"Elvis" maxes out on nominations from the AACTA

by Travis Cragg

Baz Luhrmann’s musical biopic Elvis has thoroughly dominated the film categories of the Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTA) scoring a nod in every category for which it was eligible. The grand total is 15 nominations! Not too far behind, with 13 nods each, are George Miller’s fairytale 3000 Years Of Longing and Leah Purcell’s revisionist Western The Drover’s Wife: The Legend Of Molly Johnson. In recent times, the big movie of the nominations tends to sweep the wins as well (see Nitram, Babyteeth, Lion, and Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby for evidence), so if you’re wanting to make predictions, the Presley biopic is the best bet for all. 

After the jump a list of nominations, where you can stream them in the US, and a few comments. In case Elvis leaves the building, we offer a few alternatives as to what might win...

BEST FILM

• Elvis (available to stream on HBOMax)
• Here Out West (not available in the US)
• Sissy (available to stream on Shudder and AMC+) 
• The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson (available to rent online)
• The Stranger (available to stream on Netflix)
• 3000 Years of Longing (available to rent online)

In addition to the top nomination-haul films discussed in the intro, we have an anthology film set in Western Sydney (Here Out West), a buzzy black comedy slasher (Sissy), and a crime drama based on the high-profile news story of a child abduction from 20 years ago (The Stranger).

It is a disappointment that You Won't Be Alone, from Macedonian-Australian director Goran Stolevski, is not here. Or anywhere for that matter. It’s superb!

BEST DIRECTION

 

• Elvis - Baz Luhrmann
• Sissy - Hannah Barlow & Kane Senes
• The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson - Leah Purcell
• The Stranger - Thomas W Wright
• 3000 Years of Longing - George Miller

Noteworthy here is the fact that Leah Purcell is the only First Nations woman in Australia to write, direct AND star in a feature film.

BEST LEAD ACTOR

• Austin Butler, Elvis
• Rob Collins, The Drover's Wife...
• Joel Edgerton, The Stranger
• Idris Elba, 3000 Year of Longing
• Damon Herriman, Nude Tuesday

Alternate winner to Elvis: Joel Edgerton has actually never won an AACTA/AFI award in the lead category (though he has three supporting wins, for Animal Kingdom, The Great Gatsby and The King). He does quite well here in his multi-faceted role in The Stranger, so if the voters are feeling nationalistic…

BEST LEAD ACTRESS 

• Aisha Dee, Sissy
• Leah Purcell, The Drover's Wife...
• Julia Savage, Blaze
• Tilda Swinton, 3000 Years of Longing
• Jackie Van Beek, Nude Tuesday

A category where Elvis was not eligible so this is where they will probably reward the trailblazing Purcell.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Simon Baker in "Blaze"

• Simon Baker, Blaze
• Jemaine Clement, Nude Tuesday
• Malachi Dower-Roberts, The Drover's Wife
• Tom Hanks - Elvis
• Sean Harris, The Stranger

Alternate to Elvis: if voters react badly to Hanks’ broad performance, then Baker is probably next in line – many people consider it his finest performance. The film itself, however (about a child’s trauma transforming into an imaginary dragon after witnessing a horrifying incident) was not widely seen.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Jada Alberts, The Stranger
• Jessica De Gouw, The Drovers Wife
• Olivia DeJonge, Elvis
• Joanna Lumley, Falling for Figaro (available to stream on Hulu)
• Yael Stone, Blaze

Alternate to Elvis: de Gouw, as the wife of the investigating sergeant in The Drover’s Wife: The Legend Of Molly Johnson, could be in the running for the win.

 

BEST INDIE FILM

Lonesome

• A Stitch in Time, Sasha Hadden
• Akoni, Genna Chanelle Hayes
• Darklands, Scott Major
• Lonesome, Craig Boreham
• Pieces, Martin Wilson
• Smoke Between Trees, Michael Joy

The only films here that got another nomination elsewhere are Pieces (in Costume Design) and A Stitch In Time (in Score). Lonesome recently played at NYC's queer festival NewFest.

BEST DOCUMENTARY 

• Ablaze
• Clean
• Everybody's Oma
• Franklin
• Ithaka
• River

Ablaze is about an opera singer tracing the roots of her Aboriginal activist film-maker grandfather. Clean is an insight into the lives of “trauma cleaners” who clean up crime scenes, suicide sites and hoarders homes. In Everybody's Oma a director opens his life on camera to document his grandmother’s struggle with dementia. In Franklin,  a Tasmanian environmentalist does a solo rafting journey down the iconic river whilst simultaneously telling the story of his father and the fight to save aworld-heritage area from being destroyed by an enormous dam project. Ithaka is about the father of Julian Assange and his struggle to save his son from unjust imprisonment.

Finally Jennifer Peedom returns to the visual essay documentary genre she masterly covered in Mountain, this time reflecting on the world’s river systems (with Willem Dafoe’s narration returning as well). River has the most nominations in the documentary categories (4).

Unfortunately this category is another disappointment. Wash My Soul In The River’s Flow, a beautiful concert movie-life story-poetry reading film about (the recently deceased) Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter, didn’t show up anywhere. It's one of the best Australian documentaries of the year

BEST SCREENPLAY

Damon Herriman and Jackie Van Beek in "Nude Tuesday"

• Elvis
• Nude Tuesday
• The Drovers Wife
• The Stranger
• 3000 Years of Longing

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Blaze
• Elvis
• The Drover's Wife...
• The Stranger
• 3000 Years of Longing

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A DOCUMENTARY

• A Fire Inside
• Anonymous Club
• Facing Monsters
• Mountain Adventure: Out of Bounds
• Puff: Wonders of the Reef

BEST COSTUME DESIGN 

• Elvis, Catherine Martin
• Here Out West, Wendy Cork
• Pieces, Monique Wilson & Kristie Rowe
• The Drover's Wife..., Tess Schofield
• 3000 Years of Longing, Kym Barrett

Alternate to Elvis; if they tire of giving these awards automatically to Catherine Martin every time, they might go for one of their decades-long (first award in 1991) favourites i.e. Schofield and her period Australian outback costuming.

BEST EDITING 

3000 Years of Longing

• Blaze, Dany Cooper
• Elvis, Matt Villa, Jonathan Redmond
• Nude Tuesday, Nick Meyers
• The Stranger, Simon Njoo
• 3000 Years of Longing, Margaret Sixel

Alternate to Elvis: editors are not big names, of course, but these nominees are quite well-known in their field. Cooper worked on the “Battlestar Galactica” series, Meyers won Australian awards for Balibo and Sweet Country, Njoo edited both The Babadook and The Nightingale, and Sixel won an Oscar for Fury Road.

BEST EDITING IN A DOCUMENTARY

• Ablaze
• Clean
• Franklin
• River
• We Were Once Kids

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• A Stitch in Time, Angela Little
• Elvis, Elliott Wheeler
• Falling for Figaro, Cezary Skubiszewski
• The Drover's Wife..., Salliana Seven Campbell
• The Stranger, Leah Popple
• 30000 Years of Longing, Roger Ford

Alternate to Elvis: Skubiszewski has been a stalwart of the industry for over three decades, so voters could lazily tick his name off instead of lazily ticking Elvis.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE IN A DOCUMENTARY 

• A Fire Inside
• Age of Rage
• Facing Monsters
• Puff: Wonders of the Reef
• River

BEST HAIR & MAKEUP 

• Elvis - Jason Baird, Mark Coulier, Louise Coulston, Shane Thomas
• Gold - Jennifer Lamphee, Beth Halsted
• The Drover's Wife... - Beth Halsted, Simon Joseph, Jennifer Lamphee
• 3000 Years of Longing - Lesley Vanderwaldt
• Wyrmwood: Apocalypse - Rachel Scane

Alternate for Elvis: if 3000YOL is going to win anything, it might be here.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN 

Interceptor

• Elvis - Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, Beverley Dunn
• Interceptor - George Liddle (streaming on Netflix)
• The Drover's Wife... - Sam Hobbs
• The Stranger - Leah Popple
• 3000 Years of Longing - Roger Ford

Alternate to Elvis: an inspired choice would be to honour Liddle for his work on novelist Matthew Reilly’s first foray into action film-making

BEST SOUND

• Bosch & Rockit
• Elvis
• The Drover's Wife
• The Stranger
• 3000 Years of Longing

Alternate to Elvis: another category where a a win for 3000 Years would not be a waste.  

BEST SOUND IN A DOCUMENTARY 

• A Fire Inside
• Facing Monsters
• Franklin
• River
• Unseen Skies

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• DC League of Super Pets
• Elvis
• Spider-Man No Way Home
• Thor: Love and Thunder
• 3000 Years of Longing

These nominations are not restricted to films deemed as Australian productions, but also cover local companies working with international titles.

BEST SHORT FILM

• Finding Jedda
• Giants
• Hatchback
• Stonefish
• The Moths Will Eat Them Up
• Voice Activated 

BEST CASTING  (This is the only film category that also covers television productions)

 Heartbreak High

• Elvis
• Heartbreak High (TV)
• Love Me (TV)
• The Stranger
• The Twelve (TV)

Editor's Note: The AACTA also honors television shows. Most of the nominees for "Best Drama Series" are available to US audiences: Bump (CW), Love Me (Hulu), Wolf Like Me (Peacock), Heartbreak High (Netflix) and The Tourist (HBO Max) the latter two of which we've seen and heartily recommend.  RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under is among the nominees for "Best Entertainment Program".

The 2022 AACTA Industry Awards will be presented on Monday December 5 and the 2022 AACTA Awards Ceremony on Wednesday December 7. 

Comments

[par]

was of an age not eligible this year?

[Travis C]

par - it doesn't seem to be available on the AACTA TV website, so it was either not submitted or not eligible. Given that I don't think it has had a cinema release beyond Melbourne International Film Festival screenings, I suspect the latter.

[Mr Ripley79]

Two supporting noms for Elvis are 2 of the worst supporting performances of the year with a career worst from a two time Oscar winner with Butler a lead who is only marginally better.