Movies - Awards posts

Another victory celebration

A week after NY, LA film critics chose their best of 2018, and with the same best of 2018: Alfonso Cuaron's “Roma.” 

I think LA is unique in giving out both gold and silver. No bronze. Here's the films they tapped:

• Best Film: “Roma”
• Runner-up: “Burning”
• Best Director: Debra Granik, “Leave No Trace”
• Runner-up: Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”
• Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, “First Reformed”
• Runner-up: Ben Foster, “Leave No Trace”
• Best Actress: Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”
• Runner-up: Toni Collette, “Hereditary”
• Best Supporting Actor: Steven Yeun, “Burning”
• Runner-up: Hugh Grant, “Paddington 2”
• Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
• Runner-up: Elizabeth Debicki, “Widows”
• Best Foreign-Language Film: ??
• Runner-up: ??
• Best Documentary/Nonfiction Film: “Shirkers”
• Runner-up: “Minding the Gap”
• Best Animated Film: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
• Runner-up: “Incredibles 2”
• Best Screenplay: “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
• Runner-up: “The Favourite,” Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara
• Best Cinematography: Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma”
• Runner-up: James Laxton, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
• Best Editing: Joshua Altman and Bing Liu, “Minding the Gap”
• Runner-up: Alfonso Cuaron and Adam Gough, “Roma”
• Best Music/Score: Nicholas Britell, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
• Runner-up: Justin Hurwitz, “First Man”
• Best Production Design: Hannah Beachler, “Black Panther”
• Runner-up: Fiona Crombie, “The Favourite”

I saw “Roma” Friday and can't disagree. Looking forward to “The Favourite.” Seeing “Burning” in a few hours. 

When in Roma...

Fast on the heels of the National Board of Review, the New York Film Critics Circle announced its best of 2018:

• Best Picture: “Roma”
• Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma”
• Best Screenplay: Paul Scharder, “First Reformed”
• Best Actress: Regina Hall, “Support the Girls”
• Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, “First Reformed”
• Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
• Best Supporting Actor: Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
• Best Cinematography: “Roma,” Alfonso Cuaron
• Best Non-fiction Film: “Minding the Gap,” director Bing Liu
• Best Foreign Language Film: “Cold War,” director Pawel Pawlikowski
• Best Animated Feature: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
• Best First Film: “Eighth Grade,” director Bo Burnham
• Special Award For Career Achievement: David Schwartz, Chief Film Curator at Museum of the Moving Image for 33 years
• Special Award: Kino Classics Box Set “Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers”

Interesting seeing both Pawlikowski and Hawke honored. Makes me think of an underrated movie they made together in 2011. Also makes me want to see “Cold War.”

NYFCC's big winner, “Roma,” I won't be able to see until Dec. 7 at the Cinerama in Seattle. Wanted to go big screen on it. But I‘ve tended to like NYFCC’s choices. Past NYFCC winners here, with thoughts. 

I posted a semi-critical review of “Green Book” on Monday. On Tuesday, the National Board of Review honored it with the best film of the year. 

So it goes. Me and NBR have never really agreed on much. Here are its best pics this century:

Years in which its best would be in my top 5: 2007, 2010 and 2016. 

Its odd choices are inconsistently odd: from the lightweight (“Finding Neverland,” “her”) to the heavy/gritty (“Zero Dark Thirty,” “A Most Violent Year”); from black-and-white serious (“Good Night, and Good Luck”) to outlandishly colorful and comically pop (“Mad Max: Fury Road”). NBR is like an odd cousin. When they show up, not sure what I'm going to get. 

That said, “Green Book” is part of its celebration of the middle of the road. They did it last year with “The Post,” too. They also released their top 10—or I guess #s 2 through 11. (Why do they call it top 10?) Here they are in alphabetical order:

• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
• Black Panther
• Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Eighth Grade
• First Reformed
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Mary Poppins Returns
• A Quiet Place
• Roma
• A Star Is Born

Looking forward to “Roma,” “Buster Scruggs” and “Mary Poppins.” Willing to watch “First Reformed” again to see what I missed in my “meh” review. Otherwise...

Still no arrests, but many awards.

If you'd told me that “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” had just won the BAFTA, the British Oscar, for best picture, and that this presaged an Oscar victory for same since previous BAFTA winners “La La Land,” “The Revenant” and “Boyhood” all won the Oscar, too, I would‘ve probably just nodded and continued the conversation. It would’ve taken me a few seconds to go, “Wait ... Did those three win the Oscar?” They didn‘t: “Moonlight,” “Spotlight,” and “Birdman” did. But I think the pre-Oscar conversation goes on so long these days that it’s harder to keep track of which movie actually won. Those were all in the running, of course. They were part of the conversation up until the announcement. Hell, “La La Land” actually was announced. It was on stage and in the middle of its acceptance speech. Then: Yoink.

So BAFTA presages not much in the best picture category. Although BAFTA and Oscar agreed every year between 2008 (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and 2013 (“12 Years a Slave”), this was an anomaly. In their history together, they‘ve disagreed more than agreed on best picture: 28 of 71 times. Not even 40 percent. And that’s including the movies that won BAFTA/Oscar in different years. 

I like how they differ, by the way. BAFTA usually goes (shockingly) British, choosing, say, “Atonement” over “No Country for Old Men,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral” over “Forrest Gump,” and (my personal favorite) “Howard's End” over “Unforgiven.” You may say “Howard's End” deserved its BAFTA and I'd be forced to respond, “Deserve's got nothing to do with it, kid.”

BAFTA also goes French more than we do—since we never do. Or we only do if it's Hollywood French (“Gigi”). BAFTA has chosen for its best pic, among others, “Jean de Florette,” “Day for Night,” “Wages of Fear” and “La Ronde.” Not a bad list. 

Finally, BAFTA likes small better than we do. “The Full Monty” won in ‘97 over “Titanic.” Only one Woody Allen movie has won the Oscar for best pic (“Annie Hall,” 1977), but three have claimed BAFTAs: “Annie,” “Manhattan” and “The Purple Rose of Cairo.” Remember “Educating Rita”? That won. “The Commitments” beat “The Silence of the Lambs.” 

Another trivia question: What three Martin Scorsese movies won the BAFTA? I’ll let you mull it over for a second. 

But the BAFTA acting wins do probably presage Oscar victories, since they‘re the same that the Screen Actors Guild chose a few weeks ago: McDormand, Oldman, Janey and Rockwell. Wouldn’t bet against any of these. 

They also awarded a BAFTA to oft-Oscar-nominated/never-won cinematographer Roger Deakins for his work on “Blade Runner 2049.” I thought, “That's nice. Nice to see him get one.” It's actually his fourth BAFTA. He won previously for three Coens: “The Man Who Wasn't There,” “No Country for Old Men” and “True Grit.” Oscar has nominated him 12 times before this year and handed out exactly zero statuettes. Maybe 13 is his lucky number. 

The chart below details all the BAFTA/Oscar wins with agreements highlighted in yellow. You can see the answer to the Scorsese trivia question, too. Ready? The three Scorsese movies that won BAFTAs are: “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore,” “Goodfellas” and “The Aviator.” If you'd given me 10 guesses, I doubt I would‘ve nailed all three. 

Two weeks until Oscar.

Last night, the Directors Guild of America gave its award in outstanding achievement in feature film to Guillermo del Toro for “The Shape of Water.” This follows on the heels of the Producers Guild of America awarding its feature film prize to “The Shape of Water,” too. 

So how often has a film won the DGA and PGA and not gone on to win the Oscar for best picture? Four and a half times since the PGAs began in 1989:

Even if “Shape” doesn't win best pic, del Toro seems a lock for best director. Just winning the DGA usually means the Oscar for best director. In the last 10 years, the only break came when Ben Affleck won the DGA for “Argo” but wasn't nominated by the Academy, so its prize went to Ang Lee for “Life of Pi.” Before that, you have to go back to 2002, when the DGA went with Rob Marshall for “Chicago” while the Academy honored Roman Polanski for “The Pianist.” 

If del Toro does win the Oscar, it will also continue the recent diversification of an award that was once staunchly white and male:

• 2017: Guillermo del Toro, “The Shape of Water”
• 2016: Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
• 2015: Alejandro Innaritu, “The Revenant”
• 2014: Alejandro Innaritu, “Birdman”
• 2013: Alfonso Cuaron, “Gravity”
• 2012: Ang Lee, “Life of Pi”

Six awards, four Mexican directors, one Taiwanese director. Don't tell Donald. Or do. Let's have some fun.

If you're in an Oscar pool, these should probably be your picks in the acting categories this year:

• Actor: Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
• Actress: Francis McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
• Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
• Supoorting Actress: Allison Janey, “I, Tonya”

They should be your picks because they were the winners at the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild/SAG Awards last night, and because SAG has predicted—or, to be fair, preceded—the Oscar choices in at least three of the four acting categories every year since 2009. Often it was a clean sweep. Here are the SAG choices, with differences with Oscar highlighted:

In 2011, the Academy went Meryl Streep for “Iron Lady” rather than Viola Davis for “The Help” (bad choice, Oscar), and in 2012, it opted for Christoph Waltz reprising his cooky Tarantino villainy in “Django Unchained” rather than Tommy Lee Jones' 19th-century gravitas in “Lincoln” (another bad choice). Two years ago, it tapped Mark Rylance in “Bridge of Spies” over Idris Elba's straight-to-Netflix monstrous commander in “Beasts of No Nation,” which, being straight-to-Netflix, wasn't even nominated by the Academy (I lean Rylance). And last year, it went Casey Affleck in “Manchester By the Sea” over Denzel directing himself in “Fences” (another wash, but, given my preference for “Manchester,” and Denzel's closetful of awards, I lean Affleck). 

So: 28 of 32. Almost a lock. 

It actually feels like more of a lock than that. It doesn't take Ta-Nehesi Coates to see that three of the four differences between SAG and Oscar involved race: SAG chose African-American actors, Oscar didn't. Only in one (Jones/Waltz) was white traded for white. And of course Jones was one of the Men in Black.

So now we're at 31 of 32. Tough to get better odds.  

Oscar nominations announced tomorrow morning. 

The Writers and Producers Guilds have announced their nominees for best films of 2017, and they match! Seven times:

* “Three Billboards” was not eligible for the WGA award 

Happy to see both nods for “The Big Sick.” I'm crossing my fingers it gets Oscar noms for pic and screenplay.

Also found it interesting that each guild chose a superhero flick. PGA went with the big, bold and politically correct choice, “Wonder Woman,” while WGA opted for the dystopian, end-of-the-superhero superhero flick in “Logan.” I would've gone neither. My favorite superhero movie of the year was “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” 

And hey, check out the number of woman-led pics from both guilds. That's new.

The PGA Awards will be held Saturday, Jan. 20, while the WGA Awards procrastinate (as writers do) until Sunday, Feb. 11. DGA nominees will be announced Jan. 11, winners Feb. 3.

The nominees are out from the Seattle Film Critics Society, and they are ... 

Wait, nominees? Even the New York and LA film critics don't do nominees...do they? They just award.

Anyway, despite living in Seattle (First Hill, represent!), and being a film critic (of a kind), I've never been anywhere near this group. Maybe with good reason. These are their nominees for best picture:

• Blade Runner 2049 
• The Disaster Artist 
• Dunkirk
• The Florida Project 
• Get Out
• Lady Bird
• Logan
• Phantom Thread
• The Post 
• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Missing? “The Big Sick,” of course, which I watched again with friends last night and liked more than the first time I saw it—as the opening movie of the Seattle International Film Festival last May. And I loved it then. Right now, it's top 3 for me. With many more to see...

...such as “Call Me By Your Name,” which is winning awards up the wazoo but not here. For a second I thought it wasn't listed because it hadn't screened this far west, but the film is mentioned as part of “Best Ensemble Cast.” And that's it. No others. Neither best pic for “The Shape of Water.” Haven't seen yet so shouldn't say. Just ... surprising. 

What's included and probably shouldn't be? “Blade Runner 2049” for starters. Then on to “Dunkirk” and wrap up with “Logan.” I'd put “Spidey” before “Logan.”

I guess I like the head bob toward the popular, but then why ignore “Big Sick”? And why all the sci-fi? Fucking nerds.

At least “Baby Driver” didn't make the cut.  

Armie Hammer (foreground), and Chalamet, in “Call Me By My Name”

In the last few days, on the heels of the National Board of Review, both the NY and the LA Film Critics Associations announced their winners for the year. Both bodies, I believe, get together in person and duke it out. I don't know why they don't film it. Best short feature, yo. 

Anyway, here they are:

Not tons of agreement. Just on the dudes, the doc and the foreigners. Really looking forward to ”BPM,“ AKA ”120 battements par minute,“ which is about love during the AIDS crisis. French, bien sur. 

Interesting that in NY, where they gave picture and actress to ”Lady Bird,“ the film's surest bet, Laurie Metcalf in supporting, went to Tiffany Haddish in ”Girls Trip.“ I'm all for awarding outright comedies but this doesn't feel like the year. Particularly with Holly Hunter in ”The Big Sick“ hanging in the wings.

”Call Me By Your Name“ and ”The Shape of Water" open in Seattle later this month.  

Return with us now, to those thrilling days of yesteryear...

The National Board of Review, the first of the never-ending awardists, gave its top prizes to Steven Spielberg's The Post—the film about the Pentagon Papers and the moment when The Washington Post became our other national newspaper—awarding it: 1) Best Film, 2) Best Actress (Meryl Streep) and Best Actor (Tom Hanks).

Which means? Just that. If you're looking for an Oscar predictor, look elsewhere. In the last five years, NBR's best film has been: “Manchester By the Sea,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” (gag), “A Most Violent Year,” “Her” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” none of which won the Oscar. In that time, they match with the Academy once on actor (Casey Affleck, last year), and twice on actress (Brie Larson, “The Room” and Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”). One year, they gave the acting award to Matt Damon for “The Martian.” They're a kooky bunch. 

And never more so than in their Top 10 Movies. Or their “Top 10 Movies Other Than The One We've Just Chosen.” How is NBR like Spinal Tap? They go to 11.

Here is their Top 10 Except for No. 1. With a few mild suggestions:

• Baby Driver The Big Sick
• Call Me by Your Name  
• The Disaster Artist 
• Downsizing 
• Dunkirk Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• The Florida Project 
• Get Out 
• Lady Bird
• Logan The Shape of Water, maybe? 
• Phantom Thread

NBR's entire list of 2017 award winners can be found here.

ADDENDUM: OK, I did a little more digging. This century, NBR and the Academy have agreed on best picture only twice: “No Country for Old Men” in 2007 and “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2008. Among NBR's forgotten best films: “Quills” in 2000, “Finding Neverland” in 2004, “Good Night, and Good Luck” in 2005, “Up in the Air” in 2009 and “Hugo” in 2011. 

Sunday night while I was at the Westlake Center in downtown Seattle protesting Donald Trump's executive order banning immigrants/refugees from seven countries in the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen), which anyone with a brain realizes is ...

1. un-American
2. potentially unconstitutional
3. immoral
4. unthought out
5. liable to make us less safe in the long run, and
6. an idiotic move by a child-president and his evil babysitter Steve Bannon

... while I was doing that—which, for my money, didn't include enough “Dump Trump” chants—the Screen Actors Guild awards were being given out in Hollywood, Calif. 

Do we care at this point? Is it worth talking about?

Probably not. But here I go. 

For those for whom #OscarsSoWhite matters, it was a good night. The cast award went to “Hidden Figures,” about African-American women in the Mercury/Apollo space program, while three of the four film acting awards went to African-Americans: Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight”) and Viola Davis (“Fences”) in supporting, and Denzel for lead (“Fences”). The fourth SAG went to Emma Stone for lead in “La La Land.”

The surprise was Denzel. The early money in this category was on Casey Affleck for “Manchester By the Sea,” which I think is the best movie of the year. Affleck was its likeliest winner, but sexual harassment charges against him from 10 years ago, which were settled out of court, keep resurfacing. From what I've read of the charges, they hardly come across as threatening—pathetic, really—but voices will be heard. Denzel won his first Oscar in 2001 in part because Russell Crowe exhibited bad behavior at the BAFTAs, and maybe this will lead to his second. If it does, he will join rare company: Only Jack Nicholson has ever won two lead actor Oscars and one supporting actor Oscar.

How likely is a Denzel Oscar win? Likelier now. There was a four-year stretch, from 2000 to 2003, in which SAG chose a different lead than Oscar. Otherwise, it's been an exact match in this category:

* Won the Oscar (for “Traffic”) in the supporting category

The cast award has been a more hit-and-miss predictor of best picture, missing nine of the 20 times it's been awarded. I assume “Hidden Figures” will make it an even 10. The others (Stone, Davis, Ali) are almost dead-locks. 

Keep fighting Trump.

“Revenant” carries home its DGA.

For the first time since 2004, the three major guild awards (Actors, Producers, Directors) have awarded their best picture to three different movies. Back then, actors went “Sideways,” producers “The Aviator,” and the directors chose “Million Dollar Baby,” which wound up winning both best director and picture at the Oscars in March.

This year, the actors chose “Spotlight,” the producers “The Big Short,” and last night the Directors Guild went with Alejandro Inarritu for “The Revenant.” It's the second year in a row Inarritu has won the DGA, which, I believe, has never happened before. 

Who saw it coming? Me. Kinda. This was last Sunday:

I could see a 3-way split among the guilds: Spotlight (SAG), Big Short (PGA), Revenant (DGA). So like 2004 but w/better movies

— Erik Lundegaard (@ErikLundegaard) January 31, 2016

Inarritu and “The Revenant” had a shot with the DGAs, I thought, because it was the most visually spectacular movie among the nominees. Just gorgeous. It's a real director's movie the way that “Spotlight” is an actors movie.

A secondary reason: In a season of #OscarsSoWhite noise, Inarritu is the only person of color nominated in the major awards categories.

I actually teased Oscar predictor Sasha Stone about this. All month she's been hot with #OscarSoWhite anger because of the lack of noms for people of color, yet she's not a “Revenant” fan. After SAG, we had this exchange:

@AwardsDaily Or #OscarsSoWhite voices like yours will tip the scales toward Inarritu. That voice has nowhere else to go to at this point.

— Erik Lundegaard (@ErikLundegaard) January 31, 2016

To be honest, I'd be happy with any of the three winning best picture. They landed exactly 4, 3 and 2 in my top 10 movies of 2015, and the No. 1 slot is a foreign film. I think “Spotlight” is important, “The Big Short” even more important (also more entertaining), but I think “The Revenant” is the most artistic of the three. But again, any of them. 

Oh, and if Inarritu wins the Oscar for best director, too? Which he seems likely to do? It'll be the fourth year in a row a non-white person has won the award. #BestDirectorSoNotWhite?

Here's a recent history of the guilds:

Final thought: I actually like years like this. I like it when the hardware is divided among good movies, and we're not sure what will happen Oscar night. 

Here's a list of movies since 1990 that the Producers Guild of America has chosen best picture that didn't go on to win the Oscar for best picture:

A short list. Two years ago, too, they split on “Gravity” and “12 Years a Slave” and the latter won the Oscar for best picture. Otherwise, since 2006, they've nailed it. If you want to call prefiguring the Oscar “nailing it.” 

I mention all this because last night the PGAs chose “The Big Short” for best picture. 

Good news for “The Big Short” but there are still no clear frontrunners in the field; I can still see “The Revenant” or “Spotlight” having a go. I think it's down to these three. Three of my four favorite films of the year.

An even more accurate predictor, The Directors Guild of America, announces its winner on Feb. 6.

The Directors Guild of America announced its 2015 nominees for outstanding directorial achievement in feature film:

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, “The Revenant” (Yes!)
• Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight” (Yes!)
• Adam McKay, “The Big Short” (Yes!)
• George Miller, “Mad Max: Fury Road” (No!)
• Ridley Scott, “The Martian” (Whatever)

I'd lose Miller and Scott for Naji Abu Nowar (“Theeb”) and Todd Haynes (“Carol”), but three out of five ain't bad. 

One of the above will almost certainly win the Academy Award for best picture. Since 1952, only one movie has ever won the Academy's best picture without its director being nominated for a DGA: “Driving Miss Daisy” in 1989; Bruce Beresford. FWIW, the DGA also ignored Spike Lee that year.

Little discussed fact, given how so many film critics on social media are complaining about the lack of diversity in the DGA and AMPAS: It's been almost 10 years since an American male has won the Academy Award for best director. Recently it's been Mexican, Taiwanese, French and British nationals. The last American was Kathryn Bigelow in 2009. The last American male? Or males? The Coens for “No Country for Old Men.”

Rooting interests, anyone?

Oh, Carol.

The New York Film Critics Circle chose its year-end awards today. The fascinating thing to me is that “Carol,” Todd Haynes' drama about a love affair between two women in the 1950s, starring Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett—both of whom have been getting great notices—was awarded in the following categories: film, director, screenplay, cinematography ... but not actress or supporting actress. That's actually a good sign. Means those categories are stacked.

Nice to see Mark Rylance win for “Bridge of Spies”, and Kristen Stewart for “Sils Maria.” I was effusive in my praise for both. Ditto “Inside Out.” Looking forward to seeing “Son of Saul.”

Here's NYFCC's awards from last year. 

And this year's cherces:

• Best film: Carol
• Best director: Todd Haynes, Carol
• Best actor: Michael Keaton, Spotlight
• Best actress: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
• Best supporting actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
• Best supporting actress: Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria
• Best screenplay: Carol, Phyllis Nagy
• Best animated film: Inside Out
• Best cinematography: Carol, Edward Lachman
• Best first film: Son of Saul
• Best foreign film: Timbuktu (Mauritania)
• Best non-fiction film (documentary): In Jackson Heights directed by Frederick Wiseman.
• Special Award:Posthumous award honoring the legacy of William Becker and Janus Films
• Special Award # 2: composer Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight