A night at the unintentionally amusing AACTAs
Encore managing editor Brooke Hemphill attends the inaugural AACTA awards and comes away cringing.
Last night the inaugural Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts awards were held at Sydney’s Opera House as the Australian film and television community gathered to celebrate the achievements of the past 12 months and those who went along for the ride left vaguely amused, with little thanks to the event’s producers.
The show, produced by FremantleMedia, for delayed broadcast on Nine, provided a far different experience for the live audience member than the viewer at home. And Nine would have been grateful for the three-hour buffer from recording to broadcast – they certainly took full advantage of the delay. Entire award announcements were chopped from the show and with them the evening’s most memorable moment, director Stephan Elliott’s speech, delivered prior to his presentation of the best direction in television award, where he not only slammed those unwilling to support the local film industry but also included a statement about gay marriage as Elliott announced he was “coming out”. The broadcast was all the poorer for the loss of Elliott’s outburst which had audience members enthralled and was a welcome relief from the poorly scripted jokes several of the presenters delivered.
From my seat, the autocue could be seen and the cringe-worthy grabs for laughs were telegraphed well before they left the presenters lips. One such attempt was a sponsor-pleasing string of jokes incorporating naming rights sponsor Samsung where AACTA president Geoffrey Rush name-checked a series of films and performers whose names could be replaced with the word Samsung – like Samsung and Delilah or Samsung Neill. Boom-tish.
The Australian Film and Television industry deserves better than a second-class Oscar night.
The AACTA award looks like Oscar, there were American film previews throughout the broadcast and the gag-songs were so appallingly bad that they felt like they were saying to the public ‘don’t see this film’, go and see the big American blockbuster we will advertise shortly.
And yes, maybe the AACTA’s are a step up from the Logies but surely Audience Choice Awards don’t belong in a peer voted awards night?
Come on AACTA awards night producers… leave the comedy to the skit shows. Why not deliver a serious, respectful ceremony that honours our Film and Television industry, that globally punches seriously above it’s weight.
I totally disagree, I thought it was a great night, loved the songs for best film ( Julia and Magda in particular) loved Geoffrey Rush’s skit with Colin Firth from the “Kings Speech hilarious, where I do nod off on occasion with the Oscars, I laughed and found it fast moving, and was sorry it ended. Good on you Geoffrey, it may have had a few hiccups, but I was absolutely entertained. Congratulations to the winners, a well deserved bunch.
Absolute disgrace.
Crass, tasteless, bogan: the industry is better off not televising the awards than being embarrassed by this low-rent undergraduate revue.
The musical parodies will go down in awards show infamy. What the hell was Magda Szubanski thinking? Free hit for you there, Kyle.
Interesting that “Mad Bastards” – with a great performance by The Pigram Brothers – was the only best film nominee to be shown the respect it deserved…
Didn’t this cost $2 million or so??
Imitiation is all the AACTA’s are capable of. I attend the IF Awards annually and they (for two years) did a bunch of musincal sattire pieces (Including Snowtown the musical with Eddie Perfect). Cast your mind back to when Julia Zamiro presented the event for two years before the AFI’s AACTA picker her up, so I was slightly bemused when I saw Julia Morris’ appear still warm from her IF red carpet hosting gig.
For the $1.8 million they receive from NSW Government I would have expected a little more originality, but wait…Isn’t the guy running the AACTA’s ex-Destination NSW? I can smell a scandal in the wind.
Brooke
I think you’re way off beam here.
I just saw the AACTA awards and didn’t find it cringeworthy in the least.
On the contrary – I thought it was a step in the right direction to put Australian films and film makers back in the spotlight for the work they do.
Sure. You could argue that it was an odd (or brave) choice to showcase each best picture nomination with a song, but the presentation banter and introductions were about as natural as any award ceremony you could point to.
The gags were more restrained than the Logies and if the teleprompter was visible for the audience, it wasn’t a problem for the TV audience.
I’m a big fan of the switch to the new format: especially the section previewing upcoming Australian films.
Same again next year please.
–Phil
Brooke has clearly never been to an industry awards night. We cringe and bear it through the lot of them. Brendan Cowell being carried out by 4 dwarves dressed as soldiers from the movie 300 at the FilmInk awards a few years ago was a special highlight…
Encore is fast turning into a whingefest. Almost the only reason I stop by these days is to watch industry screenwriters ruin their careers publicly in the comments section. Shame to see their editor stoop to such easy lows too
Clearly Brooke didn’t see the cut-from-broadcast SNOWTOWN: THE MUSICAL segment at the IF Awards last year…
Hello Graeme,
I’ve been to many an awards night, I’m afraid and I must say that this particular event compared most positively to some of the painful advertising gong-fests I’ve been to which have included being trapped on Cockatoo Island, among other things.
I’m sorry if you think I’m having a whinge. I actually had a pretty great night but felt the organisers of the awards could have done better. That is my opinion but I’m confident Brendan Cowell plus dwarves would have been an excellent spectacle.
Cheers,
Brooke
Hey Elvis, that I would like to see! Cheers, Brooke
Well said, Brooke!
I totally agree. I thought it was a poor showing generally, despite having some wonderful stars and talented people as presenters or awardees. I didnt think the awards seemed that much different or better than the AFI’s, they were supposed to be a fresh start and a step-up i thought, but there we had Geoffrey Rush making irreverent and unfunny sponsor comments (I recall a few years back his constant reference to sponsors L’Oreal “Paree”). Megan Gale on the Red Carpet blatantly promoting David Jones fasjhion advisory service was another thumbs down, so very clunky and over the top. Rachael Taylor is a stunner, a talented strong woman but the lines she was given were awful.
The songs were hopeless, except for the beautiful number by the Pigrams. Magda Szubanski’s singing was appalling, and the whole concept was stupid. I’m embarassed to think of anyone in the US industry seeing this – no I dont think we have to be like the US, but for God’s sake we have to move on from the stupid boganism that once may have had a degree of affectionate charm, but to me is now a symbol of mediocrity and a ignorance.
Then we had to sit through the adulation of the movie Snowton, a self-indulgent work which lacked the astuteness, senstivity and restraint it needed to respect it’s audience. So well done in so many ways, but way too hurtful to be tolerated.
Finally, I’m disappointed to hear that Stephan Elliott’s speech, with comments about gay marriage were cut from the telecast.. A brave move by Stephan, and would have made me feel a lot better about having to put up with all the other crap on the show.
Seriously…is an awards not the podium to rant about Gay Marriage? Its an awards night for the people nominated for their work in Film and TV. The whole Gay Marriage debate is a rolling argument that keeps politicians valid in the public sphere. Society has moved on and we all sit bewildered about the validity of the debate wondering why these morons are even talking about it and trying to legislate against the happiness of others. Legalise gay marriage tomorrow, argument over and society is all the better for it, move on. Stephan’s speech was cut because it wasn’t valid to the point in question which was to deliver an award.