Australian Film Institute Award Nominations

AFI Members’ Choice Award

    * Animal Kingdom
    * Beneath Hill 60
    * Bran Nue Dae
    * Bright Star
    * The Boys Are Back
    * Tomorrow When The War Began

SAMSUNG Mobile AFI Award for Best Film

    * Animal Kingdom
    * Beneath Hill 60  
    * Bran Nue Dae
    * Bright Star
    * The Tree
    * Tomorrow When The War Began

AFI Award for Best Direction

    * Animal Kingdom. David Michôd.
    * Beneath Hill 60. Jeremy Hartley Sims.
    * Bright Star. Jane Campion.
    * The Tree. Julie Bertuccelli.

Macquarie AFI Award for Best Original Screenplay

    * Animal Kingdom. David Michôd.
    * Beneath Hill 60. David Roach.
    * Bright Star. Jane Campion.
    * Daybreakers. Peter Spierig, Michael Spierig.

Macquarie AFI Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

    * Bran Nue Dae. Reg Cribb, Rachel Perkins, Jimmy Chi.
    * The Boys Are Back. Allan Cubitt.
    * The Tree. Julie Bertuccelli.
    * Tomorrow When The War Began. Stuart Beattie.

AFI Award for Best Cinematography

    * Animal Kingdom. Adam Arkapaw.
    * Beneath Hill 60. Toby Oliver ACS.
    * Bright Star. Greig Fraser.
    * The Waiting City. Denson Baker ACS

AFI Award for Best Editing

    * Animal Kingdom. Luke Doolan.
    * Beneath Hill 60. Dany    Cooper ASE.
    * Bright Star. Alexandre de Franceschi ASE.
    * Tomorrow When The War Began. Marcus D’Arcy.

AFI Award for Best Sound

    * Animal Kingdom
    * Beneath Hill 60.
    * Bran Nue Dae
    * Tomorrow When The War Began

AFI Award for Best Original Music Score

    * Animal Kingdom.
    * Beneath Hill 60
    * Bran Nue Dae
    * Bright Star

AFI Award for Best Production Design

    * Animal Kingdom
    * Beneath Hill 60
    * Bright Star
    * Tomorrow When The War Began

AFI Award for Best Costume Design

    * Animal Kingdom. Cappi Ireland.
    * Beneath Hill 60. Ian Sparke, Wendy Cork.
    * Bran Nue Dae. Margot Wilson.
    * Bright Star. Janet Patterson

AFI Award for Best Lead Actor

    * Brendan Cowell. Beneath Hill 60.
    * James Frecheville. Animal Kingdom.
    * Ben Mendelsohn. Animal Kingdom.
    * Clive Owen. The Boys Are Back.

 

AFI Award for Best Lead Actress
    * Abbie Cornish. Bright Star.
    * Morgana Davies. The Tree.
    * Charlotte Gainsbourg. The Tree.
    * Jacki Weaver. Animal Kingdom.

AFI Award for Best Supporting Actor

    * Joel Edgerton. Animal Kingdom.
    * Guy Pearce. Animal Kingdom.
    * Kodi Smit-McPhee. Matching Jack.
    * Sullivan Stapleton. Animal Kingdom.

AFI Award for Best Supporting Actress
    * Julia Blake. The Boys Are Back.
    * Kerry Fox. Bright Star.
    * Deborah Mailman. Bran Nue Dae.
    * Laura Wheelwright. Animal Kingdom.

AFI INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR

    * Simon Baker. The Mentalist, Season 2. Nine Network
    * Ryan Kwanten. True Blood, Season 3. Showcase
    * Kodi Smit-McPhee. The Road
    * Sam Worthington. Avatar

AFI INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS

    * Toni Collette. United States of Tara, Season 2. ABC1
    * Bojana Novakovic. Edge of Darkness
    * Mia Wasikowska. Alice in Wonderland
    * Naomi Watts. Mother and Child

AFI Young Actor Award

    * Ashleigh Cummings. Tomorrow When The War Began
    * Morgana Davies. The Tree
    * James Frecheville. Animal Kingdom
    * Harrison Gilbertson. Beneath Hill 60

Weaver's chilling stare...

The wonderful Aussie crime drama Animal Kingdom leads all films in with Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards with an astounding 18 nominations..  The film, a relative art house success story stateside (it's box office is nearly $1.0 million) is slowly but surely making a strong Oscars push for best supporting actress candidate Jacki Weaver.  It helps that the distributor of the film (Sony Pictures Classics) has jumped the campaign by releasing DVD screeners to Academy members before anyone else.  Weaver is awesomely good as den mother "Smurf," whose Lady MacBeth moment made for the one of the most chilling elements in any film so far this year.

Other contenders include two 2009 holdovers-- Bright Star and The Boys Are Back.

Animal Kingdom

Any Darwinian inference to get made about the title of David Michod's exciting and decidedly unfussy Aussie mobster film is completely valid.  Only the strongest and fittest survive in this Melbourne underworld drama.  And what at times feels like just another riff on the GoodFellas or The Sopranos template of family crime dramas there's a surprising and endearing non-b.s. tone to the whole thing and an authentic camaraderie between the actors.  And so we enter the world of the Cody family through the eyes of innocent young Josh (played by newcomer James Frecheville.)  His mother has just died of a heroin overdose, and is soon shipped off under the care of his grandmother Janine (a terrific Jacki Weaver-- more on her later.)  With little knowledge of the ins and outs of the family's dealing, Josh comes up to speed quickly.

There's his uncles to contend with, a shifty mix of unstable men, the shifty cops at bay, as well as the good ones.  Ruminating to closely on the plots circumstances I believe might diminish a lot of the power of Animal Kingdom, which won the World Cinema Prize at this years Sundance Film Festival.  But much of this gritty film focuses on the moral choices young Josh must make.  It's a classic struggle of family loyalty versus the right thing to do, and the film rightfully never takes the easy path, as it slowly and carefully maps out the path Josh goes on.  There's a palpable fear, especially as the body count rises, and even Josh's innocent girlfriend (Laura Wheelright) becomes a target, proving this isn't going to be a happily-ever-after Hollywood film.  Director Michod with great authority presents a mobster world that feels far truer and more lived-in than the cinema often provides, avoiding cliches or any winks to the audience.

The ensemble cast in perfect Darwinian fashion are all survivors and ready for the challenge; there really isn't a weak link here.  The most heralded on these shores is surely Guy Pearce playing an honest cop who gives young Josh an outlook for his life, should he choose to accept it.  Pearce, always a strong asset to any filmmaker, is wonderful, eagerly pouncing and at ease with Michod's bull-free tone.  The strongest link, and thus the strongest to survive here or anywhere else is Weaver.  In a performance of extreme subtlety and dimension, she creates a woman who is on the outset so compassionate and benign, it may take another viewing to fully be able to revel when her predictable Lady MacBeth moment takes place.  Make no mistake this sweet and lovable grandmother type will eat her young and anyone else too.  The performance is almost too delicate and juicy that I crave to spend more time with this woman, even though I may fear it as well.  B+