Australia and Park City Dole Out "Best" Prizes
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 5:00PM 
Nicole says "Hi!"DGA and SAG (tonight!) awards just aren't enough prize-giving for one weekend so let's talk two more.
AUSTRALIA via WEST HOLLYWOOD
Have you ever heard of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts International Awards? Neither have I. It's okay because they're newborn babes in the awards woods. Apparently they eyed an empty clearing in the great forest of movie awards and voila! (Seriously why are there so few awards shows? Magical unicorns they are.)
The great unsolved mystery of all of these organizations that have been popping up (I'd like to see a study but it does seem like each year brings at least one new organization along with it) is this: how do they get the celebrities to show? Even brand new ventures like this one bring out the stars. When you can convince Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep to attend your inaugural awards maybe there will be a second year for your prizes! Then again the AFI Awards had one televised ceremony (early 2002) and the stars came out for it en masse and there was never a second year of prizes, so we'll see.
Meryl looked gorgeous at the Australian International ceremony held in Beverly Hills AACTA Winners
- Screenplay (tie) The Ides of March (George Clooney, Grant Henslove and Beau Willimon) and Margin Call (JC Chandor). A rare occurence: Midnight in Paris losing a screenplay nomination.
- Director Michel Hazanavicius The Artist
- Actor Jean Dujardin The Artist
- Actress Meryl Streep The Iron Lady
- Film The Artist
I can't tell you why their press release lists only film winners when they have television right there in the title.
They'll show this intimate ceremony (held in West Hollywood with Australian Academy president Geoffrey Rush naming the winners) or at least clips of it on Australia television on the 31st.
And now [drumroll] the first awards for the 2012 Movie Year (!!!)
SUNDANCE
Meanwhile in Park City, the first awards for 2012 films were held. Will we see any of these titles next year come Oscar time? It's always difficult to know how Sundance hits will transfer. Sometimes they take forever to hit theaters and sometimes they're released straight away. Of last year's winners crop several titles were in the awards discussion at one point or another (Project Nim, Martha Marcy, Tyrannosaur, Like Crazy, etcetera) but only the documentaries Hell and Back Again and If a Tree Falls managed to become nominees.
U.S. DRAMA
Best Film, Jury Prize - “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
Best Film, Audience Award - “The Surrogate”
Directing - Ava DuVernay, “Middle of Nowhere”
Screenwriting - Derek Connolly, “Safety Not Guaranteed”
Cinematography - Ben Richardson, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”
Special Jury Prize, ensemble acting - “The Surrogate”
Special Jury Prize, producing - Jonathan Schwartz, Andrea Sperling, “Smashed”
"Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Beasts of the Southern Wild is a "mythical" apocalyptic debut film about a little girl named "Hushpuppy" living in Louisiana. Fox Searchlight picked up the film. And though Sundance has recently been the place to spot future Best Actress contenders (The Kids Are All Right, Winter's Bone, Precious, An Education) this year the Most Likely To Succeed candidate seems to be John Hawkes playing a disabled man in The Surrogate.
U.S. DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Best Documentary, Jury Prize - “The House I Live In”
Best Documentary, Audience Award - “The Invisible War”
Directing - Lauren Greenfield, “The Queen of Versailles”
Editing - Enat Sidi, “Detropia”
Cinematography - Jeff Orlowski, “Chasing Ice”
Special Jury Prize - TIE “Love Free Or Die” and “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”
The economy is a hot topic here with Detropia looking at Detroit's problems "a city that may be the canary in the coal mine" and The Queen of Versailles on a billionaire couple and the housing crisis. Love Free of Die is about the first gay man to become a bishop. He had to wear a bulletproof vest to his consecration. Since this world is a fucked up place he still lives with death threats 8 years later. Aiwewei is about the famous dissident and Chinese artist. Lots of these movies sound very interesting -- the winner is about the war on drugs -- and at least a few of them have distributors already so perhaps a couple of them will show up in next year's Oscar finalist list?
WORLD CINEMA, DRAMA
Best Film, Jury Prize - “Violeta Went To Heaven” (Chile)
Best Film, Audience Award - “Valley of Saints” (India/US)
Directing - Mads Matthiesen, “Teddy Bear” (Denmark)
Screenwriting - Marialy Rivas, Camila Gutierrez, Pedro Peirano, Sebastian Sepulveda , “Young & Wild” (Chile)
Cinematography - David Raedeker, “My Brother the Devil” (UK)
Special Jury Prize, artistic vision - “Can” (Turkey)
"Teddy Bear" is about a bodybuilder who goes to Thailand to try to find love.
Two winners from Chile! I believe Violeta Went To Heaven that was Chile's unsuccessful bid for Oscar's Best Foreign Film. Same director and topic though the title is now a bit different.
WORLD CINEMA, DOCUMENTARY
Best Film, Jury Prize - “The Law In These Parts” (Israel)
Best Film, Audience Award - “Searching for Sugar Man” (Sweden/UK)
Directing - Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi, “5 Broken Cameras” (Palestine/Israel/France)
Editing - Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky , “Indie Game: The Movie” (Canada)
Cinematography - Lars Skree, “Putin’s Kiss” (Sweden) though it's about modern Russia and specifically a rising star in the youth movement.
Special Jury Prize, film - “Searching for Sugar Man”
OTHER AWARDS
U.S. Short Film - “The Black Balloon”
World Short Film - “The Return”
Shorts, Jury Prize - “Fishing Without Nets”
Shorts, Audience Award - “The Debutante Hunters”
Are you glad that awards groups are spreading like non-fatal epidemics?
Would anyone show if I held a ceremony for my annual Film Bitch Awards? HA!
Which Sundance winner are you most intrigued to see?
Australia, Oscars (12), Sundance, The Surrogate, documentaries, film festivals
Reader Comments (12)
Maybe a sock puppet award show for the FBs! (It helps if you have an acronym.) I'd love to see which sequins you'd use to sparkle up the sock puppet versions of Meryl, Fassy, and Ole Marsha.
as an australian let me help clear it up.
AACTA is the new and apparently improved AFI awards. They changed it to try and gain international stature ala BAFTA.
They have the international ones, then the TV ones are held this week or next, then they have the film ceremony (where the nominees are mainly all Australian films).
Hope that helps. Who knows if they'll be able to make it stick as an international prescence.
Interesting. Does Sundance often hand out special prizes for producing? I wonder what inspired that decision with Smashed.
Geoffrey Rush asked Kidman via email to co-host.
Video with all 3 hosts - Kidman, Rush, and Crowe at the link
http://www.5min.com/Video/Kidman-Crowe-Rush-Honor-Their-Roots-at-Australian-Academy-Awards-517257531
As Leigh pointed out, the AACTAs are the new AFIs. You wrote about them last year when "Animal Kingdom" cleaned up and Jacki Weaver gave that incredibly speech next to Cate Blanchette. These "international" awards are, I suspect, little more than them trying to network and connect Australia with Hollywood even more. As a member of AACTA not even I can tell you who nominated or voted for the international awards, but somebody did and they were incredibly perplexing. Not all of these films were released in Australia in 2011 ("Margin Call" doesn't even come out until MARCH) so I guess they went with American release dates just to be easy/predictory. Still, they gave big nomination tallies to "Melancholia" and "Kevin" so... I dunno. It's weird. I suspect I told Nicole Kidman to show up or never return :)
Nicole presented with Meryl with her award :p
Leigh and Glenn -- if it's just the AFI why are they calling this the inaugural year? are they throwing their regular awards over for this or are they going to have two sets of nominees each year? very very strange.
Marsha -- i love this idea. But then i love socks.
Nat, the New York Times article in yesterday's paper said that Beasts of the Southern Wild made all the other entries look somewhat "infantile" by comparison.
// The economy is a hot topic here with Detropia looking at Detroit's problems "a city that may be the canary in the coal mine" //
As a native of Detroit who grew up when the automakers started laying off droves of workers (and born the year of the riots after MLK's death) I feel I can say "And somebody is just figuring this out NOW?" (Remember Roger and Me? It was centered on "Flint, MI" but basically that film was really about the Detroit metro area -Hamtramick, etc. Which will mean nothing if you're not from MI, I know.)
Detroit has been the "canary in the coal mine" for over 40 years. And the economy didn't suddenly "turn bad" in 2008, it just got bad for folks who hadn't felt it before. For those already feeling it, it simply got worse. *end rant*
Janice -- well sure. as a native detroiter also i know exactly what you're talking about but to be fair to Detropia maybe it is more comprehensive than just THE NOW. I am totally wanting to see it.
Nat, I want to see it to - I didn't mean to knock the documentary itself, or the filmmakers. That was more of a generalized rant/whine (which I probably should have kept to myself). I think in this country we have a tendency to avoid facing problems and addressing issues until they begin to affect us personally - literally smack us in the face, in fact, and there is no longer any possibility of avoidance. (But perhaps that's a human tendency, not limited to America?)
Oh, and - Nicole, darling? Your forehead is NOT your best asset. And you're too old for the little-girl barrettes. Please take a page from your friend Meryl's book (or Helen Mirren's) on how to age fabulously.
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