The Babadook, Russell Crowe and Mia Wasikowska Score at "Aussie Oscars"
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at 5:00PM
Glenn Dunks in Australia, Charlie's Country, Essie Davis, Ethan Hawke, Guy Pearce, Jennifer Kent, Russell Crowe, The Babadook, The Railway Man, Tracks, precursor awards

Glenn here again to look at the AACTA Awards - aka the "Australian Oscars" - which announced their annual nominations last night. Lots of big names spread across the field and some welcome nods to smaller films.

It was an expectedly big day for Russell Crowe's directorial debut, The Winter Diviner. While ol' Rusty may be miffed (justifiable? I'm not sure, I have not seen his film yet) that he missed out on a directing nomination, he surely can't be disappointed for too long since his film is scattered all over the nominations. In fact, with eight, the WWI drama received the second-biggest haul of the day. Somewhat less expected, however, was the film that leads the nomination tally: Predestination. A period-set sci-fi thriller from the Spierig Brothers (Daybreakers) that stars Ethan Hawke as a time-traveller whose life intersects with a mysterious man whose story spans time, space, fate, terrorism, love and even gender. Thankfully that refreshing lack of genre bias extended to six nods for The Babadook and The Rover. Meanwhile, more traditional dramas like Tracks, The Railway Man and Australia's foreign language entry Charlie's Country also fared very well.

Here are the nominations.

Best Film

Best Direction

Best Lead Actor

Best Lead Actress

I haven't seen The Little Death, but good grief those other three women? Can we give them all trophies? They are all just so good. I suspect Davis will take it out, but they do like it when stars come home to make local films and stories. And yet, having said that, Sarah Snook is also excellent in Predestination and it would be hard to begrudge her the award for turning the rather preposterous nature of that movie into something with genuine emotional gravitas.

Best Supporting Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Original Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay

I guess it should be a good sign that we are making so many more original films, however, maybe if the local industry wants to do better they should start adapting more books or plays. There's so many out there worth bringing to the screen.

Now here is where I get confused. Can we discuss for a moment what constitutes "adapted" and "original" when it comes to short films? Because The Babadook was original a short film titled The Monster (which is available to be viewed on Vimeo), but I've seen it cited repeatedly as original? What are your thoughts on the matter? Obvious Child and The Way he Looks are more examples, and I suspect we'll get more and more as filmmakers find new ways to get their name out there and producers interested.

Best Cinematography

If I had a say, Mandy Walker would not only already be the first female cinematographer with an Oscar nomination (her work on The Well is truly next level), but she'd be in the hunt again this year for her wonderful and evocative use of the outback landscape in Tracks.

Best Editing

A good day for Matt Villa whose resume is short, but has already graduated to the likes of Russell Crowe and last year's The Great Gatsby (for which he won). 52 Tuesdays is likely my favourite Aussie film of the year, so I'm glad it popped up in at least a couple of categories that it deserved to. I'm not trying to be a contrarian stick in the mud, but if, like me, you found Boyhood not quite as exciting as everybody is saying then please check out 52 Tuesdays. It does what Boyhood does in many ways with structure, but actually makes it about a subject worth being interested in.

Best Sound

Best Original Music Score

Best Production Design

The space age in 'Predestination'

Best Costume Design

Best Feature-Length Documentary

Best Short Animation

Best Short Fiction Film

I mention those last couple of categories because they occasionally pop up on the Oscar lists. Maybe next year? Either way, it's an interesting selection of nominations. I was disappointed to see nothing for the excellent Canopy, but how can some of the best sound mixing of the year compete with The Railway Man, you know?

The winners will be announced at two ceremonies (they award TV as well so there are too many categories for one night) in late January. Some of these films have already been released in America, and Predestination is out in January. Have you seen any of the contenders? Let us know what you think.

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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