A glass of water, a Valium and bed: How one Australian Oscar nominee celebrated

There was none of the boringly conventional unrestrained joy when Australian director Adam Elliot learnt he had been nominated for an Academy Award for Memoir of a Snail. Instead of cracking open a bottle of champagne or throwing himself in the pool, he greeted the early-morning announcement with “a glass of water and a Valium”. Then he went to bed.

Celebrated his Oscar nomination with a glass of water and a Valium: Adam Elliot.Credit: Simon Schluter

After six weeks promoting the film in Europe, Elliot had just arrived home, exhausted from a flight, when he watched the announcement on YouTube in his pyjamas, with his partner and their dog. “My brain collapsed,” he said. “I think I’ve only had five hours’ sleep in the last 48 hours. It was all very unglamorous.”

The Melbourne animator and his Memoir of a Snail producer Liz Kearney will be joined at the Oscars by fellow Australians Guy Pearce, who is nominated for best supporting actor for historic drama The Brutalist, Greig Fraser, who is up for best cinematography for the sci-fi epic Dune: Part Two, and Maya Gnyp, who produced director Smriti Mundhra’s documentary short film I Am Ready, Warden.

Nominated: Demi Moore in The Substance.Credit: Mubi via AP

The visual effects team for the Robbie Williams Australian biopic Better Man is also in the running at the 97th Academy Awards in March.

While there had been hopes for Nicole Kidman’s gutsy performance in Babygirl earlier in Hollywood’s awards season, both she and Angelina Jolie (Maria) were squeezed out by a strong field of best-actress nominees: Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Karla Sofia Gascon (Emilia Perez), Mikey Madison (Anora), Demi Moore (The Substance) and Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here).

The inventive musical Emilia Perez led the nominations with 13, followed by hit musical Wicked and The Brutalist with 10 each. Papal thriller Conclave and Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown both had eight nominations.

They are joined in the best-picture field by Dune: Part Two, wild Russian mobster sex drama Anora, Brazilian political drama I’m Still Here, body-horror film The Substance and a historical drama little-known in Australia so far, Nickel Boys, about two African-American boys who are sent to an abusive reform school.

While American politics swung firmly towards conservatism with the election of Donald Trump, the nominations show that Hollywood is holding out. While Wicked is conventional for a contemporary musical, the leading contenders for best picture, film’s biggest prize, are defiantly liberal stories centring on diverse characters.

Greig Fraser, nominated for best cinematography for Dune: Part Two.Credit: Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Warner Bros.

Emilia Perez, for example, is a female-driven ensemble film about a Mexican cartel leader who transitions to become a woman, played by Gascon, who is an openly trans woman.

Another example: Sebastian Stan, who played the impressionable young Trump, and Jeremy Strong, who played attorney Roy Cohn, in the fizzer of a drama The Apprentice, were surprisingly nominated for best lead and supporting actor respectively.

As The New Yorker noted, “the Oscars are circling the wagons”.

The nominations show new directors breaking through to mainstream success, led by previously little-known Brady Corbet (The Brutalist); Sean Baker (Anora), who started a career telling stories on the margins of American society by shooting Tangerine on iPhones; and France’s Coralie Fargeat (The Substance).

In yet another sign of how the entertainment business has changed – and the brutal realities facing cinemas since the pandemic and Hollywood strikes – Netflix was the most-nominated distributor for the second year in a row.

Pearce’s nomination is another highlight in an exceptional career that has included roles in past best-picture winners Zero Dark Thirty and The King’s Speech. His absence from post-nomination interviews came after news broke of his split with actor partner Carice van Houten.

Leading Australia’s Oscar charge … Guy Pearce in a scene from The Brutalist.Credit: A24

Fraser, who won best cinematography for Dune: Part One after an earlier nomination for Lion, learnt about his third nomination in a call from his American agent during a noon pre-production meeting in London. “I was very happy,” he said. “I’ve had a glass of wine.”

But even amid the jubilation, Fraser was disappointed Denis Villeneuve was not nominated for either best director or adapted screenplay for the film. “The book Dune was acknowledged for a generation as being the most unadaptable book ever,” he said. “No one could do it, but Denis did it. That’s a big snub.”

As well as tiredness, Elliot’s muted response to his nomination reflected having won an Oscar for the short film Harvie Krumpet in 2004.

“I know the sensations and also know you keep your expectations low, particularly as we’re up against such giants,” he says. “Harvie Krumpet, we were up against Disney, Pixar and Fox.

“It feels like we’re even more the underdog this time … [Compared with hits Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot] we’ve made about 50 cents.”

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