Baz the Great! - A Baz Luhrmann Fansite

Baz Luhrmann's Australia has won four trophies at this year's Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards. The awards were distributed over two nights. On Friday night, Australia won three awards, as reported by ABC News:

Baz Luhrmann's film Australia was one of the big winners at the Australian Film Institute (AFI) Industry Awards in Melbourne on Friday night. Oscar-winner Catherine Martin picked up best costume design and best production design for Australia. The film also claimed the visual effects award.

"I come from this particular world, I'm a person that works with a number of very talented artists that work in artisanal crafts category, so I'm very pleased and proud to be here," Martin said. "I always think of what I do for a living not as a job but as a vocation. So I'm very glad to be in the company of my peers and have an excuse to drink a glass of champagne with all the fabulous people I work with on a regular basis."

And at Saturday night's ceremony, which was televised on Channel 9, Baz Luhrmann's Australia won the award for Highest Grossing Film, as reported below by BigPond. Also, at the end of the night, Baz Luhrmann and Brandon Walters appeared onstage to present the Best Film Award.

Luhrmann's romantic epic Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman ... won a trophy for being the highest grossing film this year. Australia is the second highest grossing Australian film of all time, behind Crocodile Dundee, taking $37.6 million at the box office in ticket sales, according to figures from the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia.

Luhrmann said he was buoyed by the public's reaction to his $130 million epic. "Australian audiences have their own very strong instinct," Luhrmann said. "Basically they make up their own minds and I am extremely touched and extremely moved that in the end despite it all they made up their own minds and they went and voted for the film with ticket sales. They went and saw it. And when you make something of that scale without that, without the audience, you have nothing."

5 December 2009

Luhrmann's Next Project?

Baz Luhrmann has kept relatively quiet since releasing Australia over a year ago. The Australia DVD and Blu-Ray were released with little fanfare, as they were rushed out by the studio and included very limited special features. Luhrmann had expressed a desire to release a special edition Australia DVD around Christmas 2009, but this, unfortunately, has not happened. This year, Luhrmann also worked on the Tourism Australia promotion, where he made two fantastic commercials centring around young Australia star, Brandon Walters. And there was much speculation when it was discovered that Luhrmann had bought the rights to the famous novel, The Great Gatsby. However, it remains unknown what Luhrmann is planning for his next movie project.

A couple of months ago, Luhrmann was a guest judge on the US version of Dancing With The Stars, and I have just come across a September 2009 interview which was conducted in connection with this television appearance. The following two questions and answers were of particular interest:

Q: Are you still working on a remake of The Great Gatsby?
A: It's one of the things I'm considering. I've not decided which thing I will commit to. I own the rights to Gatsby. It's one of the many things I have in my development department. I own the rights to it and a whole lot of other books.

Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm doing the Blu Rays of Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet. It's a great joy to be going back to those films. It allows you to realize the films in quite a spectacular and beautiful way.

It is fantastic news that Luhrmann is woking on releasing Blu Rays of Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet. The original DVD releases were fantastic. Both DVDs were really well set out and included a huge range of exciting special features which were pioneering for their time. There has been rumours that, for the Blu Ray releases, Luhrmann may be adding even more content that we have never seen before. Hopefully, we will see these new Blu Ray releases some time in 2010! :)

Reminder: Upcoming AFI Awards

As previously reported, the Australian Film Institute Awards will be held on Saturday, 12 December 2009, with the ceremony being broadcast in Australia at 9:30pm on Channel 9. Australia has been nominated for the following categories:

- Member's Choice Award (Baz Luhrmann, G. Mac Brown, Catherine Knapman)
- Best Sound (Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Wayne Pashley MPSE, Guntis Sics, Simon Leadley)
- Best Original Musical Score (David Hirschfelder, Felix Meagher, Baz Luhrmann, Angela Little)
- Best Production Design (Catherine Martin, Ian Gracie, Karen Murphy, Beverley Dunn)
- Best Costume Design (Catherine Martin, Eliza Godman)
- Best Supporting Actor (Brandon Walters)
and
- The AFI Readers' Choice Award (you can still vote for Australia here)

Best of luck to Australia - I will report back after the ceremony! :)