After two difficult and emotional years, Martin Butler was delighted by Australia's first Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film.
One of the directors of the Vanuatu island romance Tanna was working on the film while his partner, journalist Liz Jackson, was dealing with a devastating diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, as revealed on Four Corners late last year.
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Record Aussie interest in Academy nominations
A record 14 Oscar nominations with Australian interest have been announced. The same number of nominations as record equalling La La Land.
"I've always loved the film and thought we stood a chance, but it's such an unlikely film for the Academy, just because it has untrained actors and it's a first feature from us," Butler said. "Liz was sick while we were making Tanna so it was difficult, but she's a trouper and we managed to work around it."
After hearing about the Oscar nomination via Twitter and phone calls in the early hours of Wednesday, Butler is hoping Jackson will be well enough to go the Oscars next month. "It's touch and go, I suspect, but she's very keen of course."
Fellow director Bentley Dean, who spent seven months living with one of the South Pacific's last traditional tribes to shoot the film on a Vanuatu island, said they would be taking some of the tribe to the Oscars. The men will be wearing traditional grass skirts and penis sheaths at least on the red carpet, just as they have done to show off their ancient culture at film festivals around the world.
While little-seen in this country, Tanna is one of a record 14 Australian nominations for the 89th awards. The previous record was 12 in 2002.
For the first time, the country has two films nominated for best picture: Lion, Garth Davis' emotional tale about an Indian-Australian man tracking down his birth mother, and Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson's intense drama about an unlikely war hero.
Just six Australian films and co-productions have been nominated for best picture previously – The Piano, Babe, Shine, Moulin Rouge, The King's Speech and Mad Max: Fury Road – so two in one year is an exceptional result.
![Australian film-makers Martin Butler (second left) and Bentley Dean (fourth left) with members of the Yakal tribe (from ...](/web/20170125115949im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/y/i/8/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtydys.png/1485328235325.jpg)
The musical La La Land dominated the nominations with 14, equalling the record set by All About Eve and Titanic. Next were the alien invasion thriller Arrival and gay coming-of-age drama Moonlight, with eight nominations each.
The two Australian films – based on real life stories – both had six nominations.
![Liz Jackson with husband Martin Butler.](/web/20170125115949im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/n/j/2/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtydys.png/1485328235325.jpg)
Also up for Lion were Nicole Kidman for best supporting actress, Dev Patel for supporting actor, Luke Davies for adapted screenplay, Greig Fraser for cinematography and Dustin O'Halloran and Volker Bertelmann for original score.
And for Hacksaw Ridge, Gibson returned to mainstream Hollywood after a decade in exile after a series of scandals with a nomination for best director. The film also had nods for Andrew Garfield for best actor, John Gilbert for editing and its teams for sound editing and sound mixing.
![Marie Wawa (left) and Mungau Dain in <i>Tanna</i>.](/web/20170125115949im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/y/g/z/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtydys.png/1485328235325.jpg)
Rounding out the record list is Jason Billington, who has been nominated for best visual effects on the Hollywood disaster movie Deepwater Horizon.
The thrilled producer of Lion, Emile Sherman, woke to hear the nominations announcement.
![Real life mother and son from the film <i>Lion</i> Saroo and Sue Brierley.](/web/20170125115949im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/u/i/d/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtydys.png/1485328235325.jpg)
"It's great news that an Australian story has been able to get this far and been nominated for best film," he said. "It's hard for an Australian story with Australian characters and accents to break through.
"It can feel foreign to American audiences so it's really good for our industry. I don't think it's happened since Shine."
![Giddy: Mel Gibson attends the AACTA International Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month.](/web/20170125115949im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/n/j/m/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtydys.png/1485328235325.jpg)
Sherman was no less excited for having already won best picture with The King's Speech six years ago.
"We realise having made a batch of films that haven't won Academy Awards or even been nominated just how hard it is," he said. "It makes us more appreciative when it happens."
![Bill Mechanic on the set of <i>Hacksaw Ridge</i> in Sydney.](/web/20170125115949im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/f/g/7/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtydys.png/1485328235325.jpg)
Saroo Brierley, whose memoir about searching for his birth mother in India using Google Earth was adapted for the film, said it was surreal learning that Lion was heading to the Oscars. He found out when he checked his phone overnight at his Tasmanian home and saw a congratulatory message from a friend.
"I would have never thought that this story would touch so many people in so many ways," he said. "We're just down to earth people, my family and I. We've never been involved in anything like this."
Brierley is hoping to get to the Oscars.
"Six nominations means six plus ones, I guess," he said. "So hopefully it will be Dev and I, and Nicole and mum."
Producer Bill Mechanic, the former 20th Century Fox boss who shot Hacksaw Ridge in Australia, was so unconfident given the "noise" about Gibson's return to directing that he did not even watch the nominations announcement.
"I turned on my computer because you can stream it but didn't look at it until my wife yelled from the other room that Andrew got in," he said. "I thought it's not going to be all bad. Then it got exciting when Mel got in."
Mechanic had no doubts about where Hacksaw Ridge fits among the Oscar contenders.
"I think Hacksaw Ridge is the best film of the year, with all due respect to everybody else," he said. "And Mel is the best director and Andrew is the best actor."
Mechanic said Gibson, who has just become a father for the ninth time with partner Rosalind Ross, was delighted by the nominations.
"He might not like me saying it but I felt he was kind of giddy," he said. "It's certainly a really positive him for him that he's been re-embraced by Hollywood after such a long time."
Mechanic is hoping Hacksaw Ridge can achieve a first at the Oscars.
"It would be really nice to be the first Australian film to win best picture," he said. "But the victory for us was to get into the race."