Gibson back in the fold
Mel Gibson will today lead a record number of Australians – 14 nominees – who are vying for an Oscar at the 89th Academy Awards. Gibson’s movie Hacksaw Ridge picked up six nominations, including a best picture nod. Another Australian production, Lion, also received six nods including Nicole Kidman for supporting actress and for the first time in Oscar history an Australian film, the remarkable Tanna, was nominated for best foreign language film.
IN the dead of night while most of Los Angeles was sleeping, Mel Gibson was up and excitedly tapping away on his phone.
It was 3am on January 24 and he was trading text messages with Bill Mechanic, his equally excited Hacksaw Ridge producer.
The Hollywood veterans could not sleep because a few hours later the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would announce its Oscar nominees and the results would be significant for Gibson not just because they are the pinnacle for any filmmaker, but a nod or a snub would reflect his standing in Hollywood.
“We were texting back and forth and sort of preparing for maybe being disappointed again,” Mechanic said.
There was only glee. Gibson received his directing nomination for Hacksaw Ridge and today he will lead a record number of Australians – 14 nominees – at the 89th Academy Awards.
Hacksaw Ridge picked up six nominations, including a best picture nod. Another Australian production, Lion, also received six nods including Nicole Kidman for supporting actress and for the first time in Oscar history an Australian film, the remarkable Tanna, was nominated for best foreign language film.
Australian Oscar newcomer Jason Billington, for his visual effects work on oil rig disaster film Deepwater Horizon, also scored an invite to Hollywood’s biggest night.
The ceremony, however, is expected to be dominated by the quintessential Los Angeles movie, the musical La La Land, which has 14 nominations – equalling the all-time Oscar record.
Gibson’s nomination was significant because for the past decade the industry has shunned him for alleged antiSemitic, sexist and racial rants and domestic abuse while he struggled with alcoholism.
The Academy is not some club of faceless people. It is made up of 7000 of the most famous people on the planet. Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Naomi Watts, Russell Crowe – pretty much anyone who has won an Oscar, received multiple nominations or has had an influential role in Hollywood is likely a member.
The academy this year also had plenty of other compelling directing options to nominate instead of Gibson, who will compete with La La Land’s Damien Chazelle, the favourite, and Moonlight’s Barry Jenkins, Arrival’s Denis Villeneuve and Manchester By the Sea’s Kenneth Lonergan.
“It has been an especially difficult environment for Mel, but to come all of the way back and get that from all of his peers, he is walking on air,” Mechanic said.