WA productions scoop major award nominations
Feature films The Furnace and RAMS, and animated series 100% Wolf: Legend of the Moonstone are among the Western Australian productions nominated for several 2021 industry awards.
Awards season is heating up, with the AACTA award nominations joining a slew of national industry and screen guild award nominations. Two WA feature films have been nominated in the AACTA Best Film categories, with fantastic representation across documentary, children’s series and short form productions.
Roderick MacKay’s debut feature The Furnace, which held its world premiere at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, is nominated for five AACTA Awards including Best Film for producers Timothy White and Tenille Kennedy; Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay for Roderick; Best Lead Actor for Ahmed Malek and Best Supporting Actor for Baykali Ganambarr. Roderick has also received an Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG) AWGIE Award nomination in the category of Feature Film – Original, while editor Merlin Eden has been nominated for the Australian Screen Editors’ (ASE) Ellie Award for Best Editing in Feature Drama for his work on The Furnace. The film is currently streaming on Binge.
Filmed in Mount Barker, WA, comedy-drama RAMS scored three AACTA nominations including Best Film for producers Janelle Landers and Aidan O’Bryan; Best Adapted Screenplay for Jules Duncan and Best Supporting Actor for Michael Caton. The film also picked up a Screen Producers Australia (SPA) Award nomination for Feature Film Production of the Year. RAMS is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Animated ABC series 100% Wolf: Legend of the Moonstone, co-produced by WA company Siamese, received an AACTA Award nomination in the category of Best Children’s Program for producers Barbara Stephen, Alexia Gates-Foale and Michael Bourchier, along with a SPA Award nomination for Children’s Series Production of the Year. The series was also nominated for the Australian Production Design Guild (APDG)’s Storm FX Animation Design Award, and is currently available to stream on ABC iview here.
Produced by Aunty Donna production company Haven’t You Done Well and WA’s Johnny Ma Studios, comedy web series Hug the Sun is nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Short Form Comedy presented by Facebook, for producers Aaron McCann and Sam Lingham. The six-part series has also received a SPA Award nomination for Online Series Production of the Year. Hug the Sun is available to stream on the Grouse House YouTube channel here.
Award nominations were also picked up by:
- Bunya Productions’ Mystery Road (season 2, ABC iview) – Drama Series Production of the Year, SPA; JMB FX Studio Makeup, Prosthetic Makeup or Hair Design for John Logue, APDG.
- Metamorflix’s Family Rules (season 3, SBS on Demand) – Documentary Program or Series Production of the Year, SPA
- Prospero Productions’ Outback Truckers (7plus) – Documentary Program or Series Production of the Year, SPA; Best Sound for Lifestyle, Reality or Factual Entertainment for Kim Lord & Benjamin Morris, Australian Screen Sound Guild (ASSG)
- Virgo Productions and Factor 30 Films’ Laura’s Choice (ABC iview) – Feature Documentary Production of the Year, SPA
- Komixx Entertainment’s Itch (ABC iview) – Children’s Series Production of the Year, SPA
- Monsoon Pictures and Factor 30 Films’ I Met a Girl – Best Editing in Feature Drama (Melanie Annan), ASE
- RUSH Films’ Sparkles – Best Editing in a Short Drama (Elaine Smith), ASE
Further award nominations are yet to be announced, including for additional SPA Award categories, the Australian Directors’ Guild Awards and the AACTA technical craft Awards.