Box office best news ahead of film gongs

Box office figures reveal local comedy A Few Best Men to be Australian film's latest hit.

best men

THE Australian film industry has received a boost before its rebadged annual awards tonight, with box office figures revealing local comedy A Few Best Men to be its latest hit. The raucous wedding comedy, directed by Priscilla's Stephan Elliott, earned $1.9 million in its opening weekend, beating Red Dog ($1.78m) and Sanctum ($1.59m).

"It's fantastic and I'm really, really excited for everybody and really thrilled Australians are supporting Australian movies," said one of the film's stars, Olivia Newton-John. "It's wonderful and it's how it should be."

Newton-John is one of the highlights of tonight's inaugural Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards at the Sydney Opera House, next to Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett, the LaPaglia brothers, Jonathan and Anthony, Rachael Taylor, Xavier Samuel and Mia Wasikowska. Newton-John will debut a medley of dance tracks she recorded for A Few Best Men. "Can you believe it?" she laughed. "Me doing dance tracks!"

Tonight, the focus is on a varied selection of six best film contenders: the outrageously successful Red Dog, which earned $21m, strong box office performer Oranges and Sunshine, the Patrick White adaptation The Eye of the Storm, South Australian chiller Snowtown, indigenous tale Mad Bastards and the film with the most nominations, The Hunter.

The awards ceremony promises a new beginning after the Australian Film Institute decided to reinvigorate its annual awards by launching an "Academy" and including international awards, which were attended on Friday in Los Angeles by Meryl Streep, Russell Crowe and the cast and crew of Oscar favourite The Artist.