'Great Gatsby' and 'The Rocket' Lead the "Australian Oscars"
Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 9:00PM
Glenn Dunks in Adore, Australia, Elizabeth Debicki, Naomi Watts, Rose Byrne, The Great Gatsby, The Rocket, Tracks, precursor awards

Glenn, Team Film Experience's resident Australian, here. In all the hubbub surrounding the big wins for American Hustle and Her, it went unnoticed (not surprisingly, but also not without reason) that the nominees for this year's AACTA Awards were announced. Australia's own "Academy" (renamed from the Australian Film Institute several years back) went big for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, which is hoping for a tech resurgence later in the guild-stretch of the Oscar season, and Kim Mordaunt's The Rocket, which is still holding on hope for an Academy foreign language short-listing. Other famous names like Rose Byrne, Hugo Weaving, Mia Wasikowska, and Naomi Watts also appear across the 14 categories recognising Australian films.

Catherine Martin and her team of production/set/costume designers are - let's face it - the only likely Oscar cross-over here for their work on The Great Gatsby so it's hard to picture her losing. That would give Martin a total of seven awards from her home country. One for every single nomination she's received. You don't get much better than a 100% win ratio, do you? Are we thinking she'll be adding two more Academy Awards to her weighed-down shelf of achievements? At this stage I actually think it's entirely possible. 

The full list of nominees are...

Best Film

Despite reaping the largest number of nominations (14), The Great Gatsby would feel like a strange winner given the rumblings about whether it even deserves to be called an Australian film. Despite the acclaim for noir-western Mystery Road and indigenous walkabout drama Satellite Boy, I think it will be between the tiny south-Asian charms of The Rocket and the mammoth undertaking of 3-hour omnibus ensemble The Turning for the win. The latter has the bigger local profile (including Cate Blanchett's other 2013 performance) and even those who weren't fans tended to give it an "A for Effort". As for Dead Europe, however, for all its faults (of which it has many) it's certainly rare to see multi-lingual, bleak, queer ghost stories up for major awards so there's that.

Best Direction

This is Luhrmann's third directing nomination with the organisation after Strictly Ballroom (for which he won) and Moulin Rouge!, but again his film will be relegated to the acting and technical categories in favour of Mordaunt's affecting work in the Laos-set Oscar contender or the 18 (!!!) directors of The Turning. Names of which include Mia Wasikowska, Justin Kurzel (The Snowtown Murders), David Wenham, and Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah). Could any awards body refuse handing out statues to names like that or will they honour Mordaunt's rather daunting (wordplay!) task of filming in bomb-scattered Laos to international acclaim?

Best Lead Actor

I've joked that it would be hilarious if DiCaprio found himself nominated for best actor at the Oscars for his other performance - just like 2006: Gatsby rather than Wolf of Wall Street. Can you even imagine?

Best Lead Actress 

Well, she started the year with an Oscar nomination (for The Impossible) and ends with an "Australian Oscar" nomination for Adore (which is called Adoration in Australia). Given what a shocking year she had otherwise, that's a pretty decent effort. Never mind though because everything I have heard about Byrne's supposedly career best work in The Turning (despite being in only one of the 18 shorts) suggests she'll finally get a trophy to sit on her mantelpiece alongside her Volpi Cup from Venice. 

Best Supporting Actor

Phongam was a treat as a James Brown-loving travel guide, but Edgerton is a popular name in a clearly popular movie.

Best Supporting Actress 

The thin list of eligible films means Isla Fisher gets nominated for doing nothing but going back home for a few weeks to make a movie. Elizabeth Debecki will likely win her only award of the season here, but she probably deserves more (DOES SHE?)

Best Original Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay

Yes, the film with the dialogue "He thinks we're lezzos?!?" got a screenwriting nomination. I love this world.

Best Documentary

Best Cinematography

Best Editing

Best Sound

Best Original Music Score

Best Production Design 

 Best Costume Design

Sadly not too many of these films have made their way to international shores - Gatsby, The Rocket, 100 Bloody Acres and Adore being, I think, the only ones - but I'd love to hear from anybody who's seen them or others. 2013 wasn't the best year for Australian film so I'm going to assume there aren't too many of you that have. 

And just because we're running on a theme here, the trailer for John Curran's Tracks was unleashed earlier this week and I for one am very excited for it. Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver star and The Weinstein Company will be releasing it in America sometime next year. 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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