Mel Gibson’s pacifist World War II drama, Hacksaw Ridge, took five key prizes at the AACTA Awards in Sydney last night. The film won Australia’s equivalent to the Oscar in the Best Film, Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay (Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan) categories as well as scooping Best Lead Actor for Andrew Garfield and Best Supporting Actor for Hugo Weaving. The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts had earlier this week given Oz’s highest film honors to Hacksaw Ridge in four craft races: Editing, Cinematography, Production Design and Sound.

Hacksaw marks Gibson’s return to directing after 10 years and has been heaped with praise since it first bowed at the Venice Film Festival to strong reviews and a 10-minute standing ovation.

The story of real-life conscientious objector Desmond T Doss is equal parts faith-based film and horrors-of-war action drama. It tells how Doss (Garfield) saved 75 men in Okinawa without ever carrying a gun. It was filmed on a relatively low budget in Australia; has seven Broadcast Film Critics Association Critics’ Choice Awards nominations and was named to the Top 10 2016 films list by the National Board of Review.

International rollout continues on the Lionsgate title which has made $76M worldwide to date. It opens in China today where legendary director Feng Xiaogang recently gave it his stamp of approval.

FEATURE FILM

BEST FILM
Hacksaw Ridge – Bill Mechanic, David Permut, Paul Currie, Bruce Davey

BEST DIRECTION
Mel Gibson – Hacksaw Ridge

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Andrew Knight & Robert Schenkkan – Hacksaw Ridge

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Simon Stone – The Daughter

BEST LEAD ACTOR
Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge

BEST LEAD ACTRESS
Odessa Young – The Daughter

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Hugo Weaving – Hacksaw Ridge

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Miranda Otto – The Daughter

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Simon Duggan – Hacksaw Ridge

BEST EDITING
John Gilbert – Hacksaw Ridge

BEST SOUND
Hacksaw Ridge – Andrew Wright, Robert Mackenzie, Kevin O’Connell, Mario Vaccaro, Tara Webb, Peter Grace

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE
Tanna – Antony Partos

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Hacksaw Ridge – Barry Robison

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Girl Asleep – Jonathan Oxlade

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS OR ANIMATION (combined with television)
Game Of Thrones – “Battle Of The Bastards,” Season 6, Episode 9 (Foxtel – Showcase) – Jon Bauer, Steve Kullback, Glenn Melenhorst, Ineke Majoor

BEST HAIR AND MAKE-UP (combined with television)
Cleverman (ABC) – Kath Brown, Simon Joseph, Troy Follington

Read more at Deadline.com

In theaters now! HacksawRidge.movie