappi Ireland

AACTA KUDOFEST BECOMES 'THE GIBBO AND HOGES SHOW'

The band of brothers who fought to get Hacksaw Ridge made were rewarded with 9 AACTA trophies in at a red carpet industry soiree in Sydney last night. Returning again and again to the podium, artisans and craftsmen on Mel Gibson’s bloody ode to faith and heroism all but shut out the rest of the nominees, with only Simon Stone’s dark drama The Daughter feeling any love in other major categories.

In accepting his Best Director award from Mad max director Dr George Miller, a moved Gibson (“I am so choked up, I can’t even talk”) acknowledged the ongoing support afforded filmmakers by the funding bodies Screen Australia and Screen New South Wales. He also paid service to local below-the-liners, stating, “the calibre (of this cast and crew) is as good as or better than anywhere in the world. I’m not the only one who wants to make films here, because Ridley Scott says exactly the same thing about working here.”

By the end of the night, most of those cast and crew had AACTA awards in their grasp, with the film earning Andrew Garfield the Lead Actor gong (he accepted via a pre-recorded link) and Supporting Actor for Hugo Weaving. Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan earned Screenplay honours; DOP Simon Duggan’s immersive battlefield camerawork saw him take the Cinematography nod; the kudo list was rounded out by John Gilbert’s editing, Barry Robinson’s production design and the sound design unit.

AACTA’s in the Female Lead and Supporting categories for The Daughter halted a Hacksaw Ridge clean sweep. In her first feature film role, Odessa Young (pictured, right) earned Best Actress while industry favourite Miranda Otto received her first and long-overdue trophy for her supporting turn. Writer/director Simon Stone secured the Adapted Screenplay honour, having reworked Henrik Ibsen’s play The Wild Duck into a contemporary Australian drama.

The only other honourees were the lovably offbeat coming-of-age comedy Girl Asleep, which earned Best Costume Design for Jonathon Oxlade and the Pacific Island romance Tanna, which took home Best Original Music Score for Antony Partos. Chasing Asylum, a harrowing account of the immigrant experience in Australia, won Best Documentary, with the film’s director Eva Orner on hand to collect.

A highlight of the night was the bestowing of the AACTA Longford Lyell Award upon beloved icon Paul Hogan, an honour that has previously acknowledged the global standing of such talents as Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush. Accepting the trophy in typically laconic style, he cheerfully recognised his entire career has largely been a been based upon the one-hit wonder Crocodile Dundee and its sequels, but as he pointed out to the roar of the audience, “It was a mighty hit.” Other industry accolades went to Isla Fisher, who joined the likes of Naomi Watts, Margot Robbie and Toni Collette as the recipient of the Trailblazer Award, and visual artist and VR innovator Lynette Wallworth, who earned the Byron Kennedy Award.

CHINESE INDUSTRY DOMINATES REGIONAL KUDOCAST

After a New Year period that saw Chinese cinema attendance top US figures for the first time in history, the Chinese film industry can claim to be on quite a roll having last night swept the 2015 Asian Film Awards, taking out ten of the fourteen categories. The lavish ceremony is overseen by an organizing committee comprising officials from the Busan, Hong Kong and Tokyo film festivals and was held in the vast Venetian Casino on the resort island of Macau.

Blind Massage (pictured, above), a Nanjing-set drama that follows the bittersweet lives of blind masseurs, took Best Picture honours ahead of Black Coal Thin Ice (China/Hong Kong), Haider (India), Hill of Freedom (South Korea), Ode to My Father (South Korea) and The Light Shines Only There (Japan). Already an awards season heavyweight boasting honours from the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Taipei's Golden Horse Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival, the intimate ensemble piece also snared the Best Cinematography trophy for lensman Zeng Jian.

The film’s director, Le You, was again beaten for Best Director honours by Ann Hui, whose helming of the Xiao Hong biopic, The Golden Era, was favoured at the Golden Horse ceremony in November. Other nominees included Tsukamoto Shinya, (Fires on the Plain, Japan], Berlin honoree Lav Diaz (From What Is Before, The Philippines), Vishal Bhardwaj (Haider) and Hong Sang-soo (Hill of Freedom). The Golden Era’s Wang Zhiwen was named Best Supporting Actor, ahead of Jo Jin-ung (A Hard Day, South Korea), Eric Qin (Blind Massage), Chen Jianbin (Paradise in Service, Taiwan) and Ito Hideaki (Wood Job!, Japan).

Black Coal, Thin Ice took home the Best Actor award, with charismatic star Liao Fan topping a strong category that included Kase Ryo (Hill of Freedom), Lau Ching-wan (Overh3ard, Hong Kong/China), Ethan Ruan (Paradise in Service) and Choi Min-shik (Roaring Currents, South Korea) and Sato Takeru (Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, Japan). Auteur Diao Yi’nan also earned the Best Screenplay honour for his dark procedural thriller.

Other territories represented on the podium were Japan (Best Supporting Actress Ikewaki Chizuru, pictured right, in The Light Shines Only There); India (composer Mikey McCleary for Margarita, With a Straw); and, South Korea, whose Best Actress winner Bae Du-na for A Girl at My Door led in a packed field that included Gong Li, (Coming Home, China), Vicki Zhao, (Dearest, Hong Kong/China), Kalki Koechlin, (Margarita, With a Straw), Miyazawa Rie (Pale Moon, Japan) and pre-event favourite, Tang Wei (The Golden Era). Jiang Wen’s Gone With the Bullets, a grandly-mounted satire of French colonial excess in 1920s Shanghai, topped the trophy tally with three, all for its below-the-line contributions in the fields of Production Design, Costuming and Visual Effects. Gareth Evans rounded out the tech categories with a Best Editing nod for his Indonesian action epic, The Raid 2: Berandal.