The 12th annual FiLM BiTCH Awards celebrating the films of 2011.
PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES
Best Actress |
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Juliette Binoche
CERTIFIED COPY |
Viola Davis
THE HELP |
Kirsten Dunst
MELANCHOLIA |
Yun Jeong-hie
POETRY |
Charlize Theron
YOUNG ADULT |
 For playing one very specific woman and the ideas of her in alternating beats, magically providing a a heartbeat, even humanity to Theme. The camera stays on her face for minutes on end; she never wastes a single frame. |
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For letting her innate dreaminess curdle into nightmare with heavy lidded despair and for risking such erotic charge to a death wish. For the perfect pitch of her half-assed coddling whenever anyone shows real need of her.
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Many actors have portrayed the effects of alzheimers but few so richly. Jung-Hee aces this strangely dual journey as a simple soul who is closing down mentally and opening herself up to new ideas simultaneously. Rich, moving, utterly human.
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 What a showcase for Theron's comic gift. What a marvelous feat of uglification, this time through Beauty as crutch, armor, weapon. What a light touch portrait of mental illness, never diluting the sharp bite of the tricky tone. |
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Finalists: Olivia Colman for bruised soulfulness and authentic religious feeling in Tyrannosaur, Meryl Streep for technnical virtuousity and hints of pettiness, not just backbone, while grandstanding in The Iron Lady and Kristen Wiig for the year's absolute best line readings in Bridesmaids. Insanely competitive category this year...The finalists would make such a worthy roster and there's even more women of note just beyond the semi-finalists (including some obvious Oscar players). LOVING IT. More years like this one, please! |
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Best Actor |
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Jean Dujardin
THE ARTIST |
Michael Fassbender
SHAME |
Ryan Gosling
DRIVE |
Ewan McGregor
BEGINNERS |
Brad Pitt
MONEYBALL |
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If any actor is working harder for their films success, please show him to me. A spirited, funny, potent, mega-watt star turn. The Gene Kellyisms are a perfect fit in spirit for The Artist also tips its hat to the next great movie form. |
Forget the nudity. The daring thing here is keying in to Brandon's weakness, his very helplessness - anathema to male stars - as scar tissue from his sexual mojo and untreated psychic pain. Heartbreaking potent work. |
Masculine star turns often harness the erotic challenge of stoicism. Very few refuse to coast on charisma. The brilliance of the work is knowing the Driver is both unnerving and unnerved by his situation. Improves on every viewing.
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Male film stars rarely get credit for nuanced facility with romantic drama and illumination of tender feeling. Let's acknowledge his gift for it. One of our best actors giving one of his best performances: intuitive, soulful, and always connected to scene partners.
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 Never undervalued as a "star" he's routinely underappreciated as an actor. He uses all of his gifts here, the golden boy sheen, the physical creativity, the ease and confidence to underplay big moments. Just wonderful. |
| Finalist: Woody Harrelson fiery, clever, carnal and bold in Rampart Semi-Finalists: Andy Serkis the Lillian Gish/Marlon Brando of mo-cap proves invaluable to the emotional success of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Tom Cullen and Chris New play an organic, sexy and authentic feeling duet in Weekend, Ralph Fiennes aflame with pride, aggression and Mama in Coriolanus, Michael Shannon uses those expressively spooked eyes to great effect in the storm-warnings of Take Shelter and Peymoan Moadi for self-sabotaging stubborness and gradations of guilt in A Separation. |
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Best Supporting Actress |
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Sarah Bayet
A SEPARATION |
Jessica Chastain
THE HELP |
Melissa McCarthy
BRIDESMAIDS |
Carey Mulligan
SHAME |
Vanessa Redgrave
CORIOLANUS |
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Razieh is buried in pounds and pounds of fabric and even more burdened by her intellectual limitations but Bayet's naked acting reveals so much of this proud, scared, religious sealed off woman. |
She nails Celia's openhearted naivete but better yet understand how it informs everythign else: giddy delight, her pain and even her easy strength "I'm fine right here." / "I'd give it right back to him."
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For creating one of the year's most indelible characters and, like Wiig, getting big laughs through not just physicality but character. It's broad but she knows when to zero in on character
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"New York New York" aside what she's really singing is a duet with Fassbender. Her low hum of need, messy runs of feeling, an open wound aria make for a thrilling dischordant duet. |
Redgrave is one of the world's best actors and here's a full fiery freak role again at last. Her scary sadism and willful Oedipal enabling fascinate. When she 'sups on anger' you'll choke on it. |
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Finalists: Janet McTeer opens Albert Nobbs's eyes to possibility and also expands the movie's horizons by really seeing Albert Nobbs in a way nothing else in the film can; Rose Byrne reveals a noteworthy and previously unexplored comic gift. She's Bridesmaids secret weapon; Youn Yuh-Jung spikes The Housemaid with seen-it-all fizz even while collapsing with the S.K.I.D.S |
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Best Supporting Actor |
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Viggo Mortensen
A DANGEROUS METHOD |
Patton Oswalt
YOUNG ADULT |
Brad Pitt
THE TREE OF LIFE |
Christopher Plummer
BEGINNERS |
Corey Stoll
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS |
 His Cronenberg collaboration continues to reap rangey rewards. Viggo slyly charts the way Freud's ego constantly rubs against his professional concerns and is rubbed wrong by Jung. Bonus Points: Watching Jung eat. |
Young Adult might be impenetrable given Mavis' inabilities to connect if it weren't for Patton's great chemistry with Charlize. He's funny and touching... Bonus Points: but never shies away from Matt's own self-pitying maneuvers. | Actors don't get enough credit for serving auteurial visions. Pitt makes all of Mr O'Brien's baggage lifetime heavy. Bonus Points: Even the way he touches his sons, has the volatility of true character, rough, loving and confused parenting. |
 Plummer has often played sinister authoritarian figures but in a late career best turn, he's the opposite: a receptive student of life and love. It's a buoyant incredibly touching portrait of a man who never gave up. Bonus points: "House Music" |
Woody's time hopping life lessons (live in the now!) finds its charming comedic peak in Stoll's deliciously pompous projection of Ernest Hemingway. He's not the man but the words on the page. Bonus points: That monologue is A+, right? |
| Finalists: Benedict Cumberbatch - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Kenneth Branagh - My Week With Marilyn, Shahab Hosseini - A Separation Semi-Finalists: Hunter McCracken - The Tree of Life, John Hawkes - Martha Marcy May Marlene, Jonah Hill - Moneyball |
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[You can find a menu to the last two years of awards to your right in the sidebar.]