"Better Man" Leads the AACTA Nominations

by Travis Cragg

Robbie Williams v. Furiosa v. Beloved Aussie Christmas Song v. Demon Possession. That’s the general gist of this year’s Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) film nominations. The satirical musical bio-pic Better Man achieved the most nominations (16), but Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and How To Make Gravy (15 each) and Late Night With The Devil (14) are not that far behind. The nomination total for Better Man is a record breaker, so the fact that three other films are very close to its indicates that the number of films that managed any nominations this year is low. There’s also a more significant artistic precedent that has been set this year amongst the acting nominees which we'll discus.

The list of nominations and comments after the jump…

Best Film

• Better Man

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• How To Make Gravy

• Late Night with The Devil

• Memoir Of A Snail

• Runt

Rounding out the Film category is the Adam Elliot stop-motion film Memoir of a Snail in strong contention for a Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination next year, and Runt, a family shaggy dog story (11 and 4 nominations respectively). Quite a range of genres covered there, don’t you think?

Best Indie Film

• Before Dawn

• Birdeater

• Christmess

• Just A Farmer

• The Emu War

• You’ll Never Find Me

None of these films got any other nominations elsewhere. They also didn't get a high-profile release in Australian cinemas, so it’s hard to read where the category will go this year.

Best Direction in Film

• Michael Gracey, Better Man

• George Miller, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Nick waterman, How To Make Gravy

• Colin and Cameron Cairnes, Late Night with The Devil

• Adam Elliot. Memoir Of A Snail

Better Man is released in Australia right in the middle of the voting period so, if the members get out to the cinema between Christmas and New Year instead of to the beach, it might end up being the sweeper for wins, including right here. If not, AACTA holds an immense amount of respect for Miller and his internationally famous Mad Max franchise.

Best Lead Actor in Film

• Eric Bana, Force Of Nature: The Dry 2

• David Dastmalchian, Late Night with The Devil

• Jonno Davies, Better Man

• Daniel Henshall, How To Make Gravy

• Guy Pearce, The Convert

• Kodi Smit-McPhee, Memoir Of A Snail

With Davies’ CGI ape performance as Robbie Williams and three high-profile acting nominations for Memoir Of A Snail, the other ground-breaking record from this year’s list is the largest number of stop motion or voice acting nominations for AACTA (maybe even for any film awards around the world). If AACTA were feeling sentimental, they would give it to Pearce on his sixth AACTA/Australian Film Institute (AFI) film acting nomination. But AACTA voters don't tend to be sentimental, particularly if you’re the sole nominee from your film, and so it is probably between the four guys  who are in  Best Picture nominees.

Best Lead Actress in Film

• Laura Gordon, Late Night with The devil

• Sarah Snook, Memoir Of A Snail

• Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Phoebe Tonkin, Kid Snow

• Anna Torv, Force Of Nature: The Dry 2

• Jackie van Beek, Audrey

Probably a race between Snook and Taylor-Joy, with Snook having the home nationality advantage and Taylor-Joy having the advantage of being visible onscreen.

Best Supporting Actor in Film

• Fayssal Bazzi, Late Night with The Devil

• Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Damon Herriman, Better Man

• Damon Herriman, How To Make Gravy

• Richard Roxburgh, Force Of Nature: The Dry 2

• Hugo Weaving, How To Make Gravy

Past AACTA winner (for Judy and Punch) Herriman has the double-nomination advantage, but if they are in scenery-chewing mode, they may vote for the biggest name in the list: Chris Hemsworth.

Ingrid Torelli in "Late Night with the Devil"

Best Supporting Actress in Film

• Alyla Browne, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Hannah Diviney, Audrey

• Kate Mulvany, Better Man

• Kate Mulvany, How To Make Gravy

• Ingrid Torelli, Late Night with The Devil

• Jacki Weaver, Memoir Of A Snail

In this category, Mulvany’s double-nomination probably makes her the slight favourite (though in which film I am not quite sure). She has been previously nominated for The Merger (in lead) and The Little Death (in supporting). Maybe Weaver, if it turns out to be Memoir’s evening.

Best Screenplay in Film

• Better Man (Simon Gleeson, Oliver Cole, Michael Gracey)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller, Nico Lathouris)

• How To Make Gravy (Meg Washington, Nick Waterman)

• Late Night with The Devil (Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes)

• Memoir Of A Snail (Adam Elliot)

Miller has won the AACTA/AFI for directing twice (Mad Max 2, Mad Max: Fury Road) but never for writing. This is his fourth nomination in the screenplay category (after Mad Max, Mad Max: Fury Road and Three Thousand Years Of Longing)

Best Cinematography in Film

• Better Man (Erik A Wilson, Matt Toll, Ashley Wallen)

• Force Of Nature: The Dry 2 (Andrew Commis)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Simon Duggan)

• Late Night with The Devil (Matthew Temple)

• Memoir Of A Snail (Gerard Thompson)

This is Commis’ sixth nomination with no wins, and the eerie nature of the Dandenong Ranges were captured beautifully on film, so maybe this might be one place where they stray from the Picture nominees and hand an award to The Dry’s sequel.

FURIOSA - costumes by Jenny Beavan (who won the Oscar for Mad Max Fury Road (2015)

Best Costume Design in Film

• Better Man (Cappi Ireland)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Jenny Beavan)

• How To Make Gravy (Christina Validakis)

• Late Night with The Devil (Steph Hooke)

• Runt (Terry Lamera)

Beavan is a three-time Osar winner without an AACTA award. Ireland is a three-time AACTA/AFI winner, most recently for Lion. It’s probably between those two for the win.

Best Editing in Film

• Better Man (Martin Connor, Lee Smith, Spencer Susser, Jeff Growth, Patrick Correll)

• Force Of Nature: The Dry 2 (Alexandre de Franceschi, Maria Papoutsis)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Eliot Knapman, Margaret Sixel)

• Late Night with The Devil (Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes)

• Memoir Of A Snail (Bill Murphy)

I’d imagine that those paying attention would feel that the stop-motion animation would be the trickiest to edit? Anyway, Murphy is a four-time nominee, going all the way back to Romper Stomper in 1992. This list has two Oscar winners in the mix - Smith (Dunkirk) and Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road).

Best Production Design in Film

• Better Man (Joel Chang)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Colin Gibson, Katie Sharrock)

• How To Make Gravy (Benjamin Fountain, Peter Kodicek)

• Late Night with The Devil (Otello Stolfo)

• Memoir Of A Snail (Adam Elliot)

They probably won’t be able to go past Furiosa in this category.

Best Original Score in Film

• Better Man (Batu Sener)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Tom Holkenborg)

• How To Make Gravy (Sam Dixon)

• Late Night with The Devil (Roscoe James Irwin, Glenn Richards)

• Memoir Of A Snail (Elena Kats-Chernin)

Holkenborg aka Junkie XL aka Miller’s regular composer may have the slight edge here.

Best Sound in Film

• Better Man

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• How To Make Gravy

• Late Night with The Devil

• Memoir Of A Snail

How’s that sense of déjà vu going? Records about number of nominations don't feel like a big deal when the span of movies covered by the nominations is so small.

Best Casting in Film

• Better Man (Alison Telford, Kate Leonard, Kate Dowd)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Nikki Barrett)

• How To Make Gravy (Nikki Barrett)

• Late Night with The Devil (Leigh Pickford)

• Runt (Kirsty McGregor, Annie Murtagh-Monks)

Barrett is such a regular at AACTA, and in internationally renowned films like Elvis as well. Could she be amongst the first batch of nominees in this category at the 2026 Oscars?

Best Short Film

• And The Ocean Agreed

• Before We Sleep

• Die Bully Die

• Favourites

• Gorgo

• Why We Fight

Best Documentary

• A Horse Named Winx

• Every Little Thing

• Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line

• Otto By Otto

• Porcelain War

• The Musical Mind: A Portrait In Process

The two music docos, Midnight Oil and The Musical Mind have the most nominations (three each).

Best Cinematography in a Documentary

• Megafauna: What Killed Australia’s Giants?

• Skategoat

• The Mission

• The Musical Mind: A Portrait In Process

• The Speedway Murders

Best Editing in a Documentary

• Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line

• ONEFOUR: Against All Odds

• Revealed: Ben Roberts Smith Truth on Trial

• The Speedway Murders

• Welcome To Babel

Original Score in a Documentary

• Aquarius

• Barnd Bollywood Downunder

• Mozart’s Sister

• Otto By Otto

• The Speedway Murders

Best Sound in a Documentary

• A Horse Named Winx

• Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line

• Mozart’s Sister

• The musical Mind: A Portrait In Process

• The Speedway Murders

Best Hair and Makeup

• Boy Swallows Universe (television)

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Ladies In Black (television)

• The Artful Dodger (television)

• The Moogai

Best Visual Effects or Animation

• Alien: Romulus

• Better Man

• Furiosa: A Mad Max saga

• The Fall Guy

• Transformers One

This category includes international films where the visual effects were done in Australia. Curious that Transformers One gets a nod for its animation, but Memoir Of A Snail doesn’t.

Best Original Song

• “Dream On” (How To Make Gravy)

• “Fine” (How To Make Gravy)

• “Forbidden Road” (Better Man) - also a finalist for the Oscars

• “Side By Side” (Runt)

• “Streetlights” (Under Streetlights)

Best Soundtrack

• Better Man (Jordan Carroll)

• “Boy Swallows Universe” (Jemma Burns) (television)

• “Heartbreak High” (Jemma Burns) (television)

• How To Make Gravy (Meg Washington)

• “Last Days Of The Space Age” (Allegra Caldwell) (television)

From memory, these last two categories are new to AACTA this year.

AACTA Longford Lyell Award – Working Dog 

The team behind iconic Australian films (The Castle, The Dish) and television (Frontline, Utopia) will receive the honorary award this year.

The winners of the 2025 AACTA Awards will be announced across two ceremonies - the AACTA Awards Industry Gala will be held on Wednesday February 5th and the AACTA Award Ceremony will be held on Friday February 7th.

Comments

[Esther Berry]

good

[Esther Berry]

"Better Man" really seems to be making waves with a record-breaking 16 nominations. It's interesting to see how the competition shapes up with "Furiosa" and "How To Make Gravy" trailing closely behind. I wonder if this year's nominations reflect a trend toward more innovative storytelling, much like the creative challenges we face in the wordle game.

[nancy lita]

This is Commis’ sixth nomination with no wins, and the eerie nature of the Dandenong Ranges were captured beautifully on film, so maybe this might be one place where they stray from the Picture nominees and hand an award to The Dry’s sequel escape road 2 free game

[xiao jia]

Avatar World
Create your own unique avatar and explore an immersive virtual world full of endless possibilities