What is your favourite Australian performance to win Best Actor? I’ve picked some of mine for the home page, selecting iconic, gut-wrenching and scene-stealing roles from 40 years of Australian film awards.
On 31 January, the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) will announce the Best Lead Actor in an Australian feature for 2011. The AACTA Awards are a continuation of the Australian Film Awards established by the Australian Film Institute in 1958 (and later known as the AFI Awards). The first Best Actor prize was not given until 1972, when the local feature film industry had sufficiently revived to field enough candidates.
This year’s nominees for Best Lead Actor are:
- Willem Dafoe in The Hunter
- Daniel Henshall in Snowtown
- Geoffrey Rush in The Eye of the Storm
- David Wenham in Oranges and Sunshine
I found none of these characters especially sympathetic or easy to relate to, but the actors succeeded in making them compelling. I’m rooting for Henshall’s charismatic, manipulative and repulsive serial killer for the win. I so often wanted to look away during Snowtown, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
Who do you think will win Best Actor this year?
What is your favourite Best Actor performance from the last 40 years of AFI Awards? Click on the film titles below to revisit or discover these performances for yourself. (If there is no link, the film is not yet on the website, but most likely coming soon.)
Learn more about the awards at the AACTA website. In the next few days, I’ll revisit Best Actress and Best Feature winners.
The NFSA is an Official Partner of the Samsung Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards.
2010 – Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom
2009 – Anthony LaPaglia in Balibo
2008 – William McInnes in Unfinished Sky
2007 – Eric Bana in Romulus, My Father
2006 – Shane Jacobson in Kenny
2005 – Hugo Weaving in Little Fish
2004 – Sam Worthington in Somersault
2003 – David Wenham in Gettin’ Square
2002 – David Gulpilil in The Tracker
2001 – Anthony LaPaglia in Lantana
2000 – Eric Bana in Chopper
1999 – Russell Dykstra in Soft Fruit
1998 – Hugo Weaving in The Interview
1997 – Richard Roxburgh in Doing Time for Patsy Cline
1996 – Geoffrey Rush in Shine
1995 – John Lynch in Angel Baby
1994 – Nicholas Hope in Bad Boy Bubby
1993 – Harvey Keitel in The Piano
1992 – Russell Crowe in Romper Stomper
1991 – Hugo Weaving in Proof
1990 – Max von Sydow in Father
1989 – Sam Neill in Evil Angels
1988 – John Waters in Boulevard of Broken Dreams
1987 – Leo McKern in Travelling North
1986 – Colin Friels in Malcolm
1985 – Chris Haywood in A Street to Die
1984 – John Hargreaves in My First Wife
1983 – Norman Kaye in Man of Flowers
1982 – Ray Barrett in Goodbye Paradise
1981 – Mel Gibson in Gallipoli
1980 – Jack Thompson in Breaker Morant
1979 – Mel Gibson in Tim
1978 – Bill Hunter in Newsfront
1977 – John Meillon in The Fourth Wish
1976 – Simon Burke and Nick Tate in The Devil’s Playground (tie)
1974-75 – Jack Thompson in Petersen and Sunday Too Far Away and Martin Vaughan in Billy and Percy (tie)
1973 – Robert McDarra in 27A
1972 – Bruce Spence in Stork
