'Elvis' and 'Mystery Road: Origin' Lead the 2022 AACTA Award Nominations
Also scoring some love: 'The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson', 'Three Thousand Years of Longing', 'Heartbreak High' and 'The Tourist'.
When Baz Luhrmann makes a new film, the world takes notice — including the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and its annual awards. No stranger to heaping the filmmaker's movies with accolades, with every single one of his past flicks from Strictly Ballroom through to The Great Gatsby scoring nominations (and those two specific titles winning Best Film), AACTA has continued the trend by showering the director's latest in 2022 nods.
Topping the just-announced nominations for this year's AACTA Awards — which were previously called the AFI Awards, before changing their name — Elvis picked up a whopping 15 nods, the most of any film. The accolades recognise the best and brightest in Australian cinema and television each year, with Mystery Road: Origin also scoring the same amount of noms in the TV categories.
In their respective formats, Elvis and Mystery Road: Origin have plenty of company. The former is competing against Here Out West, Sissy, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson, The Stranger and Three Thousand Years of Longing for 2022's Best Film, for instance — and the latter is up against Bump, Heartbreak High, Love Me, The Tourist and Wolf Like Me for the year's best television drama.
The winners of those categories, and AACTA's full list of fields, will be announced in early December on two dates: Monday, December 5 and Wednesday, December 7.
Also highlights among the film nominees: 13 nominations apiece for The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson and Three Thousand Years of Longing, Austin Butler getting an unsurprising Best Actor nomination for playing the King of Rock 'n' Roll, Nude Tuesday scoring a heap of love, acting nods for the powerful Blaze and a whole heap of recognition for The Stranger, including for writer/director Thomas M Wright.
And, among the TV cohort, Mystery Road: Origin also picked up five noms in the four acting fields for TV dramas, spanning Mark Coles Smith, Tuuli Narkle, Daniel Henshall, Steve Bisley and Hayley McElhinney; Love Me and The Twelve nabbed ten nominations each across all categories; and Heartbreak High's James Majoos received the show's sole acting nod.
Across both film and TV, a heap of international names graced the acting nominations, too, a common AACTAs trend. On 2022's list: Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton for Three Thousand Years of Longing, both the aforementioned Butler and Tom Hanks for Elvis, Sean Harris for The Stranger, Jackie van Beek and Jemaine Clement for Nude Tuesday, Joanna Lumley for Falling for Figaro and Jamie Dornan for The Tourist.
Here's a selection of this year's major AACTA nominations, ahead of the awards' ceremonies on Monday, December 5 and Wednesday, December 7 — and you can check out the full list on AACTA's website:
AACTA NOMINEES 2022:
FILM AWARDS:
BEST FILM
Elvis
Here Out West
Sissy
The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
The Stranger
Three Thousand Years of Longing
BEST INDIE FILM
A Stitch In Time
Akoni
Darklands
Lonesome
Pieces
Smoke Between Trees
BEST DIRECTION
Baz Luhrmann, Elvis
Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes, Sissy
Leah Purcell, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
Thomas M Wright, The Stranger
George Miller, Three Thousand Years of Longing
BEST LEAD ACTOR
Austin Butler, Elvis
Rob Collins, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
Joel Edgerton, The Stranger
Idris Elba, Three Thousand Years of Longing
Damon Herriman, Nude Tuesday
BEST LEAD ACTRESS
Aisha Dee, Sissy
Leah Purcell, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
Julia Savage, Blaze
Tilda Swinton, Three Thousand Years of Longing
Jackie van Beek, Nude Tuesday
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Simon Baker, Blaze
Jemaine Clement, Nude Tuesday
Malachi Dower-Roberts, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
Tom Hanks, Elvis
Sean Harris, The Stranger
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jada Alberts, The Stranger
Jessica De Gouw, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
Olivia DeJonge, Elvis
Joanna Lumley, Falling For Figaro
Yael Stone, Blaze
BEST SCREENPLAY
Baz Luhrmann, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce and Jeremy Doner, Elvis
Jackie van Beek, Nude Tuesday
Leah Purcell, The Drover's Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
Thomas M Wright, The Stranger
George Miller and Augusta Gore, Three Thousand Years of Longing
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Ablaze
Clean
Everybody's Oma
Franklin
Ithaka
River
TELEVISION AWARDS:
BEST DRAMA SERIES
Bump
Heartbreak High
Love Me
Mystery Road: Origin
The Tourist
Wolf Like Me
BEST TELEFEATURE OR MINISERIES
Barons
Savage River
The Twelve
True Colours
Underbelly: Vanishing Act
BEST COMEDY PROGRAM
Aftertaste
Five Bedrooms
Hard Quiz
Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell
Spicks and Specks
Summer Love
BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
Mark Coles Smith, Mystery Road: Origin
Jamie Dornan, The Tourist
James Majoos, Heartbreak High
Sam Neill, The Twelve
Hugo Weaving, Love Me
BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
Isla Fisher, Wolf Like Me
Claudia Karvan, Bump
Kate Mulvany, The Twelve
Tuuli Narkle, Mystery Road: Origin
Bojana Novakovic, Love Me
BEST COMEDY PERFORMER
Wayne Blair, Aftertaste
Patrick Brammall, Summer Love
Harriet Dyer, Summer Love
Tom Gleeson, Hard Quiz
Charlie Pickering, The Weekly with Charlie Pickering
Doris Younane, Five Bedrooms
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
Hayley McElhinney, Mystery Road: Origin
Jacqueline McKenzie, Savage River
Heather Mitchell, Love Me
Brooke Satchwell, The Twelve
Magda Szubanski, After the Verdict
BEST GUEST OR SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
Steve Bisley, Mystery Road: Origin
Brendan Cowell, The Twelve
Daniel Henshall, Mystery Road: Origin
Damon Herriman, The Tourist
Thomas Weatherall, Heartbreak High
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