Behind baffling best film tie between The Water Diviner and The BabadookSurprises aplenty as AACTA Awards are announced
In the wake of the controversial tie between The Water Diviner and The Babadook, the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts has scrapped its system for deciding the winner of best film.
With chief executive Damian Trewhella conceding the academy was "out of step with global standards" with a preferential voting system, it has decided the top prize will be determined by "simple majority vote". 
It is the same first-past-the-post system used at the American and British academy awards.
In an overhaul of its voting system, the academy has also limited the number of best film nominees to five, extended the time that films can be released to be eligible and scrapped preferential voting for feature documentary and short film awards.
After the surprise tie between Jennifer Kent's little-seen horror film The Babadook and Russell Crowe's high-profile drama The Water Diviner at the AACTA awards in   January, Mr Trewhella described the result as a dead heat.
"It was a mathematical tie," he said. "It's just a freakish outcome."
But Fairfax revealed this month that the the first count had The Babadook as slight winner.
With 304 of the academy's 1733 members voting, the horror film led the weighted value votes (18.1 per cent) from The Water Diviner (17.8 per cent), sci-fi film Predestination (17.4 per cent), Indigenous drama Charlie's Country (16.9 per cent), wartime survivor drama The Railway Man (16.8 per cent) and outback drama Tracks (13 per cent).
But the academy saw an aberration: The Water Diviner had more first votes but also more last votes. After running the numbers other ways, including giving a higher weighting to first votes and lower weighting to last votes, it decided to award the tie.
Mr Trewhella said that a review with scrutineer Ernst and Young had determined the best film nominees would still be decided by preferential voting in the first round but the winner would be determined by majority vote.
On the new system, The Water Diviner would have won best film this year.
"We were out of step with those global standards and, for the first time, we've got this anomalous data set where it actually split," he said. "We were quite torn in   January as to which way to go. Hence the tie was the fairest outcome."
Mr Trewhella said he believed the film and television industry retained confidence in the awards despite the controversy.
"Everyone I've spoken to, who has been able to listen to and understand some of the complexity, gets that a lot of rigour was put into coming up with the fairest outcome in the circumstances."
The changes to voting came as the academy announced that 23 films would compete in its next awards.
With the frontrunners for the top award expected to be Mad Max: Fury Road, Last Cab to Darwin, Paper Planes, Holding the Man and the yet-to-screen comic drama The Dressmaker, the field also includes Ruben Guthrie, Oddball, UnIndian, Strangerland, Force of Destiny, Now Add Honey and Blinky Bill the Movie.
The main awards will be held on   December 9, televised on the Seven network, with the craft awards luncheon on   November 30.
Voting will begin with industry screenings of competing films from   September 14 to   October 8.
New academy board member Margaret Pomeranz said the success of Last Cab to Darwin reflected the strength of the competing films this year.
"Look at the range. You're going from Mad Max: Fury Road, a huge budget film, to some tiny ones."
While she declined to comment on the voting controversy, she praised the academy's initiatives to connect Australians with the country's films.
The competing films include 10 by first-time feature directors, including Brendan Cowell (Ruben Guthrie), Kim Farrant (Strangerland) and Anupam Sharma (UnIndian), alongside such well-established names as George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), Paul Cox (Force of Destiny) and Robert Connolly (Paper Planes).
Other films competing at the awards include Alex and Eve, Cut Snake, Infini, John Doe: Vigilante, Kill Me Three Times, Love Is Now, One Eyed Girl, The Pack, Partisan, Rise and Touch.