Awards Page Index * OSCAR coverage here
'05 FiLM BiTCH Awards
by Nathaniel R

Best Original Score
the musicians are

Brokeback Mountain Gustavo Santaolla	Howl's Moving Castle Joe Hisaishi	Me and You and Everyone We Know Michael Andrews	Pride & Prejudice Dario Marianelli	Syriana (& The Upside of Anger) Alexander Desplat
Repetitive but exceptionally beautiful and spare.	I always enjoy the music in Miyazaki films.	Quirky and unusual but a perfect match for the film.	Classical scores are best. Lush and romantic .	The undersung but great French composer.
Finalists: Kingdom of Heaven (& Chronicles of Narnia) Harry Gregson-Williams. Middle Eastern influenced-themes are a dime a dozen these days in Hollywood scoring for some reason but here it's both appropriate and beautiful * Crash Mark Isham. I thought the underscoring was quite effective in this film. Semi-Finalists: King Kong James Newton Howard and Memoirs of a Geisha John Williams. Howard and Williams are both oft-employed composers and it's easy to see why. Unfortunately I don't know if its a composer thing or the high profile epic films to which they're assigned but I always feel like I need just a little less. Or to be surprised more. Or something. Sue me.

Best Original Song
at the top of the charts you'll find

Brokeback Mountain "A Love That Will Never Grow Old"	Crash "In The Deep"	Happy Endings "How Lucky Am I?"	Hustle & Flow "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp"	TransAmerica "Travellin Thru"
Lots of fine songs here in but Emmylou Harris is especially strong.	Its scene seems like a lift of Magnolia's 'Wise Up' but pretty song nonetheless.	Presenting the multi-talented Maggie Gyllenhaal. Great pipes.	Best way to use a song in a movie? As a functioning part of it.	Dolly Parton was a smart choice for this cross country road trip.
Finalists: Brokeback Mountain "The Maker Makes" Rufus Wainwright 'get along little doggie' -Rufus can always make you laugh and cry at the same time * Happy Endings "I Can't Wait" Another great Maggie sung tune * Hustle & Flow "Hustle & Flow (It Ain't Over) " Another keeper from Hustle & Flow * The Producers "There's Nothing Like a Show on Broadway" -self congratulatory sure, but I'm a showtune fanatic. Sue me. Semi-Finalists: Tim Burton's Corpse Bride "Tears to Shed" --I love this movie but I wish the music were a tiny bit more memorable. * Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic "You're Gonna Die Soon" -funny s@#t * Elizabethtown "Same in Any Language"

 

Best Sound Design
the aurally elevated are

Brokeback Mountain	Capote	King Kong	Walk the Line	War of the Worlds
Finalists: Tropical Malady * Syriana* A History of Violence * Semi-Finalists: Kingdom of Heaven * Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit *

 

 

Best Sound Effects Editing
the nominees are

Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire	King Kong	War of the Worlds
Abracadabra	Grunt	Boom
Finalist: Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. -Zap * Tim Burton's Corpse Bride -Boo Semi-Finalist: Batman Begins -Eek.

 

Best Visual Effects
the "how'd they do that?" nominees are

Batman Begins	King Kong	War of the Worlds
I like my f/x expressive more than busy. And the Scarecrow hallucinations get stuck in your head. Bravo.	Peter Jackson's effects team is that rare outfit that balances serving the story and pushing the envelope.	My qualms about certain elements of the film aside this was a major f/x achievement. Skillful, frightening, and gripping magic.
Finalist: Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. There's no question that Lucasfilms pushes the digital envelope. But they push and push until it's all visual mush. The quality of the work gets buried under the quantity * Semi-Finalist: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -Is it just me or are these films getting more careful about their production values each and every time, rather than sloppier? Fine work.

 

Best Make Up
they gave good face

2046	The Chronicles of Narnia: tLtWatW	Sin City
Forget geisha, these are the Asian superstars with the hottest look. From futuristic punk androids to 60s upswept 'dos to the , these women were hypnotically made up and coiffed.	Not all the f/x work but as the visual components go, the makeup does. The faun was fun and Tilda as the White Witch was their most special effect all around. No computers req'd.	Whatever one might say about Sin City's juvenilia, visually it just pops - nay, explodes. The memorably altered mugs were like xerox transfers from the page to screen.
Finalist: A History of Violence From Harris's spooky dead eye and scarring, to the carnage, to Maria Bello's luscious low-maintenance locks it all works. * The New World -I forgot this one in the first run through of this page. But it's memorably accomplished * Memoirs of a Geisha -There is beauty all around but I never had that one "yowza" moment while watching. Semi-Finalist: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. Fine makeup work on both --but we've seen most of the characters before and what is with the continued atrocity of the hairstyles? Even on characters who we should find visually appealing.

 

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AWARDS TALLIES (Traditional Oscar category tallies)
These first three awards pages follow the traditional awards categories. Total nominations
33 films represented in some way out of the 94 I saw from 2005.
19 categories. I leave out Foreign Language, Documentary, and Shorts since most of those Oscar submissions aren't available for screening to the public.

10 nominations Brokeback Mountain 6 nominations A History of Violence Pride & Prejudice 5 nominations 2046 Good Night, and Good Luck. 4 nominations Caché Capote King Kong	3 nominations Me and You and Everyone We Know The New World Walk the Line War of the Worlds 2 nominations The Constant Gardener Frank Miller's Sin City Happy Endings Howl's Moving Castle Hustle & Flow Kings and Queen The Squid and the Whale Tim Burton's Corpse Bride The Upside of Anger	1 nomination The 40 Year Old Virgin Batman Begins The Beat That My Heart Skipped Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe Crash Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire Junebug Match Point My Summer of Love Syriana TransAmerica Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit The White Countess

 

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Medals & Statistics for the Traditional Categories
Most Wins? Brokeback Mountain 10 Nominations / 4 Gold & 4 Silver & 1 Bronze
Best Tally with Medals for Every Nom? A History of Violence 6 Noms / 3 Gold, 2 Silver & 1 Bronze
Best Ratio --Nominations to Wins? The Squid and the Whale. 2 Nominations / 2 Golds
Worst Ratio --Nominations to Wins? Capote 4 Nominations / 1 Silver
Most Nominations --No Gold Medals? Good Night & Good Luck. 5 Nominations / 1 Silver & 1 Bronze
Most Nominations --No Medals? Hustle & Flow 2 Nominations
Worst Film That Did Well? War of the Worlds 3 Nominations / 1 Gold & 2 Silvers
Best Film Entirely Snubbed? Brothers (#6 in top ten list. zero nominations)

Gold + Brokeback Mountain 4 Gold / 4 Silver / 1 Bronze A History of Violence 3 Gold / 1 Silver / 2 Bronze King Kong 2 Gold / 1 Silver The Squid and the Whale 2 Gold Pride & Prejudice 1 Gold / 2 Silver / 1 Bronze The New World 1 Gold / 2 Silver War of the Worlds 1 Gold / 2 Silver Tim Burton's Corpse Bride 1 Gold / 1 Silver 2046 1 Gold / 1 Bronze Happy Endings 1 Gold / 1 Bronze Wallace & Gromit 1 Gold The Upside of Anger 1 Gold

Silver + Good Night, and Good Luck. 1 Silver / 1 Bronze Caché 1 Silver / 1 Bronze Frank Miller's Sin City 1 Silver / 1 Bronze The Constant Gardener 1 Silver Kings and Queen 1 Silver Capote 1 Silver Bronze + Me and You and Everyone... 2 Bronze Walk the Line 2 Bronze The White Countess 1 Bronze Howl's Moving Castle 1 Bronze Batman Begins 1 Bronze Harry Potter &... 1 Bronze Chronicles of Narnia 1 Bronze TransAmerica 1 Bronze

Nominations with No Medals The 40 Year Old Virgin Hustle & Flow The Beat That My Heart... Crash Junebug Match Point My Summer of Love Syriana

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