Opinion

The Animal Kingdom show

Glenn Dunks was at the AFI Awards 2010, and although his favourite film didn’t win any, he will always remember the night Animal Kingdom ruled the world.

And with that the 2010 Samsung Mobile AFI Awards are over and done with for another year. David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom dominated the ceremony as everybody expected, but the refreshingly diverse roster of Australian films from 2010 brought about winners from period romances to action adventures, musicals to vampire horror films. Of the six projects nominated for Best Film only one – Julie Bertuccelli’s poetic The Tree, my personal favourite Australian film of 2010 – left empty handed.

Host Shane Jacobson, of Kenny fame, began the proceedings with a musical sequence that referenced Australian films past and present before what can politely be called “the Animal Kingdom show” commenced, quickly winning several awards.

The crowd, and fellow recipients, were high on Ben Mendelsohn’s win, his first in 23 years since winning for The Year My Voice Broke as a teenager. The Animal Kingdom crew was very vocal in their appreciation for Mendelsohn, one of this country’s most respected actors. Weaver’s speech singled him out, saying how she loved “playing with you, interacting with you … spouting dialogue in your general direction is a joy and an honour and a privilege.”

Jacki Weaver, a hot Oscar favourite as the evil matriarch of a Melbourne crime family, easily won best speech of the night to go along with her Best Lead Actress statue. She spoke from backstage at the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Uncle Vanya and joked about her age and her many husbands. All she needs is for that speech to go viral on the internet and her Academy Award should be a cinch.

The film’s writer and director, David Michôd, was suitably taken aback by all the affection he was receiving from the crowd and his cast throughout the night. However, when asked if he would accompany his star Jacki Weaver to the Academy Awards in February he couldn’t hide his elation at her international success. “I’m just so excited that Jacki’s name is being mentioned in these circles. It so exceeded my expectations.”

Best Supporting Actor winner Joel Edgerton labelled working with the 41-year-old as “very special” and “an honour”, recalling their first acting gig together where Edgerton played Mendelsohn’s brother in an episode of Police Rescue, surely something only the two involved seem to remember. Edgerton later spoke, too, of the easy balance he strikes between American films like The Thing and local fare such as Animal Kingdom and The Waiting City. “It’s a very easy balance of me, I will always come back and work in Australia,” Edgerton said. “I always saw my work overseas as a way to come back and do things in Australia on my own terms.”

Deborah Mailman was a popular winner of two AFI awards for her work in Rachel Perkins’ musical Bran Nue Dae as well as Network Ten’s drama series Offspring. She spoke of the “great relationship” she has with Perkins who was the director of her first ever film, the sister bonding drama of Radiance for which Mailman won her first AFI Award in 1998, and how it was important to bring these indigenous tales to the big and small screen. “It’s who I am. I’m a proud aboriginal woman and it’s great to be celebrating the diversity of our stories within our culture.”

Catherine McClements won her third AFI Award after first winning in 1990 for Weekend with Kate. Her acceptance speech told the story of having forgotten to thank her parents back then and how she was rectifying that on this night. She talked later of the differences between working on free-to-air (Network Ten’s Rush) and subscription television (Showcase’s Tangled for which she won Best Television Drama Actress), describing the freedom in storytelling that Foxtel provides writers, directors and actors.

One of the biggest crowd responses was for Hollywood-based screenwriter Stuart Beattie who won the Macquarie AFI Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Tomorrow, When the War Began. The award for Beattie, who also directed the John Marsden adaptation, was seen as recognition for the boost his film gave the industry and the effort he made to return to Australia after high profile American films Pirates of the Caribbean and Collateral to film this project. He noted that the award “meant everything” to him because “films that are made for audiences don’t usually get recognition in awards shows. I’m very shocked and very appreciative.” Beattie also tantalised fans by saying that “[Paramount] have just asked me to write the sequel to Tomorrow, When the War Began.”

Reg Grundy’s acceptance speech for the Raymond Longford Award was met with great response, too. The 87-year-old game show and local drama pioneer behind iconic series Sale of the Century, Perfect Match, The Young Doctors, Prisoner and Neighbours mixed tears with laughter and a sense of comedic timing that caught audiences by surprise.

The ceremony also featured sneak peeks at two new locally produced films that audiences will get to see in 2011. While Willem Dafoe’s The Hunter, filmed in Tasmania and also featuring Sam Neill, Francis O’Connor and 10-year-old Best Actress nominee Morgana Davies, was only shown briefly, a full-length teaser of Snowtown was included to an enthusiastic response online. It was nice to see the ceremony using its moment in the sun to give upcoming films some buzz.

Next year’s ceremony will be held in Sydney after being in Melbourne for 10years. Australian films that have already been released for consideration include Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones, Patrick Hughes’ Red Hill and Zack Snyder’s The Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.

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