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...

Best Film
(links go to TFE's reviews)

• Babyteeth
• H Is For Happiness
• I Am Woman
• The Invisible Man
• True History Of The Kelly Gang
• Relic

Potential spoiler for the Babyteeth sweep? True History Of The Kelly Gang was close on its heels with 10 nominations, so it's a major alternative in most categories.

The other four – a small indie family movie, the Helen Reddy biopic, and two horror movies – have probably received their reward with the nomination itself. Personally, I was hoping that Relic would show up somewhere, so for it to be in the top category is exciting.

Best Direction 

• Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth) - directorial debut
• John Sheedy (H Is For Happiness) - directorial debut
• Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man)
• Natalie Erika James (Relic) -directorial debut
• Justin Kurzel (True History Of The Kelly Gang)

Potential spoiler of a Babyteeth sweep? I suspect that Kurzel, previous winner of this award for Snowtown, has a decent shot, particularly with the vision he brought to the adaptation of an award-winning novel that many thought would be hard to make.

Best Lead Actor

• George Mackay (True History Of The Kelly Gang)
• Sam Neill (Rams)
• Richard Roxburgh (H Is For Happiness)
• Toby Wallace (Babyteeth)
• Hugo Weaving (Measure For Measure)

Rams (our local remake of the Icelandic film) is quite popular here in cinemas at the moment, and Neill is quietly magnificent in it. But Mackay and Wallace are in the frontrunning films. 

Best Lead Actress

• Tilda Cobham-Hervey (I Am Woman)
• Laura Gordon (Undertow)
• Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man)
• Lupita Nyong’o (Little Monsters)
• Eliza Scanlen (Babyteeth)

This category has international star-power but, if anyone is going to beat the fast rising Scanlen to the trophy (and I don’t think anything will), Tilda Cobham-Hervey would be a beneficiary of both baby-boomer nostalgia and sentiment about the recent passing of Helen Reddy. 

Best Supporting Actor

Likely supporting winners: Essie Davis & Ben Mendelsohn in "Babyteeth"

• Fayssal Bassi (Measure For Measure)
• Russell Crowe (True History Of The Kelly Gang)
• Aaron Jeffrey (The Flood)
• Ben Mendelsohn (Babyteeth)
• Wesley Patten (H Is For Happiness)

Another likely win for Babyteeth. The other three nominees don’t really stand a chance because of lack of name recognition, age (Patten is a kid) and/or tiny films. The only potential spoiler for the much-loved Mendelsohn would be Crowe, who hasn’t won an AACTA/AFI award since the early 90s (and should’ve won a couple of years ago, IMO, with Boy Erased)

Best Supporting Actress

• Emma Booth (H Is For Happiness)
• Essie Davis (Babyteeth)
• Bella Heathcote (Relic)
• Deborah Mailman (H Is For Happiness)
• Doris Younane (Measure For Measure)

We have two previous winners (Booth, Mailman) and two recognisable faces (if not names) here, but all are in low-profile films. Essie Davis was unlucky, in the year of The Babadook, to be up against the brilliance that was Sarah Snook in Predestination, AACTA owes her (as much as AACTA owes anybody, which is “not much” when in comparison with the Oscars. But I still think Davis will win.)

Best Screenplay

• Rita Kalnejais (Babyteeth)
• Abe Forsythe (Little Monsters)
• Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man)
• Natalie Erica James, Christian White (Relic)
• Shaun Grant (True History Of The Kelly Gang) 

Babyteeth's too lose.

Best Cinematography 

• Babyteeth
• Bloody Hell
• Escape From Pretoria
• H Is For Happiness
• The Invisible Man

Escape From Pretoria is a prison escape drama set in apartheid South Africa starring Daniel Radcliffe and we hear the cinematography is good. But it is the only nomination for that film… 

Best Editing

• Babyteeth
• I Am Woman
• The Invisible Man
• True History Of The Kelly Gang
• Undertow

I Am Woman could spoil a Babyteeth sweep here. Dany Cooper has been a local film industry mainstay for a quarter century.

Best Sound

• Babyteeth
• I Am Woman
• The Invisible Man
• Relic
• True History Of The Kelly Gang

The unpredictability of the Sound category in AACTA is established, and it could equally go to a horror, a music biopic, a historical epic or a sweeping film.

Best Original Score

• Babyteeth
• Dirt Music
• H Is For Happiness
• I Am Woman
• True History Of The Kelly Gang

Best Production Design

The Invisible Man

• Babyteeth ("Visual Rhyming in Babyteeth's Production Design")
• I Am Woman
• The Invisible Man
• Miss Fisher And The Crypt Of Tears
• True History Of The Kelly Gang

In the tradition of Parasite and the house itself being a valuable character, I am both disappointed that Relic didn’t make it in here, and hoping that The Invisible Man takes the win.

Best Costume Design

on the set of "I Am Woman"

• H Is For Happiness
• I Am Woman
• Measure for Measure
• Standing up For Sunny
• True History Of The Kelly Gang

The only category where Babyteeth isn't competing! Kelly Gang could be the champ but there are a lot of baby boomers out there who love I Am Woman (to my personal bafflement) and who might want to celebrate the 60s and 70s fashions recreations.

Best Indie Film

• A Boy Called Sailboat
• Hot Mess
• Koko: A Red Dog Story
• A Lion Returns
• Standing Up For Sunny
• Unsound

Red Dog is a bit of a mini-franchise in Australia, so it is certainly the most recognisable name for canine-loving voters who remember the AACTA-winning original. 

Best Documentary

• Brazen Hussies
• Brock: Over The Top
• Looky Looky Here Comes Cooky
• Firestarter – The Story Of Bangarra
• Slim & I
• Suzi Q

None of these are on Oscar's long list (yet). I’ve only seen one – Slim & I (one of two Kriv Stenders films nominated, the other being Brock) and it certainly was deserving of the nomination. Assuming it was eligible, I am personally a bit disappointed that The Leadership didn’t get in the mix.

Have you seen any of the films? Do you think Babyteeth will sweep? 

Comments

[Peggy Sue]

I've seen The Kelly Gang. It's not a perfect movie but it's dark and different and visually striking. The last half is very strong.

[George P.]

Thanks for doing a profile on this. I love seeing other awards groups’ lists, cause sometimes I discover a film I wouldn’t normally have. Case in point, I’m interested in seeing “Rams” “Babyteeth” and the cinematography of “Escape From Pretoria.”

[NATHANIEL R]

I have had so many people recommending BABYTEETH that I really must watch that this week

[par]

predix: babyteeth wins everything above the line, kelly gang below

[Steve G]

I would be very happy with a BABYTEETH sweep. RAMS probably would have done better but it was the only eligible feature (out of 36) not available on the streaming service for AACTA voters - to see it, you had to attend a cinema screening during the final voting week (not sure how that worked in Melbourne, with cinemas closed because of lockdown).

Unusually this year, the AACTA nominations really spread the wealth (normally they nominate the Best Picture nominees in every category). Obscure films like THE FLOOD, UNDERTOW (which had been submitted in 2019 as well - not sure how they managed to submit 2 years in a row!), BLOODY HELL, STANDING UP FOR SUNNY and ESCAPE FROM PRETORIA all managed nominations.

@Travis, what did you make of H IS FOR HAPPINESS? I'm baffled by its inclusion in *so* many categories. I guess the presence of perennial nominees like Richard Roxburgh and Deb Mailman helped.

[Rod]

I really hope Babyteeth wins everything as well - such a great film.

[Travis C]

Steve G - I did not know that about RAMS. I saw it over the weekend and thought it was quite good, so I was surprised it didn't feature more prominently in the nominations. Now I know why. It did top the box office over the weekend, but to not have it available to members, even if there wasn't a COVID lockdown, was a strange decision.

I was also annoyed last year with the limited amount of films nominated (I wrote about it here on this blog), so was glad to see the number of nominated films almost double this year. I did not like UNDERTOW (to paraphrase Courtney Barnett,, "pedestrian at best") and therefore I am even more antagonistic towards the film given they tried to double-dip and succeeded second time around.

H IS FOR HAPPINESS had a two-week season in one suburban cinema here in Canberra, so I missed it. It is the only Best Picture nominee I haven't seen, so I will be watching it on Amazon Prime Video this weekend.

[OGYOUTUBE Apk]

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[Glenn Dunks]

The two most disappointing misses—which given the pickings it's always strange when such obvious choices miss—were Robyn Nevin for RELIC and the cinematography of KELLY GANG. It has my favourite single shot of the year so it would've been a worthy nominee. Haven't seen the likes of HAPPINESS, PREATORIA, THE FLOOD or RAMS yet. I'll catch up eventually.

I did rewatch THE INVISIBLE MAN this week, the only 2020 film I have been even remotely interested in revisiting, and it really is incredible. I wish it had a hope in hell of actress, cinematography and vfx nominations at the Oscars. Even in a slim year it seems predictable of the Oscars to ignore it.