Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge dominates AACTA awards
Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge has swept the board at the 6th annual AACTA Awards, taking home multiple awards on the night including best film and best direction.
Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge.
The film’s lead and supporting actors, Andrew Garfield and Hugo Weaving, were also honoured for their work at the film and TV awards in Sydney last night.
“I need to thank Australia for making this film – all the way up and down it’s a homegrown film,” Gibson told the audience of the movie, which is about a World War II conscientious objector who becomes a hero and receives America’s Medal of Honour.
Screenwriter Andrew Knight won the film’s fifth award of the night for Best Original Screenplay, bringing the film’s total AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) tally to nine after its previous industry wins.
But the film’s lead actress Teresa Palmer missed out on the gong, which went to 18-year-old star of The Daughter, Odessa Young, who admitted it was her first awards ceremony.
Australia’s exported comedic talent was honoured, with Crocodile Dundee star Paul Hogan winning the Longford Lyell Award for his outstanding contribution to the screen and Isla Fisher winning the Trailblazer Award.
The Wedding Crashers actress stayed true to form with a hilarious speech that mostly poked fun at herself.
“I’ve got to thank Donald Trump because I don’t think I’d be here if he wasn’t showing the world that it’s OK for unqualified orange people to be here,” she told the audience.
Jessica Mauboy opened the awards ceremony with a doo-wop version of Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” and British pop legends Culture Club performed a medley of hits.
But it was Dami Im’s piano duet with a scene from the 20-year-old movie Shine that stole the show.
The Eurovision star didn’t sing and instead played Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” behind a sheet of rain, in a duet with scenes of actor Geoffrey Rush playing the same piece in the film.
In TV, Wentworth took home the award for Best Television Drama Series while Best Telefeature or Mini Series went to The Kettering Incident.
Earlier in the evening, protesters stormed the red carpet at the AACTA Awards dressed as sausages and chanting “end the sausage party”, targeting gender inequality in the film and TV industry.
-AAP
