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

[some spoilers follow]

Best Credit Sequence / Title Design
the bookending or interstitial nominees are

(500) Days of Summer	Antichrist	Coraline	Up in the Air	Zombieland
Tom & Summer childhoods and those moody (day) markers	Hilariously histrionic sick- colored chalkboard sequence titles	needle and stitch work. Don't forget the button eyes	up in the air... literally! Overhead geometrics, slickly dissected	Demolished and splintering titles and intermittent "rules"
Finalist: Watchmen (opening credits) Semi-Finalists: Up (end credits)

Best Opening Scenes
first impressions are everything

Duplicity	Hunger	The Hurt Locker	Julia	Where the Wild Things Are
Spy Games & Corporate Warfare, humorously stylized	At first cryptic but entirely hypnotic once the images are contextualized	"You are now in the Kill Zone." (thanks for the warning)	Julia on the prowl: randy, relentless, and endearingly arrhythmic	Max's wild rampage: tackle dog, snow sister, bite mom
Finalists: Inglourious Basterds (Dairy Farm) * Fantastic Mr. Fox (Squab Farm) * Semi-Finalists: Precious (Classrom Daydream) * Up (Pixar's done the newsreel intro before but "the spirit of adventure is out there" is still pretty damn charming) * (500) Days of Summer "This is not a love story" your first clue as to how to read this sly oft misinterpreted movie

Best Ending
the SPOILERS are

The Hurt Locker	Inglourious Basterds	Nine	Summer Hours	Where The Wild Things Are
After that smart monologue, a gut punch. Hit the reset button.	"This just might be my masterpiece" Tarantino knows how to delight his movie-buff audience.	"Begin again. Start from the beginning each time." Nine loops back in on itself as the stage curtain call looks out over the film shoot.	The granddaughter leaving her own party at the estate, a leisurely drift away from childhood and family history	A beautifully wordless homecoming. There's no place like mom.
Finalists: Up in the Air * Chéri (devastating though I wish the film had earned it a little more) Semi-Finalists:

 

Top Dozen Scenes of the Year
(EXCLUDING previous scene categories)
the moments that made the year are

 

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans	Broken Embraces	Fantastic Mr Fox	Fantastic Mr Fox	Hunger
Iguanas	The Blind Caress	Canis Lupis	Whackbat	Urine Sweep
Hunger	Inglourious Basterds	Julia	Precious	A Single Man
Wee Fowl	Meet Brigitte	Masked Mother Proxy	Who Was Gonna Love Me?	The Call
		Finalists: Home Shopping - (500) Days of Summer * The Giant Face - Inglourious Basterds * Riot Gear Abuse -Hunger * Courtyard Call - Two Lovers * Grief courtship - The Messenger Semi Finalists: Masturbation -The White Ribbon * Marcus on the cross - Terminator Salvation * 3&4: The Archivists - 9 * Sweep - Hunger * a bird - The White Ribbon * Settling - Up in the Air * The Garden - Coraline * The Mall -The Messenger * Lip Reading - Broken Embraces
Taking Woodstock	UP
Acid Trip	Married Life

 

 

 

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AWARDS TALLIES ( Oscar category tallies + Non Traditional "Extras")
54 films represented in42 categories from the 105 I saw in 2009
unreleased films not eligible for awards so some great festival films are not represented

Statistics for ALL Categories

18 noms
Inglourious Basterds (3 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze)
13 noms
The Hurt Locker(4 gold, 1 silver, 6 bronze)
12 noms
Avatar (4 gold, 3 silver)
10 noms
Where the Wild Things Are (2 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze)
Nine (1 gold, 4 bronze)

8 noms
Precious (2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze)
Hunger (1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze)
(500) Days of Summer (2 gold, 1 bronze)

7 noms
UP (3 gold, 1 silver)
District 9 (1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)
Fantastic Mr Fox (1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)
Coraline (2 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze)
Bright Star (3 gold, 4 bronze)

6 noms
An Education (1 gold, 1 bronze)
A Single Man (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)
Up in the Air (2 silver)

5 noms
Crazy Heart (1 silver, 2 bronze)

4 noms
Duplicity (2 gold)
Broken Embraces (2 gold, 2 bronze)

3 noms
Thirst (1 silver, 1 bronze)
The Road (1 gold, 2 silver)
The Maid (1 silver, 1 bronze)
Julia (1 gold, 1 bronze)
Julie & Julia (1 silver)
In the Loop (2 gold)
Chéri (1 silver)
Antichrist (1 gold, 1 silver)

2 noms
The Last Station (1 gold)
Summer Hours (2 silver)
Whip It
Moon
Drag Me To Hell

single nominations
Bruno (1 silver)
The Hangover (1 bronze)
Star Trek (1 bronze)
Sherlock Holmes (1 silver)
Watchmen (1 bronze)
Zombieland (1 silver)

single nominations, no medals
9
Away We Go
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Brothers
Bronson
A Serious Man
The White Ribbon
Two Lovers
The Informant!
Terminator Salvation
Taking Woodstock
Public Enemies
The Messenger
Me and Orson Welles
Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus
Every Little Step

most medals
12 for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

most gold medals
(tie) 4 each for THE HURT LOCKER and AVATAR

favorite films that somehow didn't do well
WHIP IT, my 11th favorite film of the year (2 noms, 0 medals) and THE MESSENGER

best film without a gold medal
SUMMER HOURS

best showings for films I didn't like very much
CRAZY HEART and A SINGLE MAN

best ratio of plentiful nominations to medals
THE HURT LOCKER (13 noms / 11 medals)

worst ratio of nominations to medals
(tie) UP IN THE AIR & AN EDUCATION (6 noms/ 2 medals)

best films entirely snubbed
documentaries ANVIL: THE STORY OF ANVIL, VALENTINO
features RED CLIFF, THAT EVENING SUN, SIN NOMBRE, TULPAN

 

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