Mad Max, Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett Win Big at the Australian Academy

Glenn here. As expected, it was a big night for Oscar hopeful Mad Max: Fury Road at the AACTA Awards last night, while Cate Blanchett gave yet another wonderful speech upon winning the Longford Lyell Award for outstanding achievement to Australian screen. Split over two ceremonies in Sydney, this year’s “Australian Oscars” were honouring the most successful year for Australian film on record – yes, that means of all time (inflation not included) – as well as television. Miller’s film picked up eight trophies all up, bringing the total number of AFI/AACTA Awards won by the franchise to 16, while Miller has now amassed 8 career statues. Yes, eight!!

Jocelyn Moorhouse’s homegrown phenomenon The Dressmaker was also a hit winning five including for actors Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, and Hugo Weaving as well as the audience choice award, which goes to show just how popular that period western has been here and how much it's captured the public's attention (it has come within mere millions of Mad Max’s box office). The most sentimental win of the night was for lead actor Michael Caton, the industry legend whose first win finally came at age 72 in Last Cab to Darwin about a dying man driving cross-country. AIDS-era gay romance Holding the Man sadly went home empty-handed despite being one of the finest dramas this country has ever produced.

Best Film: Mad Max: Fury Road
People's Choice Award: The Dressmaker
Best Direction: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Lead Actor: Michael Caton, Last Cab to Darwin
Best Lead Actress: Kate Winslet, The Dressmaker
Best Supporting Actor: Hugo Weaving, The Dressmaker
Best Supporting Actress: Judy Davis, The Dressmaker
Best Original Screenplay: Robert Connolly and Steve Worland, Paper Planes
Best Adapted Screenplay: Reg Cribb and Jeremy Sims, Last Cab to Darwin
Best Documentary Feature: That Sugar Film

More winners + Cate Blanchett (!) after the jump...

No, we won't stop using this gif!

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SAG Award Nominations

Early this morning while waiting for the Screen Actors Guild Nominations to come i wondered out loud "what will be the insane 'Naomi Watts in St Vincent' nomination today?". No one could have expected that the answer would be "all of them".

Ladies and gentlemen the weirdest bunch of nominations ever for the SAG AWARDS which will be broadcast on Saturday January 30th on TBS/TNT. Many people will be rethinking their Oscar predictions this morning but it's important to remember that there is extremely little overlap between nominating committee members of SAG (chosen at random each year from their huge membership) and Oscar's acting branch (a few thousand elite people). 

In fact, Melodipopvision is correct when she suggests "Isn't SAG basically now an annual list of "prestige actors I've liked in some other stuff"?"

Normally we love surprises during awards season but when they're as unfortunate as so many of these surprises this morning, the terror begins to set in. What kind of Oscars are we going to get this year?

Nominations with commentary & statistics after the jump...

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Interview: Ivan Ostrochovsky on Directing the Slovak Oscar Submission 'Koza'

Jose here. As Creed gains popularity in the awards season, it would be fascinating to juxtapose it with Ivan Ostrochovsky's Koza, the Slovak Foreign Language submission which also happens to be about a boxer. The main difference with both films is that in the very American Creed, boxing is a noble enterprise used by the hero to reclaim his position among the "gods" (it's no accident that in such an Oedipal drama, the leading character's name is Adonis). In Ostrochovsky's film, boxing is the means by which the leading character (played by real life boxer, and former Olympian, Peter Balaz) who goes by the nickname Koza (which means "goat") is trying to raise money to prevent his wife from having an abortion. 

Formally exquisite, and with a running time of a little over an hour, showing how great editing proves that less is indeed more, Koza is an exemplary work of art that combines documentary filmmaking and drama. Its un-romantic look at sports might prove revelatory to some (it certainly did to me) and Ostrochovsky's deep humanism should place him as a director to keep an eye on. He was also kind enough to answer a few questions I had about the film, including how he directed Balaz, and what an Oscar nomination might mean for his career.

Read the interview after the jump...

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Suffragette on the Campaign Trail. Votes for Carey. Votes for Women!

Carey Mulligan stepped back out onto red carpets this past weekend at the Moet British Independent Film Awards (Suffragette was ironically honored only for its most prominent male actor Brendan Gleeseon) looking as fashionista fine as always. I was strangely surprised to see her. I had been imagining her safely ensconced at home and away from the demands of red carpets and press chatter these past two weeks since she had been out and about so much before the holiday.

I had the opportunity to chat with the Suffragette star very briefly at two separate events in her honor on two separate coasts and very nearly back-to-back before Thanksgiving. This after a busy October in London where Suffragette's opening was quite an event and just before that in September she gave birth to her first child, daughter Evelyn Mumford. And just before that she was treading the boards on Broadway in the play Skylight for which she was Tony nominated.

Whew. In short she's been hard at work for the past year... albeit with lovely A list working conditions. Lovely working conditions would be impossible to imagine for her latest alter ego, Maud Watts, the fictional laundress who reluctantly and then passionately embraces political activism within very real British history.

The most amusing anecdote I can remember from our brief chat is that Carey told me that her time in the makeup chair was the shortest she'd ever experienced on set.  They called them 'rough ups' instead of 'touch ups'... since the actresses always had to be sweaty and exhausted rather than beautifully camera ready.

It's somehow perfectly endearing that Carey accidentally blinked when I took her photo (below) because surely she deserves a little sleep after the tireless promotion of the movie.

At the second event, an afternoon tea in New York, I jokingly asked her if she even knew where she was at this point what with all the travel and events. She played along answering with cheerfully fading confidence.

I'm in New York! ... apparently?"

Suffragette arrived at quite an auspicious time to engage with its depressing modern relevance despite taking place in the early 1900s. While the movie didn't light the box office on fire, her Best Actress bid still appears to be toasty warm albeit within a very competitive field. And if it doesn't happen this time there's always the next time for this tireless star.

Image Awards Love "Creed"

Some of the nominees and omissions from the NAACP Image Awards over the years have been truly bizarre. We chalk that up to it not being a film based organization and far more concerned with representation than the movies themselves. Though they are not an Oscar precursor in the traditional way, they do add another insight into which films people are thinking about at this time of year. We expect that Oscar will share their love of Creed. It led the nominations for movies and Michael B Jordan is even up for "Entertainer of the Year".

That's a distinction worth noting because he's the only one of the "Entertainer" nominees that's associatedly directly with the movies for this awards cycle. The rest (Pharell, Shonda & Viola, Misty Copeland) are clearly nominated for their contributions to music, television, and performing arts. 

The film nominees are...

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