Awards
Page Index
* OSCAR coverage here
'06 FiLM BiTCH
Awards
by Nathaniel
R
Traditional
Oscar categories:
Majors
/
Acting /
Technicals /
Technicals 2
(Tally of Noms)
Special Categories: Extras
/ Extras 2 / Scenes
1 / Scenes 2
(Tally of Noms) / Movie Mixers (Poll Games)
Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medalists indicated by color
Best Picture
| Children
of Men dir. Alfonso Cuaron (Universal) |
The
Fountain dir. Darren Aronofsky (Warner Bros) |
Marie
Antoinette dir. Sofia Coppola (Sony Pictures) |
Shortbus dir. John Cameron Mitchell (ThinkFilm) |
Volver dir. Pedro Almodovar (Sony Pictures Classics) |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Top
Ten List Article -Year in Review 6. Duck Season 7. A Prairie Home Companion 8. The Devil Wears Prada 9. Inside Man 10. The Departed |
||||
Best
Director
the
chosen auteurs are...
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Pedro
Almodovar Volver |
Darren
Aronofsky The Fountain |
Sofia
Coppola Marie Antoinette |
Alfonso
Cuarón Children of Men |
Martin
Scorsese The Departed |
His
hot streak miraculously continues. Here's another warm, smart and feisty
original. How long can this go on? |
When
a director uses the cinema for such passionate expression, you forgive
the lapses. Auteurs should all go for broke. |
Proves
for a third time that she's got the skills and a fresh cinematic voice.
So, where's the respect? Oh right --ovaries. |
One
of the world's best filmmakers keeps on improving and challenging himself.
This is the work of a technical virtuoso. |
Crime
flicks this propulsive and entertaining are rare. The uniformly excellent
ensemble work is his master stroke. |
| Finalists:
Fernando
Eimbcke's first feature, the festival darling Duck Season,
was a tiny endearing gem. What will he do for an encore? Semi-Finalists: Spike Lee proved he could give great popcorn fun with the best of them in Inside Man and he did it without losing his voice. Bravo * A Prairie Home Companion is minor Altman but it's still Robert Altman. Rest in peace. The movie sang a lovely goodbye tune * John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus is a worthy follow up to the superb Hedwig and the Angry Inch. That's high praise * I'm still not entirely sure why Paul Greengrass made United 93 --nor why it's so loved -- but I can't deny that's it's expertly guided: a true director's show * |
||||
| Oscar
Race |
||||
Best
Original Screenplay
the
new worlds discovered were...
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Duck
Season Fernando Eimbcke & Paula Markovitch |
Half
Nelson Anne Boden & Ryan Fleck |
Little
Miss Sunshine Michael Arndt |
The
Queen Peter Morgan |
Volver Pedro Almodovar |
A
simple premise within an over-worked genre but it feels all kinds of
fresh and moving nonetheless |
Ideas
worth dramatizing but the magic is in the expressive and fascinating
relationships |
Some
say it's too self conscious with quirk. But it comes across genuine.
It just happens to be a "superfreak" |
A
touch obvious but there's much in The Queen's tiny emotional
shifts that feels large and universal |
Like
a good book, it's stuffed with detail but still leaves room for the
audience to imagine and feel |
|
Finalists:
I
give genuine props to Guillermo Del Toro's imagination and the well
crafted tensions of Pan's Labyrinth but I
wish the fantasy/reality parallels were more finely integrated * Monster
House uses a well worn conceit (haunted house) but gives
it fresh life and populates it with sharp funny characters Semi-Finalists: * Friends With Money a bit too on-the-nose with its sliding scale characterizations and themes, but it's good stuff and probably better on paper * Inside Man clever construction is rarer than you'd think in plot-loving mainstream cinema * |
||||
Best
Adapted Screenplay
the
handled-with-care transferrals are...
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Children
of Men Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby |
The
Departed William Monahan |
The
Devil Wears Prada Aline Brosh McKenna |
The
Last King of Scotland Peter Morgan & Jeremy Brock |
Marie
Antoinette Sofia Coppola |
P.D.
James "The Children of Men" serves as spring-board for a truly
cinematic rethink. It diverges from the novel but it breathes the same
dying air |
Smartly
reworks Felix Chong and Siu Fai Mak's excellent high concept Infernal
Affairs screenplay into a snappy tough talking American crime film |
By
many accounts (I haven't read the book) Lauren Weisberger's roman á
clef was improved upon in screenplay form. McKenna gives delicious quip |
This
could almost be a twin to his work on The Queen. His adaptation
of Giles Foden's novel also illustrates a complicated push and pull
between leader and counsel |
Coppola
daringly distills the lengthy detail-rich bio of Antonia Fraser's "Marie
Antoinette: The Journey" into personal cinematic portraiture |
| Finalist:
Patrick Marber turns Zoe Heller's Notes
on a Scandal into an appealing cinematic cat fight with
sometimes awesome verbal play but jettisons all of the novels subtlety
* Semi-Finalists: Todd Field and Tom Perrotta smartly transfer some of Perrotta's Little Children but it isn't completely rethought or streamlined for the screen and the narration is noncomittal * Garrison Keillor brings his hit radio show A Prairie Home Companion to the screen and Sacha Baron Cohen expands his comedy show character Borat but both films get their entertainment value from their performances and improv * |
||||
