Jackie Weaver

Fresh from a win at the AFI Awards last weekend, veteran Australian actress Jacki Weaver has received a Golden Globe nomination for her frame chewing performance as a crime family matriarch in director David Michod’s acclaimed Melbourne-based drama Animal Kingdom.

Weaver has had a very good fortnight: on top of winning an AFI she was named best supporting actress by the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the San Franciso Film Critics Association. She is now very much on track to walk the red carpet at next year’s Academy Awards, having ticked all the major prerequisite boxes.

A win for Weaver at the Globes will significantly increase her Oscar chances, despite the Globes being run by the small and mysterious Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a clique of journalists who bizarrely need to write only four film stories a year to satisfy membership criteria. I wrote about the organisation prior to the awards ceremony earlier this year.

Weaver will compete in the best supporting actress category against Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech), Amy Adams and Melissa Leo (The Fighter) and Mila Kunis (Black Swan) who all star in films yet to be released in Australia.

Three other Australians were nominated, all “brand” actors: Nicole Kidman for best actress in a drama (Rabbit Hole), Geoffrey Rush for best supporting actor (The King’s Speech) Toni Collette for best performance in a comedy (United States of Tara).