The Films of 2020. The 21st annual FiLM BiTCH Awards
PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES
And the Nominees Are...
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Best Picture
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AND THEN WE DANCED
Levan Ankin (Music Box Films) February 7th |
MINARI Lee Isaac Chung (A24) Festivals |
NOMADLAND Chloe Zhao (Searchlight ) Festivals |
PALM SPRINGS Max Barbakow ( Neon ) July 10th |
SOUND OF METAL
Darius Marder (Amazon) December 4th |
 A miraculous organically propulsive story of queerness in the homophobic world of Georgian dance. |
 A richly expressive and gentle family drama of an immigrant family chasing the American Dream... to Arkansas? |
 Zhao's moving nomadic road trip through with a grieving woman across the rural west. See you down the road. |
The best romantic comedy in years with clever deployment of time loops and two fantastic nimble leads | An ineffably sad incredibly immersive drama (that sound design!) about hearing loss and making peace with new realities |
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Finalists: Middle aged high school teachers booze it up and fall apart and piece themselves back together again in the hugely enjoyable Another Round, and the Broadway hit about a father and daughter struggling with dementia, The Father, becomes surprisingly exciting cinema from a gifted team. Semi Finalists: Wolfwalkers, Promising Young Woman, I Carry You With Me, No Hard Feelings, News of the World, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom |
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Best Director
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| Levan Akin AND THEN WE DANCED |
Lee Isaac Chung MINARI |
Heidi Ewing I CARRY YOU WITH ME |
Chloe Zhao NOMADLAND |
Florian Zeller THE FATHER |
| For that intuitive hugely impressive camerawork, his skill with a dance sequences and guiding non-actors to gorgeous naturalism onscreen. |
The year's most unshowy breakout, gently guiding a cohesive family unit to a rich ensemble performance while letting the camera sing, too. | Her skill with the documentary form is well-known. For her narrative debut, she uses it to cast her thematic net wide for a very intimate love story. | The alchemy of her instant classic, transforming a non-fiction work into a wandering drama of grief, hardship, and connection. All with cohesive vision and with non-actors. |
An award winning novelist and playwright, he innately understands cinema, too, and never loses the intimacy of his intricate puzzle drama or this tricky performances. |
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Finalists Darius Marder for immersing you in the Sound of Metal, Kelly Reichardt for topping herself with the beautifully rendered First Cow Semi Finalists: Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round, Kantemir Balagov for Beanpole, Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman, Max Barbakow for Palm Springs, Paul Greengrass for News of the World |
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Best Original Screenplay
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| ANOTHER ROUND Thomas Vinterberg |
MINARI Lee Isaac Chung |
PALM SPRINGS Andy Siara |
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Emerald Fennell |
SOUND OF METAL Abraham Marder, Darius Marder, Derek Cianfrance |
| A well constructed original take on the midlife crises, as funny as it is dramatic. And what a showcase for its leading man. | Turning his own memories into narrative gold, he creates a rich American drama with a truly memorable family unit. | For his very funny winkingly familiar premise, strong central characters, and modern inclusive sensibility. |
What a writer this actress proves to be: ingenious concept, iconic lead character construction, stylistic flare, and ideas with sharp edges |
For the solid construction, economic scene work, and especially the gloriously imprecise dialogue of a man trying not to grasp his situation. |
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Finalists: Eliza Hittman for the naturalistic impact of Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Levan Akin for the beautiful collision of milieu, social reality, and queer defiance in And Then We Danced Semi-Finalists: Kitty Green for her economy and muffled precision in The Assistant -- that human resources scene!, Kantemir Balagov and Aleksandr Terekhov for the artful yet brutal interpersonal dramas of Beanpole, David Desola and Pedro Rivero for instantly grabby sci-fi allegory in The Platform, Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers for the charming would-be profundities of Soul, and Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles for the allegorical genre work in Bacurau |
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Best Adapted Screenplay
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| THE FATHER Christopher Hampton & Florian Zeller |
FIRST COW Jonathan Raymond & Kelly Reichardt |
NEWS OF THE WORLD Paul Greengrass and Luke Davies |
NOMADLAND Chloe Zhao |
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI Kemp Powers |
| Based on Zeller's award-winning play |
Based on Raymond's own novel "Half Life" |
Based on the Paulette Jiles novel of the same name | Based on the nonfiction book "Nomadland Surviving American in the 21st Century" | Powers adapts his own popular stage play |
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Finalists: Charlie Kaufman adapts the Ian Reid novel I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Sarah Gibbons adapting Shirley based on the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, Eleanor Catton adapting Emma. the famous novel by Jane Austen Semi Finalists: Pedro Almodóvar for The Human Voice based on the play by Jean Cocteau, Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci for The Personal History of David Copperfield based on the novel by Charles Dickens, Kata Weber for Pieces of a Woman based on her own play, Ruben Santiago-Hudson for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom based on the play by August Wilson |
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BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
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| NO 7 CHERRY LANE Yon Fan (?) Festivals |
SOUL Pete Docter (Pixar) Dec 25th |
WOLFWALKERS Tom Moore and (Cartoon Saloon/Apple+) Nov 13th |
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| Surreal, personal, and memorable. Extra points for the zeal of its actressexuality about Simone Signoret. |
Another winner. Beautiful life lessons, great character design. Bonus points: "The Jerrys" |
Exquisitely designed and mesmerizingly in sync with its wild spirit animals. |
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