"Elvis" wins big at the AACTAs

by Travis Cragg

Austin Butler as "ELVIS"

As anticipated here last month, Baz Luhrmann's Elvis has dominated the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards this week. The musical biopic won a total of 11 statues. But the wealth wasn’t completely hoovered up by the Memphis biopic, as some other uniquely Australian stories managed to pick up awards as well. The full results for film are after the jump…

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"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...

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"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…

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"Babyteeth" and "Invisible Man" win at the AACTAs

by Travis Cragg

Eliza Scanlen (21) and Toby Wallace (24) won the lead acting trophies for "Babyteeth"

The AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) awards were handed out over two COVID-normal ceremonies in the past week. Kudos to the Film Experience commenter last month who correctly predicted that Babyteeth (streaming on Hulu) would win all the “above the line” awards – it went home with Best Film, Direction, Screenplay and all four acting prizes, as well as Original Score and Casting. The rest of the craft categories were split between The Invisible Man (streaming on HBO Max) and True History Of The Kelly Gang (available to rent online). A full list of cinema winners (and a little commentary) after the jump...

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First time directors dominate AACTA nominations

by Travis Cragg

Rising stars Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects) and George Mackay (1917) headline the AACTA frontrunners "Babyteeth" and "True History of the Kelly Gang"

COVID hasn’t delayed ALL the awards… The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts will have two ceremonies  one remote, the other with reduced capacity, on the 27th and 30th of this month. Not that AACTA gets much press. The nominations were announced a week ago to little fanfare but we'll share them here because we value Australian cinema.  The family cancer dramedy Babyteeth (which is current streaming on Hulu)leads the nominations for 2020, receiving nods in 12 out of a possible 13 categories (only missing out on Costume Design). Often in AACTA when a film is this dominant, it proceeds with a sweep (e.g. Somersault) or near-sweep (The Great Gatsby) of the awards on the night. Despite the possibility of a Babyteeth sweep, it certainly does have competition. Full nominations and a few comments after the jump...

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