The Films of 2012. The 13th annual FiLM BiTCH Awards
PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES
Best Costume Design |
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Jacqueline Durran
ANNA KARENINA |
Paco Delgado
LES MISERABLES |
Kasia Walicka-Maimone
MOONRISE KINGDOM |
Caroline Eselin
THE PAPERBOY |
Colleen Atwood
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN |
For mid scene transformations, for period opulence, for lusty reds, unvirginal whites and overwhelming blacks, for but most of all for everything; Durran is a miracle worker |
For Fantine's downward spiral and Valjean's upward mobility but most of all Cosette's aspirational success, delicacy and insanely puffy sleeves |
For grabby minimalist iconography - Social Services, Pack Masters, Boy Scouts, but most of all for Suzy Bishop's ensembles and the pageant "what kind of bird are you?"
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For sweaty 60s casual wear, for underwear, but most of all for Charlotte Bless's look-at-me exhibitionism in bold greens, blues, pinks, and yellows
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For medieval grit, but most of all for Queen Ravenna's death-fetish wardrobe - surely her walk in closet takes up an entire wing of the castle |
| Finalists: Joanna Johnston who finds a lot of variance in less than flashy men's wear for Lincoln, and I love that Mary Todd is just so outmatched by the size of her gowns, Manon Rasmussen for court beauty and economic disparity of A Royal Affair, Semi-Finalists: Julie Weiss who has fun with recreations and character color coding in Hitchcock, Eiko Ishioka for Mirror Mirror whose trademark invention and humor shines through even though the work is a maybe a touch too fantastical and new eye-shore shiny, Colleen Atwood for gothic splendor and period boldness in Dark Shadows. Plus Mark Bridges The Master and Sharen Davis for Django Unchained |
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Best Cinematography |
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Seamus McGarvey
ANNA KARENINA |
Mihai Malamaire Jr
THE MASTER |
Dariusz Wolski
PROMETHEUS |
Roger Deakins
SKYFALL |
Grieg Frasier
ZERO DARK THIRTY |
The light's fetishistic embrace of Anna isolates her from her world. |
Hypnotic elemental beauty ...well Earth and Water at least. |
Light won't erase these evil shadows. Love the bold color filters. | Deakins is showing off, surely. But applaud him. Encore! Encore! | 
An amazingly versatile use of light and sources in prisons, offices, and night vision raids. |
| Finalists: Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi which is a visual stunner but it's hard to say how much the cinematography is to blame since so much of it looks computer-processed rather than lit and shot. Semi-Finalists: Ben Richardson for Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bradford Young for Middle of Nowhere, Radium Cheung for Starlet, and Greig Frasier for Snow White and the Huntsman, Janusz Kaminski for Lincoln |
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Best Production Design |
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Sarah Greenwood
ANNA KARENINA |
Alex DiGerlando
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD |
Eve Stewart
LES MISERABLES |
Adam Stockhausen
MOONRISE KINGDOM |
Arthur Max
PROMETHEUS |
 A weird restless fusion of stage & screen. The sets are so opulent they feel like stifling glittery traps. They'll morph to follow you if you try to escape. |
For creating a cohesive alternate reality in The Bathtub. One that's never too fantastical but gives the film a poetic grace. And that floating brothel. |
For its isolating mini-worlds: Whoretown as underworld, Monastery as mountaintop holy place, and that lonely barricade at dawn. | 
Dioramic craft-project beauty, evocative props silly details, and character-specific rooms. I want to give him a Boy Scout Merit Badge with his medal. |
For the inhuman sterility of its space craft, the ominous false idols and an elaborate labyrinthine ancient temple to map out or die in. |
| Finalists: James Merifield for The Deep Blue Sea, Sharon Seymour for Argo Semi-Finalists: David Crank & Jack Fisk for The Master, Rich Heinrich for Dark Shadows, Dennis Gassner for Skyfall, J Michael Riva for Django Unchained |
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Best Editing |
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Crockett Doob & Affonso Gonçalves BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
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Steven Soderbergh
MAGIC MIKE |
Andrew Weisblum
MOONRISE KINGDOM |
Stuart Baird
SKYFALL |
William Goldenberg & Dylan Tichenor |
At 93 minutes it's a relatively tight film, but the rhythms are loose and organic to the drama: playful, haunting, always attuned to Quvenzhane's frequency. |
Soderbergh's counter intuitive editing, a mix of traditional montage and refusal to goose setpieces with rapid cutting pays off (bonus points: same trick for Haywire) |
As precisely jewel cut as the camera's robotic pans, and even in its quicker rapid fire moments, it choose just the right details to embrace. | For providing a sterling example of Grade A mainstream movie thrills. You can argue that movies are weighed down with setpieces these days but this one moves. |  Though this isn't quite the editing dream that The Hurt Locker was it's still admirably assembled, and for such a long picture, fast on its feet. The final setpiece thrills |
| Finalists: Dody Dorn for End of Watch, Pietro Scalia for Prometheus, Gerardo Naranjo for Miss Bala -- all of whom deliver unusually tense setpieces Semi-Finalists: Pauline Galliard for Declaration of War Nadine Muse & Monika Willi for Amour, and Michael Kahn for Lincoln |
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Visual Effects |
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THE AVENGERS
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THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
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LIFE OF PI
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PROMETHEUS
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SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN
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 Demi-gods, superheroes, & elaborate city-wide action. Takeaway: "we have a Hulk" |
The use of practical effects grounds the film nicely. Takeaway: collapsing football field |  Scary shipwrecks, bioluminescent beauty, and spiritual yet temporal beautyTakeaway: Richard Parker |
Creepily muscled albino pre-humans, new spins on franchise tropes, that cartography device. Takeaway: the eyeball |
Armies made of glass, sorcerous beauty, and stealing Madonna's raven magic from "frozen" Takeaway: the magic mirror |
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Finalists: How perfectly incorporated is Ted as an animated character within a live action environment. He looks so real and tangible. note: I did not see The Hobbitt |
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Makeup, Makeup Effects and Hairstyling |
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ANNA KARENINA
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HOLY MOTORS
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LINCOLN
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LOOPER
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LES MISERABLES
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 Ravishing to look at throughout and filled with impossible beautiful hair and makeup as well as distinct characterizations. |
Makeup plays a crucial narrative role here as the protagonists shifts guises constantly. Bewitching transformations |
Every actor in Hollywood appears and looks just like their real life counterpart. Cohesively in period. Especially stellar work on Lincoln himself. | JGL as Bruce didn't work for everyone but I thought it uncanny (without robbing the actor of facial mobility).It's as if he was two people at once which... hey! |  From zombie whores to pestilent peasants to the lead characters stretched from youthful beauty to ill health, it's all boldly designed and executed. |
| Finalists: The Impossible's makeup effects were just frightening. So much grime, blood, and future scarring. Semi-Finalists: Django Unchained, Hitchcock, Lawless, and The Paperboy |
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Animated Feature |
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BRAVE
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FRANKENWEENIE
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PARANORMAN
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 Far, well, "brave", than it's been given credit for in terms of uprooting over turning fairy tale. The story has some rough seems but the visuals are Pixar-dependably "wow". Merida is an instant classic character. |
 Tim Burton's finest film since... Corpse Bride. Somehow he's looser, funnier, more creative and perverse in this medium. A worthy expansion of a classic short and black & white was the perfect aesthetic choice. |
The theme might be heavyhanded but this is richly designed visually, a little surprising in its storybeats (rare for animation) and beautifully moral -- empathy and not violence as setpiece triumph?!? WTF |
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Finalist: The Painting Note: There were noteworthy elements or special scenes to enjoy in most of the animated features I saw this year (Wreck-It Ralph, Rise of the Guardians, Pirates) but for consistent success at story, character, theme and visuals, these three were the clear leaders. |
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PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES