The Film Critics Circle of Australia announces its award winners for 2021

 

High Ground

Tuesday 1 February 2022

 

FCCA ANNUAL AWARDS FOR THE FILMS OF 2021

 

The Film Critics Circle of Australia is pleased to announce the nominations and winners for the films of 2021. 

 

Due to circumstances, especially the difficulties raised by the Covid pandemic, the FCCA was unable to hold an event for the films of 2021. However, in line with the organisation’s aims to celebrate the excellence in Australian cinema, all Australian films released were viewed and voted on. The voting was extremely tight in the final rounds resulting in a dual award in the Best Director category.

 

Nominations and winners listed in alphabetical order:

 

Best Film

High Ground

Producers: David Jowsey, Maggie Miles, Witiyana Marika, Greer Simpkin, Stephen Maxwell Johnson

Nitram

Producers: Nick Batzias, Virginia Whitwell, Justin Kurzel, Shaun Grant

The Dry

Producers: Bruna Papandrea, Jodi Matterson, Steve Hutensky, Rob Connolly, Eric Bana

 

Best Director

Robert Connolly, The Dry

Stephen Maxwell Johnson, High Ground

Justin Kurzel, Nitram

 

Best Screenplay

Chris Anastassiades, High Ground

Robert Connolly & Harry Cripps, The Dry

Shaun Grant, Nitram

 

Best Cinematography

Sam Chiplin, Penguin Bloom

Andrew Commis, High Ground

Stefan Duscio, The Dry

 

Best Actor

Eric Bana, The Dry

Caleb Landry Jones, Nitram

Jacob Junior Nayinggul, High Ground

 

Best Actress

Judy Davis, Nitram

Noni Hazlehurst, June Again

Naomi Watts, Penguin Bloom

 

Best Actress- Supporting Role

Essie Davis, Nitram

Claudia Karvan, June Again

Miranda Tapsell, The Dry

 

Best Actor Supporting Role

Anthony LaPaglia, Nitram

Sean Mununggurr, High Ground

Stephen Hunter, Ruby’s Choice

 

Any queries should be address to the Awards Manager Adrienne Mckibbins at filmcriticsaust@bigpond.com

FILM CRITICS CIRCLE OF AUSTRALIA ANNUAL AWARDS - NOMINATIONS FOR THE BEST AUSTRALIAN FILMS OF 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 17, 2022

  

FCCA ANNUAL AWARDS - NOMINATIONS FOR THE FILMS OF 2021

 

The Film Critics Circle of Australia is pleased to announce the nominations for the films of 2021, in the categories of Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress and Supporting Actor. Winners will be announced on January 31 via press release and posted at fcca.com.au

 

Nominations listed in Alphabetical Order

 

Best Film

 

High Ground

Producers: David Jowsey, Maggie Miles, Witiyana Marika, Greer Simpkin, Stephen Maxwell Johnson

 

Nitram

Producers: Nick Batzias, Virginia Whitwell, Justin Kurzel, Shaun Grant

 

The Dry

Producers: Bruna Papandrea, Jodi Matterson, Steve Hutensky, Rob Connolly, Eric Bana

 

Best Director

 

Robert Connolly, The Dry

Stephen Maxwell Johnson, High Ground

Justin Kurzel, Nitram

 

Best Screenplay

 

Chris Anastassiades, High Ground

Robert Connolly & Harry Cripps, The Dry

Shaun Grant, Nitram

 

Best Cinematography

 

Sam Chiplin, Penguin Bloom

Andrew Commis, High Ground

Stefan Duscio, The Dry

 

Best Actor

 

Eric Bana, The Dry

Caleb Landry Jones, Nitram

Jacob Junior Nayinggul, High Ground

 

Best Actress

 

Judy Davis, Nitram

Noni Hazlehurst, June Again

Naomi Watts, Penguin Bloom

Best Actress- Supporting Role

 

Essie Davis, Nitram

Claudia Karvan, June Again

Miranda Tapsell, The Dry

 

Best Actor Supporting Role

 

Anthony LaPaglia, Nitram

Sean Mununggurr, High Ground

Stephen Hunter, Ruby’s Choice

 

Any queries should be address to the Awards Manager Adrienne Mckibbins at filmcriticsaust@bigpond.com

 

 

 

The Current Cinema - Two new Australian films - THE DRY (Robert Connolly, 2020) and HIGH GROUND (Stephen Maxwell Johnson, 2020)

For the tens of thousands of readers of Jane Harper’s The Dry who head off for the movie there will be a moment early on when, sighting one character, memory should kick in and you remember just who the villain of the piece is. Readers will have a far different experience of the movie than those who come to it ignorant of the novel’s mystery. For readers the pleasure can only reside in watching the mechanics of the story being worked out in a quite meticulous way and soaking up the atmosphere of another of those country towns slowly dying. 

Robert Connolly’s movie is as faithful an adaptation as you can get. Even the misleads of the book are on show in great detail. It goes to lengths to preserve the structure and the way the story is resolved. We are a very long way from Big Sleep  adventurism here whereby neither Hawks, nor Faulkner nor indeed Raymond Chandler had any idea of just who had done what to whom and the whole thing pivoted to play and fun, set pieces taking over from the narrative.

 

I assume that that the film-makers of The Dry wanted that fidelity and high seriousness, expecting that Jane Harper’s tens of thousands of readers would be expanded into hundreds of thousands attending a movie version. 

 

So yes all that meticulous representation works – the atmosphere of the town in a drought; the collection of characters ranging all the way from smart intelligent women, the very tentative sexual encounters, male outback hicks who start fights in pubs at the drop of a hat. And everyone has  a secret…

 

Stephen Maxwell Johnson’s High Country  runs through tropes we’ve seen before in Rolf De Heer’s The Tracker, Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale and Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country. Its variations are OK I guess but the key feature that intrigues is the increase in violence to Sam Peckinpah levels of brutality and extent, lots of casual gunplay that is not for the squeamish. 

 

High Country  does have one element of great interest. It charts another variation on the early role of the Christian church in seeking to tame the savages and bring them to a docile civilisation. The fact that revenge is taken and the pathetic structure erected by the overwrought priest and his sister missionary goes up in flames might give a sense of feel good satisfaction but hardly represents a blip in the malign and continuing influence of the church over two hundred years. You can get a shorter version of the idea if you listen to Kev Carmody.