Awards season is always exciting. The glitz, the glamour, and the hope that the Australian’s aiming for the top of Hollywood get the recognition that they deserve.
The nominations for this year’s Academy Awards has been announced, and it almost looks like a Commonwealth Games gold tally as there are a lot of Australians represented.
While the year’s biggest acclaimed film the musical La La Land landed a record-tying 14 nominations, Australian film Lion grabbed some big ones as well.
Nicole Kidman returns to the Oscar nominations with a Best Supporting Actress nod for her role in Lion. Dev Patel was also nominated for Lion in the Best Supporting Actor category. While these are some seriously great nominations for the film, it also unexpectedly landed a Best Picture nomination.
Lion joins Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight in the Best Picture category.
Lion also picked up nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Best Original Score.
Australians Bentley Dean and Martin Butler were nominated for the film Tanna in the Best Foreign Language category as the film was made with the Yakel people in Vanuatu.
The biggest “shock” nomination was for Mel Gibson who has returned to the Hollywood elite after essentially being “blacklisted” for his past actions. His film Hacksaw Ridge saw a return to form that the Academy couldn’t ignore as it grabbed him a Best Director nomination as well as securing the film a Best Picture nomination.
Here’s hoping some of our Aussie favourites come home with the gold!