Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson leads the nominees for the Australian Film Critics Association (AFCA) Awards, which will be held later this year.
Purcell’s feature directorial debut has scored eight nods, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay, each for the multi-hyphenate. Rob Collins, Malachi Dower-Roberts, and Jessica De Gouw also received acting nominations, while Mark Wareham was nominated for cinematography.
The other nominees for both Best Film and Best Director are Del Kathryn Barton’s Blaze, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Thomas M. Wright’s The Stranger, Goran Stolevski’s You Won’t Be Alone, Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes’ Sissy and Sara Kern’s Moja Vesna.
Up for Best Documentary are Tiriki Onus and Alec Morgan’s Ablaze, Danny Cohen’s Anonymous Club, Lachlan Mcleod’s Clean, Kasimir Burgess’ Franklin and Gus Berger’s The Lost City of Melbourne.
In the international categories, Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Jordan Peele’s Nope, and Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick each received nominations for Best International Film in English, while Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman, Jasmila Zbanic’s Quo Vadis, Aida?, and Colm Bairéad’s The Quiet Girl each received nominations for Best International Film Not in the English Language.
In the Best International Documentary category are A Life on the Farm, Fire of Love, Moonage Daydream, Navalny, and The Velvet Queen.
AFCA is one of Australia’s professional associations for film critics, film reviewers and film journalists who work regularly in the media.
Winners are determined by a two-stage voting process involving AFCA’s membership body. The awards will be held later in 2023 alongside the AFCA writing awards which celebrate the finest film criticism by Australian critics. Launching for the first time in 2023 is the Jim Murphy Broadcast award, recognising the best in radio broadcast or podcasting. This new award is named after pioneering film critic Jim Murphy who co-hosted Australia’s first movie review program with Ivan Hutchison.
The full list of nominees:
BEST FILM
Blaze
Elvis
Moja Vesna
Sissy
The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson
The Stranger
You Won’t Be Alone
BEST DIRECTOR
Del Kathryn Barton – Blaze
Hannah Barlow & Kane Senes – Sissy
Sara Kern – Moja Vesna
Baz Luhrmann – Elvis
Leah Purcell – The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson
Goran Stolevski – You Won’t Be Alone
Thomas M Wright – The Stranger
BEST ACTOR
Austin Butler – Elvis
Joel Edgerton – The Stranger
Idris Elba – Three Thousand Years of Longing
Zac Efron – Gold
Nitin Vengurlekar – The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour
BEST ACTRESS
Aisha Dee – Sissy
Loti Kovacic – Moja Vesna
Leah Purcell – The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson
Julia Savage – Blaze
Noomi Rapace – You Won’t Be Alone
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Simon Baker – Blaze
Rob Collins – The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson
Sean Harris – The Stranger
Daniel Monks – Sissy
Malachi Dower Roberts – The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jessica De Gouw – The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson
Olivia De Jonge – Elvis
Emily De Margheriti – Sissy
Alice Englert – You Won’t Be Alone
Yael Stone – Blaze
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Sam Chiplin – The Stranger
Matthew Chuang – You Won’t Be Alone
Jeremy Rouse – Blaze
Mandy Walker – Elvis
Mark Wareham – The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
BEST SCREENPLAY
Sara Kern – Moja Vesna
Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce, Sam Bramell – Elvis
Leah Purcell – The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
Goran Stolevski – You Won’t Be Alone
Thomas M Wright – The Stranger
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Ablaze
Anonymous Club
Clean
Franklin
The Lost City of Melbourne
INTERNATIONAL CATEGORIES
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM IN ENGLISH
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Nope
Top Gun: Maverick
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Decision To Leave
Drive My Car
Petite Maman
Quo Vadis Aida?
The Quiet Girl
BEST INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY
A Life on The Farm
Fire Of Love
Moonage Daydream
Navalny
The Velvet Queen