Steve Le Marquand on the set of Heath Davis' Broke.
Four features have been added to the AACTA awards longlist: Michael Petroni's Backtrack, Heath Davis' Broke, Grant Scicluna's Downriver and Craig Boreham's Teenage Kicks.
They join previously announced films A Few Less Men, A Month of Sundays, Beast, Boys in the Trees, Down Under, Early Winter, Embedded, Girl Asleep, Gods of Egypt, Goldstone, Hacksaw Ridge, Joe Cinque's Consolation, Looking for Grace, Pawno, Red Billabong, Scare Campaign, Spear, Spin Out, Spirit of the Game, Sucker, Tanna, The Daughter, The Menkoff Method and Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead.
The additions bring the number of features competing for this year’s AACTA Awards to 28: a record.
“It’s wonderful to see such engagement from the Australian screen industry this year,” said AFI-AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella. “We’ve recently broken a number of records, with more films entering for preselection than ever before, and the most feature films in competition we’ve seen in AACTA’s history.”
AACTA have broadened the selection of features in competition to reflect the record volume of entries received for pre-selection (an increase from 9 in 2015 to 17 in 2016).
“We endeavor to be responsive and grow in-step with the evolving landscape of our industry, and although we weren’t expecting it, it’s great to see so many Australian films entered this year,” said Trewhella. “Following an extensive review, we are thrilled to announce the inclusion of Backtrack, Broke, Downriver and Teenage Kicks to this year’s Feature Films in Competition.”
The films will be screened as part of AACTA's four-week Official Screenings Program for AACTA members, running over August and September in cinemas in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and online via AACTA TV.