The Films of 2014. The 15th annual FiLM BiTCH Awards
PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES
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Best Actress in a Limited or Cameo Role
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| Lindsay Duncan "Tabitha" BIRDMAN |
Annie Funke "Lorraine Lefkowitz" A MOST VIOLENT YEAR |
Charlotte Rampling "Alice" YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL |
Tilda Swinton "Madame D." GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL |
Uma Thurman "Mrs H" NYMPHOMANIAC, VOL. I |
The largest role we allowed for but damn is she perfect as the harsh possibly subjectively interpreted critic sizing up her subjects for approval... or not |
If you've got a teensy role, maximize every hint of a full character just off the page. She gives this proud not-so apparent heir to a family business a cool and practiced if green confidence. | 
This erotic drama is uneven but Rampling assures that it will stick its landing with sympathetic gravitas as a sudden widow dropping by for a visit |
In danger of being just a plot construct / visual joke but Tilda assures that her tottering besotted paranoid presence resonates. So memorable | 
Hell hath no fury like an Uma scorned. Apparently "Mr. H" hadn't seen Kill Bill. Uma just lacerates in this razor sharp tragicomic scene - the obvious highlight of the four hour film |
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Semi Finalists: Anamaria Marinca (Fury); Karin Myrenberg (Force Majeure); Alison Pill (Snowpiercer); Menna Trussler, Karina Fernandez (Pride); Hong Chau (Inherent Vice); Sela Ward, Casey Rose Wilson, Kathleen Rose Perkins (Gone Girl) * This category tries to keep to actors with very small parts, two or less scenes. Or if they have more than two scenes they are backgrounded all the time and never the focus of their scenes. I'd have included Oprah Winfrey (Selma) and Missi Pyle (Gone Girl) and Polly Draper (Obvious Child) but they tip over into full supporting I think. It's subjective. |
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Best Actor in a Limited or Cameo Role
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| Timur Magomedgadzhie "Timur" TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT |
Luke Pasqualino "Grey" SNOWPIERCER |
Adam Pearson "The Deformed Man" UNDER THE SKIN |
Henry G Sanders "Cager Lee" SELMA |
Brandon Smith "Little Richard" GET ON UP |
In his confrontation with Sandra (Marion Cotillard) both actors seem totally lost in the characters and moment, utterly spontaneous, fluid of feeling, and moving |
Mute "Grey" is ndistinguishable from the grimy faced crowds, until he's called on. His spring into action is thrilling, his fate is wrenching |
The actor's sympathetic inhabitation of the role -- he's used to it to challenge disfigurement stigma in the press - is pivotal for this great movie. |
What an expressive face! This character actor (in tv & film since the early 70s) is heartbreakingly authentic mourning an unthinkable loss |
If you didn't know Little Richard you might say he overplayed his hand, like he's the lead in his own mini movie. Smith gets at the incongruent subversive thrill of charisma too big to play by the rules. |
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Finalists: W. Earl Brown (Wild); Harvey Keitel (Grand Budapest Hotel) Semi Finalists: Jamie Bell (Nymphomaniac Vol. II); Boyd Holbrook (Gone Girl); Freddie Fox (Pride); Glenn Fleshler (A Most Violent Year); and virtually anyone else in Wild OR Grand Budapest Hotel; This category tries to keep to actors with very small parts, two or less scenes. Or backgrounded all the time. I'd include Thomas Sadowski who I loved in Wild or Allesandro Nivola in A Most Violent Year or Jeff Goldblum from Grand Budapest Hotel ... but they all tip over into full supporting with too many short scenes. It's subjective. |
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Best Line Reading
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| Patricia Arquette BOYHOOD |
Kim Dickens GONE GIRL |
Elle Fanning THE BOXTROLLS |
Ralph Fiennes THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL |
Channing Tatum 22 JUMP STREET |
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"We've actually become dear friends" |
"My name is Jeff" |
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Finalists: "Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe" - Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer; "This was very disrespectful" - Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year; "No way baby, I'm it." - Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl; Semi-Finalists: "I was raised to be charming, not sincere." - Chris Pine, Into the Woods; "We make a good team, you and I." - Hilary Swank, The Homesman; "Would it be alright if I show the children the whoring bed?" Uma Thurman, Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 |
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Breakthrough Performer
(the primary criteria being 'early in big screen career' and how badly do we want to see them in more films?) |
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| JILLIAN BELL 22 Jump Street |
CARRIE COON Gone Girl |
GUGU MBATHA-RAW Beyond the Lights / Belle |
JACK O'CONNELL Starred Up / Unbroken / 71 / 300: Rise of an Empire |
TONY REVOLORI
Grand Budapest Hotel |
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Finalists: Jessica Gunning (Pride); Jenny Slate (Obvious Child); Luke Pasqualino (Snowpiercer) Semi-Finalists: Ben Schnetzer (Pride); George Mackay (Pride); Erich Bergen (Jersey Boys); Ki Hong Lee (The Maze Runner) |
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Best Ensemble Performance
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| BIRDMAN | GONE GIRL | LOVE IS STRANGE | PRIDE |
SELMA
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Norton Stone Duncan Riseborough Watts Ryan Galifanakis
Makes you yearn for other movies that actually let the case SHARE FRAMES and truly interact |
Coon Affleck Dickens Perry Pyle Ward Fugit Baines Clennon Wilson and more...
Eclectic acting styles but Fincher chose well and everyone pops together and separately |
Lithgow Such warm lived-in human overlapping New York social circles. I know this is bizarre but I want a sequel |
Gunning Scott Considine Mackay Schnetzer Nighy Fernandez Marsay West Fox and more...
Just delightful camarederie and baton passing across the board for its dramatic and comic beats |
Oyelowo Bless Ava DuVernay for amassing such talent for her dramatization of the historic March |
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Runners Up
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Finalists: Grand Budapest Hotel; Happy Christmas; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; We Are the Best Semi-Finalists: The Imitation Game; Neighbors; Snowpiercer; |
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Best Casting |
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| BIRDMAN Francine Maisler |
LOVE IS STRANGE Tiffany Little Canfield & Bernard Telsey |
A MOST VIOLENT YEAR Avy Kaufman |
PRIDE
Fiona Weir |
SNOWPIERCER Jenny Rue & Johanna Ray |
| A rare instance of all star casting that feels essential to the success of the movie's identity. And the chemistry is their in abundance, too. Bonus points for Duncan & Riseborough |
Underutilised theater stars, smart name choices (go Marisa!) and a surprising but just right co-leads: who knew that Molina & Lithgow could go this subtle combined? |
Terrific supporting choices (Nivola, Brooks, Elyes) and leads with truly great chemistry. The award goes to Kaufman but a special shout out to Chastain for suggesting Isaac. Or was it the other way 'round? |
Several strong choices, new faces, and big talent with comic & dramatic facility across the board. Respected name actors peppered throughout but never distractingly so. |
They corraled an eclectic and international cast for this global dystopic trainride, vivid and unexpected combinations all around |
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Runner Up |
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Finalists: The Imitation Game; Boyhood; A Most Violent Year; Foxcatcher; Semi-Finalists: Leviathan; Gone Girl; Selma * And a special thank you to Rob Marshall and his casting team Tiffany Little Canfield, Francine Maisler, Bernard Telsey for preferencing actors who can actually sing for Into the Woods (Johnny Depp notwithstanding). Let all future musicals put musical skill first |
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