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AACTA Awards 2016 kick off with awkward Mel Gibson joke

Tom Gleeson's uncomfortable joke was a reminder that not everyone has forgiven the director of Hacksaw Ridge.

Garry Maddox

The widespread acclaim for Hacksaw Ridge has been a key factor in Mel Gibson's return to the film business after a decade of Hollywood exile.

As well as enthusiastic reviews around the world - 145 positive reviews out of 168 according to one web site - the drama about one of history's most unlikely war heroes dominated nominations for the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards with 13 nods. 

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As Hacksaw Ridge opened in the US last month, producer Bill Mechanic said what he called "the Mel haters" were being shouted down by people who supported the film.

An extended standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival seem to turn the tide, with Gibson signed up to act opposite Sean Penn in The Professor and the Madman, a drama about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and talking about future directing projects. 

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Then at the AACTA craft awards on Monday – the preliminary event to the main awards on Wednesday – Hacksaw Ridge began to dominate when it won four awards: best cinematography, editing, production design and sound. 

So far, so good. 

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But it took a line by a comedian at that awards lunch to remind a room full of film and television people that Gibson's past might not be forgotten by everyone.

Tom Gleeson, who co-hosted with Kitty Flanagan, drew uncomfortable laughter with the joke: "Hacksaw Ridge has been nominated 13 times so it's safe to say that in Australia the film industry isn't run by Jews."

That came on top of The Los Angeles Times quoting several potential Oscar voters at a screening in that city as saying, off the record, that they wanted nothing to do with Gibson, his movie or any project he might make. "If Hollywood forgives that man this soon, that's messed up," one said.

So the big question at the AACTA awards remains whether Gibson and the film will be the big winner 20 years after he collected best picture and director at the Oscars for Braveheart and 10 years after a drink-driving arrest and anti-Semitic slurs sent his Hollywood career into a spiral. 

The intense drama about a conscientious objector who becomes a hero during World War II.is up for seven more awards. Here's a rundown ... 

Best original screenplay
While Ivan Sen is a chance for Goldstone and Abe Forsythe for the Cronulla riots comedy Down Under – less so Damian Hill for the comic drama Pawno – the likely and deserving winners are Robert Schenkkan​ and Andrew Knight for Hacksaw Ridge. 

Hacksaw Ridge has been nominated 13 times so it's safe to say that in Australia the film industry isn't run by Jews.

Tom Gleeson

Best supporting actress
With only a limited range of supporting roles for women this year, two nominees for The Daughter, Miranda Otto and Anna Torv​, are up against Kerry Armstrong (Pawno) and Rachel Griffiths (Hacksaw Ridge). Otto had the most complex and demanding role as a conflicted school teacher and nailed it. She should win ahead of Griffiths.

Best supporting actor
With Alex Russell (Goldstone) and Luke Bracey​ (Hacksaw Ridge) both missing a deserved nomination, perennial awards favourite Hugo Weaving (Hacksaw Ridge) is up against Sam Neill (The Daughter), Damon Herriman (Down Under) and Mark Coles Smith (Pawno). Weaving won this award for The Dressmaker last year and for Oranges and Sunshine in 2012, in addition to his three best actor wins for Proof, The Interview and Little Fish. He deserves to win again for playing the traumatised father of real life war hero Desmond Doss. 

Best actress
In a year of too few strong leading roles for women in Australian film, little-known Maggie Naouri​ (murder drama Joe Cinque's Consolation) and teenager Odessa Young (The Daughter) are up against established names Teresa Palmer (Hacksaw Ridge) and Maeve Dermody​ (Pawno). The award is likely to go to Young, who played a teenager struggling with a family crisis and is still young enough herself to be going to schoolies, just ahead of Palmer for Hacksaw Ridge, though both would be deserving winners.

Best actor
With two strong performances surprisingly overlooked – Aaron Pedersen in Goldstone and Steve Le Marquand in the gambling addiction drama Broke – two nominees from Pawno, John Brumpton​ and Damian Hill, are up against the more favoured Ewen Leslie (The Daughter) and The Amazing Spider-Man's Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge). Leslie would be just as deserving but Garfield is the likely winner.

Best director
Bentley Dean and Martin Butler collaborated impressively with a Vanuatu tribe for Tanna, Ivan Sen again proved his quality as a filmmaker exploring Indigenous themes with Goldstone and Rosemary Myers made a promising debut with the inventive Girl Asleep. But with his first film since Apocalypto a decade ago, Mel Gibson proved he is a world-class director with Hacksaw Ridge. He is both a likely and deserving winner. 

Best film
While Down Under deserved to be nominated, there are cases for Goldstone and Tanna to win – less so Girl Asleep and The Daughter – but the top award in Australian film should go to Hacksaw Ridge – an intense, violent and moving drama that looks much more impressive on screen than it should for its budget. After a Mad Max film dominated the awards last year, this should be the year of the actor who was the original Mad Max. 

The AACTA Awards are on Wednesday night, broadcast on the Seven Network at 8.30pm.

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