Nicole Kidman with Glenn Close.
Nicole Kidman’s prospects of winning an Academy Award for best supporting actress in Joel Edgerton’s gay conversion therapy drama Boy Erased may be brighter after she collected her second AACTA International Award, given the overlap between the two organisation’s memberships.
At the awards presented in Los Angeles on Friday night LA time Tony McNamara and Deborah Davis shared the best screenplay prize for The Favourite.
Alfonso Cuarón’s ROMA collected the awards for best film and best direction. Cuarón, who won the same two awards in 2014 for Gravity, now holds the record for the most AACTA International Award wins by an individual, beating Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who has three.
The Favourite’s Olivia Coleman was named best lead actress while Bohemian Rhapsody’s Rami Malek took home the best lead actor trophy and Mahershala Ali was judged best supporting actor for his performance as jazz pianist and composer Don Shirley in Green Book, which opens here on January 24.
Hannah Gadsby was retrospectively presented with the AACTA Award for best performance in a TV comedy comedy for the Netflix special Nanette.
Emily Blunt, John Krasinski and Alfonso Cuarón.
Kidman received the same prize at the AACTA Awards in Sydney last month. Her first AACTA International accolade was best supporting actress in Garth Davis’ Lion, which also earned her an Academy Award nomination.
While some pundits list her as a contender for an Oscar this year, she is ranked behind the front runners Amy Adams (Vice), Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place), Margot Robbie (Mary Queen of Scots), Emma Stone (The Favourite) and Rachel Weisz (The Favourite).
All five were nominated in the Screen Actors Guild Award in that category while the critics’ overwhelming favourite, Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk), was snubbed. Only one person has ever won the supporting actress Oscar without a SAG nomination first – Marcia Gay Harden for 2000’s Pollock.
Hosted by Renee Bargh, the 8th AACTA International Awards ceremony was held at The Mondrian Hotel. Highlights will be screened on Foxtel Arts’ Screen program on Wednesday at 7.30pm AEDT.