3rd AACTA Awards
Date28 January 2014 and
30 January 2014
SiteThe Star Event Centre
Sydney, New South Wales
Hosted byShane Bourne
Highlights
Best FilmThe Great Gatsby
Most awardsFilm: The Great Gatsby (12)
TV: Top of the Lake, Power Games: The Packer-Murdoch War (3)
Most nominationsFilm: The Great Gatsby (14)
TV: Top of the Lake (10)
Television coverage
NetworkNetwork Ten

The 3rd Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (generally known as AACTA Awards) are a series of awards which includes the 3rd AACTA Awards Luncheon, the 3rd AACTA Awards ceremony and the 3rd AACTA International Awards. The former two events were held at The Star Event Centre, in Sydney, New South Wales on 28 January and 30 January 2014, respectively.[1] Presented by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA), the awards celebrated the best in Australian feature film, television, documentary and short film productions of 2013. The AACTA Awards ceremony were televised on Network Ten. These awards were a continuum of the Australian Film Institute Awards (known as the AFI Awards), established in 1958 and presented until 2010, which was rebranded the AACTA Awards when the Australian Film Institute (AFI) established AACTA in 2011.[2]

The Academy announced new television craft categories on 16 May 2013. However, a lack of funds and loss of a naming rights sponsor caused other categories to be either discontinued or merged with other awards. This included the merger of documentary craft categories into the new television craft prizes, which caused anger in the documentary making community. Due to the outcry, the Academy announced that it had received industry support and reinstated the documentary craft categories.

The nominees were announced during a press conference on 3 December 2013 in Sydney.[3] The Great Gatsby (2013) received the most feature-film nominations with fourteen, earning a nomination in all categories, except for Best Original Screenplay.[4] In television, Top of the Lake gained the most nominations with ten.[4] Desert War and I Am A Girl earned four nominations each in the documentary field.[4]

Background

Category restructuring

In December 2012, AACTA launched a campaign for additional awards. The aim was to include craft awards for television, which the Academy acknowledged was a big gap in the AACTA Awards categories.[5] After consulting various industry guilds in the Australian screen industry, AACTA announced seven new craft categories in the television field for: Best Direction in a Light Entertainment or Reality Series, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Original Music Score, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design.[6] However, a lack of funds, due to the loss of Samsung as a naming rights sponsor in September 2012, lead to the restructuring of some accolades by the Academy for the 2014 awards.[7] The Best Comedy Series and Best Light Entertainment Series were merged into a single Best Television Comedy or Light Entertainment Series. The award for Best Screenplay in a Short Film, Best Visual Effects and Best Young Actor was removed. Several of the documentary awards were also cancelled, including: Best Documentary Under One Hour, Best Documentary Series, Best Direction in a Documentary, Best Cinematography in a Documentary, Best Sound in a Documentary and Best Editing in a Documentary.[6] The documentary craft awards would instead fall under the newly established television craft categories.

This caused anger in the Australian documentary making community, who found the changes to be "completely unacceptable". Representatives of Australian documentary group OzDox, condemned the process by which the category restructuring was made, saying that no one from the documentary sector was consulted during the industry guild consultation period.[8] Australian actor Josh Lawson felt the merger of the Best Comedy Series and Light Entertainment Series categories is "insulting", and the general lack of comedy awards is a "slap in the face" for people working on comedic productions.[9] Following the outcry by OzDox, AACTA announced it had received industry support and reinstated the four documentary craft awards, and split the television directing categories into Best Direction in a Drama or Comedy and Best Direction in a Television Light Entertainment or Reality Series.[10][11]

Winners and nominees

The nominees were announced during a press conference on 3 December 2013 in Sydney.[3] The nominations event was hosted by Rob Carlton and read by Rodger Corser and Gracie Otto.[12] Of the nominees, The Great Gatsby (2013) received the most feature-film nominations with fourteen, including Best Film, Best Direction for Baz Luhrmann, Best Adapted Screenplay for Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce, Best Cinematography for Simon Duggan, Best Lead Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Lead Actress for Rose Byrne, Best Supporting Actor for Joel Edgerton, Best Supporting Actress for Elizabeth Debicki and Isla Fisher, and Best Original Music Score for Craig Armstrong.[4] In television, Top of the Lake received the most nominations with ten. These include Best Telefeature or Mini Series, Best Direction in a Television Drama or Comedy, Best Cinematography in Television, Best Guest or Supporting Actor – Drama for Peter Mullan, and Best Guest or Supporting Actress – Drama for Robyn Nevin, and Best Original Music Score in Television.[4]

Feature film

Best Film Best Direction
Best Original Screenplay Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Lead Actor Best Lead Actress
Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Actress
Best Cinematography Best Editing
Best Original Music Score Best Sound
  • The Great Gatsby – Wayne Pashley, Jenny Ward, Fabian Sanjurjo, Steve Maslow, Phil Heywood, and Guntis Sics
    • Mystery Road – Lawrence Horne, Nick Emond, Joe Huang, Phil Judd, Les Fiddess, and Greg Fitzgerald
    • The Rocket – Sam Petty, Brooke Trezise, Nick Emond, Sam Hayward, and Yulia Akerholt
    • Satellite Boy – Phil Judd, Liam Egan, Nick Emond, Glenn Butler, Les Fiddess, and Jennifer Sochackyj
Best Production Design Best Costume Design

Television

Best Drama Series Best Television Comedy or Light Entertainment Series
Best Telefeature, Mini Series or Short Run Series Best Children's Television Series
Best Reality Television Series Best Screenplay
Best Direction in a Drama or Comedy Best Direction in a Television Light Entertainment or Reality Series
Best Lead Actor – Drama Best Lead Actress – Drama
Best Guest or Supporting Actor – Drama Best Guest or Supporting Actress – Drama
Best Comedy Performance Best Cinematography in Television
Best Sound in Television Best Original Music Score in Television
  • Top of the Lake – Richard Flynn, Tony Vaccher, John Dennison, Craig Butters, Danny Longhurst and Blair Slater for Episode 5: "The Dark Creator" (UKTV)
    • Australia's Got Talent – John Simpson for Series 7, Episode 1: "Auditions" (Nine Network)
    • Mrs Biggs – John Wilkinson, John Hughes, Clare Howarth, John Senior and John Whitworth
      for "Episode 5" (Seven Network)
    • Redfern Now – Grant Shepherd, Wes Chew, Robert MacKenzie, Tom Herdman and Sam Gain-Emery for Episode 3: "Babes in Arms" (ABC1)
Best Production Design in Television Best Costume Design in Television
Best Editing in Television

Documentary

Best Feature Length Documentary Best Documentary Television Program
  • Redesign My Brain – Paul Scott and Isabel Perez (ABC1)
    • Desert War – Andrew Ogilvie, Andrea Quesnelle, and Phil Craig (ABC1)
    • First Footprints – Martin Butler and Bentley Dean (ABC1)
    • Jabbed – Love, Fear and Vaccines – Sonya Pemberton (SBS)
Best Direction in a Documentary Best Cinematography in a Documentary
  • Kakadu – Nick Robinson and Luke Peterson for Episode Four (ABC1)
Best Editing in a Documentary Best Sound in a Documentary
  • Desert War – Ash Gibson Greig, Ric Curtin, Glenn Martin, Ash Charlton, and Chris Bollard for "Tobruk" (ABC1)

Short film

Best Short Animation Best Short Fiction Film
  • A Cautionary Tail – Pauline Piper and Simon Rippingale
    • Butterflies – Warwick Burton and Isabel Peppard
    • The Dukes of Bröxstônia – Stu Connolly
    • Woody – Stuart Bowen and Jodi Matterson
  • The Last Time I Saw Richard – John Molloy and Nicholas Verso
    • Perception – Lyn Norfor and Miranda Nation
    • Record – David Lyons and Dave Szamet
    • Tau Seru – Rodd Rathjen

Productions with multiple nominations

Feature film

The following feature films received multiple nominations.

Television

The following television shows received multiple nominations.

See also

Notes

A1 2 : The Turning Ensemble consists of the seventeen people who directed their individual segments in the film. They are: Jonathan auf der Heide, Tony Ayres, Simon Stone, Jub Clerc, Robert Connolly, Shaun Gladwell, Rhys Graham, Justin Kurzel, Yaron Lifschitz, Anthony Lucas, Claire McCarthy, Ian Meadows, Ashlee Page, Stephen Page, Warwick Thornton, Marieka Walsh, Mia Wasikowska and David Wenham.[13]

References

  1. ^ "3rd AACTA Awards – Tickets On Sale Now". AACTA. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  2. ^ "Awarding screen excellence in Australia". Australian Film Institute. Archived from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  3. ^ a b Australian Academy announces 3rd AACTA Awards Nominees, renewed partnerships with Destination NSW and The Star, and new partners Foxtel and Audi Archived 2013-12-14 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d e "3rd AACTA Nominees by Production" (PDF). AACTA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  5. ^ "Australian Academy Launches Campaign for Additional Awards" (PDF). Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). 13 December 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  6. ^ a b "Australian Academy Calls for AACTA Awards Entrants, Announces New Television Awards" (PDF). Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). 16 May 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  7. ^ Blatchford, Emily (16 May 2013). "AACTA announces changes to Awards, six new awards created for television craft". if.com.au. Inside Film magazine. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  8. ^ Quinn, Karl (25 May 2013). "Documentary makers furious at being cut from AACTA awards". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  9. ^ Moran, Jonathon (6 December 2013). "Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards are no laughing matter for Josh Lawson". The Daily Telegraph. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  10. ^ Groves, Don (4 July 2013). "AACTA reinstates documentary craft awards". if.com.au. Inside Film magazine. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  11. ^ "AACTA reinstates documentary craft Awards with industry support" (PDF). Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). 4 July 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  12. ^ "Great Gatsby a leader". The West Australian. Seven West Media. 3 December 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  13. ^ George, Sandy (23 March 2012). "Blanchett one of 17 directors behind The Turning". Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). Retrieved 14 January 2014.

External links

AACTA Awards
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