‘The King’ lords over Australian Academy Awards (AACTA); ‘The Nightingale’ tops nominations with 15

David Michôd’s King Henry epic The King, starring Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet, stormed the AACTA nominations, the Australian Academy Awards, with 13 nods including Best Film, Best Director for Michôd and Best Actor for Chalamet and three for Joel Edgerton as co-producer, co-screenwriter and supporting actor.

Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale led with 15 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and five acting nominations, landing in every acting category. Anthony Maras’ Hotel Mumbai was right behind with 13, including one for Oscar nominee Dev Patel (Lion).

Damon Herriman, who has earned visibility with US audiences on FX’s Justified as well as playing Charles Manson twice this year – in Netflix’s second season of Mindhunter and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, scored two film acting nods – in lead for Judy & Punch (which earned nine nods) and in supporting for The Nightingale. Herriman also picked up two nominations on the television side of AACTA (you can find those here). Two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby) was nominated for supporting actress in the Netflix film I Am Mother.

Here is the full list of nominees for the 2019 AACTA Awards. Winners will be announced at the AACTA awards luncheon and ceremony on December 2nd and 4th, respectively.

Best Film

• Hotel Mumbai
• Judy & Punch
• The King
• The Nightingale
• Ride Like a Girl
• Top End Wedding

Best Indie Film

• Acute Misfortune
• Book Week
• Buoyancy
• Emu Runner
• Sequin in a Blue Room

Best Direction

• Anthony Maras, Hotel Mumbai
• Mirrah Foulkas, Judy & Punch
• David Michôd, The King
• Jennifer Kent, The Nightingale

Best Lead Actor

• Timothée Chalamet, The King
• Baykali Ganambarr, The Nightingale
• Damon Herriman, Judy & Punch
• Dev Patel, Hotel Mumbai
• Hugo Weaving, Hearts and Bones

Best Lead Actress

• Nazanin Boniadi, Hotel Mumbai
• Aisling Franciosi, The Nighingale
• Teresa Palmer, Ride Like a Girl
• Miranda Tapsell, Top End Wedding
• Mia Wasikowska, Judy & Punch

Best Supporting Actor

• Joel Edgerton, The King
• Damon Herriman, The Nightingale
• Andrew Luri, Hearts and Bones
• Ben Mendelsohn, The King
• Michael Sheasby, The Nightingale

Best Supporting Actress

• Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Hotel Mumbai
• Magnolia Maymuru, The Nightingale
• Hilary Swank, I Am Mother
• Bolude Watson, Hearts and Bones
• Ursula Yovich, Top End Wedding

Best Screenplay

• Hotel Mumbai
• Judy & Punch
• The King
• The Nightingale

Best Cinematography

• Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan
• Hotel Mumbai
• The King
• The Nightingale

Best Editing

• Hotel Mumbai
• Judy & Punch
• The King
• The Nightingale

Best Sound

• Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan
• Hotel Mumbai
• The King
• The Nightingale

Best Original Score

• Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan
• Hotel Mumbai
• Judy & Punch
• Ride Like a Girl

Best Production Design

• Hotel Mumbai
• Judy & Punch
• The King
• The Nightingale

Best Costume Design

• Hotel Mumbai
• Judy & Punch
• The King
• The Nightingale

Best Visual Effects or Animation

• Aquaman
• Captain Marvel
• Dumbo
• I Am Mother
• Spider-Man: Far From Home

Best Hair and Makeup

• The King
• Lambs of God
• Nekrotronic
• The Nightingale

Best Casting

• Hotel Mumbai
• The King
• The Nightingale
• Total Control

Best Asian Film

• Andhadhun
• Gully Boy
• Hello, Love, Goodbye
• Ne Zha
• Parasite
• Shadow
• Super Deluxe
• The Wandering Earth
• We Are Little Zombies

About AACTA

The primary role of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) is to recognise, encourage, promote and celebrate film and television excellence in Australia through the nation’s highest screen accolades, the AACTA Awards – the Australian equivalent of the Oscars® and the BAFTAs.

AACTA was formerly the Australian Film Institute (AFI), which has been honouring excellence in Australian film and television for over 60 years. First established in 1958, when AFI held Australia’s first ever film excellence awards – the AFI Awards – AFI has remained committed to connecting Australian and international audiences with great Australian film and television content.

Launched by AFI in 2011 following an extensive review and consultation, AACTA is Australia’s peak screen body and continues to reflect a standard of film and television excellence that mirrors that of AMPAS and BAFTA, whilst maintaining a unique Australian perspective.

Australia has produced some of the best screen performers, practitioners and productions in the world, and AFI | AACTA remains committed to promoting, within Australia and internationally, Australia’s best and brightest screen professionals and the great Australian stories which they tell on the big and small screens.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2024 New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) Winners - December 3, 2024
• 2025 Golden Globes: Ted Danson Named Carol Burnett Award Honoree - December 2, 2024
• Predictions for the 2024 Gotham Awards and New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) - December 2, 2024