Nominations have been announced for the 96th Academy Awards and AFTRS alum Tony McNamara is nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Poor Things. It’s his second nomination following Best Original Screenplay for The Favourite in 2019. Should he win, it would be the 9th Oscar won by AFTRS alumni and the first in this category.
Originally from Kilmore, Victoria, McNamara got into AFTRS with a theatre script, The Cafe Latte Kid, which he wrote while waiting tables in Melbourne’s Brunswick Street. The play not only helped him get into AFTRS, but it was also produced at Sydney Theatre Company while he was still at the School. It would provide the basis for his first film, The Rage in Placid Lake, starring Rose Byrne and musician Ben Lee, which he also directed.
Tony McNamara graduated from AFTRS with a BA in Film and Television Writing in 1995, alongside Rachel Perkins and Warwick Thornton. His graduation short The Beat Manifesto, co-written with Daniel Nettheim and Mathew Schulz and directed by Nettheim, won AFI Awards for Best Short and Best Screenplay. Since then, he’s had a diverse and successful career across theatre, television (Offspring, Emmy-nominee The Great) and film (Cruella, BAFTA-winner The Favourite).
Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and stars Emma Stone, William Defoe and Mark Ruffalo, is in cinemas now. You can read McNamara’s screenplay here.
