As the Hollywood awards season warms up – with a dizzying list of organisations announcing their nominations – it is shaping as a memorable year for Australians at the Academy Awards.
The country’s main hope is Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, which is widely tipped to be nominated for best picture, actor, costume design, production design and editing.
Baz Luhrmann at the Governors Awards in Los Angeles last month. Credit:Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Three of the country’s leading actors are also in contention for Oscar nominations: Cate Blanchett, who plays an obsessive conductor-composer in the drama Tar; Hugh Jackman, who is a troubled New York father in the drama The Son; and Margot Robbie, who is an aspiring actress in the Hollywood comic drama Babylon.
In the last fortnight, Elvis has dominated the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, been named one of the year’s 10 best movies by the American Film Institute, and been nominated for top awards at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, and AACTA International awards.
“We’re just really grateful for the recognition the movie is receiving,” producer Schuyler Weiss said. “Obviously here at home but now we’re getting on a roll in the US.”
Designer Catherine Martin already has four Oscars – more than any other Australian. As one of the producers of Elvis, she is a strong chance of three more nominations when they are announced on January 25, Australian time.
One of the most intriguing questions is whether Luhrmann, her husband and long-time collaborator on Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, Australia, The Great Gatsby and now Elvis, will get an Oscar nomination for best director.
He has often been a polarising filmmaker; his critics dismiss his directing as too flamboyant and stylised even if his films are popular with audiences. So when Luhrmann was nominated at the Oscars as a producer of Moulin Rouge! 20 years ago, he missed out for directing it.
But that might be about to change.
The Hollywood Reporter, which is a credible source as an Oscars predictor, has Luhrmann as a frontrunner for a best director nomination alongside Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans), James Cameron (Avatar: The Way of Water), Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Damien Chazelle (Babylon).
On the circuit: Baz Luhrmann and Anna Wintour arrive for a State Dinner with US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House in Washington on December 1.Credit:AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Other pundits have him missing out to Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), Todd Field (Tar), Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King) or Sarah Polley (Women Talking).
“It’s overdue for Baz,” Weiss said. “The ways in which he pushed himself making this movie, it would be very well deserved to see him finally get that acknowledgment.”
Weiss is hoping that Mandy Walker becoming the first woman to win best cinematographry for Elvis at the AACTA Awards will lead to more awards success.
“That glass ceiling is still intact in the UK at the BAFTAs and in the US at the Oscars, and I’d love to see Mandy continue to get recognised,” he said. “Her work on Elvis is exquisite.
“But there is also the extra impetus of breaking through a gender barrier that is unfortunately so persistent in some parts of the industry.”
At the AACTA International Awards, which will be held virtually on February 24, Elvis is up for best film against Avatar: The Way of Water, Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Banshees of Inisherin and Top Gun: Maverick.
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Email Garry Maddox at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @gmaddox.
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