The NSW industry celebrates a record awards season with five wins, 10 BAFTA and 13 Academy Awards® nominations.

At the BAFTA Awards, Hacksaw Ridge was nominated for five awards, with John Gilbert taking the award for Best Editing. Lion was also nominated for five BAFTAs and had two wins; Dev Patel for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and NSW screenwriter Luke Davies won for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Read Screen NSW’s post-BAFTA interview with Luke here.

In a first for the Australian film industry, two Australian films, Hacksaw Ridge and Lion, were both nominated for Best Motion Picture at the Academy Awards®, in addition to gaining nominations across six categories each.

Hacksaw Ridge prevailed on the night taking home two awards for NSW, with Best Film Editing going to John Gilbert, and Best Sound Mixing to Kevin O’Connell, Robert Mackenzie, Peter Grace and Andy Wright.

Lion, produced by NSW production company See-Saw Films, has already taken over US$103 million worldwide and NSW made Hacksaw Ridge sits at US$175 million.

In another first for the local industry, Tanna, the true story of two lovers from warring tribes on a remote South Pacific island in Vanuatu, was nominated by the Academy in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Tanna is the first feature from producer team Bentley Dean, Martin Butler and Carolyn Johnson. The film was shot in Vanuatu, with none of the cast having had previous acting experience and was supported by Screen NSW.

Read an interview with the film’s co-directors here.

Image: © Academy Awards®