Film Bitch Awards - Heroes, Villains, Action, and More...

by Nathaniel R

We promised to finish up the 2019 Film Bitch Awards so we're doing that. Who talked us into so many categories? Oh that's right, no one but our own movie-loving madness. There's probably a cure for it but we're happy to stay addicted. 

HEROES, VILLAINS, DIVAS, and SEXPOTS
The character awards are now complete with honors for titular characters from Harriet and Diamantino and Joker and Us (just making sure you're not skimming but titular works there, too, right?) among other films like Synonyms, Toy Story 4, and Hustlers. As to the latter we realize that Jennifer Lopez factors quite heavily into all six of Hustlers nominations thus far but sometimes you ARE the movie, even if the movie itself is quite good. And, because sometimes moviegoing pleasure is perverse, we even found a way to "honor" Cats...

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Film Bitch Awards - Traditional Categories Complete!

By now you've seen the long delayed top ten list and now the "traditional" (aka Oscar parallel) part of the Film Bitch Awards is complete with the addition of all four acting categories. If you'd like to see my 'alternate ballot' so to speak, that's there though are more "fun" categories to come since we'll try to wrap up the whole film year by NEXT weekend.

But first, THE OSCARS. TONIGHT. Here are the predictions and the nomination index if you're following along. 

Nathaniel's Top 19 of 2019

by Nathaniel

Better late than never. And since we're of the calendar-denying opinion that each film year doesn't really end until Oscar night, we're not too late. (Rationalization is a useful skill, isn't it?). Still what is a calendar? What is a year? Distributors and filmmakers can't seem to stay on schedule either. Of this year's top nineteen, five are out-of-time, with four premiering at festivals way back in 2018 and one still waiting around to show its captivating face (though its here due to its qualifying release). However you define 2019 is up to you. These 19 pictures are how I define it.

If you see them, which I hope you will, they'll take you from ramshackle abodes in the mountains of Macedonia and cave-homes in Spain to an architectural wonder in Seoul and even past the rings of Jupiter. They'll trap you, tripping, in an empty school with house music throbbing or drop you in Dakar where the ocean is ever roaring with its promise and its ghosts. Socioeconomic anxiety permeated the cinema this past year, which is no surprise given the world we're living in. Though many of the top 19 spoke directly to the now, they weren't always "modern" in the literal sense. Our cinematic time travelling stretched from third century China through the Civil War era in New England to Hollywood in the summer of '69 and  the stubbornly vague "near future" of science fiction...

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Beauty Break: Breakthrough Performers of the Year

by Nathaniel R

Getting to the fun stuff now in the Film Bitch Awards. New categories are up including Best Juvenile Performances (which gives us the chance to rave about the best working child actor in Hollywood again -- that'd be Noah Jupe), Best Casting (the only time you'll hear Nathaniel praise Uncut Gems), and Best Ensemble acting. Also on that awards page are the nominees for Breakthrough Perfomer of the Year including both of stars of Waves, Taylor Russell and Kelvin Harrison Jr. The basic criteria of that category is that it has to be early in their film career and we ask ourselves the question: how badly do we want to see them again in something else?

After the jump beautiful photographs of this year's nominees as well as a history of who came before them this past decade...

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Film Bitch Awards: Screenplays, Score, and Sound

We started a week ago with a few appetizers but now the 20th (gulp) annual Film Bitch Awards are finally in full swing. Here are the new categories that are up

BEST ORIGINAL & ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Wouldn't it be neat if Marriage Story or Parasite could snag a surprise win from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the Oscars in Original Screnplay. All three are also nominated for the Film Bitch Award but we don't think Tarantino needs a third Oscar and for the first time since Kill Bill his visuals feel even more noteworthy than his writing anyway. Not that it's not a grand script. But the raw wound comedy and drama of Baumbach's reflection and Parasite's ingenious construction are right there for the honoring so we hope the Academy thinks it through.  We're happier about the other impending Oscar win for Adapted because Greta Gerwig takes Little Women apart and puts it back together again in such a personal and fresh 'life-of-an-artist' way. 

BOTH SCORE & SOUND CATEGORIES
Music and sound preferences are so hard to articulate so forgive the very short notes.

As a reminder, if you haven't voted on the "should wins" for those categories at the actual Oscars, do that on the charts please.