Pages

Monday, December 9, 2019

The 2019 Seattle Film Critics Society Award Nominees


It’s that time of year again. The calendar is running out, the holidays loom on the horizon, and every turns to the past year to reflect and examine. And for film critics, that means looking over the movie offerings and evaluating the haul. I’m fortunate enough to belong to multiple groups of like-minded film nerds, and one of them, the Seattle Film Critics Society just announced our nominations for our end-of-year awards.


I have complicated feelings when it comes to ranking, rating, and pitting movies against one another, stating one is “better” than another. (Actually, they’re not complicated at all, I dislike it immensely.) But it unfortunately it comes with the territory and I’m trying to avoid my yearly rant. That’s a discussion for another time, and no one actually cares anyway. 


The SFCS is a small group—only a few dozen voting members—and a relatively young one. For us this is all about loving movies and shouting out our favorites of the year. It is, as it should be, a celebration of cinema and bits of it that kicked our asses this year. 

With that in mind, the votes have been tallied and here are the Seattle Film Critics Society nominations for 2019. (Spiffy graphics courtesy of That Guy John from the About to Review podcast.)


As usual, I voted for some of these choices and did not vote for others; I love some of the selections and despise other—and I’m completely baffled by at least a couple. We added an action choreography category this year, which is pretty sweet, even though I have mixed feelings on the nominees. At some point, I might post my nominations, though maybe not. 

The awards will be announced on December 16 between 9-11AM Pacific Time on our official Twitter account.



BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR:

1917 (Universal Pictures)
The Farewell (A24)
Ford v Ferrari (20th Century Fox)
The Irishman (Netflix)
The Lighthouse (A24)
Little Women (Sony Pictures)
Marriage Story (Netflix)
Parasite (NEON)
Uncut Gems (A24)



BEST DIRECTOR:

Robert Eggers – The Lighthouse
Greta Gerwig – Little Women
Bong Joon-ho – Parasite
Josh & Benny Safdie – Uncut Gems
Martin Scorsese – The Irishman



BEST ACTOR in a LEADING ROLE:

Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory
Robert De Niro –The Irishman
Adam Driver – Marriage Story
Joaquin Phoenix – Joker
Adam Sandler – Uncut Gems




BEST ACTRESS in a LEADING ROLE: 

Awkwafina – The Farewell
Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story 
Lupita Nyong’o – Us
Saoirse Ronan – Little Women
Renée Zellweger – Judy



BEST ACTOR in a SUPPORTING ROLE: 

Willem Dafoe – The Lighthouse
Tom Hanks – A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Song Kang-ho – Parasite
Joe Pesci – The Irishman
Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood




BEST ACTRESS in a SUPPORTING ROLE:

Laura Dern – Marriage Story
Jennifer Lopez – Hustlers
Florence Pugh – Little Women
Taylor Russell – Waves
Zhao Shuzhen – The Farewell



BEST ENSEMBLE CAST:

The Irishman
Little Women
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Parasite



BEST ACTION CHOREOGRAPHY:

1917
Ford v Ferrari

BEST SCREENPLAY:

The Farewell – Lulu Wang
The Irishman – Steven Zaillian
Knives Out – Rian Johnson
Marriage Story – Noah Baumbach
Parasite – Bong Joon-ho, Han Jin-won (screenplay); Bong Joon-ho (story) 



BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:

Frozen II – Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee, directors
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World – Dean DeBlois, director
I Lost My Body – Jérémy Clapin, director
Missing Link – Chris Butler, director
Toy Story 4 – Josh Cooley, director



BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:

The Farewell – Lulu Wang, director
Monos – Alejandro Landes, director
Pain and Glory – Pedro Almodóvar, director
Parasite – Bong Joon-ho, director
Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Céline Sciamma, director




BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:

American Factory – Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, directors
Apollo 11 – Todd Douglas Miller, director
For Sama – Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts, directors
Fyre – Chris Smith, director
Honeyland – Ljubomir Stefanov & Tamara Kotevska, directors


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

1917 – Roger Deakins
The Lighthouse – Jarin Blaschke
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood – Robert Richardson
Parasite – Hong Kyung-pyo
Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Claire Mathon



BEST COSTUME DESIGN:

Dolemite is My Name – Ruth E. Carter
Downton Abbey – Anna Mary Scott Robbins
Little Women – Jacqueline Durran
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood – Arianne Phillips
Rocketman – Julian Day



BEST FILM EDITING:

1917 – Lee Smith
The Irishman – Thelma Schoonmaker
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood – Fred Raskin
Parasite – Yang Jin-mo
Uncut Gems – Ronald Bronstein and Benny Safdie


BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

1917 – Thomas Newman
Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir
The Last Black Man in San Francisco – Emile Mosseri
Uncut Gems – Daniel Lopatin
Us – Michael Abels



BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

1917 – Dennis Gassner (Production Designer); Lee Sandales (Set Decorator) 
The Irishman – Bob Shaw (Production Designer); Regina Graves (Set Decorator)
Little Women – Jess Gonchor (Production Designer); Claire Kaufman (Set Decorator)
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood – Barbara Ling (Production Designer); Nancy Haigh (Set Decorator)
Parasite – Lee Ha-jun (Production Designer)



BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:

1917 – Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, Dominic Tuohy
Ad Astra – Allen Maris, Jedediah Smith, Guillaume Rocheron, Scott R. Fisher
Alita: Battle Angel – Nick Epstein, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon
Avengers: Endgame – Dan DeLeeuw, Matt Aitken, Russell Earl, Dan Sudick
The Irishman – Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, Nelson Sepulveda 



BEST YOUTH PERFORMANCE:

(18 years of age or younger upon start of filming)
Julia Butters – Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Kyliegh Curran – Doctor Sleep
Roman Griffith Davis – Jojo Rabbit
Noah Jupe – Honey Boy
Thomasin McKenzie – Jojo Rabbit



VILLAIN OF THE YEAR:

Arthur Fleck/The Joker – Joker – portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix
Red – Us – portrayed by Lupita Nyong’o
The Red Dress – In Fabric – portrayed by a red dress
Rose the Hat – Doctor Sleep – portrayed by Rebecca Ferguson
Russell Bufalino – The Irishman – portrayed by Joe Pesci

No comments:

Post a Comment