Chasing Asylum.
The first nominees for the 6th AACTA Awards have been announced, with the Australian Academy revealing those up for gongs in three categories: Best Feature Length Documentary, Best Short Animation and Best Short Fiction Film.
Nominees in feature film and television will be named later this year.
Under consideration for Best Feature Documentary is Eva Orner’s expose of Australian offshore detention, Chasing Asylum, and Dan Jackson’s debut In The Shadow of the Hill, which follows locals living in Rio de Janiero’s largest slum and their fight for justice.
They will vie against Nikolas Bird and Eleanor Sharp’s Remembering the Man, about couple Timothy Congriave and John Caleo – whose love story was the subject of feature film Holding the Man, and Snow Monkey, a portrait of daily life in Jalalabad, produced by Lizzette Atkins and directed by artist George Gittoes.
Up for the Best Short Animation gong is Joel Best, Alex Jeremy and Alex Koronis’s The Albatross; Marieka Walsh and Donna Chang’s The Crossing; Femme Enfant by Bonnie Forsyth and Grace Lim and Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ by Angie Fielder, Brendan Fletcher and Del Kathryn Barton.
Nominees for Best Short Fiction Film include Darlene Johnson and Heather Oxenham’s Bluey, starring Tasia Zalar; Dream Baby by Lucy Gaffy and Kiki Dillon; Yianni Warnock and Charles Williams's Homebodies; and Nathan Loves Ricky Martin by Steven Arriagada, Llewellyn Michael Bates and Bryan Chau.
Screenings of nominated films will be held in Sydney and Melbourne across August and September, and will be also hosted online via AACTA TV, accessible to all AFI and AACTA members.
“On behalf of AACTA, I congratulate all nominees announced today, and look forward to a robust competition as the countdown to the 6th AACTA Awards presented by Presto in Sydney officially begins,” said AFI | AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella.
The 6th AACTA Awards will be held in Sydney this December.