Teen film leads Australian awards

Somersault follows 16-year-old Heidi after she leaves home

Australian coming-of-age film drama Somersault has scored a clean sweep of prizes in every feature film category at the country's top screen ceremony.

The 13 Australian Film Institute Awards set a record in Melbourne on Friday.

An emotional voyage of discovery for a 16-year-old girl, it is writer-director Cate Shortland's debut feature film.

But it has not been a huge commercial success, taking A$1.2m (£500,000) at home box offices, compared with A$14m (£5.6m) for Hollywood hit Shark Tale.

Actress Cate Blanchett, who presented awards at the ceremony, described it as: "Extraordinary, sophisticated, deeply moving, powerful, an unusual jewel and erotic."

'Dreary'

But the Melbourne Age newspaper described it as a "dreary opus about a dreary young woman's forlorn search for love in the snowfields".

The lead character, Heidi, is played by Abbie Cornish, with her boyfriend Joe played by Sam Worthington.

They were among the winners of the film's four acting awards. Somersault had a total of 15 nominations.

Its closest rival for the 46th annual Australian Film Institute Awards had been Tom White, with 12 nominations.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won best foreign film, while actress Naomi Watts received an honour for global achievement.

A record was also set in the television categories, with ABC mini-series Marking Time awarded seven prizes.