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Australian Academy Announces First Award Winners
See who scored the gongs at the Samsung AACTA Awards Luncheon held over the weekend...
The inaugural Samsung AACTA awards luncheon (formally the AFI awards) was held on Sunday in Sydney's Westin Hotel, marking the first Australian awards to be handed out for the year. The event was hosted by Australian screen legend Sigrid Thornton and featured such talented and acclaimed presenters as Rebecca Gibney, Radha Mitchell, Susie Porter and directors Bruce Beresford and Fred Schepisi. They were all there to award the winners of the television, documentary, short fiction film, short animation and feature film categories.
While 24 awards were handed out throughout the afternoon, part two of this event, which includes the presentation of Best Film and Best Television Drama Series along with acting, screenwriting and directing awards, will be held at the end of the month in a lavish red carpet Ceremony at the Sydney Opera House.
Among the day's recipients were cinematography legend Donald M. McAlpine (pictured) who received the prestigious AACTA Raymond Longford Award, the nation's highest screen accolade. The award presentation included a tribute by director Bruce Beresford and long time friend and colleague Jack Thompson. McAlpine's 40 year career spans 50 films including such iconic Australian films as My Brilliant Career, Breaker Morant and Puberty Blues and more recently X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Peter Pan. Especially notable is his work with director Baz Luhrmann on Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, which received both BAFTA and Oscar nods, and an AFI award for the latter.
Recipient of the Byron Kennedy Award, an award celebrating outstanding creative enterprise within the film and television industries was presented to filmmaker Ivan Sen for "his unique artistic vision and for showing, by his resourceful multidisciplinary filmmaking, that telling stories on screen is in reach of all who have something consequential to say." Sen's credits include the documentary Yellow Fella, and the features Beneath Clouds, Dreamland and most recently Toomelah.
The ABC dominated the television categories with Chris Lilley taking out the Best Performance in a Television Comedy for Angry Boys, Laid being awarded Best Television Comedy Series, and Series 2 of My Place walking away with Best Children's Television Series.
Last year saw Tim Winton's iconic Cloudstreet brought to life as a mini-series broadcast on Foxtel's Showcase channel. Their efforts in bringing forties and fifties Perth to life didn't go by unnoticed, with production designer Herbert Pinter walking away with the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Television Screen Craft.
In the feature film categories, Snowtown (Best Editing, Best Sound), The Hunter (Best Cinematography, Best Score) and The Eye of the Storm (Best Production Design, Best Costume Design) took out two awards each. The animated adventure film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole was awarded Best Visual Effects for the work of Animal Logic. AFI Members' Choice Award went to Red Dog. No surprises there considering its box office haul and staying power at the cinema...
The little-documentary-that-could, Bob Connolly and Sophie Raymond's Mrs Carey's Concert, which made a star out of 17-year-old violinist Emily Sun took out Best Documentary Feature and Best Direction in a Documentary.
A highlight of the event was the announcement of the nominees for the newly established AACTA International Awards, a category which recognises the excellence of filmmaking on the international scene. "Some 70 years since our American friends first awarded Australians with an Oscar, and with Australians since awarded more than 60 Oscars and BAFTAs, it's great that the Australian industry now has the opportunity to formally recognise the outstanding work of our international colleagues through the AACTA International Awards." The announcement was made by actress Jacki Weaver who was on hand at the G'Day USA Black Tie Gala in Los Angeles with the nominations beamed back home direct to the Sydney ceremony.
The awards cover five categories - Best Film, Direction, Screenplay, Actor and Actress. The nominees, as determined by an Australian jury, regardless of geography, include current screen greats such as George Clooney, Meryl Streep and directors Woody Allen and Lars von Trier. Across the five categories, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Melancholia received the most nominations with four each. The awards themselves will be handed out on January 26 in Hollywood with AACTA President Geoffrey Rush in attendance.
To view the full list of winners, go here. The Samsung AACTA Awards Ceremony will be held on the Sydney Opera House on January 31. Tickets are on sale to the event now here.
Picture caption: Donald M. McAlpine on the set of P.J. Hogan's Mental last year.
