The 2016 Seattle Film Awards Winners

2016 saw the establishment of the Seattle Film Nerd Party Club (actually, it’s the Seattle Film Critics Society, but I’m going to keep using my preferred moniker until it sticks, so get used to it). And like every other critic’s group, we have our own awards. The nominations came down a while back, but today brings the announcement of the winners of the 2016 Seattle Film Awards (I have my fingers crossed for a live cable-access telecast hosted by the ghost of J.P. Patches for next year).

Brent's Top Ten Movies Of 2016 [UPDATED]

Without fail, some people grouse about how that particular 365-day journey around the sun was a bad year for movies. 2016 is no exception, a circumstance made all the more egregious because so many giant blockbusters sucked ass or, perhaps even worse, wound up inane and tepid and unmemorable in every regard.

The 2016 Seattle Film Awards Nominations

Because I’m a super fancy film critic (i.e. I spend most of my free time sitting silently in dark rooms watching movies most people never see; writing about them online, where no one reads about them, for little to no money; and talking about these movies no one sees with other likeminded obsessives—jealous?), I get to vote in super fancy end-of-the-year film critic polls. One of these is the Seattle Film Critics Society, which just announced the 2016 Seattle Film Awards nominations.

Watch The New International Trailer For 'The Handmaiden' From Park Chan-Wook

Since debuting at Cannes, Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden has gradually made the rounds. We’ve heard it’s sexy and thrilling and gorgeous, but as it hits the fall festival circuit and more people have seen it, we’ve also heard tell that it’s funny, not usually a quality we anticipate from the director behind Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Maybe it’s because I’m looking for it, but that comes across in this new French trailer.

Park Chan-Wook's 'The Handmaiden' Trailer: Trippy, Discordant, And Gorgeous

Park Chan-wook is one of those directors that, no matter what he does, everything else takes an immediate backseat. After his English-language debut, Stoker (number on on my 2013 top ten list), the South Korean hit machine is back working in his native land with The Handmaiden, which just dropped a sensory-shaking new trailer and eerie new poster.

Park Chan-Wook's 'The Handmaiden' Trailer Is Discordant And Unsettling In The Best Possible Way

Admittedly, every time it rolls around I wish I had the time, money, and cache to hit up the Cannes Film Festival. Watching a bunch of movies on the French Riviera in the springtime doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend a couple of weeks. Even last year, Mad Max: Fury Road exploded onto the world there, and countless important movies have debuted there over the years. It’s the most prestigious fest in the world for a reason.