The 9th Annual Team Experience Awards!

by Christopher James

Many things may have changed in the past year, but one thing remains the same. The show must go on and the Team Experience Awards must continue! If there's one perk of staying quarantined in one's home for a full year, it's that there is ample time to watch movies. Before Nathaniel reveals all of his Film Bitch winners for the year, the rest of the writers at The Film Experience gathered together to vote on our favorites of 2020 (and the first two months of 2021). Nathaniel will be staying with the calendar year eligibility (plus US festivals) but the Team is using Oscar eligibility rules with one exception: we also decided to consider Small Axe in our awards as five separate films.

In the end, nothing was a match for Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman, which earned the most wins (4) and nominations (11) from the bunch. While that may have taken the top prize, the team nominated fifty movies across 21 categories. Check out the nominees and winners after the jump...

BEST PICTURE

• First Cow
• Ghost Tropic
• Mank
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always
• Nomadland
• Palm Springs
• Promising Young Woman (WINNER)
• Small Axe: Lovers Rock
• Soul
• Sound of Metal

BEST DIRECTOR

• Emerald Fennell - Promising Young Woman
• Eliza Hittman - Never Rarely Sometimes Always
• Steve McQueen - Small Axe: Lovers Rock
• Kelly Reichardt - First Cow
• Chloé Zhao - Nomadland (WINNER)

BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• And Then We Danced
• Another Round
• Bacurau (WINNER)
• Collective
• Ghost Tropic

BEST ACTRESS

• Nicole Beharie - Miss Juneteenth
• Viola Davis - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Sidney Flanigan - Never Rarely Sometimes Always
• Frances McDormand - Nomadland
• Carey Mulligan - Promising Young Woman (WINNER)

BEST ACTOR

• Riz Ahmed - Sound of Metal (WINNER)
• Chadwick Boseman - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Anthony Hopkins - The Father
• Delroy Lindo - Da 5 Bloods
• Mads Mikkelsen - Another Round

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Maria Bakalova - Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
• Candice Bergen - Let Them All Talk
• Essie Davis - Babyteeth
• Amanda Seyfried - Mank (WINNER)
• Youn Yuh-jung - Minari

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Bo Burnham - Promising Young Woman
• Brian Dennehy - Driveways
• Aldis Hodge - One Night in Miami
• Ben Mendelsohn - Babyteeth (WINNER)
• Paul Raci - Sound of Metal

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• First Cow (WINNER)
• I'm Thinking of Ending Things
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Nomadland
• One Night in Miami

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• The 40-Year-Old Version
• Minari
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always
• Palm Springs
• Promising Young Woman (WINNER)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

• Birds of Prey
• Emma (WINNER)
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Mank
• Promising Young Woman

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• Boys State
• Collective
• Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
• Dick Johnson is Dead
• Time (WINNER)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

• Onward
• Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon
• Soul
• The Wolf House (WINNER)
• Wolfwalkers

BEST ENSEMBLE

• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Minari
• One Night in Miami
• Promising Young Woman (WINNER)
• The Trial of the Chicago 7

BEST FILM EDITING

• Da 5 Bloods
• The Father (WINNER - TIE)
• Promising Young Woman
• Tenet
• Time (WINNER - TIE)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

• Emma
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• Mank (WINNER)
• Promising Young Woman
• The Twentieth Century

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Mank
• News of the World
• Nomadland (WINNER)
• Small Axe: Lovers Rock
• Tenet
• The Wild Goose Lake

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

• Birds of Prey
• Emma
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (WINNER)
• Mank
• Promising Young Woman

BEST MUSIC (PRE-EXISTING OR ORIGINAL)

• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
• Minari
• Nomadland
• Promising Young Woman
• Small Axe: Lovers Rock (WINNER)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

• The Invisible Man (WINNER)
• Mank
• The Midnight Sky
• Possessor
• Tenet

BEST SOUND

• Da 5 Bloods
• Mank
• Small Axe: Lovers Rock
• Sound of Metal (WINNER)
• Tenet

BEST UNRELEASED FILM

• Days
• I Carry You With Me (WINNER)
• Nine Days
• Shiva Baby
• Summer of 85

SOME FUN STATISTICS...

• Across our Team Experience ballots, 225 movies were mentioned throughout all of the categories. Specifically in Best Picture, there were votes cast for 76 films.
• Our Best Picture lineup featured an animated feature (Soul) and a film not in the English language (Ghost Tropic). Despite making it into Best Picture, neither film won their specialized categories. Soul lost Best Animated Feature to The Wolf House and Ghost Tropic lost Best Film Not In The English Language to Bacurau. 
• Four out of five of the Best Directing nominees are women!
• Time had a perfect score, winning both categories it was nominated for (Best Documentary Feature and Best Film Editing).
• We saw two ties this year. There was a tie for winners in Best Film Editing. Additionally, there was a tie in the nomination process for Best Cinematography, which is why it has six nominees.
• Ma Rainey's Black Bottom had the most nominations without making it into Best Picture (7).
• Ghost Tropic, Palm Springs and Soul all made it into Best Picture with only one other nomination each.
• Best Sound was the biggest landslide in voting. Sound of Metal prevailed winning 71% of the vote. The next closest competitor only had 14% of the vote.
• All acting, directing and screenplay nominees received at least one 1st place vote.
• The preferential voting for Best Picture went five rounds before Promising Young Woman prevailed. It was not always ahead in every round. The category was a nailbiter. 
• Among last year's Best Unreleased Film category, only The Wild Goose Lake showed up in this year's Team Experience Awards. 

What were your favorite movies of the year? Share with us in the comments below. And if you'd like to know more about the team, check out the About page - Nathaniel is looking for new voices, too 

Comments

[Frances Bean]

Inspired winners here, excepting Seyfried. What in the world does she do in MANK to deserve her win? It’s the most come-and-go Brooklyn accent since Helen Hunt in AS GOOD IT GETS, which also didn’t stop her from winning an Oscar. Lily Collins is the Supporting Actress MVP of MANK.

[BVR]

SOOO happy to see Ben Mendelsohn and Essie Davis recognized for Babyteeth. Good job 👏

[Gracey]

Ben Mendelsohn is one of those actors who has quietly been Oscar-nom worthy 4 or 5 times since he really broke through in 2010. He's excellent in Babyteeth.

Who are all these GHOST TROPIC voters? I'd never heard of it.

[thefilmjunkie]

Those are some fine acting nominees there, though I need to catch up on quite a few of them. I'm so happy to see Candice Bergen get acknowledged for her work in Let Them All Talk, I didn't love that movie but she was the best part of it.

[Kelly Garrett]

Still have so much left to see, but And Then We Danced, Forty Year-Old Version, Collective, Time, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom all rank pretty high so far!

It sure feels like awards season is finally here, with the sprits, nbr, scripters, and tfe!

[Feline Justice]

Ben Mendelsohn and his mustache deserve all the awards. :-D

[NATHANIEL R]

Gracey -- i hadn't heard of it until very recently either. I still see no proof of its existence ;)

Frances -- whaaaa? just not. Lily Collins? I mean she's fine in the moviee but.

BVR -- i am happy to see them too

Team Experiencce -- thank you for this even if i'm mildly annoyed that you consider Steve McQueen's Tv anthology thing movies ;) Now i want to see everyone's original ballots

Kelly -- right?

Everyone -- can you believe they don't allow me any vote in these things? !? The tragedy of it all.

[Pam]

Hooray for Ben Mendelson! He’s like the Aussie version of British Stephen Graham. Good guy or bad guy, he is EXCELLENT in everything.

Haven’t seen Promising Young Woman yet, but finally finished I May Destroy You so I’ll wait until I can stomach another “men being shit” story.

[Richter Scale]

I was also wondering what Ghost Tropic was, and then looked it up and realized I've already seen it. It screened at the Guanajuato International Film Festival in 2019 (where it won an award for Best International Feature-Length Film). It's quite good, actually.

[BVR]

One other thing — why is Brian Dennehy considered supporting? Driveways has three clear leads, no?

[Ryan T.]

Maybe I need to read up on MANK more because as much as I love Seyfried usually, I didn't see anything too special about her performance. A nomination I supposed is to be expected with the lack of choices this year (maybe?) but a win? Really?

[Ian]

Promising Young Woman is a shallow embarrassment of a film.

[Peggy Sue]

Small Axe: Lovers Rock! LOL Your kids don't respect you, Nathaniel.

[Owen]

Mank?

......why??

[/3rtful]

Annoyed at the supporting actress lineup that excludes Close. Bothered that Ma Rainey won best makeup where Viola Davis looks the most unattractive ever and that's saying a lot because she's rarely allowed to be cute in the movies. The only reason I can think of Promising Young Woman winning ensemble is so Laverne Cox can take home a prize. She was a weak link in the casting.

[Bonnie]

I'd be curious to know who the outliers were for Best Actor - so few credible options this year, and the performances getting all the attention are, in fact, the best ones!

[Ginny]

Really killer list. I only wish Swallow got more love. Haley Bennett rocked it and it’s about time she gets kudos for her work.

[Francis Biehn]

3rtful always comes through with the truth! Thank you, whoever you are.

[C]

Essie Davis gives one of the worst performances of the year in Babyteeth, and the film itself is overly twee/cutesy with a supremely disjointed script. Ben Mendelsohn is one of its few redeeming elements though and is very good.

[Christopher James]

@Ginny: Swallow was very close in a few key categories. Great movie and was definitely in contention.

@Bonnie: We actually saw about 34 names floated about for Best Actor! Some of the other big names that people brought up were Hugh Jackman (Bad Education), Steven Yeun (Minari), Luca Marinelli (Martin Eden) and Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night in Miami)

[Glenn Dunks]

Whoever Team Experience's GHOST TROPIC champions were, thank you very much. I hadn't seen it when we nominated but was my next must see before voting and it did not disappoint. In fact, if we could go back, I would've ranked it in my top ten. Love the wins for Mendelsohn (really should be an Oscar contender given how much people love him, but I guess the movie/distributor is too small), THE INVISIBLE MAN in vfx, and THE WOLF HOUSE for animation, especially, out of the less expected wins. FWIW I did not include any of SMALL AXE. My ballot was already overflowing with contenders to then worry about television (see also BAD EDUCATION, which would probably win Best Actor for me).

Bonnie, only two of my acting nominations made the final list (Ahmed and Mikkelson; I hadn't seen THE FATHER by that stage). My other contenders were Luca Marinelli (MARTIN EDEN), Steven Yeun (MINARI) and, er, Vince Vaughan (FREAKY).

[William G Carey Jr]

Amanda Seyfried?! Seriously!? You’ve seen MANK, right!? Her performance boils down to a bad accent and a cocktail glass. WTF.

Glenn Close gave the performance of the year. If you’d get past your snobbery you’d realize it.

[Antônio]

It’s funny to read someone’s complaint about Ma Rainey’s “unattractive” makeup. Ignorance is not a gift.

[Jonathan]

Saw GHOST TROPIC in 2019. That's when it played the festivals. Surprised it made it in with you guys but NOT in Best Cinematography? For me that's where it shines - was in my own personal lineup last year.

Also Bakalova is not supporting! Sheesh.

Nice job though. ;)

[J. No]

PREACH William G Carey, Jr.!

[Dan Humphrey]

I kind of agree with Frances. I really do like Amanda Seyfried. She's a lovely presence in MANK and she's been great in a number of films over the years. She's willing to go glamorous and willing to look tired and plain. Burt I don't really feel like she had to break a sweat in her performance, figuratively speaking. It's nice that Marion Davies is redeemed in this film. (She was redeemed by Kirsten Dunst, Peter Bogdanovich, and Steven Peros in THE CAT'S MEOW, too, though fewer people saw that.) It's also nice that Seyfried has earned the attentions of a top director in a prestige project, but again. I don't really think she stretched much, don't feel it was much of a challenge for her.

[Bushwick]

This is the first I’m hearing of Ghost Tropic! Hmmm now I have to see it!

[Richter Scale]

Wow, so much negativity regarding Amanda Seyfried in Mank! I think she's amazing. Yes, in a way she's playing an archetype, but she shades her with an awareness of herself that makes the character feel human. It may not have been a challenge per se, but that's part of what makes it work: how easy she makes it look. It seems we all have different expectations from an Oscar-winning performance: some people want more subtle performances, others want to see the actor work for it (or break a sweat), some want to see an actor disappear into a role while others prefer to see where an actor can take their own image, so we're never going to agree on what an Oscar-winning performance should be. I think Amanda Seyfried did something beautiful with a very particular type of role, and I'll be happy if she's nominated or even wins for this.

[Aaron]

Amanda Seyfried defender here as well. I thought she was AMAZING in Mank, and totally agree with Richter's assessment. She's playing a specific "type" but she shades it in so beautifully. It's the ultimate supporting performance for me.

Strangely, I saw Mank right after Tenet, where the "chemistry" between John David Washington and Elizabeth Debicki was completely nonexistent. Oldman and Seyfried played beautifully off of each other - such an interesting, well-calibrated and honest relationship developed between those two characters that I rarely see in movies.

[Jans]

Great choices....so glad Viola or Frances didn't nab the BA award but the true winner C Mulligan.And so happy for all the other acting choices - thank goodness no Boseman too.
Wish Oscar were like this but one can dream, yes?

[kin]

This makes me even more curious why you guys don't have a review for Soul. The only "acceptable" answer is that you guys are waiting for Tim. But very curious of what you guys love about it!

[Keegan]

Not to take it back there but Colman not making Supporting Actress sucks way more than Close not making it.

[Glenn Dunks]

Keegan, I know for a fact that many hadn’t seen THE FATHER and I guess those who had just had too many competitors for supporting actress. Fwiw I have since seen it and while she is very good, there were more I preferred (including Seyfried, who I think is a bit of a stars align performance for her; and hey a true supporting turn!)

[Jesus Alonso]

Unfortunate Stories is so far my fave film of the year, and probably my fave spanish film of the century so far...

[Michael R]

Love the nominations for Hodge and Burnham in BSA. They make it look so effortless which is why they are so deserving. Same can be said for Seyfried.

[Una]

If anyone who voted is interested in sharing their full ballots, I'd love to see! The nominees are terrific but I'd love to know who individuals were particularly passionate about

[Andrew Carden]

Candice!!

[Baby Clyde]

I really disliked TIME. In a year of great docs (As usual) i'm totally flummoxed by the acclaim that film is getting. A middling story, poorly told with so many unanswered questions. It's a infomercial for Fox Rich's motivational speaking skills not a great documentary.

[/3rtful]

@Baby Clyde

I thought I was in the minority on Time. I know Armond White hates it but he would because it's empathetic to Black people in the legal system. I was really disappointed by it for being shallow.

[TheDrMistery]

"All acting, directing and screenplay nominees received at least one vote." - would they be nominated if that was not the case?!

[Lynn Lee]

Bonnie - I actually thought it was quite a strong year for Best Actor. Riz Ahmed didn't even make my original ballot, but he would have been #6.

As Christopher notes, this was a really weird for voting, given that so many of the leading contenders were not or barely available on streaming and some weren't even released in 2020! I personally wasn't able to see NOMADLAND, MINARI, or THE FATHER, to name just a few. As it is, I abstained from the final vote or both Actor and Supporting Actress precisely because I hadn't seen the latter two.

I won't burden y'all with my complete ballot, but here were my original picks for best picture (again, subject to the above caveat of movies I didn't get to see):

1. FIRST COW
2. SMALL AXE: MANGROVE (sorry, Nathaniel)
3. PALM SPRINGS
4. ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
5. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
6. ANOTHER ROUND
7. SOUND OF METAL
8. THE 40-YEAR-OLD VERSION
9. SMALL AXE: LOVERS ROCK
10. NEWS OF THE WORLD

[NATHANIEL R]

The Dr Mistery -- good catch. it was supposed to say "first place vote" so i fixed.

[Unknown]

Cool list.

But the existence of Amanda Seyfried in these lists is just puzzling.

I guess being a nice person all these years is paying off, because she's gathering so many "sympathy awards" for a performance that was a literal nothing.

Also, Soul is nominated for Best Picture but loses in the animation category? Weird.

[Buddy]

I hope Carrie Coon got some love!

[Robert G]

The love that Promising Young Woman is receiving makes me so happy.

[martin]

Oh Carey oh Carey - for all your lost opportunities ... Shame & Wildlife - you deserve all the love and cheer and hype ... wonderful
Also completely puzzled about Seyfrieds frontrunner status - it seems like no one else gets some air around her ... Don't get me wrong I enjoyed her - ... she is a lovely actress but there is so so soooo much more interesting work out there this year !!!

[Paul Outlaw]

Teamwork makes the dream work <3

[Claran]

Gr8 list & inspiring and wonder winners!!

Wld luv to know the runners-up in the acting categories! Were McDormand & Davis a close runner-up?? Was it a tough fight between Ahmed, Boseman & Hopkins?

Strange tt Kirby & Burstyn get no luv fr TFE team?? Is Pieces of a Woman really tt unpopular?? Are Andra Day & Zendaya considered??

[John]

How the hell did Minari miss out in picture and director??!