Tassie scoops Lion’s share at Australian Academy of Cinema, Television and Arts awards
TASMANIA has been the big winner at Australian film and television’s night of nights as Lion – the life story of Hobart businessman Saroo Brierley – scooped the pool. SEE ALL THE AWARDS
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TASMANIA has been the big winner at Australian film and television’s night of nights as Lion – the life story of Hobart businessman Saroo Brierley – scooped the pool picking up 12 awards.
After beginning the year with six Oscar and four Golden Globe nominations and two BAFTA wins, Lion took out Australian Academy of Cinema, Television and Arts (AACTA) awards for best film, best direction, best supporting actor (Dev Patel) and actress (nicole Kidman), as well as best adapted screenplay, among others.
As fellow nominee Stephen Curry had predicted prior to the ceremony, Lion’s adorable young star, nine-year-old Sunny Pawar – who portrayed the young Brierley – was unbeatable in the Best Lead Actor category.
Lion is based on Brierley’s incredible autobiography A Long Way Home, telling the story of his journey from India to Australia and back again.
Adopted to a Tasmanian family as a young child, Saroo successfully found his birth family using Google Earth and Facebook two decades later.
And in a further nod to Tasmania, Celia Pacquola, of Rosehaven fame, won for best performance in a comedy.
Rosehaven, which is filmed at various locations around the state, also stars Tasmanian talent Luke McGregor.
State Arts Minister Elise Archer congratulated the Tasmanian winners.
“It’s fantastic to see Tasmanian stories competing with the best on offer,” she said. “Without ongoing Government investment in the state’s screen industry and its people, we would be unable to support feature films of the scale of Lion.”
First-time actor Pawar is the youngest ever winner in the category, outdoing Simon Burke who was 15 when he won the AFI in 1976 for The Devil’s Playground.
While the real Saroo Brierley was in attendance, Pawar was unfortunately not on hand to charm the cream of Australia’s industry.
Kidman did the double, also picking up the Best Supporting Actress in the TV drama category for her near-unrecognisable turn in Foxtel miniseries Top of the Lake: China Girl.
Hollywood stars Harrison Ford, Liev Schreiber and Michael Caine appeared in a tribute to director Phillip Noyce, who was presented with Australia’s highest screen honour, the Longford Lyell Award, in recognition of a blockbuster international career spanning almost 50 years.
The 67-year-old director of films including Patriot Games and Dead Calm said he was “humbled to receive an award that bears the names of two of Australia’s greatest filmmakers”.
Simon Baker headed home to accept the AACTA Trailblazer Award, ahead of the cinema release of his directorial debut Breath in May.
Lion’s domination of the AACTAs comes as no surprise given the international acclaim heaped on Garth Davis’s film and its local box office gross of $29.5 million (far outstripping its nearest Aussie rival, Jasper Jones, at $2.7 million).
Only multicultural comedy Ali’s Wedding and tense thriller Hounds of Love stopped Lion from gobbling up every feature film award on offer.
The former won Best Original Screenplay for writers Osamah Sami and Andrew Knight, while Emma Booth took Best Lead Actress for her transformative performance in the latter.
Both were categories Lion was not nominated in.
Davis was on hand to collect his AACTA for Best Direction for Lion, while Best Supporting Actor winner Dev Patel and Adapted Screenplay winner Luke Davies now have AACTAs to sit alongside the BAFTAs on their mantle.
Russell Crowe and Rachel Griffiths took the stage to present the inaugural AACTA Award for Best Asian Film to Indian biopic Dangal, about a family of wrestlers.
In the television categories, Foxtel production Top of the Lake: China Girl and ABC drama Seven Types of Ambiguity were the big winners, taking four and five AACTAs respectively.
Top of the Lake took out Best Drama Series, Lead Actress for Elisabeth Moss and Supporting Actor for Ewen Leslie on top of Kidman’s win.
The other big drama award, for Best Mini Series, went to SBS’s Anthony LaPaglia-starrer Sunshine.
Seven Types of Ambiguity’s five AACTAs included Lead Actor in a Drama for Hugo Weaving — the veteran’s seventh AFI/AACTA Award overall, but his first in a Television category.
Weaving has taken home an AACTA gong for the past three years.
Pacquloa is on a similar hot streak, taking Best Performance in a Comedy for her third consecutive win.
Nine’s 2017 ratings juggernaut Australian Ninja Warrior outmuscled its ABC competition to win Best Light Entertainment Series, while veteran Foxtel series Selling Houses Australia was crowned Best Lifestyle Program.
Kidman’s AACTA double comes 29 years after she won her first AFI Award for TV miniseries Vietnam, and rounds up a big 2017 for the star, which also saw her feted as the “Queen of Cannes”, bag two Emmys for Big Little Lies and turn 50.
Originally published as Tassie scoops Lion’s share at Australian Academy of Cinema, Television and Arts awards
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