‘Just grateful’: Two ‘bogans from Australia’ lead film award nominations

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After the horror films Talk To Me and Bring Her Back brought them to global attention, livewire Australian twins Danny and Michael Philippou have no illusions about their status in the film world.

“Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, they’re directors,” Michael said. “We’re just grateful that people are allowing us to make our ideas. We’re still bogans from Australia.”

The pair were speaking after learning that Bring Her Back leads the film nominations at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards with 16.

The announcement, on Saturday morning, comes two years ago after Talk To Me swept the AACTAs when it won best film, direction and six other awards.

Bring Her Back is up for best film this year alongside the Peter Greste prison drama The Correspondent (which has 14 nominations), family comedy Kangaroo, animated comedy Lesbian Space Princess, Nicolas Cage thriller The Surfer and family drama The Travellers.

In the TV categories, the wellness industry-skewering drama Apple Cider Vinegar dominates with 20 nominations including for best miniseries. American Kaitlyn Dever, who plays convicted fraudster Belle Gibson, is one of eight actors from the Netflix series to be nominated.

Also strongly represented are the ABC drama The Newsreader, Prime Video’s Richard Flanagan adaptation The Narrow Road to the Deep North (both with 12 nominations) and the ABC’s Mystery Road: Origin (11).

The star power at the awards, which will be held on the Gold Coast in February, is boosted by nominations for Nicole Kidman (for producing The Last Anniversary), Jacob Elordi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), Sally Hawkins (Bring Her Back), Daisy Ridley (zombie thriller We Bury The Dead) and Guy Pearce (prison drama Inside).

Sally Hawkins and Jonah Wren Phillips in Bring Her Back.

The Philippous, who are deep into editing a documentary about so-called Mexican death match wrestling that features Michael competing in a barbed-wire ring, were delighted by the nominations.

“I was so surprised,” Danny said. “We didn’t think we’d get nominated at all again this year. But we had an amazing team that worked so hard on the movie, so to see them recognised in that way warms my heart.”

Added Michael: “Everyone always looks at movies as if only the directors made it, which is so not true. We’re nothing without our team.”

Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar has convicted fraudster Belle Gibson played by Kaitlyn Dever.

The 33-year-olds have special praise for producer Samantha Jennings, whose other Australian films include Cargo, Of An Age and The Moogai. “Best producer not just in Australia but in the world,” Danny said.

The brothers’ rise from manic YouTubers to successful film directors came when they linked up with the buzzy American studio A24 for their 2022 horror film Talk To Me, which was about young partygoers using an embalmed hand to connect with supernatural forces.

In The Narrow Road to The Deep North, Jacob Elordi plays a young doctor sent to work on the Burma Railway.

The even more chilling Bring Her Back, about two teenage orphans (played by Billy Barratt and Sora Wong) being taken in by a troubling foster mother (Hawkins), confirmed their talent as writer-directors.

After finishing their wrestling documentary, provisionally titled Death Match, they expect to shoot another horror film then Talk To Me 2. Danny will also produce a film that a member of their visual effects team, Jack James Troisi, will direct next year.

Michael and Danny Philippou on the set of Bring Her Back.

Talk To Me and Bring Her Back, written about the same time, are both darkly disturbing films about grief. The twins say this came from the death of a close family friend, Harley Wallace, during pre-production on their debut.

“His Mum called me and it was just the most horrific, devastating thing,” Danny said. “The film became a way to process that ... It changed the tone of the movie. It changed the ending of the movie.”

While every character in their follow-up film is also dealing with grief, the brothers have different takes on what it is really about.

“I might be completely delusional but Bring Her Back is more about love than it is about grief,” Michael said. “Laura [the foster mother] is a villain doing horrible things but it’s out of love that she’s now missing.”

For Danny, the second film that will take them to the AACTA Awards is about “cycles of abuse”.

While they have joined the likes of fellow Australians James Wan and Leigh Whannell of Saw fame in making their name in horror, the Philippous insist they have many other cinematic interests.

“We’re interested in a lot of other [types of films],” Danny said. “But that being said, the next two movies are horror movies.”

Added Michael: “The documentary is quite horrifying as well.”

Danny: “Maybe we are just horror directors”.

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