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 - Happy Families - SCRAPPER (Charlotte Regan, UK, 2022), SHAYDA (Noora Niasari, Australia, 2023)

Shayda (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) and Mona (Selina Zahednia)
Shayda

You suspect from the start, maybe you even know from the start, that things will eventually work out OK. Some semblance of peace, tranquillity or acceptance will ensue. These are just movies and film-makers don’t want to send their audience home unhappy or believing the world is an utterly grim place where the bad guys always win. 

In Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, the ragged and rough girl whose only outfit is a West Ham soccer shirt has been missing a father since birth. Then he hops over the back fence and takes control. Up to then she’s been OK living on her own, pretending to the authorities she has a carer and stealing bikes for a living. 

In  Shayda a little Iranian girl is being cared for in a women’s shelter by a mother on the run from a violent husband, and by a fiercely determined house mother who knows all the tricks that errant fathers get up to try and regain ownership of their children.

 

There you have it two stories made by first time directors that start from simple beginnings and build until they grip and don’t let go.

 

Jason (Harris Dickinson), Georgie (Lola Campbell), Scrapper

In order, Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper had me a bit nostalgic from the beginning. If you were brought up in the fifties and your mother much preferred genteel English comics like The Beano, The Dandy and Film Fun to the likes of The Phantom and Superman,  you might remember Scrapper from the day. He was part of the Ash Can Alley Gang which was a regular in The Beano. Their sworn enemies were the Gasworks Gang. I didn’t get that all from memory. A quick Google search uncovered the info and also the more amazing info that The Beano only ceased publication a decade or so ago.

 

Scrapper was the go to guy when there was a fist fight to be won by the Ash Can Alley Gang. Regan doesn’t give any clue, beyond the film’s title, now a generic term, that she’s a Beano fan. Her approach is much more MTV with shape-changing screens and flashbacks direct to camera that tell the backstory of teenage lovers, accidental pregnancy, irresponsible fathers, sentimental re-bonding. (Maybe that's what PR leaflet was referring to in bold type when it mentioned the film is full of "aesthetic energy".) There is a classic story arc made good by its telling, the authentic detail and the ability of otherwise inarticulate people to bounce one line zingers around the room. Totally captivating.

 

Shayda  is a much more serious movie. Noora Niasari’s debut is autobiographical in the extreme – a memory trace of early life in a women’s shelter escaping violent men and incorporating lots of documentary detail about the court process, possible abduction techniques, access arrangements. It is particularly good in establishing the general unsettling sense of continuous dread that such women and children experience. It is also very good in portraying the way men/a man can turn from apparently sweet-natured and kind to instantly violent and threatening. There is no flashy disco-like cutting, no attempts at alleviating humour. The subject itself is a constant story today, unlike Scrapper's story of a kid who can look after herself quite well and has more street smarts at nine or so than most of us ever have. (And yes I know Hirokazu Koreeda did a movie on the theme as well..).

 

These are both terrific movies and I urge you to see them. Shayda  in particular adds to what seems a rather good year for  independently spirited Australian films – Limbo, The Survival of Kindness, Petrol, Sweet As  and The New Boy spring to mind. (Three of those by established male film-makers and the other three by smart young and very talented women directors…just saying.)