Somersault hassmashed the record for the number of nominations received in the AFI(Australian Film Institute) Awards, winning the thumbs up 15 times across all13 categories for which it qualified.

These include best film for producer Anthony Anderson, bestdirector and best original screenplay for Cate Shortland, best actor for AbbieCornish and Sam Worthington, and four best supporting actor nominations.

The other best film nominees announced today are Love'sBrother (producers Jan Sardi, Sarah Radclyffe),The Old Man Who Read Love Stories(Julie Ryan, Michelle de Broca) and Tom White (Alkinos Tsilimidos, Daniel Scarf).

Shortland will have to fight off Love's Brother director Jan Sardi, Tom White's Tsilimidos and The Finished People's Khoa Do, for this year's best director award.

Tom White received 13nominations, the second highest tally. Next in line was One PerfectDay with eight.

The best foreign film honour in the 46th AFI Awards will goto either Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King, Lost In Translation or Mystic River.

Hopscotch opened Somersault locally on limited release two weeks ago and is hoping this latestnews will boost admissions. Positive word of mouth lifted ticket sales 2% inits second week compared to the first week gross of $263,698 from only 21screens. It remains the film with the highest screen average in the top 20,which includes such films as A Shark Tale, Dodge Ball: A TrueUnderdog Story and The PrincessDiaries 2.

The AFI Awards are being held on Friday, October 29 inMelbourne. There will be no live broadcast this year. Rather, footage willscreen on ABC TV two nights later, then on pay TV channel Ovation. Only 10features were entered this year, highlighting the recent fall in Australianproduction levels.

NOMINEES FOR THE 46TH AFI AWARDS:

BEST FILM
Love's Brother, Jane Scott, Sarah Radclyffe
Somersault, Anthony Anderson
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, JulieRyan, Michelle de Broca
Tom White, Alkinos Tsilimidos, DanielScharf

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Colin Friels, Tom White
Kevin Harrington, The Honourable Wally Norman
Dan Spielman, One Perfect Day
Sam Worthington, Somersault

JAN LOGAN AFI AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Abbie Cornish, Somersault
Chloe Maxwell, Under the Radar
Olivia Pigeot, A Cold Summer
Leeanna Walsman, One Perfect Day

BEST DIRECTION
Love's Brother, Jan Sardi
Somersault, Cate Shortland
The Finished People, Khoa Do
Tom White, Alkinos Tsilimidos

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Nathaniel Dean, Somersault
Dan Spielman, Tom White
Erik Thomson, Somersault
Hugo Weaving, The Old Man Who Read Love Stories

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Hollie Andrew, Somersault
Rachael Blake, Tom White
Loene Carmen, Tom White
Lynette Curran, Somersault

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Love's Brother, Jan Sardi
Somersault, Cate Shortland
The Finished People, Khoa Do, RodneyAnderson, Joe Le, Jason McGoldrick
Tom White, Daniel Keene

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Love's Brother, Andrew Lesnie
One Perfect Day, Gary Ravenscroft
Somersault, Robert Humphreys A.C.S.
Tom White, Toby Oliver

COMPLETE POST AFI AWARD FOR BEST EDITING
One Perfect Day, Gary Woodyard
Somersault, Scott Gray
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, TaniaNehme
Tom White, Ken Sallows A.S.E.

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE
One Perfect Day, David Hobson
Somersault, Decoder Ring'
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, GrahamTardif
Thunderstruck, David Thrussell, FrancoisTetaz

BEST SOUND
One Perfect Day, Glenn Newnham, Jack McKerrow,Paul Pirola
Somersault, Mark Blackwell, Peter Smith,Sam Petty
Thunderstruck, Peter Smith, Peter Townend,Wayne Pashley
Tom White, James Currie, Michael Bakaloff,Peter Walker, Tristan Meredith

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Love's Brother, Paul Heath
One Perfect Day, MacGregor Knox, PatrickBennet, Joseph Keily
Somersault, Melinda Doring
Tom White, Dan Potra

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Love's Brother, Anna Borghesi
One Perfect Day, Katie Graham
Somersault, Emily Seresin
Tom White, Jill Johanson

BEST FOREIGN FILM
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,Anthony Bregman, Steve Golin
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,Peter Jackson, Barrie M. Osborne, Fran Walsh
Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola, RossKatz
Mystic River, Robert Lorenz, Judie G. Hoyt,Clint Eastwood