Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge has already taken out four categories of Australia’s largest screen awards, the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (Aacta) awards.
An “industry luncheon” was held on Monday ahead of the main ceremony on Wednesday, which will be broadcast on Channel Seven.
More than 30 category winners were announced at Sydney’s Star Casino on Monday. The luncheon focuses largely on behind-the-scenes craft including cinematography, sound, production design and editing, saving the top prizes and celebrity power for the Wednesday night event.
Gibson’s much anticipated return to directing, Hacksaw Ridge, is an Australian/US co-production that tells the true story of second world war pacifist combat medic, Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield). The most nominated film at the Aactas, it’s up for 13 awards in total. Seven of Hacksaw Ridge’s categories will be announced on Wednesday, including best film, best director, best lead actor, and best lead actress.
On Monday, it took home best editing, best production design, best cinematography and best sound.
Speaking after accepting the award for best sound, Hacksaw Ridge’s supervising sound editor Andy Wright described Gibson as “a very organic and visceral director. He needs to be with the actors.”
“Even on set we were hearing these stories of how he would run into battle and show the actors how he wanted them to perform. So when we were in the ADR [automated dialogue replacement] studio, he would be right there with the actor, and go through with them how he wanted them to perform.” In some cases, Gibson would even perform the lines himself first.
Also winning in multiple categories was ABC series Rake, which stars Richard Roxburgh and won best sound and best direction in television. Rake is nominated in seven categories, three more of which will be announced on Wednesday.
“Rake is a project of great passion, certainly for Richard [Roxburgh] and myself,” said director Peter Duncan, who confirmed they had plans a fifth season. “One of the guiding lights of the show has been saying, ‘This will be the last season’ every year – because we’re kind of reverse-engineering it, tricking the show into continuing.”
Anna Broinowski – who won best documentary director for Pauline Hanson: Please Explain! – collected her award from the president of Aacta, Geoffrey Rush.
She told media afterwards that the success of the documentary – which tracks the second coming of the One Nation leader – came down to lucky timing, and the participation of big names including John Howard, Alan Jones, Linda Burney, David Oldfield and Hanson herself.
No one was taking Hanson seriously at the time, Broinowski said. “We were the only documentary crew following her. No one knew that she was going to get in, she was under the radar … it was like what was happening with Trump. Hanson got in because she was a TV celebrity. Everyone was watching her on TV – but not the tastemakers, the opinion makers, the media.”
Broinowski said that while she did not expect to become best friends with Hanson, the politician was likeable in person – and agreed to go for a drink with the director after watching the show. (“If that happens, you know you’ve behaved ethically,” Broinowski said.)
“She’s present. She’s self-deprecating. She cooks a great Thai chicken curry. She mixes a fantastic drink called the ginger bitch, which is her favourite cocktail – rum and ginger beer. She’s a great host,” she said.
“I did develop a desire to look after her, because she’s trusting you with her stuff. But when you talk politics, something different comes out. And no. There was no chance Pauline Hanson and I were going to become best buddies.”
This was the inaugural year for a hair and makeup category, which was won by ABC series Cleverman – a new superhero fantasy series based on Indigenous Dreamtime stories, with an 80% Indigenous cast.
In the show, which also aired on Sundance TV in the United States, the Indigenous “hairypeople” are stronger and faster than humans. Speaking after accepting the award, senior makeup artist Troy Follington explained that his biggest challenge was styling the women.
“Put too much hair on a girl and it’s not good,” he said. “And girls don’t like that whole thing too much. So that was one of our biggest challenges – to make the girls hairy people but still looking feminine and gorgeous, and like, you’d like to go there.”
A season six episode of Game of Thrones, Battle of the Bastards, won two Australians – Glenn Melenhorst and Ineke Majoor – an award for best visual effects. The battle itself involved hundreds of digital horses, and “thousands upon thousands” of digital extras. Melenhorst said it was “the hardest, most difficult work we’ve ever done”.
The second challenge: keeping the plot secret. “When they gave us the first information on the series, we saw Jon Snow in it, and we knew he was alive – we were among the only people in the world who knew that, for about a year. I’ve never held onto a secret so tightly,” Melenhorst said.
Hitting Home – Sarah Ferguson’s ABC documentary series on domestic violence in Australia – won the documentary award at the annual Walkley journalism awards on Friday. It also took the Aacta for best documentary TV program.
Producer Ivan O’Mahoney said the series was hugely complex, revolving around a variety of legal, journalistic, psychological, political and safety issues. “We spent about a year drafting a duty of care statement – not just our promise to those who agreed to participate, but also as a note to ourselves as to how to behave; the dos and don’ts when you’re operating in this field,” he said.
“You owe a duty of care to all your subjects when you’re making a documentary, but especially when they’re as vulnerable as the women who decided to speak out in our series.”
Other notable prizes included best supporting actor in a televised drama, for Damon Herriman of Secret City; best performance in a TV comedy, for Patrick Brammall of No Activity; and best supporting actress in a televised drama, for Celia Pacquola of The Beautiful Lie – an ABC miniseries reimagining Anna Karenina, starring Sarah Snook.
Best known for her comedy career, Pacquola said she was “still surprised” that she got the part of Dolly Faraday.
“I’m surprised that I even got an audition. I’ve always wanted to try a drama, but not at all did I think I’d get a chance.”
“It really gave me an opportunity to see what my life would be like if I hadn’t pursued comedy. I would have been in a very unhappy marriage,” she joked.
Now in their sixth year, the Aacta awards grew out of the Australian Film Industry (AFI) awards, which widened to encompass TV categories in 1986.
The luncheon hosts, comedians Kitty Flanagan and Tom Gleeson, cheekily shrugged off the Monday event as the “B awards” in their opening remarks: “We’re off air, it really doesn’t matter,” Flanagan laughed.
The major ceremony will be broadcast at 8.30pm on Wednesday.
Aacta luncheon – full winners list
Best editing in a documentary
Winner: In the Shadow of the Hill – Steven Robinson, Dan Jackson
Hitting Home
Remembering the Man
Snow Monkey
Best editing in television
Winner: Wentworth (episode three) – Ben Joss, Foxtel/SoHo
Janet King
Rake
The Beautiful Lie
Best editing
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge – John Gilbert
Girl Asleep
Goldstone
The Daughter
Best original music score in a documentary
Winner: Monsieur Mayonnaise – Cezary Skubiszewski
In the Shadow of the Hill
Michelle’s Story
The Diplomat, the Artist and the Suit
Best original music score in television
Winner: The Kettering Incident (episode one) – Matteo Zingales, Max Lyandvert, Foxtel/Showcase
The Divorce
Deep Water
The Deep
Best original music score
Winner: Tanna – Antony Partos
Gods Of Egypt
Boys in the Trees
Teenage Kicks
Best production design in television
Winner: Mary: The Making of a Princess – Sam Rickard, Channel Ten
A Place To Call Home
Molly
The Beautiful Lie
Best production design
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge – Barry Robison
Girl Asleep
Goldstone
The Daughter
Best visual effects or animation
Winner: Game of Thrones, Battle of the Bastards – Glenn Melenhorst, Ineke Majoor, Foxtel/Showcase
Game Of Thrones, Sept Wildfire Destruction
Gods Of Egypt
X-Men: Apocalypse, Quicksilver Extraction
Best costume design in television
Winner: Molly, part one – Edie Kurzer, Channel Seven
A Place To Call Home
Mary: The Making of a Princess
The Beautiful Lie
Best costume design
Winner: Girl Asleep – Jonathon Oxlade
Gods Of Egypt
Hacksaw Ridge
Spear
Best hair and makeup
Winner: Cleverman – Kath Brown, Simon Joseph, Troy Follington
A Place To Call Home
Hacksaw Ridge
Gods Of Egypt
Best short animation
Winner: Oscar Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose – Angie Fielder, Brendan Fletcher and Del Kathryn Barton
Femme Enfant
The Albatross
The Crossing
Best short fiction film
Winner: Dream Baby – Lucy Gaffy, Kiki Dillon
Homebodies
Nathan Loves Ricky Martin
Bluey
Best documentary television program
Winner: Hitting Home – Nial Fulton, Sarah Ferguson, Ivan O’Mahoney
#BlackLivesMatter
Changing Minds: The Inside Story
Matilda and Me
Best children’s television series
Winner: Beat Bugs – Josh Wakely, Jennifer Twiner McCarron, 7Two
Bottersnikes & Gumbles
Play School
The Deep
Best adapted screenplay
Winner: The Daughter – Simon Stone
Girl Asleep
Best cinematography in a documentary
Winner: In the Shadow of the Hill – Dan Jackson
Another Country
Changing Minds: The Inside Story
DNA Nation
Best cinematography in television
Winner: Wolf Creek, episode three – Geoffrey Hall, Stan
The Beautiful Lie
The Kettering Incident
A Place To Call Home
Best cinematography
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge – Simon Duggan
Tanna
Girl Asleep
Spear
Best sound in a documentary
Winner: Highly Strung – James Curry
Another Country
Chasing Asylum
In the Shadow of the Hill
Best sound in television
Winner: Rake – Guntis Sics, Michol Marsh, Peter Hall, Olivia Monteith, ABC
Deep Water
RocKwiz
The Beautiful Lie
Best sound in a feature film
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge – Andrew Wright, Robert Mackenzie, Kevin O’Connell, Mario Vaccaro, Tara Webb, Peter Grace
Gods Of Egypt
Tanna
The Daughter
Best performance in a television comedy
Winner: No Activity – Patrick Brammall
ABC Comedy Showroom
The Family Law
Black Comedy
Best direction in a documentary
Winner: Hanson: Please Explain – Anna Broinowski, SBS
Changing Minds: The Inside Story
Chasing Asylum
Putuparri and the Rainmakers
Best direction in a television drama or comedy
Winner: Rake, episode eight – Peter Duncan, ABC
Wentworth
The Code
The Kettering Incident
Best direction in a television light entertainment or reality series
Winner: The Recruit, episode two – Michael Venables
Luke Warm Sex
MasterChef Australia
Meet the Mavericks
Best live event production (subscription TV)
Winner: 2015/16 Hyundai A-League Adelaide United v Western Sydney Wanderers
Sky News 2016 election coverage
6th Annual CMC music awards
The Helpmann Awards 2015
Best female presenter (subscription TV)
Winner: Maggie Beer, Great Australian Bake Off
Donna Hay, Basics to Brilliance
Shaynna Blaze, Selling Houses Australia
Margaret Pomeranz, Stage & Screen
Best male presenter (subscription TV)
Winner: Stan Grant (Crimes That Shook Australia)
Morgan Evans (6th Annual CMC music awards)
Charlie Albone (Charlie’s Chelsea Garden 2015)
David Speers (PM Agenda & Speers Tonight)
Best new talent (subscription TV)
Winner: James Rochford (Not the NRL News)
Zac & Jordan Stenmark (Australian’s Next Top Model)
Matilda Brown (Let’s Talk About)
George H. Xanthis (Open Slather)
Best guest or supporting actor in a television drama
Winner: Damon Herriman (Secret City)
Hamish Michael (Janet King - The Invisible Wound)
Ben Gerrard (Molly)
Russell Dykstra (Rake)
Best guest or supporting actress in a television drama
Winner: Celia Pacquola (The Beautiful Lie)
Caroline Brazier (Rake)
Sianoa Smit-McPhee (The Kettering Incident)
Sacha Horler (The Kettering Incident)
