A long time before any of the guests at last night’s Aacta awards donned their Sunday best and walked the red carpet, everybody knew which film would win the lion’s share of awards, “Lion” being the operative word – the title, of course, of the director Garth Davis’s moving drama about an Indian-born Australian man who tracked down his estranged family through Google Earth.
It was clear as early as January that triumph at the Aactas would be a fait accompli for the film. Not necessarily because of its international acclaim (including six Oscar nominations – although that wouldn’t have hurt) but due to the fact that, since the inaugural ceremony seven years ago, the best-performing film at the box office has taken the top gong every time. In other words, the most popular movie always wins.
One year it looked like there would be an exception: 2015, with the director Jennifer Kent’s creepy-crawly thriller The Babadook, about a top hat-wearing monster-cum-gay icon. The film narrowly won the first count, as the Sydney Morning Herald revealed, only to have Aacta organisers count the votes again using a different methodology that favoured Russell Crowe’s tear-jerking box office juggernaut The Water Diviner. Best film was announced as a tie between them.
The problem with populism runs deep at the Aactas. This is a ceremony that recognises productions such as Australian Ninja Warrior (best light entertainment series), Selling Houses Australia (best lifestyle television program) and Australian Survivor (best direction in a television light entertainment, lifestyle or reality series) but awards nothing to film screenwriters, cinematographers and editors. Prizes for these categories were dished out earlier in the week, at the annual “industry luncheon” – a smaller initiative that isn’t televised.
Why not include them in the main event? The official line is that there isn’t enough time to squeeze these professions into the ceremony proper – though it does have enough time to recognise the creative genius behind the construction of televised obstacle courses. And also, during last night’s ceremony, nobody seemed to be in much of a rush.
For the second consecutive year, Paul Hogan rambled into the microphone for what felt like the duration of Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (which is to say, an eternity). Later, unusual banter took place between Osamah Sami, the charming star of Ali’s Wedding, and a career-rejuvenated Sophie Monk, who awkwardly pretended not to understand what the word “diversity” meant.
Quibbles aside, there were plenty of winners last night deserving of their recognition. Emma Booth was sickeningly effective in Hounds of Love. Hugo Weaving was excellent, as always, in Seven Types of Ambiguity, for which he won best lead actor – despite not being the lead actor (the protagonist of the show changed each episode).
It was good to see Ewen Leslie take home a trophy for Top of the Lake: China Girl. The industry is well aware of the man’s talents; this was (if you include the AFIs) his fifth nomination. I’m not sure the general public, however, has fully grasped that Leslie (who recently co-starred in The Daughter, The Mule, The Butterfly Tree and the upcoming Sweet Country) is one of the finest Australian actors of his generation.
And Lion is, I should stress – despite the predictable win – a great film. So rich; so moving. When that ending rolled around, man, I bawled my eyes out. I may have been a little watery-eyed when Saroo and Sue Brierley spoke in the media room last night, Sue reflecting on how her son is blessed to have not one loving mother but two.
In terms of snubs: it is supremely odd that Alice Foulcher, wonderful in the low-budget dramedy That’s Not Me, did not receive a nomination for her (clearly deserving) performance. Also strange is the snubbing of the director Damien Power’s Killing Ground (nominated only for best sound) which featured, among other things, an excellent, thoroughly memorable performance from Harriet Dyer.
In January I picked Lion as the winner at this year’s Aactas. I reckon I can do better. Let me state that the winner of best film a year from now will be Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country. That is both a prediction and a hope. Thornton’s second masterpiece (following Samson & Delilah) is unlikely to be the top Australian film at the box office in 2018. But the weight behind this extraordinary achievement will surely prove too great to ignore. Even for Aacta.
