Daily News Roundup

Wednesday, January 23

Roma and The Favourite lead the pack, with 10 nominations each for next month’s Oscars.

The two films will go up against one another in the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay categories.

The Best Picture category has eight nominees for 2019.

Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book, two movies that have been the subject of controversy and were previously honored with Best Picture trophies at the Golden Globes, are both nominated, as is last year’s biggest Hollywood success story: Black Panther.

Black Panther is now the first superhero movie in history to be nominated for Best Picture, a recognition that caps the film’s $1.3 billion worldwide box office haul.

The rest of the 2019 Best Picture nominees include A Star Is Born, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, and Adam McKay’s Dick Cheney biopic Vice.

The 2019 Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 24.

Best Picture: Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody,

The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, A Star Is Born, Vice

Actor in a Leading Role: Christian Bale, Vice; Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born; Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate; Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody; Viggo Mortensen, Green Book.

Actress in a Leading Role: Yalitza Aparicio, Roma; Glenn Close, The Wife; Olivia Colman, The Favourite; Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born; Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Actress in a Supporting Role: Amy Adams, Vice; Marina de Tavira, Roma; Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk; Emma Stone, The Favourite; Rachel Weisz, The Favourite.

Actor in a Supporting Role: Mahershala Ali, Green Book; Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman; Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born; Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?; Sam Rockwell, Vice.

###

A South Australian anaesthetist and a retired West Australian veterinarian are tipped to be named joint winners of this year’s Australian of Year to be announced on Friday.

Retired veterinarian Craig Challen, is the West Australian nominee for Australian of the Year, while his dive partner, anaesthetist Richard Harris, is the South Australian nominee.

The pair,  have already received the Star of Courage for their roles in the daring July rescue mission of a boy soccer team in the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai.

The friends and diving enthusiasts  were preparing for a trip to the Nullarbor when they received the call for help.

Working up to 12 hours a day, they repeatedly risked their lives as the drugged children were taken through the narrow and dark Tham Luang Nang Non cave.

The ordeal lasted more than two weeks and Dr Challen has previously described it as a desperate situation.

“We were just two ordinary blokes who have got an unusual hobby not many people have heard of,” he said.

“I just can’t stress how bleak the outlook was for those kids in there.”

The book and film rights to the international cave rescue story have reportedly been sold for about $6 million to a US publisher and movie house.

Of the eight people nominated, some are being honoured for the work of a lifetime, others for their efforts over just days or weeks.

The award, along with the Senior Australian of the year, Young Australian of the year and Australia’s Local Hero, recognises a person changing lives and improving Australian society, who has overcome challenges, taken risks and been a pioneer who has made a positive impact in many people’s lives.

The 2018 AOTY award went to New South Wales quantum physicist Michelle Simmons, whose work was heralded as launching Australia into “the space race of the computing era”.

Each state and territory nominates a finalist for the award and the following impressive Australians are in the running.

###

The young women who ended Australian Ashleigh Barty’s Australian Open tennis dream last night deserved her victory and the watching crowd were quick to recognise it.

They knew what a tortuous journey Petra Kvitova a two time Wimbledon champion had travelled to get to this point.

Just a few years ago Kvitova, 28, thought she would never again reach the semi-finals of a major after being injured by a knife wielding robber in her home.

It was less than a week before Christmas in 2016 when Kvitova was attacked in her apartment in the Czech Republic city of Prostejov.

The assailant held a knife to her throat and as a struggle took place in her bathroom, Kvitova sustained severe hand injuries while trying to defend herself.

She underwent a lengthy operation to repair the tendons in her left hand, along with injuries to all five fingers and two nerves, while emotionally she was “shaken, but fortunate to be alive”, as she said at the time.

But more than once she has proved that the human spirit can triumph over any adversity, as she showed in Melbourne last night.

When interviewed on court following her straight-sets win over Australia’s Ashleigh Barty in the quarter-finals, Kvitova was asked to reflect on her remarkable comeback to tennis following a horrific home invasion just over two years ago.

Kvitova paused for some time as tears welled in her eyes, and after gaining as much composure as she could manage, she explained what it meant to achieve her best result at a major since the incident.

“I didn’t really imagine to be back on this great stadium and play with the best and it’s great,” a tearful Kvitova said in her on-court interview with Channel Nine’s Jim Courier

The physical damage to her dominant hitting hand and the emotional scars meant there were genuine fears Kvitova would never play tennis again.

The Czech, however, was able to pick up a racquet 12 weeks after the attack and begin practising at greater intensity by early May in 2017, before making her comeback to professional tennis at the French Open later that month.

She reached the second round in Paris, an astonishing effort considering what she had been through, and later that year made the quarter-finals of the US Open.