"Nitram" leads the AACTA Nominations

by Travis Cragg

Controversial character study Nitram, which you'll remember took the Best Actor prize at Cannes, leads the pack for this year’s Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTA) awards with 15 nominations. The nominations were drawn from a list of 33 official submissions, and they honour Australian film (and television and digital entertainment) performances and technical achievements. 

The complete list of nominees, plus trivia and a couple of opinions, is after the jump…

BEST FILM

• The Dry
• The Furnace
• High Ground
• Nitram
• Penguin Bloom
• Rams

Joining Nitram we have a mystery crime thriller set in a small country town (The Dry – 12 nominations), a historical drama set in the time of the frontier wars (High Ground – 12 nominations), a drama highlighting the Afghan contribution to the country’s outback history (The Furnace  - 5 nominations), a family friendly, true life tale of dealing with personal tragedy through befriending magpies (Penguin Bloom – 8 nominations), and the remake of the Icelandic film Rams that somehow found a loophole to get 6 nominations in consecutive years (albeit in different categories – Sam Neill was the sole nominee last year in Best Actor, and he isn’t back this year).

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY IN FILM

• The Dry – Robert Connolly and Harry Cripps
• Penguin Bloom - Shaun Grant and Harry Cripps
• Peter Rabbit 2 – Will Gluck and Patrick Burleigh

• Rams – Jules Duncan

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY IN FILM

• Ellie and Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt) – Monica Zanetti
• The Furnace – Roderick MacKay
• High Ground – Chris Anastassiades
• June Again – JJ Winlove

• Nitram – Shaun Grant

We’re probably looking at wins here for The Dry and Nitram, although I can see a scenario where Shaun Grant wins both awards.

BEST DIRECTION IN FILM

• The Dry – Rob Connolly
• The Furnace – Roderick MacKay
• High Ground – Stephen Maxwell Thompson
• Nitram – Justin Kurzel

• Penguin Bloom – Glendyn Ivyn

One debut director (MacKay) and two who mainly work in television but made a minor splash over a decade ago with their debut films (Thompson with Yolngu Boy, and Ivyn with Last Ride). But this is probably between Connolly and Kurzel.

BEST INDIE FILM

Ellie & Abbie

• Disclosure
• Ellie and Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt)
• Lone Wolf
• Moon Rock for Monday
• My First Summer

• Under My Skin

Queer rom com Elie and Abbie (& Abbie’s Dead Aunt) is the only one of these that broke through for another nomination (for Best Original Screenplay).

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN FILM

• Simon Baker – High Ground
• Eric Bana – The Dry
• Caleb Landry Jones – Nitram
• Ahmed Malek – The Furnace

• Jacob Junior Nayinggul – High Ground

Given his Cannes Best Actor win, you might think that Caleb Landry Jones is the favourite here, but that’s not necessarily how AACTA works. There's a bit of controvery about the film’s subject, as the massacre is still raw in many people’s minds after only 25 years and subsequently many didn’t want the movie made. The Dry was the biggest box office hit among films nominated for Best Film and it’s an adaptation of a much beloved book, so Bana can’t be counted out for a third AACTA(/AFI) win in this category.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN FILM

• Michael Caton – Rams
• Baykali Ganambarr – The Furnace
• Anthony LaPaglia – Nitram
• Sean Mununggurr – High Ground

• Jack Thompson – High Ground

A mix of beloved Australian actors and relative unknowns (although you may recall Ganambarr from The Nightingale a couple of years ago). High Ground was released at the start of 2021 in cinemas, and the scenes I recall most vividly from the film involve Thompson, so he might be a winner here. But LaPaglia has recency on his side.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN FILM

Nitram

• Rose Byrne – Peter Rabbit 2
• Judy Davis – Nitram
• Noni Hazlehurst – June Again
• Genevieve O’Reilly – The Dry

• Naomi Watts – Penguin Bloom

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN FILM

• Essie Davis – Nitram
• Claudia Karvan – June Again
• Esmerelda Marimowa - High Ground
• Miranda Tapsell – The Dry
• Jacki Weaver – Penguin Bloom

We’re probably looking at a Nitram-Davis double here for the actresses (although I personally hope that voters go back and re-watch June Again, recognize the tender and prickly mother-daughter dynamic between Hazlehurst and Karvan, and maybe spread the wealth a little bit). I haven’t seen Peter Rabbit 2 and so I can’t legitimately criticize its presence here, but I think I am safe in saying that Byrne got the nod because of a lack of female narratives in Australian films this year.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• The Dry
• High Ground
• Mortal Kombat
• Nitram

• Penguin Bloom

We have two returning nominees from last year – Stefan Duscio (The Dry, The Invisible Man -the winner last year) and Andrew Commis (High Ground, Babyteeth).

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• The Dry
• High Ground
• Mortal Kombat
• Nitram

• Rams

Tess Schofield, costume designer for Rams, has dominated this category and the local industry since her first nomination and win in 1991 for Spotswood. She has also won for Bootmen, Dirty Deeds, The Sapphires and The Water Diviner. 

BEST EDITING

High Ground

• The Dry
• Friends and Strangers
• High Ground
• Nitram

• Peter Rabbit 2

High Ground is edited by Oscar nominee Jill Bilcock (Moulin Rouge!) who is the subject of AACTA-nominated documentary Dancing The Invisible. This is her eleventh nomination.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

• 2067
• Mortal Kombat
• Nitram
• Penguin Bloom

• Peter Rabbit 2

Another Moulin Rouge! craftsperson, Annie Beauchamp, is here for her fourth nomination for Penguin Bloom. Maybe, if the three fantasy films cancel each other out, she can actually win one this year.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• The Dry
• June Again
• Nitram
• Penguin Bloom

• Rams

Jed Kurzel (who is the brother of director Justin Kurzel) has been nominated three times prior (Snowtown, Dead Europe, True History of the Kelly Gang) in this category. Can this be his win year for Nitram? (He has won an AACTA for scoring before, in the Documentary category for All This Mayhem.)

BEST SOUND

• Ascendant
• The Dry
• Mortal Kombat
• Nitram

• Peter Rabbit 2

The past couple of years, this award has started to trend towards the “bigger” genre picture (The Invisible Man, Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan) and so I expect Mortal Kombat (the film with the largest number of nominations (7) without a Best Picture spot) to have its best chance here.

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• Girls Can’t Surf
• I’m Wanita
• My Name Is Gulpilil
• Playing With Sharks
• Strong Female Lead

• When The Camera Stopped Rolling

These nominations were announced a few months ago. Five character studies and a history of Australian women’s surfing make up the contents of this category in 2021. When The Camera Stopped Rolling, about a pioneering Australian female director and the prejudices she found herself up against, directed by her daughter, has the most nominations of any documentary (5). It has only just started festival screenings in Australia.

Note: in the following categories, eligibility is open to both film and television. Television series nominees have been indicated.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A DOCUMENTARY

• After The Night – Episode 1: The End of Innocence (television)
• The Beach – Episode 1: Too Mad Too Shy (television)
• The Bowraville Murders
• FREEMAN

• Step Into Paradise

BEST EDITING IN A DOCUMENTARY

• FREEMAN
• My Name Is Gulpilil
• Playing with Sharks
• Under The Volcano

• When The Camera Stopped Rolling

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE IN A DOCUMENTARY

• FREEMAN
• Playing With Sharks
• Step Into Paradise
• The Beach – Episode 1: Too Mad Too Shy (television)
• When The Camera Stopped Rolling

BEST SOUND IN A DOCUMENTARY

• The Bowraville Murders
• FREEMAN
• Life In Colour with David Attenborough – Episode 1: Seeing In Colour (television)
• My Name Is Gulpilil

• When The Camera Stopped Rolling

BEST CASTING

• The Dry
• High Ground
• The Newsreader (television)
• Nitram
• Wakefield (television)

BEST HAIR AND MAKE-UP

• Australian Gangster (television)
• Mortal Kombat
• Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (television)
• New Gold Mountain (television)
• Nitram

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS AND ANIMATION

• Jungle Cruise - Rising Sun Pictures
• Mortal Kombat – Method Studios
• Peter Rabbit 2 – Animal Logic Entertainment
• Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Seven Rings – Method Studios

The 2021 AACTA Awards, presented by Foxtel Group, will be held at the iconic Sydney Opera House a month from now on December 6th and 8th.

Comments

[Finbar McBride]

The Dry is an entertaining flick. Good actors led by the skilled Eric Bana. The solution to the mystery is fairly evident early on but the story is well told.