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AACTA Awards 2012: winners

ABC dominates the inaugural AACTA Awards staged at the Sydney Opera House last night, with The Slap taking home 5 accolades.

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The inaugural AACTA Awards, the revamped AFI Awards, have been staged at the Sydney Opera House and broadcast on Nine.

ABC1’s The Slap has dominated the Television categories winning 5 accolades from industry peers. Other winners included East West 101, Cloudstreet, Killing Time, Sisters of War and The Gruen Transfer.

The Red Carpet was hosted by Richard Wilkins and Julia Morris, but the interview with Megan Gale turned into an advertorial for David Jones (complete with in-store footage), not exactly fitting for a prestigious event looking to realign itself. That said, the Tim Minchin song for Red Dog in the foyer was pure Australiana.

Olivia Newton-John opened the show with a medley, looking as glam as ever.  She was followed by Cate Blanchett, AACTA President and Geoffrey Rush.

TV NOMINEES include (winners in bold):

AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE (News. Ltd. voted)
Erik Thomson (Packed to the rafters)
Rebecca Gibney (Packed to the Rafters)
Jeremy Lindsay Taylor (Underbelly Razor)
Asher Keddie (Paper Giants)

Asher Keddie won for Paper Giants but during her speech began to thank the Offspring team -this was edited out of the Nine broadcast.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST TELEFEATURE, MINI SERIES OR SHORT RUN SERIES
• Cloudstreet. Greg Haddrick, Brenda Pam. FOXTEL – Showcase
• Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo. John Edwards, Karen Radzyner. ABC1
• Sisters Of War. Andrew Wiseman. ABC1
• The Slap. Tony Ayres, Helen Bowden, Michael McMahon. ABC1

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION SERIES
• The Gruen Transfer, Series 4. Andrew Denton, Anita Jacoby, Jon Casimir. ABC1
• Hungry Beast, Series 3. Andrew Denton, Anita Jacoby, Andy Nehl, Jon Casimir. ABC1
• Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey. Todd Abbott. ABC1
• Junior MasterChef, Series 1. Tara McWilliams. Network Ten
• RocKwiz. Brian Nankervis, Ken Connor, Peter Bain-Hogg, Joe Connor. SBS

Uh oh, we’re getting awards trimmed from the broadcast. Not wise for the first event…

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST TELEVISION DRAMA SERIES
• East West 101, Season 3 – The Heroes’ Journey. Steve Knapman, Kris Wyld. SBS
• Offspring, Season 2. John Edwards, Imogen Banks. Network Ten
• Rake. Ian Collie, Peter Duncan, Richard Roxburgh. ABC1
• Spirited, Season 2. Claudia Karvan, Jacquelin Perske. FOXTEL – W

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
• Rob Carlton. Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo. ABC1
• Alex Dimitriades. The Slap. ABC1
• Don Hany. East West 101, Season 3 – The Heroes’ Journey. SBS
• Jonathan LaPaglia. The Slap. ABC1

INAUGURAL SAMSUNG AACTA AWARDS NOMINEES (includes film)
AACTA AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG ACTOR
• Olivia DeJonge. Good Pretender.
• Emma Jefferson. My Place, Series 2 – Episode 17 ’1848 – Johanna’. ABC3
• Lara Robinson. Cloudstreet – Part 1. FOXTEL – Showcase
• Lucas Yeeda. Mad Bastards.

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST GUEST OR SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
• Richard Cawthorne. Killing Time – Episode 2. FOXTEL – TV1
• Aaron Fa’aoso. East West 101, Season 3 – The Heroes’ Journey – Episode 18 ‘The Price Of Salvation’. SBS
• Jacek Koman. Spirited, Season 2 – Episode 2 ‘Time After Time’. FOXTEL – W
• Todd Lasance. Cloudstreet – Part 3. FOXTEL – Showcase

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST GUEST OR SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
• Diana Glenn. The Slap – Episode 3 ‘Harry’. ABC1
• Rena Owen. East West 101, Season 3 – The Heroes’ Journey – Episode 18 ‘The Price Of Salvation’. SBS
• Susie Porter. Sisters Of War. ABC1
• Lara Robinson. Cloudstreet – Part 1. FOXTEL – Showcase

Three more awards edited out of the broadcast…..

AUDIENCE AWARD FOR BEST TV PROGRAM (News. Ltd. voted)
MasterChef Australia
Packed to the Rafters
Paper Giants
Underbelly Razor

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
• Essie Davis. Cloudstreet. FOXTEL – Showcase
• Kerry Fox. Cloudstreet. FOXTEL – Showcase
• Asher Keddie. Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo. ABC1
• Sarah Snook. Sisters Of War. ABC1

So we have time to show a preview for a US movie about super-heroes but not time to hear from Australian winners? What the?

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTION IN TELEVISION
• Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo – Episode 1. Daina Reid. ABC1
• The Slap – Episode 1 ‘Hector’. Jessica Hobbs. ABC1
• The Slap – Episode 3 ‘Harry’. Matthew Saville. ABC1
• Small Time Gangster – Episode 1 ‘Jingle Bells’. Jeffrey Walker. FOXTEL – Movie Network

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY IN TELEVISION
• Cloudstreet – Part 3. Tim Winton, Ellen Fontana. FOXTEL – Showcase
• Laid – Episode 3. Kirsty Fisher. ABC1
• The Slap – Episode 1 ‘Hector’. Kris Mrksa. ABC1
• The Slap – Episode 3 ‘Harry’. Brendan Cowell. ABC1

3 more awards edited out of the night, but hey Disney has a new film coming this year, now here’s a trailer.

Russell Crowe introduces Megan Washington who sings the In Memoriam segment. Lots of talented faces we have lost…

The broadcast also edited out a passionate speech by film director Stephan Elliott who made a political push for gay marriage and slammed Age film critic Jim Schembri who had called his film A Few Best Men “unreleasable.”

Here were the other Awards announced earlier in January:

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST TELEVISION COMEDY SERIES
• At Home With Julia. Rick Kalowski, Greg Quail, Carol Hughes. ABC1
• Laid. Liz Watts. ABC1
• twentysomething. Nicole Minchin. ABC2

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST PERFORMANCE IN A TELEVISION COMEDY
• Alison Bell. Laid. ABC1
• Jess Harris. twentysomething. ABC2
• Chris Lilley. Angry Boys. ABC1
• Celia Pacquola. Laid. ABC1

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST CHILDREN’S TELEVISION SERIES
• a gURLs wURLd. Noel Price. Nine Network
• Gasp! Suzanne Ryan. Nine Network
• H2O: Just Add Water, Series 3. Jonathan M. Shiff. Network Ten
• My Place, Series 2. Penny Chapman. ABC3

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST VISUAL EFFECTS (incl. film)
• Cloudstreet. Scott Zero. FOXTEL – Showcase
• Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole. Grant Freckelton.
• Sanctum. David Booth, Peter Webb, Ineke Majoor, Glenn Melenhorst.
• The Hunter. Felix Crawshaw, James Rogers.

AACTA AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN TELEVISION SCREEN CRAFT
• Herbert Pinter ‐ Production Design. Cloudstreet. FOXTEL ‐ Showcase

DOCUMENTARY
AACTA AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY
• Life In Movement. Sophie Hyde, Bryan Mason.
• Mrs Carey’s Concert. Bob Connolly, Helen Panckhurst, Sophie Raymond. ABC1
• Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure. Sophie Hyde, Matthew Bate.
• The Tall Man. Darren Dale. SBS

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY UNDER ONE HOUR
• The Ball. Yael Bergman, Laura Waters, Jessica Leski. ABC1
• Jandamarra’s War. Andrew Ogilvie, Andrea Quesnelle, Eileen Torres. ABC1
• Leaky Boat. Penny Chapman. ABC1
• Orchids: My Intersex Adventure. Phoebe Hart. ABC

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY SERIES
• Immigration Nation, The Secret History Of Us. Jacob Hickey, Alex West, Lucy Maclaren. SBS
• Outback Fight Club. Paul Scott, Isabel Perez. SBS
• Outback Kids. Mike Bluett, Mark Hamlyn, Marc Radomsky. ABC1
• SAS – The Search for Warriors. Julia Redwood, Ed Punchard. SBS

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTION IN A DOCUMENTARY
• Life In Movement. Bryan Mason, Sophie Hyde.
• Mrs Carey’s Concert. Bob Connolly, Sophie Raymond. ABC1
• Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure. Matthew Bate.
• The Tall Man. Tony Krawitz. SBS

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN A DOCUMENTARY
• Jandamarra’s War. Allan Collins ACS, Jim Frater, Rusty Geller SOC. ABC1
• Mrs Carey’s Concert. Bob Connolly. ABC1
• Out Of The Ashes. David Parer ACS. ABC1
• The Tall Man. Germain McMicking. SBS

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST EDITING IN A DOCUMENTARY
• Leaky Boat. Lawrie Silvestrin. ABC1
• Mrs Carey’s Concert. Sophie Raymond, Ray Thomas ASE, Nick Meyers ASE. ABC1
• Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure. Bryan Mason.
• The Tall Man. Rochelle Oshlack. SBS

AACTA AWARD FOR BEST SOUND IN A DOCUMENTARY
• Jandamarra’s War. Laurie Chlanda, Glenn Martin, Ric Curtin, Ash Gibson Greig, Petris Torres. ABC1
• Mrs Carey’s Concert. Sophie Raymond, Bob Scott, Doron Kipen. ABC1
• murundak – songs of freedom. Emma Bortignon, Michael Letho, Peter Smith, Christopher O’Young, Simon Walbrook. SBS
• Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure. Jonny Elk Walsh, Pete Best, Tom Heuzenroeder,
Emma Bortignon, Scott Illingworth.

In summary, the event worked well in its bid to elevate the former AFIs to a more prestigious event, largely by virtue of the venue and the endorsement by Geoffrey Rush and Cate Blanchett.

But to gain the attention that the wider Logies enjoys, this needs to be broadcast Live with an earlier starting time.

There was also too much padding at the expense of winners. 2011 was a very strong year, especially in Television. It is disappointing we had to gloss over worthy winners including Diana Glenn, Richard Cawthorne, and Anita Jacoby while songs and trailers for US films enjoyed more airtime. TV Comedy didn’t even make it to the main event.

Given the AACTAs are screened outside of ratings, what’s the harm in indulging a little more? If the event gains momentum, Nine could even plug its upcoming product better.

Hopefully next year the new Academy can assess some room for improvement. But congrats to the winners, especially the ABC. It was unfortunate Cloudstreet came up against some tough competition. In any other year it would have walked it in….

44 Responses

  2. Sharpy, I am in complete agreement with you. Best dressed on the carpet shown by a moving mobile phone where you can’t even see the dress. And was I the only one who thought it was very convenient that Megan Gale, David Jones ambassador, won the best dressed?!?!

    Geoffrey Rush doing “Samsung” jokes in his opening speech? Possibly the most tacky thing I’ve ever seen him do!!

    Dr Rudi, I also agree with you – the songs to pay tribute to the best film nominees was an appalling idea. Made worse by non-singers sounding bad.

    My verdict – dreadful. It could have been so good, but the overt commercialism and the poor choices in terms of speeches cut to play movie previews (that’s what youtube is for!) and the songs – just made it very painful viewing.

  3. I am pretty conflicted about this revamp. The exclusion of major categories from the main telecast – including Hugo Weaving’s win in Supp Actor in a Film, was inexplicible. The inappropriate ‘show’ tunes to accompany the best film nomniees was just awful! So disrespectful to those films. The only surprise to me was that Magda can sing! Some good winners though – Diana Glen – yes! Great performance. Alex for The Slap – wonderful! Interesting that Snowtown won so many, but not best film – reminds me all the way back to 1977 when Storm Boy won best film, but nothing else. Red Dog best film? As a tv event it was a bit flabby and hastily edited – although i appreciate fast turn arounds are fraught – but yes begs the bigger question – why not live? Three steps forward, two back?

  4. The red carpet segment showing the best dress was terrible, obvious product placement of the mobile phone, we could hardley see the image on the phone screen anyway, and they did even know who this ‘Alex’ person was. If you are going to nominate someone, at least find out their name!!
    I didn’t watch the whole thing though, was on too late to watch, plus the fake scene from Kings Speech was unnessessary, unfunny, too long and cheaply done. At least when Jay Leno fakes an interview it looks as though he is with them, its not just some cheap voiceover.
    Julia Morris had the northern suburbs facelift happening with here hair pulled back so tight, and wasn’t put to good use at all. It like people want her in things since Celeb Apprentice, but they dont know where to use here.
    And to cut award presentations out to show movie trailers is just wrong.

  5. Next year Nine should show the AACTA Awards on GEM, starting at 7.30pm. At least this means the ceremony will be shown in full with no awards or speeches edited out.
    I am not sure if the awards were the right place for Stephan Elliott to slam Age film critic Jim Schembri who had called his film A Few Best Men “unreleasable.” Obviously the public had disagreed with Jim’s view, with the film earning $1.9 million last weekend at the box office. I wonder what Jim’s response will be.
    Congratulations to all the winners though.

  6. Well typical Channel Nine to cut things and why not broadcast it at an earlier time maybe on Go or Gem, after all Seven did it well with the tennis, usually apart from sometimes being a bit late to switch back to normal programming. Yes you are right I dont like sport on TV.
    After watching some TV cameramen at the Wrest Point Targa finish I now know why they have these stupid angles, they are just bone lazy to get the cameras straight, same with these awards, they can not get the cameras straight so they put them all on those stupid angles.

  7. Looks like the ABC and SBS (and PayTV) took most of the TV awards, The Rafters got one but did TEN or 9 gets any?

    I didn’t watch as I don’t normally watch most award show and the combo of Nine and Richard Wilkins sealed the deal for me. Plus it sounded over commercialised, how did it compare to the US award shows?

    Good on all the winners.

  9. moment of the night, on the red carpet, while garonzi is during her top two:

    natalie: and my number two is alex
    richard: alex who?
    (natalie obviously doesn’t know the last name so turns the phone around to richard, who obviously doesn’t know either)
    richard: ah yes, very nice

  10. i also find it quite silly cutting awards (and speeches) to show paid advertoriaals to David Jones on the Red Carpet, and to ”preview” up-coming films.

    On another note, i’m happy seeing Eaat West 101 win best drama for it’s final season. I will miss this show

  11. If they want to get more people to see and know about Aus films, since it finished at close to midnight, a 9.30 pm Tuesay timeslot for this is rather stupid, when most people have to go to work or high school the next day. Uni students don’t start till the first week March. This awards show shouldn’t have been moved from the 9.30 pm Saturday timeslot it normally used to get.

  14. I don’t understand why Channel 9 would want to broadcast this as it just advertises ABC, SBS and Showcase while showing that their own shows are so bad that they don’t even get a nomination.

  16. Just turned on to it, and first impression….what a great step up from the trashy Logies. This is exactly what Australia needed. A classy, dignified awards event for film and television. Now we just need to get rid of the Logies but i doubt it’ll happen because how else would Seven and Nine win anything?

    The Tim Rogers song is crap though. And still think it’s outrageous Melissa George wasn’t nominated.

    Adam Elliott was hilarious, “the children’s movie, Snowtown” lol

  17. So, supporting actors and actresses don’t merit a place in the telecast?

    AACTA Premiere Moment ? More like a little touch of death. Spare us.

    Truly, I’m a big supporter of the Australian Film Industry – cold hard cash at the cinema every week – this however is just appalling.

    Gosh – has Tim Rogers lost his voice? Has anyone seen him live lately?

    Oh please, it’s already run overtime here in the central time zone. Just as well I’m on annual leave tomorrow.

  18. Thanks David, I remember now, my mistake. I prefer the IF presentations. Happy with Alex Dimitriades win but how do you choose from the great cast in The Slap?

  19. No doubt Nine will claim to have edited Asher’s thank you speech to save her embarrassment but we all know they did it because Offspring is a Ch10 show. How childish!!

    AACTA is such an improvement over AFI.. also good that they’ve done away with those giant perfume bottle looking award statue. This new one looks much better..

  21. I’m watching on a Tivo delay, and have just concluded the red carpet arrivals to which I’ll make a few points. Over-commercialisation to sponsors David Jones and Samsung was obscene. Also, when showing us the top 3 best dressed on the Samsung Galaxy, having us “look over your shoulder” onto the screen to see who you are talking about is a little low tech. Surely it’s not hard to bluetooth or wi-fi the pictures quickly to OB so the pictures can at least be supered onto into the broadcast so we get a better idea of what or who the hell you are talking about. Geez.

    This rant updates…

  22. You can tell how seriously channel 7 takes the AACTA awards, Packed to the rafters won an audience voted award and all they do is bring out Erik Thompson to accpet it. If it was the logies you can gaurrantee Rebecca, Hugh and the rest of the cast would be there with all the publicity bells and whistles.

  23. I prefer the old AFI awards presented on SBS. They had some dignity and gravitas. This presentation may be be in the beautiful Opera House, as we’re constantly being told, but it’s just like the Logies with a better set. Also, I guess seeing as it’s on Channel 9 they have to have Richards Wilkins and his vacuous side-kicks, but it would be better without them.

  24. And, neither Julia Morris nor Madga Szubanski can sing; frankly they couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. This isn’t funny, nor ironic, nor satirical, nor sarcastic. It’s just bloody awful. Sheesh.

  25. David, I understand that money makes the world go around. That said, can’t the industry possibly fund a decent awards ceremony (and telecast) that doesn’t involve crass and blatant commercialism.

    And whoever decided that highlighting the best film nominations by unrelated and original song should never work again.

    Grrr.

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