Though The Sapphires swept all, our Tina Kaufman kept her head and contemplated some other contenders in a year of very good films. In any other year, they could have done much better, but everything came together for Indigenous filmmaking and created a historic moment of triumph.
Well, everybody knows by now that The Sapphires did very well at the AACTA Awards on Wednesday night, winning best film, best director for Wayne Blair, best lead actress for Deborah Mailman (“I am so deeply proud of what this film has achieved and I am so bloody proud to be a part of it”, she said) and best adapted screenplay for Keith Thompson and Tony Briggs. Chris O’Dowd won the best actor award for his part in the film, while co-star Jessica Mauboy won best supporting actress, bringing its total number of AACTA awards to 11, following Monday’s earlier presentation of technical awards.
