World News – AU – Aacta Awards 2020: Cate Blanchett’s Stateless and Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth Win Big

The refugee drama Stateless, led by Cate Blanchett, and Shannon Murphy’s coming-of-age film Babyteeth Flashed the Australian 2020 The Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) Awards shared 22 victories at an unusual ceremony who closes an unusual year.

A seemingly smaller selection of films and TV shows than usual made the nomination lists this year, with the industry mostly celebrating productions that were completed before the Covid-19 restrictions came in.

Russell Crowe, newly inaugurated President of the Academy, spoke remotely on Monday afternoon at the socially distant ceremony at The Star Casino in Sydney. from a locale he referred to just as « the bush » a ???? He was hoping for more federal support for film and television in post-Covid Australia.

« Twelve months ago this area was burned and burned.  » he said. I imagine there are many of you who are just as happy as you were in a very challenging year for the arts. Just as these paddocks and trees have new growth, so will our display industry. â ????

He noted that the Australian government had dealt with the pandemic and that screen production had resumed here due to the low number of cases.

« I would like to encourage the federal government to use this time to set up a platform so that this production increase can continue. « Said Crowe. With the right support, the display industry can be used as a powerful driver of economic recovery. â ????

This year the main ceremony was divided into two events: film, followed by television. The TV categories were dominated by the ABC drama Stateless, which Blanchett co-created, co-produced and starred. Directed by Emma Freeman and Jocelyn Moorhouse, the series follows four people who interact with Australia’s notoriously harsh immigration detention system and is reportedly based on real life. Guardian reviewer Luke Buckmaster called it « gripping ». Drama with a « strange mixture of nail-biting truthfulness and psychologically charged aesthetics ».

The cast of Stateless, including Fayssal Bazzi, Yvonne Strahovski, Darren Gilshenan, and Blanchett, all won acting awards for the television drama. The show won awards for best telefeature or miniseries and also swept statuettes for best screenplay (Elise McCredie) and best director. It defeated other multiple nominees Bloom and Mystery Road; However, the latter won Best Drama Series.

Meanwhile, the film categories have been dominated by Babyteeth, whom Observer reviewer Wendy Ide described as « possibly the most joyful, life-affirming film ever made about terminal diseases. ». â ????

Babyteeth â ???? Shannon Murphy’s directorial debut ???? won for Best Picture, Best Screenplay (Rita Kalnejais), and Best Director, and also cleaned up the acting categories, with Eliza Scanlen earning cancer-diagnosed teenage Milla, Toby Wallace best actress, and Ben Mendelsohn best actress in supporting actor and Essie Davis take home the best supporting actress in a movie.

Mendelsohn accepted his award from Sicily and appeared in a bathrobe in a recorded video at 4 a.m. after a shoot that night. « I love baby tea, » he said. « Of the films I’ve seen, it’s my favorite. « . â ????

Babyteeth also received awards for Best Casting and Best Original Score, bringing the total number of awards from 12 nominations to nine.

Tim Minchin’s comedy TV series Upright won best in this category, while Minchin himself won Best Comedy Actor. Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell won in the slightly different category of best comedy entertainment.

The Aactas are traditionally presented on two dates, the first being lunch in the industry. This year was replaced by an online event last week. who honor the lesser-known craftsmen, such as in the areas of cinematography, costume and make-up, editing, score and sound.

Stateless also dominated the Craft Awards with its first episode, The Circumstances, in which they come, spawning five of the six awards the show received last week. The others were for best cinematography, costume design, editing, production design, and sound in the television categories. The sixth episode in the series also won the Best Original Score Award.

The True Story of the Kelly Gang, who appeared to be a tough competitor in the film categories and was nominated for 10 awards, received three craft awards: best costume design, hair and makeup, and production design. The Invisible Man with American actress Elisabeth Moss received three craft awards for camera, editing and sound.

The indigenous legal scholar, writer and filmmaker Larissa Behrendt won the award for best director in non-fiction television for her work on Maralinga Tjarutja, a documentary about the nuclear tests on indigenous land in the 1950s and 60s and the consequences for the local population.

Also honored was Jennifer Kent, who won the 2014 Byron Kennedy Prize for Low-Budget Genre Filmmaking and Creative Resilience for her international success with the 2014 film The Babadook.

A full list of winners and nominees can be found on the Aactas website. The highlights of Monday’s ceremony will air Wednesday at 8 a.m. on Channel Seven. 30 o’clock.

AACTA Awards, Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, Ben Mendelsohn, Eliza Scanlen, Shannon Murphy