The Australian actor doesn't beat his son in Romulus, My Father, but he did beat out the young actor who plays him for the 2007 AFI Best Actor award.

By FilmStew Staff, FilmStew.com

So how does one rebound from the debacle known as Lucky You, a long delayed Curtis Hanson film which admittedly stood no chance whatsoever at the U.S. box office when Warner Bros. finally released it the same weekend as Spider-Man 3? Not to mention the insult of being summarily replaced as the Incredible Hulk by actor Edward Norton.


In the case of co-star Eric Bana, the solution is heading back home, making the drama Romulus, My Father and winning an Australian Film Institute Best Actor award. That's just what Bana did today for his portrayal of Romulus, the father half of what has been described as a profoundly moving father-son drama. The actor who plays the son, Kodi Smit-McPhee, was also nominated in the Best Actor category, leading to some unusual run-up coverage.

Smit-McPhee picked up a separate Young Actor award, with Romulus also nabbing Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Marton Csokas). Despite all this, some Down Under awards pundits were suggesting that the four-award showing was something of a disappointment, considering the adaptation of Raimond Gaita's acclaimed memoir was up for 15 AFI Awards.

Bana has moved on from Romulus to the land of Romulans, Star Trek XI, as well as a bit as King Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl. The 40-year-old Melbourne native is also on tap for the serial killer thriller Factor X with Terrence Howard, so in all likelihood, memories of those Bruce Banner shorts that somehow never split or tore when he grew to a body size 20 times larger are already well behind him. Magnolia Pictures will release Romulus in the United States in 2008.