Danny and Michael Philippou’s break-out horror Talk To Me has once again made itself heard, this time at Thursday’s AACTA Industry Awards on the Gold Coast, where it led the film categories with five gongs.
The film, a box office hit both at home and abroad since selling to A24 on the back of last year’s Sundance, was awarded Best Editing for Geoff Lamb, Best Original Score for Cornel Wilczek, Best Screenplay for Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, Best Sound for Emma Bortignon, Pete Smith, and Nick Steele, and Best Hair and Makeup for Rebecca Buratto, Paul Katte and Nick Nicolaou.
Talk to Me is up for a further five awards at the AACTA Ceremony this Saturday, including Best Film and Best Direction for the Philippou twins.
Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy, which is the most nominated film overall with 12 nods, was the only other film to be a multiple winner at the Industry Awards, with Thornton winning Best Cinematography and Amy Baker taking out Best Production Design.
Ivan Sen’s Limbo was named Best Indie Film of Year, a prize that honours which honours independent and low budget filmmaking under $2 million. The outback noir beat out Rolf de Heer’s The Survival of Kindness, Madeleine Dyer’s A Savage Christmas, Matt Vesely’s Monolith, Mark Leonard Winter’s The Rooster and Ronnie S Riskalla’s Streets of Colour.
The honours were more evenly shared in the television categories, where SBS docuseries The Australian Wars and Amazon Prime Video series Deadloch and The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart each had three wins.
Rachel Perkins, presenter and director of The Australia Wars, was recognised for Best Direction in Nonfiction Television alongside Dylan River and Tov Belling, as well as for Best Documentary or Factual Program with her fellow producers on the series, Darren Dale and Belinda Mravicic. Andrea Lang, Mark Atkin and Hilary Balmond were also honoured for their editing.
The first episode of Tasmanian-shot comedy Deadloch won Best Editing for Angie Higgins and Best Original Score for Amanda Brown, while Alison Telford and Kate Leonard received Best Casting for their work on the series. The opening episode of Amazon stablemate The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart took out Best Cinematography for Sam Chiplin and Best Production Design for Melinda Doring, with episode six awarded Best Sound for David Lee, Robert Mackenzie, Leah Katz and James Ashton.
Also among other the winners was the second season of ABC drama The Newsreader, the fourth episode of which snared two awards: Best Costume Design for Zed Dragojlovich and Best Direction in Drama or Comedy for Emma Freeman.
Of the documentary categories, Sherwin Akbarzadeh was given Best Cinematography for The Giants, Caitlin Yeo and Damien Lane were awarded Best Original Score for The Dark Emu Story, and David Williams picked up Best Sound for Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story.
SBS Digital Original Latecomers and Francisca Braithwaite’s Finding Addison rounded out the night, named Best Online Drama or Comedy and Best Short Film, respectively.
Warwick Thornton, Kate McCartney, Kate McLennan, Darren Gilshenan, and Zoe Coombs Marr were among the presenters at Thursday’s ceremony, which was hosted by Harry Connick Jr.
AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella said the awards not only honoured the outstanding achievements of the industry’s finest but were also a testament to the “vibrant creativity that defines Australian cinema and television”.
“We applaud the exceptional craftsmanship and dedication of Australia’s screen industry showcased at the 2024 AACTA Industry Awards,” he said.
“Congratulations to all the deserving winners, whose talent and innovation continue to push the boundaries of storytelling.”
The AACTA Awards main ceremony will be held Saturday at Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast. The ceremony will be broadcast on 10 at 7pm AEDT while a ‘director’s cut’, featuring all awards will be available on Binge, Foxtel On-Demand and AACTA TV the next day.
The full list of AACTA Industry Award winners is below:
FILM
• AACTA Award for Best Casting in Film presented by Casting Networks: Shayda – Anousha Zarkesh
• AACTA Award for Best Cinematography in Film: The New Boy – Warwick Thornton
• AACTA Award for Best Costume Design in Film: Carmen – Emily Seresin
• AACTA Award for Best Editing in Film presented by Spectrum Films: Talk to Me – Geoff Lamb
• AACTA Award for Best Indie Film: Limbo – Ivan Sen (Dir.), David Jowsey, Greer Simpkin, Rachel Higgins – Bunya Productions
• AACTA Award for Best Original Score in Film: Talk to Me – Cornel Wilczek
• AACTA Award for Best Production Design in Film: The New Boy – Amy Baker
• AACTA Award for Best Screenplay in Film: Talk to Me – Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman
• AACTA Award for Best Sound in Film: Talk to Me – Emma Bortignon, Pete Smith, Nick Steele
• AACTA Award for Best Hair and Makeup presented by HASK: Talk to Me – Rebecca Buratto, Paul Katte, Nick Nicolaou
• AACTA Award for Best Visual Effects or Animation: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Andrew Whitehurst, Kathy Siegel, Alistair Williams, Julian Hutchens, Ian Cope – Rising Sun Pictures
TELEVISION
• AACTA Award for Best Casting in Television presented by Casting Networks: Deadloch – Alison Telford, Kate Leonard
• AACTA Award for Best Cinematography in Television: The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – Episode 1 – Sam Chiplin
• AACTA Award for Best Costume Design in Television: The Newsreader – Episode 4 – Zed Dragojlovich
• AACTA Award for Best Direction in Drama or Comedy: The Newsreader (Episode 4) – Emma Freeman
• AACTA Award for Best Direction in Nonfiction Television: The Australian Wars (Episode 1) – Rachel Perkins, Dylan River, Tov Belling
• AACTA Award for Best Documentary or Factual Program: The Australian Wars – Darren Dale, Rachel Perkins, Belinda Mravicic – Blackfella Films Pty Ltd (NITV, SBS)
• AACTA Award for Best Editing in a Documentary: The Australian Wars – Andrea Lang, Mark Atkin, Hilary Balmond
• AACTA Award for Best Editing in Television: Deadloch – Episode 1 – Angie Higgins
• AACTA Award for Best Entertainment Program: Eurovision Song Contest 2023 – Grand Final – Paul Clarke, Emily Griggs – Blink TV Production Pty Ltd (SBS)
• AACTA Award for Best Original Score in Television: Deadloch – Episode 1 – Amanda Brown
• AACTA Award for Best Production Design in Television: The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – Episode 1 – Melinda Doring
• AACTA Award for Best Sound in Television: The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – Episode 6 – David Lee, Robert Mackenzie, Leah Katz, James Ashton
DOCUMENTARY
• AACTA Award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary: The Giants – Sherwin Akbarzadeh
• AACTA Award for Best Original Score in a Documentary: The Dark Emu Story – Caitlin Yeo, Damien Lane
• AACTA Award for Best Sound in a Documentary: Ego: The Michael Gudinski Story – David Williams
ONLINE
• AACTA Award for Best Online Drama or Comedy: Latecomers – Liam Heyen, Hannah Ngo, Angus Thompson, Emma Myers, Nina Oyama, Madeleine Gottlieb, Alistair Baldwin – Mad Ones Films & Lazy Susan Films
SHORT FILM
• AACTA Award for Best Short Film: Finding Addison – Francisca Braithwaite, Jess Milne, Nick Bolton – Blue Sparrow Entertainment