"Corpse Bride" (Helena Bonham Carter) Tim Burton's Corpse Bride	"June Carter" Reese Witherspoon Walk the Line	"King Kong " (Andy Serkis) King Kong	"Mr. Darcy " Matthew McFayden Pride & Prejudice	"Ulla" Uma Thurman The Producers
Oops. She's going to be trouble.	Offstage comic spark. A famous vision in pink.	Visual effects marvel -you expect nothing less.	"...poor he most certainly is not"	Uma vamps it up with comic joy --when you got it...
Finalist: "Howl" in Howl's Moving Castle * "Ashley" Amy Adams in Junebug Semi-Finalists: Sin City thrives on the splash-pagey introductions of virtually all of its characters, but I couldn't choose one.

 

Best Titles Sequence (Opening or Closing)
the bookending nominees are

Frank Miller's Sin City	King Kong	Kiss Kiss Bang Bang	The Producers	The White Countess
Über cool as the city becomes the title. All black, white and red.	Just a title card and then a great ditty time/place montage.	Reminiscent of Catch Me If You Can but self-aware movie fun.	Broad yuck-yuck humor until the bitter end. Showbiz to its core.	Sad and wistful with rotating/ dancing titles .
Finalists: Caché * Mrs. Henderson Presents * Semi-Finalists: Crash * Junebug *

 

Best Opening Sequence
the first impressionists are

The Constant Gardener	A History of Violence	Howl's Moving Castle	Pride & Prejudice	Serenity
A violent car crash. A new widower barely reacting.	Unsettlingly quiet as evil slowly crouches into view.	Howl floating Sophie to safety across the rooftops.	From its first shot cinematically airy and fresh. You're in good hands.	Genius exposition. Cleverly brings uninitiated up to speed.
Finalist: Brokeback Mountain -Ennis and Jack waiting for the job, and by way of introduction not speaking. Semi-Finalist: Tropical Malady -The body found. A mystery to which we return?

 

Best Ending
the SPOILERS are

The 40 Year-Old Virgin	Brokeback Mountain	King Kong	The New World	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
"AQUARIUS...." One of the most inspired comic moments in years.	"Jack I swear..." The closet doors, the tiny window w/ Wyoming vista. Shattering.	Kong vanishing, Ann weeping. 'twas Beauty killed the Beast.	Pocahontas's new world... and the visual return to forest. water. sky. Deeply moving.	Darth at last! [cue: familiar echoey heavy breathing]
Finalist: Caché Haneke will never provide you with an easy answer. If there's an answer there will be more questions * Whisky ...and back to the sock factory * Semi-Finalists: Grizzly Man -Timothy's fate dovetailing into Herzog's worldview * The Squid and the Whale -abruptly hopeful, struggling to make peace with the past. * Yes -Not sure if I buy the film as a whole but I love the final rhyming couplets: "For, everything you do or say / Is there, forever. It leaves evidence. / In fact it’s really only common sense; / There’s no such thing as nothing, not at all. / It may be really very, very small / But it’s still there. In fact I think I’d guess / That “no” does not exist. There’s only “yes”.

 

Top Dozen Scenes of the Year
[EXCLUDING previous scene categories from the last two pages such as
musical moment, sex scene, character intros, etc...]
the moments that made the year are

Brokeback Mountain	Caché	Grizzly Man	Good Night and Good Luck.	Happy Endings
All they got left is Brokeback Mountain. [flashback]	The scene that makes the audience gasp aloud.	Narrated fight. Treadwell's absurd euphoria w/ a steaming pile.	Liberace interview. Strathairn's reaction: Priceless.	Required counselling meeting. Actressy smackdown.
A History of Violence	The Holy Girl	King Kong	Me and You and Everyone We Know	Pride & Prejudice
The hospital room, identities crumbling.	The classroom and the falling man	On the ice in Central Park. Movie bliss.	))<>(( "back and forth forever"	Competing agendas and missing persons as the camera searches the ball.
		Finalists: The Aristocrats -Sarah Silverman's recovered memory * Crash the rescue * Caché -street confrontation * Caché -La Mere de George * Me and You and Everyone We Know -"that point in a relationship" Semi Finalists: Whisky -refrigerator magnet * Kings & Queen -Almaric and his almost-son * Capote -Harper stealing Truman's spotlight at her premiere * King Kong -"Broadway opening" mimicking the 33 film* Kings and Queen - The ghost of a dead boyfriend * Good Night, and Good Luck. -Any Murrow speech quite honestly * Kiss Kiss Bang Bang -Downey and the corpse in his bathroom.
The Squid and the Whale	Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
"Blue Velvet" -Inappropriate much? So wrong but so funny.	On the hunt. Gromit's striptease is the comic icing on the cake.

 

one last thing...

 

AWARDS TALLIES ( Oscar category tallies + Non Traditional "Extras")
These 7 awards pages follow the traditional awards categories and add double that! (I'm a total masochist!)
So total nominations so far...
56 films represented in some way (so far) out of the 94 I saw from 2004.
44 categories out of 44 have been announced to date...

19 nominations Brokeback Mountain 13 nominations A History of Violence 12 nominations Good Night, and Good Luck. 11 nominations Pride & Prejudice Walk the Line 10 nominations King Kong 7 nominations 2046 6 nominations Caché The Constant Gardener Frank Miller's Sin City Hustle & Flow Junebug The New World	5 nominations Howl's Moving Castle Me and You and... The Squid and the Whale Tim Burton's Corpse Bride 4 nominations The 40-Year-Old Virgin Batman Begins Capote The Producers 3 nominations Happy Endings Harry Potter & Goblet... Heights Jarhead Kings and Queen Rent Serenity The Upside of Anger War of the Worlds	2 nominations The Beat That My Heart... Brothers The Chronicles of Narnia Crash Happy Endings Head On Mr & Mrs Smith Ong Bak: Thai Warrior Star Wars Episode 3 Wallace & Gromit The White Countess 1 nomination Be Cool Cinderella Man Fantastic Four Grizzly Man The Holy Girl Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Kung Fu Hustle Melinda & Melinda Match Point Mrs. Henderson Presents My Summer of Love Red Eye Sarah Silverman: Jesus... Syriana TransAmerica

 

Medals & Statistics for ALL 44 Categories
Most Wins? Brokeback Mountain 19 Nominations & 16 medals
Second Most? A History of Violence 13 Nominations & 11 medals
Best Tally Ratio --Nominations to Wins? Frank Miller's Sin City -6 noms & 6 medals
Best Tally For a Film I Don't Really Like Much Frank Miller's Sin City -6 noms & 6 medals
Best Showing for Good but Not Close to Great Film-Walk the Line -11 Noms & 6 Medals
Worst Ratio --Nominations to Wins? Capote -4 nominations -1 Silver Medal
Most Nominations --No Gold? Howl's Moving Castle -5 nominations
Most Wins --No Gold? The 40 Year Old Virgin -3 Medals
Most Nominations --No Medals at all? The Producers -4 nominations
Worst Film That Did Well? War of the Worlds -3 Medals / Mr & Mrs Smith -2 Medals
Best Film With No Medals? Brothers (Denmark) -2 nominations & Match Point 1 nomination
Best Films Entirely Snubbed? Apologies! Whisky (Uruguay), Tropical Malady (Thailand) & In Her Shoes

Gold (5+ Medals) Brokeback Mountain 7 Gold / 7 Silver / 2 Bronze A History of Violence 7 Gold / 2 Silver / 2 Bronze Good Night, and Good Luck. 2 Gold / 1 Silver / 4 Bronze Pride & Prejudice 2 Gold / 2 Silver / 2 Bronze Walk the Line 2 Gold / 1 Silver / 3 Bronze Frank Miller's Sin City 1 Gold / 3 Silver / 2 Bronze King Kong 2 Gold / 2 Silver /1 Bronze The New World 2 Gold / 2 Silver / 1 Bronze Tim Burton's Corpse Bride 1 Gold / 3 Silver / 1 Bronze Gold (Under 5 Medals) Junebug 2 Gold / 1 Silver / 1 Bronze The Squid and the Whale 2 Gold / 1 Silver / 1 Bronze The Constant Gardener 1 Gold / 1 Silver / 2 Bronze War of the Worlds 1 Gold / 2 Silver 2046 1 Gold / 1 Silver / 1 Bronze Caché 1 Gold / 1 Silver / 1 Bronze Hustle & Flow 1 Gold / 1 Silver / 1 Bronze Happy Endings 1 Gold / 2 Bronze

Gold (Under 5 Medals, Cont'd) The Upside of Anger 1 Gold /1 Silver Jarhead 1 Gold / 1 Silver Heights 1 Gold /1 Bronze Rent 1 Gold / 1 Bronze Batman Begins 1 Gold / 1 Bronze Mr & Mrs Smith 1 Gold / 1 Bronze Wallace & Gromit 1 Gold Ong Bak: Thai Warrior 1 Gold Silver + The 40 Year Old Virgin 3 Silver Serenity 2 Silver Howl's Moving Castle 1 Silver / 1 Bronze Harry Potter &... 1 Silver / 1 Bronze The Beat That My Heart... 1 Silver Kings and Queen 1 Silver Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 1 Silver Capote 1 Silver

Bronze + Me and You and Everyone... 2 Bronze Head On 2 Bronze The White Countess 2 Bronze Chronicles of Narnia 2 Bronze TransAmerica 1 Bronze Red Eye 1 Bronze Crash 1 Bronze Nominations - No Medals Match Point My Summer of Love Syriana Be Cool Cinderella Man Fantastic Four Grizzly Man (Obviously have a gold if I had a doc. category) The Holy Girl Kung Fu Hustle Melinda & Melinda Mrs. Henderson Presents My Summer of Love Sarah Silverman: Jesus... Brothers Star Wars Episode 3 The Producers