And you thought Oscar voters didn't watch enough films --check out the AACTA nominations!
Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 11:00AM
by Travis C
THE KING
The nominations for the Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (or AACTA) awards were released this week. Since they changed from being the Australian Film Institute awards (or AFI) several years ago, the Cinema nominations are drawing from a smaller and smaller subset of the large amount of entrants. This year was no exception with only nine feature films being nominated in all the categories (not counting the Indie category, but more on that later). It hasn't been the best 12 months for Aussie film but nevertheless…
Best Film
JUDY & PUNCH
THE KING
RIDE LIKE A GIRL
TOP END WEDDING...
A true-life thriller, a dark-quirky feminist tale (which gets released into Australian cinemas next month), an epic Netflix co-production with USA, a period drama-horror from the director of The Babadook, the highest grossing Australian film of the year (directed by Oscar nominee Rachel Griffiths), and a crowd-pleasing indigenous romcom. The nice thing is that the list is pretty diverse. The Nightingale received the most nominations (15).
Best Indie Film
ACUTE MISFORTUNE
BOOK WEEK
BUOYANCY
EMU RUNNER
SEQUIN IN A BLUE ROOM
The irritating element of this new category is that, in both of its existing years, it has had no overlap with the Best Film list, which makes it feel like a dumping spot. At least last year, some of the films did break into other categories, but this year these are all one-nomination films. (From a personal preference, having my pick of the best Australian Film of the year, Acute Misfortune, left in this category is worthy of a rant, but I will save that for my social media acquaintances…). Buoyancy is Australia’s Oscar entry for Best International Film.
Best Direction
Anthony Maras (HOTEL MUMBAI)
Mirrah Foulkes (JUDY & PUNCH)
David Michôd (THE KING)
Jennifer Kent (THE NIGHTINGALE)
A couple of interesting dualities in this category – we have two debut directors (Maras and Foulkes) up against two former winners (Michôd and Kent). We also have a married couple (Foulkes and Michôd) competing against each other.
Best Lead Actor
Timothée Chalamet (THE KING)
Baykali Ganambarr (THE NIGHTINGALE)
Damon Herriman (JUDY & PUNCH)
Dev Patel (HOTEL MUMBAI)
Hugo Weaving (HEARTS AND BONES)
Even more so than the Oscars, winners in the acting categories here tend to come from Best Picture nominees. The star power of the two imported actors may woo, but Patel won a couple of years ago (in the supporting category) for Lion. Ganambarr won the Marcello Mastroianni award at Venice for this performance. Herriman (maybe most known internationally this year for his cameo as Charles Manson in Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood) has created history with four nominations across all male acting categories (including television). He has been working in the industry since he was a child.
Best Lead Actress
Mia Wasikowska in "Judy and Punch"
Nazanin Bondiari (HOTEL MUMBAI)
Aisling Franciosi (THE NIGHTINGALE)
Teresa Palmer (RIDE LIKE A GIRL)
Miranda Tapsell (TOP END WEDDING)
Mia Wasikowska (JUDY & PUNCH)
This is probably a race between the star-making turn of Franciosi, or tossing a bone to one of the two mainstream crowd-pleasers by awarding either Palmer or Tapsell. But not having Rachael Blake (Slam) in this category is a real shame.
Best Supporting Actor
Damon Herriman in "The Nightingale"
Joel Edgerton (THE KING)
Damon Herriman (THE NIGHTINGALE)
Andrew Luri (HEARTS AND BONES)
Ben Mendelsohn (THE KING)
Michael Sheasby (THE NIGHTINGALE)
Two double-ups here in terms of movies, but Mendelsohn is barely in the movie and Sheasby fades into the background, so I’d say it’s between Edgerton’s surprising take on Falstaff or Herriman if The Nightingale proves to be a sweeper (and sweeps often happen at the AACTAs). If Edgerton wins, he’d have three Supporting Actor AACTA/AFI awards from this decade (having previously won for Animal Kingdom and The Great Gatsby).
Best Supporting Actress
Tilda Cobham-Hervey (HOTEL MUMBAI)
Magnolia Maymuru (THE NIGHTINGALE)
Hilary Swank (I AM MOTHER)
Bolude Watson (HEARTS AND BONES)
Ursula Lovich (TOP END WEDDING)
All first-time nominees. Swank’s star power won’t have an effect here, methinks. Maymuru’s scenes in The Nightingale were horrifically memorable.
Best Screenplay
HOTEL MUMBAI
JUDY & PUNCH
THE KING
THE NIGHTINGALE
Best Cinematography
DANGER CLOSE: THE BATTLE OF LONG TAN
HOTEL MUMBAI
THE KING
THE NIGHTINGALE
Best Editing
HOTEL MUMBAI
JUDY & PUNCH
THE KING
THE NIGHTINGALE
Best Sound
DANGER CLOSE: THE BATTLE OF LONG TAN
HOTEL MUMBAI
THE KING
THE NIGHTINGALE
Best Original Score
Ride Like a Girl
DANGER CLOSE: THE BATTLE OF LONG TAN
HOTEL MUMBAI
JUDY & PUNCH
RIDE LIKE A GIRL
Best Production Design
HOTEL MUMBAI
JUDY & PUNCH
THE KING
THE NIGHTINGALE
Best Costume Design
Judy & Punch
HOTEL MUMBAI
JUDY & PUNCH
THE KING
THE NIGHTINGALE
I am cutting and pasting many of these categories. As alluded to before, a large block of voters only saw six films if the nominations are any indication.
Best Documentary
THE AUSTRALIAN DREAM
THE EULOGY
THE FINAL QUARTER
IN MY BLOOD IT RUNS
MYSTIFY MICHAEL HUTCHENCE
Two of these docos are on the exact same subject (indigenous footballer Adam Goodes, who left the game after consistent horrible racially-based bullying).
The winners will be presented at the two major 2019 AACTA awards events: the Industry Luncheon on Monday 2 December, and the AACTA Awards ceremony on Wednesday 4 December
Reader Comments (11)
Huh. I quite liked Hotel Mumbai, but the Patel nomination seems a little strange to me. He's good in it, but it's such a quiet role compared to some of the others (like Bondiari's).
Yay for "Sequin in a Blue Room!" You all should see it when you get the chance. A very good and stylish LGBT film.
Swank was solid in I am Mother.
The AACTAs honestly are such a joke, as evidenced by the limited number of films nominated, when in reality, this was a fantastic year for Aussie films. Conor Leach deserved a Best Actor Nom for his incredible debut performance in Sequin in a Blue Room, as did Toby Wallace and Daniel Henshall in the fantastic Acute Misfortune.
Andrew: I unfortunately haven't had the opportunity here in Canberra to see SEQUIN IN A BLUE ROOM, but I absolutely agree with you on ACUTE MISFORTUNE. As well as being better than most of the nominated films (particularly RIDE LIKE A GIRL and (ugh) TOP END WEDDING), Henshall showed once again why he is one of our most under-rated actors.
And yes, I share your frustration at the quality movies that were mostly ignored. The SLAM snubs were the most disappointing, as I saw that over the weekend and felt it should've at least got a couple of acting nods (and it would've also featured in my personal Best Film list). But both ANIMALS and BUOYANCY are also worthy films that could've benefited from spreading the wealth a bit.
Nanazin Bondiari is not a real person. Please change!
Nazanin. My apologies.
Can anyone tell me what kind of reception Palm Beach had. From what I see this got no nomination. The movie is directed by Rachel Ward and has a cast that includes Bryan Brown, Sam Neill, Oscar nominee Richard E. Grant and Greta Scacchi. I really had expectations for this although maybe my love for Greta Scacchi blinded me.
Harmodio, PALM BEACH was terrible.
As was JUDY & PUNCH. What a terrible batch of nominees. While it wasn’t the strongest year, they easily could have spread the wealth more. AACTA are a mess.
Well, at least this list is a bit different from the buzz we've been getting so far. But keep in mind AACTA nominees have to have some Australian components within their production which can explain the limited pool of contenders. I believe there is a distinct ceremony called AACTA international awards which is open to non-Australian productions, but I'm not sure if it still exists or has been discontinued.
Christophe - it exists, but no-one really pays attention to it, neither the international movies/stars it claims to fete, nor the Australian public. It's purely an exercise in trying to participate in Oscar forecasting (IMO).