The Nightingale swoops up two AACTAs
Jennifer Kent's The Nightingale has swept ahead at the AACTA awards in Sydney on Wednesday winning twice for best direction and best screenplay.
Following the runaway success of her directorial debut The Babadook, Kent's revenge period drama had already nabbed two awards earlier in the week for best casting and Magnolia Maymuru winning best supporting actress.
"That award alone makes me feel like the story I told was heard, and I feel like it was respected," Maymuru told AAP.
"It meant so much."
A tearful Stan Grant accepted the award for Best Documentary for The Australian Dream directed by Daniel Gordon, who paid tribute to the documentary's star and former AFL player Adam Goodes for having the courage to go through some of his life's darkest moments for the film.
Deborah Mailman took out the first AACTA award of the night for best lead in a television drama for her role in Total Control.
Already a five-time AACTA/AFI winner including for her support role in Mystery Road last year, Mailman said this was a particularly significant win given it was her first in the category.
"I'm actually really emotional, this show has meant everything to me, it's my first lead role in a drama series," Mailman said.
It's pretty amazing in terms of the diversity of people, I've had so many people stop me on the street, saying that they're loving the show, that they're watching it, it's been fantastic."
Damon Herriman who broke AACTA history with the most nominations across four different performance categories in a year won best lead actor for Judy and Punch, saying it was the best script he had ever read.
