July 10, 2007

AFI Doco and Short Nominations Announced

These were announced last week, actually, but I just kept forgetting to mention them! It's getting around to that time of the year where the AFI (Australian Film Institute) starts bringing out news on a regular basis in relation to nominations, film screenings, festivals and the awards show. They recently announced the nominees for Best Documentary, Best Short Fiction Film and Best Short Animation.


For those who may have forgotten or who weren't around Stale Popcorn last year, I am a member of the AFI, which means I get to see all the eligible Australian films in a film festival at the end of August/start of September. I get to vote on the three categories below as well as the big category, Best Film. The nominations for the big categories (Best Film, Best Direction, acting, techs, etc) come out around October/November and the show is usually towards the start of December.


Last year Best Film was awarded to the quite great historic indiginious feature Ten Canoes, which also took home the prizes for Best Direction (Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, who also won The UMA teehee), Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Sound.

(title links to IMDb page or related info page if I can find one)

BEST DOCUMENTARY
4 - Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" as interpretted by four violinists on different parts of the globe and how the earth connects us all.
Forbidden Lie$* - Detailing how Norma Khouri fabricated her life as a Taliban refugee during the time of the publication of her radical biographic novel Forbidden Love.
Global Haywire - Mixing with Bruce Petty's (Academy Award winner for 1976's Leisure) traditional animation, this destills 700 years worth of political bullshit.
Word from the City - An examination of Australian hip-hop as told by the cream of Australian musicians including ARIA-award winners Hilltop Hoods.


*From what I've seen, read and heard about Forbidden Lie$ is appears to be the title to beat.


BEST SHORT FICTION FILM
Boy's Own Story
Dugong
Spike Up
Swing


Only one of these has an IMDb page as of now. Not surprising, considering some of the feature films didn't even have pages last year.)


BEST SHORT ANIMATION FILM
An Imaginary Life
The Bat and the Butterfly (Dust Echoes 2)
The Girl Who Swallowed Bees
The Goat that Ate Time


The Girl Who Swallowed Bees already has a bit of a pedigree. It was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in the shorts devision. It is written/directed by Paul McDermott (omg!) and features Pia Miranda and Hugo Weaving. Oscar-watchers would be good to pay attention to this category as the last few years (well, not last year, but the three before that and many others) this catagory has featured on Oscar nominee.

Question - What is it about Hugo's voice that makes him appear in so many movies purely as a voice?


I know V for Vendetta wasn't technically a voice-only role, but he didn't exactly get to parade his face around the proceedings, did he?

The images (from top to bottom) are from Words from the City, Forbidden Lies, Dugong and The Bat and the Butterfly (Dust Echoes 2).

6 comments:

Paxton Hernandez said...

Wow. When exactly did you become an AFI member?

I want my membership!!! :)

P.S. Word Verification sucks big time!!!

Glenn Dunks said...

I became a member 2 years ago.

(yes. yes it does!)

RC said...

that is interesting about hugo, i guess i've never noticed that before!!!

J.D. said...

As the blogosphere's resident V4V lover/defender, I must say he wasn't V's body for a great deal of it, but something happened to the other guy somewhere through the production, and in any case, he voiced-over all his lines for the sound track. Me go sleep n-- :snore:

Paxton Hernandez said...

2 years ago! WTF! You were 19 years old! WTF! hehehe...

Is there a shortage of Australian Critics? = )

Unknown said...

The poster who claimed Hugo Weaving didn't physically appear in VfV is talking out his or her ass. If fact Hugo Weaving played V onscreen in all scenes except the introductory one (the one remaining scrap of James Purefoy footage) and he didn't do the stunt work. Yes, I have heavily researched this question but some people would rather repeat unfounded rumors than check their facts.

Hugo Weaving has done voice work throughout his career, including many documentaries and a couple of audio books. Why? Because he's good at it. And he's not so image-obsessed he has to have his face onscreen at all times.