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Snowtown, The Cup & Heartbeat Away shortlisted for Academy Awards

Announced at last night’s Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) launch, the inaugural Samsung AACTA Awards will be held in Sydney in January 2012.

The move to January is an effort by the AFI to be more in line with the international awards season.

The ceremony has moved to Sydney as part of a three-year commitment, after being in Melbourne for the past ten years.

Tania Chambers, CEO of Screen NSW said, “It’s my pleasure to welcome the AFI back to Sydney. We’re very proud to have the awards back for the next three years.”

With the ceremony held at the Sydney Opera House, the move is hoped to position the awards as a global event. The Nine Network will, for the seventh consecutive year, broadcast the ceremony.

A shortlist of feature film awards, based upon a two step voting model, has revealed The 23 films in competition at this year’s awards: A Heartbeat Away, Big Momma’s Boy, Blame, Burning Man, Caught Inside, The Dragon Pearl, Face to Face, Griff the Invisible, Here I Am, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’hoole, Mad Bastards, Oranges and Sunshine, RED DOG, Red Hill, Sanctum, Sleeping Beauty, Snowtown, Summer Coda, The Cup, The Eye of the Storm, The Hunter, The Loved Ones, and Wasted on the Young.

Geoffrey Rush, named at the launch as founding president if the AACTA, unveiled the new statuette, explaining it took inspiration from the Southern Cross, it was designed by multi award winning sculptor Ron Gomboc, and in part crafted from Australian tiger iron, with the body cast in 22 karat gold.

Damian Trewhella, AFI/AACTA CEO said, “The statuette, and the story it tells, is something we want all Australians to be proud of as it becomes the Australian Academy’s international symbol of screen arts excellence.”

As Bettie Davis famously suggested the American Academy looked like her uncle Oscar, Rush put forward his uncle Ron as an option, before democratically turning the discussion to facebook.

For further information, visit aacta.org

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