Sunday, January 28, 2018

The Third Annual Miles Awards for Achievement in Film

The time has come yet again for The Miles Awards, everyone's most anticipated film awards event of the year. I started these awards three years ago because I was frustrated with how wrong so many major awards ceremonies are. This year, I must say that the film awards are actually doing quite a good job, with my three favorite films of the year actually being among the most recognized. But I still can't resist putting forward this list of what I think we can all agree are the definitive awards for film every year!

As if this wasn't exciting enough, I've added a new category! In previous years, I've awarded one prize for use of sound & music together. But mostly due to just how many great film scores there were this year, I've decided to separate them. So I now have Best Sound (meaning best use of sound in a film, including editing and mixing) and Best Score (meaning, of course, Best Original Film Score).

One more thing: fans of this blog might note some surprising entries here. If you were to look at my list of favorite films and performances of 2017, one would assume that, given my rankings in those lists,Call Me by Your Name would have been nominated for Best Picture, Sally Hawkins would have been nominated for Best Actress for Maudie, and Jason Mitchell would have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Mudbound. However, since those lists were compiled, I was able to see more movies from 2017 and as strong as these films and performance were, they were unseated (by the Oscar-nominated foreign languages films A Fantastic Woman and The Insult) So, I guess you can say that Call Me by Your Name, Hawkins, and Mitchell receive honorable mentions this year.

And now, without further ado, here are the winners and nominees! As always, the nominees are presented in ranked order.

BEST PICTURE:
The nominees for Best Picture
Winner: Get Out
Other Nominees:
Lady Bird
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Wound
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Mudbound
Raw
Colossal
Coco
The Insult

BEST DIRECTOR:
Dee Rees talking to Mary J. Blige and Rob Morgan's foot on the set of Mudbound

Winner: Dee ReesMudbound 
Other Nominees:

Jordan Peele—Get Out
Joseph Cedar—Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Julia Ducournau—Raw
Greta Gerwig—Lady Bird
Sean Baker—The Florida Project

BEST ACTRESS:
The nominees for Best Actress
Winner: Saoirse Ronan as Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson—Lady Bird
Other Nominees:
Daniela Vega as Marina Vidal—A Fantastic Woman
Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes—Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Diane Kruger as Katja Sekerci—In the Fade
Kristen Stewart as Maureen Cartwright—Personal Shopper
Garance Marillier as Justine—Raw

BEST ACTOR:
The nominees for Best Actor
Winner: Richard Gere as Norman Oppenheimer—Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Other Nominees: 
Robert Pattinson as Connie Nikas—Good Time
Nakhane Touré as Xolani—The Wound
Harry Dean Stanton as Lucky—Lucky
Bryan Cranston as Sal Nealon—Last Flag Flying
Daniel Kaluuya as Chris Washington—Get Out

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
The nominees for Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Melissa Leo as Reverend Mother Marie St. Clair—Novitiate
Other Nominees:
Laurie Metcalf as Marion McPherson—Lady Bird
Ella Rumpf as Alexia—Raw
Mary J. Blige as Florence Jackson—Mudbound
Elizabeth Marvel as Jean Meyerowitz—The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Carey Mulligan as Laura McAllan—Mudbound

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
The nominees for Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Rob Morgan as Hap Jackson—Mudbound
Other Nominees:
Barry Keoghan as Martin—The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Bongile Mantsai as Vija—The Wound
Willem Dafoe as Bobby Hicks—The Florida Project
Kamel El Basha as Yasser Salameh—The Insult
Sam Rockwell as Jason Dixon—Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A CHILD ACTOR:
The nominees for Best child actor
Winner: Millicent Simmonds as Rose Kincaid—Wonderstruck
Other Nominees:
Sunny Suljic as Bob Murphy—The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Raph as Billie Van Peteghem—Slack Bay
Brooklynn Prince as Moonee—The Florida Project
Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh—It
Jaden Michael as Jamie—Wonderstruck


BEST ENSEMBLE CAST:   
Jason Clarke, Mary J. Blige, and Rob Morgan in Mudbound
Winner: Mudbound (Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan)

Other Nominees:
Lady Bird (Timothee Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Lucas Hedges, Tracy Letts, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Laurie Metcalf, Jordan Rodrigues, Saoirse Ronan, Odeya Rush, Marielle Scott, Lois Smith, Bob Stephenson)
                                                                             
The Wound (Bongile Mantsai, Niza Jay Ncoyini, Nakhane Touré)

Last Flag Flying (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne, J. Quinton Johnson, Deanna Reed-Foster, Cicely Tyson, Yul Vazquez)

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Bill Camp, Raffey Cassidy, Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Alicia Silverstone, Sunny Suljic)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Darrell Britt-Gibson, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage, Woody Harrelson, John Hawkes, Lucas Hedges, Zeljko Ivanek, Caleb Landry Jones, Sandy Martin, Frances McDormand, Clarke Peters, Sam Rockwell, Amanda Warren, Samara Weaving)

Get Out (Betty Gabriel, Marcus Henderson, Lil Rel Howery, Caleb Landry Jones, Daniel Kaluuya, Catherine Keener, Stephen Root, LaKeith Stanfield, Bradley Whitford, Allison Williams)

The Insult (Diamand Bou Abboud, Carlos Chahine, Christine Choueiri, Kamel El Basha, Rita Hayek, Talal Jurdi, Adel Karam, Julia Kassar, Camille Salameh, Rifaat Torbey)

The Florida Project (Valeria Cotto, Willem Dafoe, Sandy Kane, Mela Murder, Brooklynn Prince, Christopher Rivera, Bria Vinaite)

Slack Bay (Juliette Binoche, Caroline Carbonnier, Didier Després, Laura Dupré, Brandon Lavieville, Thierry Lavieville, Fabrice Luchini, Raph, Cyril Rigaux, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Jean-Luc Vincent)
 
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
"Now sink into the floor."
Winner: Jordan PeeleGet Out
Other Nominees:
Greta GerwigLady Bird
Martin McDonaghThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri   
Nacho Vigalondo—Colossal
Joseph Cedar—Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer
Ziad Doueiri & Joelle Touma—The Insult

(This was incredibly strong category, this year, especially when compared to the Adapted Screenplays, so I'd just like to give an honorable mention to the numerous movies with amazing original screenplays which just ended up getting beaten out here, such as The Wound, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Ingrid Goes West, The Big Sick, Personal Shopper, The Shape of Water, The Meyerowitz Stories, Lucky, Raw, and A Fantastic Woman)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
"But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything—what a waste!"
Winner: James IvoryCall Me by Your Name
Other Nominees:
Dee Rees & Virgil WilliamsMudbound
Richard Linklater & Darryl Ponicsan—Last Flag Flying
Scott Frank, James Mangold, & Michael GreenLogan
Susan CoyneThe Man Who Invented Christmas
David ScarpaAll the Money in the World

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:
The artful and colorful world of The Shape of Water
Winner: The Shape of Water
Other Nominees: 
Mudbound
Phantom Thread
The Florida Project
A Fantastic Woman
Wonderstruck

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
One of the stark, harsh, cinematic images from The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Winner: The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Thimios Bakatakis)
Other Nominees:
Slack Bay (Guillaume Deffontaines)
Mudbound (Rachel Morrison)

Wonderstruck (Edward Lachman)
The Shape of Water (Dan Laustsen)
Dunkirk (Hoyte van Hoytema)

BEST SOUND:
Sound and music tells much of the story in Wonderstruck
Winner: Wonderstruck
Other Nominees: 
Star Wars: Episode VIII--The Last Jedi
A Ghost Story
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Get Out
Phantom Thread

BEST SCORE (click the links to hear samples of the scores):
Carter Burwell's marvelous score is essentially another character in Three Billboards.

Winner: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Carter Burwell)
Other Nominees:
Loving Vincent (Clint Mansell)
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (Jun Miyake)

Phantom Thread (Jonny Greenwood)
The Shape of Water (Alexandre Desplat)
Mudbound (Tamar-kali)

BEST ISOLATED SCENE IN A MOVIE:
The nominees for best scene
Winner: The Square (Oleg's Performance)
Other Nominees:
Get Out (Missy hypnotizes Chris)
World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts (Triangle Land)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Steven makes a final decision)
Call Me by Your Name (Lyle’s speech to Elio)
A Fantastic Woman (Marina vs. the wind)
Raw (Waxing)
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (Norman buys shoes)
Novitiate (Evelyn’s Chapter of Faults)
The Wound (Xolani and Kwanda on the mountaintop)



And if you're interested in a breakdown of the results:

STATISTICS
Mudbound: 10 nominations, 3 wins
Get Out: 7 nominations, 2 wins
Lady Bird: 6 nominations, 1 win
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: 6 nominations, 1 win
Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer: 6 nominations, 1 win
The Killing of a Sacred Deer: 6 nominations, 1 win
Wonderstruck: 5 nominations, 2 wins
The Shape of Water: 3 nominations, 1 win
Call Me by Your Name: 2 nominations, 1 win
Novitiate: 2 nominations, 1 win
The Square: 1 nomination, 1 win
The Wound: 5 nominations
Raw: 5 nominations
The Florida Project: 5 nominations
The Insult: 4 nominations
A Fantastic Woman: 3 nominations 
Last Flag Flying: 3 nominations
Slack Bay: 3 nominations
Phantom Thread: 3 nominations
Colossal: 2 nominations
Coco: 1 nomination
Lucky: 1 nomination
Personal Shopper: 1 nomination
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected): 1 nomination
Good Time: 1 nomination
Loving Vincent: 1 nomination
In the Fade: 1 nomination
Logan: 1 nomination
It: 1 nomination
The Man Who Invented Christmas: 1 nomination
Star Wars Episode VIII--The Last Jedi: 1 nomination
A Ghost Story: 1 nomination
Dunkirk: 1 nomination
All the Money in the World: 1 nomination
World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts: 1 nomination

As a note, I excluded the animated short film World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts from most awards such as Best Picture because it's not a feature film. But it is a BRILLIANT movie and everyone should see it.

Also, while the brilliant film Phoenix still holds the record for most wins (4, at the very first Miles Awards), we have a new record for the most nominations received by one film! Mudbound's 10 nominations shatters the previous record of 8.