The 12th annual FiLM BiTCH Awards celebrating the films of 2011.
PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES
Best Picture |
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THE ARTIST
Michel Hazanavicius (Weinstein Co, Nov 23rd) |
BEGINNERS
Mike Mills (Focus Features, June 3rd) |
DRIVE
Nicolas Winding Refn (Film District, Sept 16th) |
A SEPARATION
Asghar Farhadi (Sony Pictures Classics, Dec 30th) |
WEEKEND
Andrew Haigh (Sundance Selects, Sept. 23rd) |
 A joyous celebration of Hollywood & the redemptive power of movies Moment I just recalled: Valentin in quicksand, two actresses mourning his fictional demise, only one of them onscreen. |
A melancholy but optimistic memoir / collage on learning to live and love. Moment I just recalled: Oliver's illustrated "History of Sadness" |
 A nasty retro-stylish ride through cinematic genre roads.Moment I just recalled: A masked man just outside a restaurant window. |
 Family drama. Legal mystery. Ensemble portrait. And brilliant at all three.Moment I just recalled: A billowing black abaya darting through street traffic |
A fresh immediate beautifully observed expansion of two lives Moment I just recalled: The repeated evolving shot of Russell watching Glen leaving the apt. complex |
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Finalists: POETRY and MELANCHOLIA Semi-Finalists: BRIDESMAIDS, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, CERTIFIED COPY, MONEYBALL and YOUNG ADULT |
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Best Director |
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Asghar Farhadi
A SEPARATION |
Michel Hazanavicius
THE ARTIST |
Lee Chang dong
POETRY |
Nicolas Winding Refn
DRIVE |
Lars von Trier
MELANCHOLIA |
| Meticulously calibrated but never mechanical, ever deeply committed to moral complexity. | I bet he whistled while he worked. A joyful buoyant and ambitious achievement. | Beautiful, bracing work finely tuned to the central character study, and open to ethereal beauty. | In a year full of movie-mad movies, Refn's preoccupations were the coolest, scariest, and most mesmerizing | His vision is frontloaded and wildly erratic but the peaks remind you of his geniune eccentric genius. |
| Finalists: Mike Mills for BEGINNERS, Sean Durkin for MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE Semi-Finalists: Abbas Kiarostami for CERTIFIED COPY, Andrew Haigh for WEEKEND, Bennett Miller for MONEYBALL, and Terrence Malick for THE TREE OF LIFE |
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Best Original Screenplay |
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Mike Mills
BEGINNERS |
Abbas Kiarostami
CERTIFIED COPY |
Asghar Farhadi
A SEPARATION |
Andrew Haigh
WEEKEND |
Diablo Cody
YOUNG ADULT |
| So many great lines but mostly it wows from its richly idiosyncratic personal stories weaved into a tapestry of universal truth, shared history. | Kiarostami's intellectually playful movie about originals and fakes -- do the author and "She" know each other? -- also pierces the heart. | Farhadi's prismatic screenplay casts revealing light on six-plus characters and multiple agendas while never skimping on the intricacies of a top notch legal thriller | Largely two character dramas require skill and precision. Haigh's structure is tight but feels loose, and the conversations feel organic even when they're hitting thematic beats | Cody's characters are unusually vivid but she also uses their wit and neurosis to offer sharply drawn observations about our human foibles |
| Finalists: Lee Chang-dong's humanistic mystery about a terrible death and an old woman's search for POETRY | Kenneth Lonergan messy sprawling ambitious beauty known as MARGARET (not anyone's real name) | Sean Durkin for the mysterious haunting of MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE [interview] Semi-Finalists: Michel Hazanavicius for THE ARTIST | Lars von Trier for MELANCHOLIA | Woody Allen for MIDNIGHT IN PARIS |
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Best Adapted Screenplay |
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Hossein Amini
DRIVE |
Moira Buffini
JANE EYRE |
Steve Zaillian & Aaron Sorkin
MONEYBALL |
Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar
THE SKIN I LIVE IN |
Apichatpong "Joe" Weerathasekul
UNCLE BOONMEE |
| Based on the novella by James Sallis though its so cinematic its hard to remember its an adaptation. |  So many writers have taken a crack at this classic novel by Charlotte Brontë by Buffini carves it up with confidence while still totally honoring it. |
 Two of Hollywood's most celebrated writers divvy up and movie-fy the nonfiction: "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" |
 Almodóvar alters Thierry Jonquet's nightmarish horror novel "Tarantula" (remarkably its less sexual in plot.) |
Based on the biographical book "A Man Who Can Recall His Past Lives" by the abbot Phra Sripariyattiweti |
| Finalists: George Clooney, Grant Henslov and Beau Willimon for THE IDES OF MARCH based on the play "Farragut North" by Willimon | François Ozon for POTICHE based on the play of the same name by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy Semi-Finalists: Roman Polanski and Yazmina Reza CARNAGE based on her play "God of Carnage" | Christopher Hampton A DANGEROUS METHOD based on his own play "The Talking Cure" and the book "A Most Dangerous Method" by John Kerr | Richard Ayoade for SUBMARINE from Joe Dunthorne's novel |
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