FILM CRITICS CIRCLE OF AUSTRALIA - NOMINATIONS FOR THE FCCA ANNUAL AWARDS FOR AUSTRALIAN FILM FOR 2023

NOMINATIONS FOR THE FILM CRITICS CIRCLE OF AUSTRALIA ANNUAL AWARDS FOR AUSTRALIAN FILM

THE FILMS OF 2023

 

  

BEST FILM

LIMBO                                                                               

PRODUCERS: RACHEL HIGGINS, DAVID JOWSEY, GREER SIMPKIN, IVAN SEN

THE NEW BOY                                                         

PRODUCERS: CATE BLANCHETT, LORENZO DE MAIO, GEORGIE PYM, KATH SHELPER, ANDREW UPTON

OF AN AGE                                                                       

PRODUCERS: KRISTINA CEYTON, SAMANTHA JENNINGS

THE ROYAL HOTEL                                                         

PRODUCERS: IAIN CANNING, KATH SHELPER, EMILE SHERMAN, LIZ WATTS

SHAYDA                                                                   

PRODUCERS: NOORA NIASARI, VINCENT SHEEHAN

 

BEST DIRECTOR

ROLF DE HEER                                                       

THE SURVIVAL OF KINDNESS

NOORA NIASARI                                                              

SHAYDA

IVAN SEN                                                        

LIMBO

WARWICK THORNTON                                                    

THE NEW BOY

 

BEST ACTOR     

ELIAS ANTON                                                                   

OF AN AGE                           

SIMON BAKER                                                        

LIMBO

THOM GREEN                                                                  

OF AN AGE

ASWAN REID                                                                    

THE NEW BOY

 

BEST SCREENPLAY

KITTY GREEN and OSCAR REDDING                             

THE ROYAL HOTEL

NOORA NIASARI                                                              

SHAYDA

IVAN SEN                                                                 

LIMBO

WARWICK THORNTON                                                    

THE NEW BOY

 

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

WAYNE BLAIR                                                                  

THE NEW BOY

ROB COLLINS                                                                  

LIMBO

NICHOLAS HOPE                                                             

LIMBO

HUGO WEAVING                                                              

THE ROYAL HOTEL

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

ANDREW COMMIS/RICK RIFICI (UNDERWATER CINEMATOGRAPHY)   

BLUEBACK 

MAXX CORKINDALE                                                        

THE SURVIVAL OF KINDNESS

IVAN SEN                                                                 

LIMBO

WARWICK THORNTON                                                    

THE NEW BOY            

 

BEST ACTRESS

CATE BLANCHETT                                                          

THE NEW BOY

ZAR AMIR EBRAHIMI                                                       

SHAYDA

MWAJEMI HUSSEIN                                                         

THE SURVIVAL OF KINDNESS

SOPHIE WILDE                                                        

TALK TO ME

 

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

DEBORAH MAILMAN                                                       

THE NEW BOY

LEAH PURCELL                                                               

SHAYDA

NATASHA WANGANEEN                                                  

LIMBO

URSULA YOVICH                                                              

THE ROYAL HOTEL

 

 

BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

THE CARNIVAL                                                       

DIRECTOR: ISABEL DARLING PRODUCERS: TOM ZUBRYCKI, ISABEL DARLING

THE DEFENDERS                                                             

DIRECTOR: MATTHEW BATE PRODUCERS: ALICE BURGIN, GAL GREENSPAN

THE GIANTS                                                                     

DIRECTORS: LAURENCE  BILLIET, RACHAEL ANTONY PRODUCER: RACHAEL ANTONY

RACHEL’S FARM                                                              

DIRECTOR: RACHEL WARD, PRODUCER: BETTINA DALTON, RACEL WARD

SHACKLETON: THE GREATEST STORY OF SURVIVAL         

DIRECTORS:  BOBBI HANSEL, CASPAR MAZZOTTI 

PRODUCERS: DAVID GROSS, ELECTRA MANIKAKIS, NICK ROBINSON

 

FCCA IS GRATEFUL TO OUR SUPPORTERS AND SPONSORS

 

SPECTRUM FILMS, BUNYA PRODUCTIONS, ALLEN & UNWIN 

& GABRIEL COFFEE

 

RODNEY MARKS AND BENJAMIN MARKS

The Current Cinema - Highly recommended - MY NAME IS GULPILIL (Molly Reynolds, Australia, 2021)

Molly Reynolds documentary on the life and near to death of Indigenous actor David Gulpilil seems to be a surprise hit. It’s also probably a certainty for any best documentary awards going round this year, an ironic situation for the fact that recognising Reynolds’ work as a documentary film-maker should have happened several years ago when she released her previous film Another Country. Still, bye the bye…

 

My Name is Gulpilil starts from a massive residue of affection for an actor who has been at it now for fifty plus years, beginning all the way back when the Brit Nicholas Roeg brought himself out here to make Walkabout. Gulpilil’s presence was basically the only human Australian element in the movie.

 

But now he’s sick, living away from his homeland, cared for by a truly saintly woman named Mary and he has been encouraged by Reynolds to give one last performance. On the way we are taken through his key roles and learn a little more about his life including the addiction and drinking problems and the occasional descent into complete poverty. 

 

A couple of things shine through. It took Gulpilil some thirty years before, thanks to Rolf de Heer, he was cast as the lead in a movie. That was The Tracker  made in 2002 and which won a host of awards including a sweep for Gulpilil in the AFI, FCCA and IF Awards for Best Actor.

 

What comes through from Molly Reynolds’ gentle probing is how all of Gulpilil’s key roles derive from some lived experience. He has no need of method acting to know about being an outsider, a criminal, a wanted man, an addict, an Indigenous man affected by casual and systemic racism in his own country. He’s lived it all. 

 

Molly Reynolds has captured it all too. Engrossing film-making. 

...and, it having been unearthed presumably from the NFSA's holdings, surely Gulpilil's  one man cabaret show, excerpts from which are included throughout the new film, crudely filmed as it apparently was, deserves another run somewhere maybe like NITV. It seems to already be an extraordinarily precious bit of the national heritage that should be screened much more.