2003 Australian Film Institute Awards

The 45th Annual Australian Film Institute Awards (generally known as AFI Awards), were a series of awards presented by the Australian Film Institute (AFI). The awards celebrated the best in Australian feature film, television, documentary and short film productions of 2003. The event was held at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne on 21 November 2003 and hosted by Tony Squires. Stars presenting the awards included Geoffrey Rush, George Miller, Toni Collette and Jason Donovan.

Winners and nominees
The nominations were announced on 31 October 2003. Leading the feature film nominees was comedy crime caper Gettin' Square with a total of fourteen nominations across 12 of the 14 categories, equalling the record set by director Phillip Noyce's film Newsfront in 1978. After the Deluge, a miniseries about a father who is suffering from Alzheimer's and his three estranged sons who reluctantly come together to secure institutional care for him, gained the most television nominations with eight.

Despite the record number of nominations, Gettin' Square only won a single award, for David Wenham as best actor. Director, Sue Brooks's Japanese Story, about an Australian geologist and a Japanese businessman journeying into the Pilbara desert in Western Australia received eight awards, the most for any production. In the television category, the miniseries After The Deluge and medical-legal drama MDA, won three awards apiece.

Controversies
There was some controversy at the ceremony, with almost half of the winners using their acceptance speeches to criticise the Australian government's proposal to cut cultural subsidies as part of a free trade agreement with the United States. Many arrived wearing yellow and green ribbons in protest against the agreement.

Multiple nominations
The following films received multiple nominations.


 * 14 nominations: Gettin' Square
 * 10 nominations: Japanese Story
 * 9 nominations: Ned Kelly