The Fifth Annual Miles Awards for Achievement in Film

Has awards season got you down? Is it because all voting bodies are inherently problematic and all awards are meaningless? Well, it's time to check out the one award for film that ever matters: The Miles Awards. You know there's no politics or external influence involved because nobody cares about these! And you know there's no ridiculous importance added to this because it's very upfront that this is just one person's opinion.

I really enjoy putting these awards together each year! It forces me to think about my favorite films of the year from a different perspective, and allows me to recognize excellence in films even if they didn't otherwise make my other end of the year lists. Now some of these awards will be fairly unsurprising if you've read my lists of my Favorite Films of 2019 and Favorite Performances of 2019, but I still think there's some fun and unexpected choices in here. They're certainly very different from other awards ceremonies of the year. Of my 24 nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress (leading and featured) only 1 was nominated for an Oscar. In fact, of the categories I include which have an Oscars equivalent, only 5 of my nominations overlap with the Oscar nominations in any capacity. 

Suffice it to say, I think my picks are far more interesting.

A few notes about my Miles Awards. Regular followers of the Miles Awards might remember that I always choose one winner, and then list the rest of my nominees in ranked order (so 2nd place, then 3rd place, etc.) Also, some clarification about the "Best Sound" category: this is about best use of sound in all aspects, so a combination of mixing, editing, and just overall design. A new change to this year's awards is that I've expanded the number of nominees for Best Director from 6 to 10. This was done because, frankly, I thought there was simply too much excellent directing this year to limit it to just 6 nominees. Even with the expanded category, in fact, I wished I could add an honorable mention. I ultimately decided against it, but let's just say that if there HAD been an honorable mention in the category, it would have gone to Annabelle Attanasio for Mickey and the Bear.

I think that just about covers everything, so let's get to it! Here are the winners and nominees for the Fifth Annual Miles Awards for Achievement in Film!

BEST PICTURE:

Winner: An Elephant Sitting Still 
Other Nominees:
Parasite
One Cut of the Dead
Bacurau
Fast Color
Diamantino
The Third Wife
Greener Grass
A Land Imagined
See You Yesterday 

BEST DIRECTOR:

Winner: Hu Bo—An Elephant Sitting Still 
Other Nominees:  
Bong Joon-ho—Parasite

Ash Mayfair—The Third Wife

Jennifer Kent—The Nightingale

Shin'ichirô Ueda—One Cut of the Dead

Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe—Greener Grass

Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles—Bacurau

Céline Sciamma—Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Yeo Siew Hua—A Land Imagined

Jafar Panahi—3 Faces

BEST ACTRESS:

Winner: Jessie Buckley as Rose-Lynn Harlan—Wild Rose 
Other Nominees: 
Nguyễn Phương Trà My as Mây—The Third Wife

Camila Morrone as Mickey Peck—Mickey and the Bear

Aisling Franciosi as Clare Carroll—The Nightingale

Emily Beecham as Alice Woodard—Little Joe

Eden Duncan-Smith as Claudette "CJ" Walker—See You Yesterday

BEST ACTOR:

Winner: Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore—Dolemite Is My Name 
Other Nominees: 
Carloto Cotta as Diamantino Matamouros—Diamantino

Peter Yu as Lok—A Land Imagined

Baykali Ganambarr as Billy Mangana—The Nightingale

Armie Hammer as Will—Wounds

Ray Romano as Andy Freeman—Paddleton

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Winner: Lorraine Toussaint as Bo—Fast Color 
Other Nominees: 
Zhao Shuzhen as Nai Nai—The Farewell

Sônia Braga as Domingas—Bacurau

Nora Hamzawi as Valérie Spiegel—Non-Fiction

Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Lady Reed—Dolemite Is My Name 

Park So-dam as Kim Ki-jung—Parasite

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Winner: Liu Congxi as Wang Jin—An Elephant Sitting Still 
Other Nominees: 
James Badge Dale as Hank Peck—Mickey and the Bear

Song Kang-ho as Kim Ki-taek—Parasite 
Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers—A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Liu Xiaoyi as Wang Bi Cheng—A Land Imagined

Wendell Pierce as Reverend Joseph Tillman—Burning Cane

BEST CHILD ACTOR:

Winner: Nguyễn Phương Trà My as Mây—The Third Wife 
Other Nominees: 
Eden Duncan Smith as Claudette ‘CJ’ Walker—See You Yesterday

Dante Crichlow as Sebastian J. Thomas—See You Yesterday

Archie Yates as Yorki—Jojo Rabbit

Maxwell Simba as William Kamkwamba—The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Lexy Kolker as Chloe Lewis—Freaks

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST:

Winner: An Elephant Sitting Still (Liu Congxi, Wang Ning, Xiang Rongdong, Zhu Yanmanzi, Peng Yuchang, Wang Yuwen) 
Other Nominees: 

Climax (Alaia Alsafir, Tiphanie Au, Mamadou Bathily, Sarah Belala, Ashley Biscette, Sofia Boutella, Vince Galliot Cumant, Lakdhar Dridi, Claude-Emanuelle Gajan-Maull, Romain Guillermic, Taylor Kastle, Alexandre Moreau, Kendall Mugler, Naab, Mounia Nassangar, Giselle Palmer, Thea Carla Schott, Strauss Serpent, Alou Sidibé, Adrien Sissoko, Kiddy Smile, Sharleen Temple, Lea Vlamos, Souheila Yacoub)

Parasite (Jang Hye-jin, Jung Hyun-joon, Jung Ji-so, Lee Jung-eun, Song Kang-ho, Park Myung-hoon, Park So-dam, Lee Sun-kyun, Choi Woo-shik, Cho Yeo-jeong)

A Land Imagined (Luna Kwok, Jack Tan, Liu Xiaoyi, Peter Yu, Ishtiaque Zico)

Fast Color (Christopher Denham, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Saniyya Sidney, David Strathairn, Lorraine Toussaint)

Greener Grass (Beck Bennett, Janicza Bravo, D’Arcy Carden, Neil Casey, Jocelyn DeBoer, Asher Miles Fallica, Mary Holland, Julian Hilliard, Dot-Marie Jones, Dawn Luebbe)

Us (Evan Alex, Madison Curry, Winston Duke, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Elisabeth Moss, Lupita Nyong’o)

One Cut of the Dead (Yuzuki Akiyama, Sakina Asamori, Takuya Fujimura, Takayuki Hamatsu, Manabu Hosoi, Hiroshi Ichihara, Mao, Kazuaki Nagaya, Harumi Shuhama, Yoshiko Takehara, Tomokazu Yamaguchi, Shuntarô Yamazaki)
Little Women (Timothée Chalamet, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Louis Garrel, Jayne Houdyshell, Tracy Letts, James Norton, Bob Odenkirk, Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, Eliza Scanlen, Meryl Streep, Emma Watson)

Les Misérables (Damien Bonnard, Almamy Kanoute, Raymond Lopez, Al-Hassan Ly, Alexis Manenti, Issa Perica, Steve Tientcheu, Djibril Zonga)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Winner: Parasite (Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won) 
Other Nominees: 
One Cut of the Dead (Shin'ichirô Ueda)

Diamantino (Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt)

Bacurau (Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles)

Fast Color (Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz)

A Land Imagined (Yeo Siew Hua)

 
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Winner: Greener Grass (Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe) 
Other Nominees: 
See You Yesterday (Fredrica Bailey and Stefon Bristol)

Little Women (Greta Gerwig)

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Vince Gilligan)

Wounds (Babak Anvari)
A Beautiful Day in the Neighorhood (Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Winner: Shadow (Zhao Xiaoding) 
Other Nominees: 
The Third Wife (Chananun Chotrungroj)

The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Adam Newport-Berra)

Climax (Benoît Debie)

One Cut of the Dead (Tsuyoshi Sone)

A Land Imagined (Hideho Urata)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

Winner: Shadow 
Other Nominees: 
Midsommar
This Magnificent Cake!
Little Joe
Greener Grass
Climax 

BEST SOUND:

Winner: The Lighthouse 
Other Nominees: 
Climax
Primal: Tales of Savagery
The Sound of Silence
The Nightingale
Parasite


BEST SCORE:

Winner: Parasite (Jeong Jae-il) Sample Track: Zappaguri 
Other Nominees: 
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Emily Mosseri) Sample Track: Montgomery's Theme

Fast Color (Rob Simonsen) Sample Track: Thunderstorm
Primal: Tales of Savagery (Tyler Bates and Joanne Higginbottom) Sample Track: Raptor Chase (the soundtrack is not available, so this is just a clip, but it demonstrates the brilliance of the score)
Knives Out (Nathan Johnson) Sample Track: Double-Dipping
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Antônio Pinto) Sample Track: Malawi

BEST ISOLATED SCENE:

Winner: Parasite (Drinking whiskey in the rain) 
Other Nominees:  
Walk, Run, Cha-Cha (The dance)
Climax (Opening dance sequence)
See You Yesterday (Calvin's final decision)
One Cut of the Dead (The crane shot)
Bacurau (Showdown in Bacurau)
The Nightingale (Clare and Billy reunited)
Primal: Tales of Savagery (Tusk)
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Lloyd's nightmare)
Cold Case Hammarskjöld (Mads pulls back the curtain)

Congratulations to all winners and nominees!

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

STATISTICS:
An Elephant Sitting Still: 4 nominations, 4 wins
Parasite: 9 nominations, 3 wins
Shadow: 2 nominations, 2 wins
Fast Color: 5 nominations, 1 win
Greener Grass: 5 nominations, 1 win
The Third Wife: 5 nominations, 1 win
Dolemite Is My Name: 2 nominations, 1 win
Wild Rose: 1 nomination, 1 win
The Lighthouse: 1 nomination, 1 win
A Land Imagined: 7 nominations
One Cut of the Dead: 6 nominations
See You Yesterday: 6 nominations
Bacurau: 5 nominations
The Nightingale: 5 nominations
Climax: 5 nominations
Diamantino: 3 nominations
Primal: Tales of Savagery: 3 nominations
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: 3 nominations
Wounds: 2 nominations
Mickey and the Bear: 2 nominations
Little Women: 2 nominations
Little Joe: 2 nominations
The Last Black Man in San Francisco: 2 nominations
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: 2 nominations
3 Faces: 1 nomination
Portrait of a Lady on Fire: 1 nomination
Cold Case Hammarskjöld: 1 nomination
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie: 1 nomination
This Magnificent Cake!: 1 nomination
Freaks: 1 nomination
Les Misérables: 1 nomination
Walk, Run, Cha-Cha: 1 nomination
The Farewell: 1 nomination
Paddleton: 1 nomination
Us: 1 nomination
Non-Fiction: 1 nomination
Knives Out: 1 nomination
Midsommar: 1 nomination
Burning Cane: 1 nomination
The Sound of Silence: 1 nomination
Jojo Rabbit: 1 nomination


With 4 wins, An Elephant Sitting Still is now tied for most Miles Awards won (with Phoenix at the first ever Miles Awards). Parasite was the second biggest winner of the night, and had by far the most nominations of the year with 9 (the record is 11). A third Asian film, A Land Imagined, also now holds the record for most Miles Award nominations without a win (7). Another notable winner, which also happens to be from the continent of Asia, is Shadow, which I gave the win for both Cinematography and Production Design. Director Zhang Yimou is known for crafting visually stunning films which stand out for their gorgeous use of color (such as Raise the Red Lantern, Hero, and House of the Flying Daggers). Here, though, he makes a film that, while not filmed in black and white, uses an almost entirely grey color scale. And while the movie as a whole isn't my favorite of his, it has one of the most innovative and beautiful looks of any movie I've seen, and I'm sad it hasn't gotten more attention for its technical achievements.

Lastly, might I just say that I'm glad these awards have become a tradition if only because it means that FINALLY Parasite has won an award for Best Original Score. Because...that score is incredible. How has it not won this award at literally every single awards ceremony? I've done research to see if it has been disqualified on some bullshit technicality, but I can't find one. It just feels like people are ignoring. Or maybe, like me when I watched the film, nominating committees just assumed this musical masterpiece is by Vivaldi and didn't realize it was an original work. I don't understand, but I'm glad I could correct this insidious wrong. And please listen to the score for Parasite because it's truly stunning.

I hope you enjoyed this year's Miles Awards! Let me know your thoughts on all the winners and nominees!

The 4th Miles Awards
The 3rd Miles Awards
The 2nd Miles Awards
The 1st Miles Awards