Australian Film Institute Awards announces + Nom Predix

I just received this e-mail from the AFI (I'm a member) announcing their annual awards ceremony. Have a gander if you wish. If you scroll past the press release (in italics) I give a preview at what I think will be the nominations. Of course, we know much much less about Australian films in production (pre or post, no matter) than about American films, so it's a bit hard.


The Australian Film Institute is pleased to announce that we have entered into a landmark partnership for the AFI Awards with a three-year funding arrangement with the Victorian Government. This continued commitment ensures that the AFI Awards will take place in Melbourne until at least the prestigious 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2008.

After commencing a very successful association with the AFI Awards last year, L’Oréal Paris has again come on board as principal naming rights sponsor and the Nine Network has committed to broadcasting the 2006 event nationally in prime time.

The L’Oréal Paris 2006 AFI Industry Awards will take place on Wednesday 6 December. This gala evening focuses the spotlight on filmmakers and celebrates their achievements behind the screen in the filmmaking process.

The L’Oréal Paris 2006 AFI Awards will take place on Thursday 7 December. This event, including highlights of the red carpet and the industry awards, will be televised nationally on the Nine Network on 7 December at 9.30pm.

The Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre will be the venue for both evenings. This enormous exhibition space will be transformed into a glamorous and intimate setting for the night.

The AFI has appointed Dainty Consolidated Entertainment (DCE) to produce both the Industry and Awards events.

Morry Schwartz, Chairman of the Australian Film Institute, said “The Victorian Government, through the work of the Victorian Major Events Company and Film Victoria has shown just how committed they are to supporting the AFI and Australia’s film and television industry. This partnership resulted in an outstanding success at last year’s Awards, and we are thrilled that the AFI Awards will be held in Victoria for at least the next three years. We are also delighted that we will be working once again with our valued partners, L’Oréal Paris and the Nine Network, and we thank DCE for their efforts in securing these important deals. The 9.30pm broadcast slot definitely demonstrates Nine’s belief that the Awards will attract a good audience. DCE did a fabulous job of producing both events last year and I’ve no doubt that they will produce spectacular events this year”.

Mark Tucker, Managing Director, L’Oréal Australia said "L'Oréal Paris is very excited to confirm its naming rights sponsorship of the AFI Awards for the second successive year. The L'Oréal Paris AFI Awards give L'Oréal Paris an opportunity to celebrate the age old alliance between cinema and beauty in an exceptional event that is synonymous with absolute glamour."

The L’Oréal Paris 2006 AFI Awards will be the premier event on the Australian Screen Industry calendar.


I wrote about the Australian films to be released in 2006 all the way back in January so using that as a judge of the film's to come, it seems pretty obvious that the Best Film category will be a tussle between Rolf de Heer's 90 minute, half black and white, indiginous language, comedy and Ray Lawrence's usual everyman dialogue-driven drama, which is out next week but is getting stellar advanced reviews. The only other title from that list that isn't already out and that I could see being really great is Geoffrey Wright's Macbeth - I'm legitimately annoyed that they changed the name to Macbeth, as it's original title was the punchy and simple M.. Oh well. Other titled that could come into play:

Happy Feet could get the "you're a big hit!" nominations, but considering it's animation it will probably be left to the technicals, but Best Film is always in question.

Rogue is Greg McLean's sophomore effort (after Wolf Creek managed several high-profile nominations including Best Director and Best Supporting Actress). Could threathen the major categories if it hits big like Wolf Creek (last year's highest grossing Aussie film). If John Jarrett gives a great performance watch him get a make-up nod for their downright bizarre snub of him last year. What's up with THAT?

Irresistable staring Sam Neill and Susan Sarandon is apparently crap.

Suburban Mayhem may only be a factor in the acting categories (mainly Best Actress), it's reception at Cannes was mixed.

Opal Dream, who knows. I haven't heard anything about this since I wrote the original article. Apparently it was released here on June 29. Umm... that didn't happen.

The Book of Revelation will be interesting to see what comes of it. Controversial films always do bonza box-office (Wolf Creek for example, even smaller films like Baise-Moi did some of the highest per screen grosses ever before it was banned) so that could help the film. It has a high-quality cast too. I still don't wanna see it though.

December Boys stars Daniel Radcliffe and part of it was filmed in my city!!! Umm... other than that I have no idea.

Footy Legends, which wasn't in the piece I wrote, could be really successful. It's by Khao Do who made The Finished People - that movie starred a bunch of homeless people as homeless people and such. It was really depressing and I didn't like it all (for other reasons too). But this one sounds much better! So we'll see.

Plus, that list I original did had no mention of Australian titles such as The Caterpillar Wish and Love in the Second Degree, so who knows what other movies are going to be released. But as of the moment, there's about 16 titles that should be elligable unless some of them get moved to next year. Again, we never really hear that sort of stuff. But if some of the titles up there are actually quality stuff then that will finally make a year where there is actually a fight for Best Film - usually there's two or three solid nominees and then one or two throwaways because there wasn't anything else that was good. Anyway, here's my rough hodgepodge predictions.

BEST FILM
Jindabyne
Kokoda
Macbeth
Ten Canoes

Jindabyne and Ten Canoes seem pretty definite. I went with Macbeth because all the press about it has been positive and Wright's Romper Stomper was a big AFI hit. It could get box-office too. Kokoda, while not being the best movie, was a worth-while effort and while there's already Aussie films this year that I liked more (The Caterpillar Wish) and probably others before the year is over, it will get to people because it's a war movie and Australia never makes war movies.

BEST LEAD ACTOR
Tom Long - The Book of Revelation
John Howard - Jindabyne
Heath Ledger - Candy
Sam Worthington - Macbeth

Ledger HAS to be nominated (Plus, he should also win the International Award), and Worthington is always improving. Tom Long because Ana Kokkinos got a nomination for Alex Dimitriadis for Head On and I went with Howard because I figured someone was gonna get nominated here and I'm not sure who qualifies as lead/supporting. I went with Howard over Gabriel Byrne cause he's Australian and he's usually good. I was gonna put Colin Friels in for Solo but decided against it.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS
Emily Barclay - Suburban Mayhem
Abbie Cornish - Candy
Victoria Hill - Macbeth
Laura Linney - Jindabyne

Cornish HAS to be nominated, Barclay has this role plus The Silence for the TV awards but she got great press for this. Linney because they will nominated foreigners if they have no other competition from their film (for example - Richard Roxburgh got nominated for Moulin Rouge in Supporting Actor over Jim Broadbent. That's what I predict for Actor this year with Byrne/Howard). I didn't know who to choose next, but I went with Victoria Hill who plays Lady Macbeth - always juicy, but I really wanted to put one of the Caterpillar Wish girls on here - Victoria Thaine or Susie Porter. Joy Smithers (Love in the Second Degree) could surprise here though.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Richard Birrinbirrin - Ten Canoes
Shane Bourne - Kokoda
Geoffrey Rush - Candy
Angus Sampson - Footy Legends

I really wanted to put Robert Mammone in here for his great work in The Caterpillar Wish, but (obviously) didn't. They like Bourne and even though his role was tiny, the AFI usually don't care. Sampson, because he's actually a good actor and he could surprise. Rush could easily be nommed or not. Hard to tell, but his gay drug dealer performance was very good. And I would just love Richard Birrinbirrin to get a nomination for Ten Canoes. He was very funny and the role of "Honey Eater" (as I've said before) was one of the most refreshing comic-relief roles in a while.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Deborah Lee Furness - Jindabyne
Wendy Hughes - The Caterpillar Wish
Leah Purcell - Jindabyne
Greta Scacchi - The Book of Revelation

God, who knows? Ray Lawrence usually gets lots of great performances from people so I threw two in here. Hughes was great (plus, COMEBACK!) and Scacchi is a legend so I put her in for good measure.

BEST DIRECTION
Neil Armfield - Candy
Rolf de Heer - Ten Canoes
Ray Lawrence - Jindabyne
Geoffrey Wright - Macbeth

The AFI usually does the Academy's trick of having all BP nominees + one extra, so it seems natural to predict it again. I didn't include Alistair Grierson because most of the complaints about the film seem like they were his fault (lol, no offence if you're reading Alistair!!) and I threw in Armfield because Candy did quite well at the box-office and he got all thos great perfs. I actually wanted to put Ana Kokkinos in there, but decided not to. She could definitely show up though in the face of controversy. This award is surely gonna go to de Heer though.

BEST SCREENPLAY, ORIGINAL
Candy
The Caterpillar Wish
Footy Legends
Ten Canoes

BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED
The Book of Revelation
December Boys
Jindabyne
Macbeth

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Caterpillar Wish
Kokoda
Rogue
Ten Canoes

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Book of Revelation
Candy
Jindabyne
Macbeth

This category is interesting because Australia doesn't produce many period pieces so a lot of costume nominees are contemporary ones, which is actually good.

BEST SOUND
Footy Legends
Rogue
Solo
Ten Canoes

BEST EDITING
Kokoda
Jindabyne
Ten Canoes
Rogue

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Caterpillar Wish
Happy Feet
Jindabyne
Macbeth

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Candy
Macbeth
Rogue
Ten Canoes

BEST TELEFEATURE or MINISERIES
Answered by Fire
R.A.N.
The Society Murders
The Silence

It's a shame Answered by Fire and The Society Murders weren't theatrical, as they would've gotten some high profile nominations themselves.

And that's all.