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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The Furniture: Visual Rhyming in Babyteeth

Daniel Walber's series on Production Design. Click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

This week we’re keeping it brief. Is it because I’m tired? Is it because this year isn’t the best so far in terms of production design? Is it because Hurricane Isaias is really dampening the mood? Who can say?

It’s also because Babyteeth is a movie with admirable graphic simplicity. Director Shannon Murphy and her design team (Sherree Philips, Bil Goodes, Ishtar Cavagnino and costume designer Amelia Gebler) use a limited color palette to express their themes, a concise visual language built upon the clashing personalities of their characters. It speaks for itself.

The frequent textual incursions, for example, might become grating in another film. Here, they fit in among the other accents. This one rhymes with Anna’s (Essie Davis) dress, which then underlines the fact that she sticks out like a sore thumb against Henry’s (Ben Mendelsohn) dull office - and his dull clothes.

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Aussie Cinema Spotlight: 'Relic' and 'Babyteeth'

By Glenn Dunks

Did you see Letterboxd’s highest-rated film list for the first half of 2020? The film database site used by cinephile types to log and rate everything they see noted that this time last year the comparative 2019 list was topped by Avengers: End Game, none other than the highest-grossing movie of all time. This year’s top title on a newly lockdown affected list? Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau! Quite a change of pace to intergalactic superheroes, you have to admit. And followed by titles like And Then We Danced, Corpus Christi, First Cow and Vitalina Varela? As the kids say, you love to see it.

As audiences cannot rely on a regular stream of American content to plug into their necessary expanded viewing schedules, it is encouraging to consider that some people’s eyes may have been newly opened. I thought of this when watching two new Australian releases: Natalie Erika James’ haunting generational horror Relic, and Shannon Murphy’s perversely entertaining cancer drama Babyteeth...

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