4th AACTA Awards


The 4th Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards are a series of awards which includes the 4th AACTA Awards Luncheon, the 4th AACTA Awards ceremony and the 4th AACTA International Awards. The former two events will be held at The Star Event Centre, in Sydney, New South Wales in late January 2015. Presented by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts, the awards will celebrate the best in Australian feature film, television, documentary and short film productions of 2014. The AACTA Awards ceremony will be televised on Network Ten for the third year running. The 4th AACTA Awards are a continuum of the Australian Film Institute Awards, established in 1958 and presented until 2010 after which it was rebranded the AACTA Awards when the Australian Film Institute established AACTA in 2011.
The nominees were announced during a press conference on 2 December 2014 at The Star hotel in Sydney. Predestination and The Water Diviner received the most feature-film nominations with nine, earning a nomination in most of the categories, except for Best Sound. In television, The Code gained the most nominations with ten. Ukraine is Not a Brothel earned six nominations in the documentary field.

Background

Entry and eligibility

On 20 May 2014, AACTA made its first call for entrants in short film and feature film prizes for 2015, also mentioning that, unlike previous years, only AACTA members are allowed to submit material for nomination in all categories. Feature film eligibility was also broadened for the 4th AACTA Awards, to accept entries for films released on video on demand and direct-to-DVD platforms, as well as films that have had one film festival screening in at least three Australian states. Films meeting the aforementioned criteria were eligible to compete alongside those that have the traditional 2–4 capital city release. Entries for the documentary categories opened on 18 June 2014 and closed on 18 July 2014.

Social Shorts

At the call for entry announcement, the Academy also revealed a new short film initiative called "Social Shorts". The program allowed the films not nominated in any of the short film categories to be seen by the public via the AACTA website. It also aimed to draw attention to future filmmakers through this initiative. The shorts were split into comedy, drama and independent categories, and received acknowledgements and certifications as chosen by the general public, and AFI and AACTA members. In addition to this, the Academy announced that it the lowering of the entry fee into the official awards from A$396 in the previous year, to A$100 for shorts.

Categories

A new documentary category for Best Original Music Score was given for the first time, having previously been judged with the Best Sound in a Documentary award. The award for Best Television Comedy or Light Entertainment Series was once again split into separate prizes, for Best Television Comedy Series and Best Light Entertainment Television Series, after the two categories were merged for the 3rd AACTA Awards. The Best Visual Effects award was renamed Best Visual Effects or Animation. Additionally, this category is now open to any film, television or documentary production, regardless of geography, which has had 100% of its visual effects and animation made in Australia.

Ceremonies

The AACTA Awards were held over two events: the AACTA Awards Luncheon and AACTA Awards Ceremony on the 27 and 29 of January, respectively. Both presentations took place at The Star Event Centre, the latter of which was broadcast on free-to-air Network Ten for the third year running, with an encore screening on subscription television channel Arena on 31 January. The luncheon was to be presented by Angus Sampson, however, due to filming commitments he had to pull out from hosting duties and replaced by Australian actor Adam Zwar. The ceremony was presided over by Australian actresses Cate Blanchett and Deborah Mailman.
The Channel Ten broadcast was seen as a flop, rating just 297,000 viewers in a primetime slot.

Nominees and winners

The first round of nominees were announced on 3 September for Best Short Animation and Best Short Fiction Film. Six days later, the nominees for Best Feature Length Documentary were revealed.
The feature-films in contention were announced on 17 September with 25 films competing in the 4th AACTA Awards. The number of films in competition are up from the previous year where only 15 features competed.
The nominees for feature-films and Television were announced during a press conference on 2 December 2014 in Sydney. The nominations event was hosted by Rob Carlton and announced by Susie Porter and Dan Wyllie. Of the nominees, Peter Spierig, and Michael Spierig's sci-fi thriller Predestination and Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner received the most feature-film nominations with nine, including Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. In television, The Code received the most nominations with ten. These include Best Drama Series, Best Direction in a Television Drama or Comedy, Best Screenplay in Television, Best Cinematography in Television, Best Lead Actor – Drama for Dan Spielman and Ashley Zukerman, and Best Guest or Supporting Actress – Drama for Chelsie Preston-Crayford, Best Editing in Television, Best Sound in Television, Best Production Design in Television and Best Original Music Score in Television.

Feature film

Winners will be listed first and highlighted in boldface.
Best FilmBest Direction

  • Jennifer Kent – The Babadook
  • *Rolf de Heer – Charlie's Country
  • *Peter Spierig, and Michael Spierig – Predestination
  • *David Michôd – The Rover
    • Best Original ScreenplayBest Adapted Screenplay
  • The Babadook – Jennifer Kent
  • *52 Tuesdays – Matthew Cormack, and Sophie Hyde
  • *Charlie's Country – Rolf de Heer, and David Gulpilil
  • *The Water Diviner – Andrew Anastasios, and Andrew Knight
  • The Railway Man – Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson, based on the novel of the same name by Eric Lomax
  • *Predestination – Peter Spierig, and Michael Spierig, based on the short story by Robert A. Heinlein
    • Best Lead ActorBest Lead Actress
  • David Gulpilil – Charlie's Country as Charlie
  • *Russell Crowe – The Water Diviner as Connor
  • *Damon Herriman – The Little Death as Dan
  • *Guy Pearce – The Rover as Eric
  • Sarah Snook – Predestination as The Unmarried Mother
  • *Kate Box – The Little Death as Rowena
  • *Essie Davis – The Babadook as Amelia
  • *Mia Wasikowska – Tracks as Robyn Davidson
    • Best Supporting ActorBest Supporting Actress
  • Yılmaz Erdoğan – The Water Diviner as Major Hasan
  • *Patrick Brammall – The Little Death as Richard
  • *Robert Pattinson – The Rover as Reynolds
  • *TJ Power – The Little Death as Sam
  • Susan Prior – The Rover as Dot
  • *Erin James – The Little Death as Monica
  • *Jacqueline McKenzie – The Water Diviner as Eliza
  • *Kate Mulvany – The Little Death as Evie
    • Best CinematographyBest Editing
  • Predestination – Ben Nott ACS
  • *Fell – Marden Dean
  • *The Railway Man – Gary Phillips ACS
  • *Tracks – Mandy Walker ASC ACS
  • Predestination – Matt Villa ASE
  • *52 Tuesdays – Bryan Mason
  • *The Babadook – Simon Njoo
  • *The Water Diviner – Matt Villa ASE
    • Best Original Music ScoreBest Sound
  • The Railway Man – David Hirschfelder
  • *Healing – David Hirschfelder
  • *Predestination – Peter Spierig
  • *The Rover – Sam Petty and Antony Partos
  • The Rover – Sam Petty, Des Kenneally, Justine Angus, Brooke Trezise, Francis Ward Lindsay, and Robert Mackenzie
  • *Charlie's Country – James Currie, and Tom Heuzenroeder
  • *Felony – William Ward, Andrew Plain, Grant Shepherd, and Robert Mackenzie
  • *The Railway Man – Andrew Plain, Gethin Creagh, Craig Walmsley, and Colin Nicolson
    • Best Production DesignBest Costume Design
  • Predestination – Matthew Putland
  • *The Babadook – Alex Holmes
  • *The Rover – Josephine Ford
  • *The Water Diviner – Christopher Kennedy
  • The Water Diviner – Tess Schofield
  • *Predestination – Wendy Cork
  • *The Railway Man – Lizzy Gardiner
  • *Tracks – Mariot Kerr

    • Television

    Documentary

    Short film

    Other

    Productions with multiple nominations

    Feature film

    The following feature films received multiple nominations.
    The following television shows received multiple nominations.
    The following documentaries received multiple nominations.