Aacta Awards 2026: Bring Her Back and Jacob Elordi’s horror film wins big at Australian Film and Television Awards | Acta Awards

Bring Her Back dominated the 2026 Aacta (Australian Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards, winning 10 out of 16 nominations, while Jacob Elordi continued the recent awards buzz by taking home Best Lead Actor for his performance in The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Danny and Michael Filippo’s horror-thriller “Bring Her Back,” about an evil foster mother, emerged as the night’s top-earning film with 10 wins. This represents a major achievement for the Adelaide brothers, surpassing the eight awards they won for their 2024 global hit, Talk to Me.

Bring Her Back won Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Leading Actress in a Motion Picture for Sally Hawkins and nearly every technical category, including cinematography, editing, original score, sound, costume design, hair, make-up and acting.

Elordi received the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama after winning a Critics’ Choice Movie Award for his portrayal of the creature in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and for his portrayal of army surgeon Dorigo Evans in the film adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Elordi, who is now nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in Frankenstein, also picked up the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Australian Actor. Elordi is currently on a promotional tour for Wuthering Heights, due for worldwide release next week, and accepted his awards via a pre-recorded video link.

Margot Robbie, his Wuthering Heights co-star and fellow Queenslander, won favorite Australian actress.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North was the outstanding television production of the year, winning nine Aacta Awards from 12 nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for Heather Mitchell.

The Netflix miniseries Apple Cider Vinegar, about wellness fraudster Bill Gibson, initially appeared to be in control with 20 nominations, the most for a TV show this year — but it ultimately only took home two awards: Best Miniseries and Best Option.

The third and final season of ABC’s The Newsreader ended with four wins, including Best Drama Series, Best Lead Actress in a Drama for Anna Torv, and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for Daniel Henshall, bringing Aactas’ win total for the show to 15.

Bump won Best Featured Comedy Series, while Miranda Tapsell won Best Comedy Actor for her performance in Top End Bub.

SBS’s three-part docudrama series The People vs Robodebt – which features Guardian reporter Christopher Knaus as the lead voice – won two awards for Best Documentary or Factual Program and Best Direction in Reality TV. Grand Designs Australia won Best Lifestyle Programme, Play School: All Together won Best Children’s Programme, and Hard Quiz won Best Comedy Entertainment Program and Best Comedy Performance by Host Tom Gleeson.

Gleason chose to dedicate the award for Best Comedy Entertainment to ABC President, Kim Williams.

“Finally, a middle-aged, bald white man has taken over again, and he inspires me because you can’t be what you can’t see,” he said, before mocking the current problems facing the Liberal Party.

In the film categories, “The Reporter,” a dramatic depiction of the trial and imprisonment of journalist Peter Greste in Egypt, won Best Lead Actor in a Film for Richard Roxburgh. The film, directed by Kriv Stenders, also won Best Screenplay and Best Production Design.

The Best Supporting Actor category went to Deborah Mailman for her role as Rosie in the comedy Kangaroo, and the late Julian McMahon for his role in the psychological thriller The Surfer, starring opposite Nicolas Cage. McMahon died of cancer last year at the age of 56.

Journey Home, David Gulpilil’s win for best documentary, while animated comedy Lesbian Space Princess won for best independent film.

Comedian Celeste Barber hosted the Aacta Awards, held on the Gold Coast on Friday, with guests including Succession duo Sarah Snook and Brian Cox, Boy Swallows Universe’s Phoebe Tonkin, and Stranger Things actor Dacre Montgomery.

Snook, who has been collecting accolades on the West End and Broadway for her post-Succession role in The Picture of Dorian Gray, was also honored with an Aacta Leading Award.

While presenting the award, Cox called Snoke “the real deal,” followed by a series of pre-recorded tributes to the actor, including Predestination co-star Ethan Hawke and Succession Greg’s “cousin,” Nicholas Braun, who slyly suggested that a fifth season might be on the way.

Snook also won Best International Actress for All Her Fault.

Veteran director Bruce Beresford, who has directed films including Breaker Morant, Driving Miss Daisy and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, was honored with the Longford Lyell Lifetime Achievement Award. Brian Brown presented the award with a video trio of Morgan Freeman, Kyle MacLachlan, Susie Porter and Shane Jacobsen.