The Films of 2022. The 23rd annual FiLM BiTCH Awards
PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES
gold medal
silver medal
bronze medal
AND THE NOMINEES ARE...
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Best Actress
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| Cate Blanchett "Lydia Tar" TAR |
Danielle Deadwyler "Mamie Till-Mobley" TILL |
Andrea Riseborough "Leslie 'Lee' Rowland" TO LESLIE |
Emma Thompson
"Nancy Stokes" GOOD LUCK TO YOU LEO GRANDE |
Michelle Yeoh
"Evelyn Wang" EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE |
| A towering performance, perched on a razor's edge between legitimate genius and emperor's new clothes hollowness. An ambiguous mess of human contradiction. |
Operatically moving in both her grief and the way it transforms her into civic service. What a chameleon, too -- unrecognizable from her breakout role last year. |
So deep inside this Texas woman than the British thespian disappears entirely (down the bottle). Expert navigation of in-the-moment spontaneity and redemption arc. |
A brave and revelatory character portrait of a lonely woman whose life is sorely lacking in pleasure. Bonus points for the way she resists it, due to deprivation and shame
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Marrying all of her legendary gifts - it's the perfect fusion of action star and dramatic actress with undersung comic impulses. She anchors the chaos with tetchy feeling |
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Finalist: Vicky Krieps is fiercely self-regarding and difficult as "Empress Sissi" in Corsage - she's impossible to look away from! Semi-Finalists: Anamaria Vartomolei is forceful but nuanced as "Anne Duchesne" in Happening, Michelle Williams is wonderfully heightened as "Mitzi Fabelman" like a child's eye view of a peculiar mother in The Fabelmans, Park Ji-Min is psychologically compelling as ever-shifting Frédérique Benoît in Return to Seoul, Aubrey Plaza give Emily the Criminal her all and a smart character arc, Guslagie Malanda is transfixingly desolate but measured as "Laurence Coly" in Saint Omer, and Ana de Armas is deeply invested in Norma Jeane in Blonde, |
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Best Actor
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| Austin Butler "Elvis Presley" ELVIS |
Colin Farrell "Padraic Suilleabhain" THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN |
Paul Mescal "Calum" AFTERSUN |
Bill Nighy "Williams" LIVING |
Franz Rogowski |
| Potent enough to absorb all the chaos and glow even brighter. An electric physical recreation... what moves! Bonus points: for the way he understands when Elvis is or isn't thinking about the storms around him. | Understands and elevates McDonagh's tragicomic tone with his expressive star turn. He reveals all of Padraic from his soft surface, to his intellectual limitations, and discovers petty dark corners. Unshowy perfection. |
As in Normal People, he burrows so deep into his character's soul that you marvel that he can still hold space to paint vivid relationship portraits. Watch how he tries to push the inner storm away to be present for his daughter. |
He chips away at Williams stony facade with a tiny chisel. It's thrilling when the sculpture of the full man begins to emerge. The kind of delicate slow burn arc that only a confident master of the craft could deliver. |
One of Europe's greatest actors outdoes himself with this portrait of a man so implacably committed to his own desires that you begin to wonder where the prison walls truly are. In short: he sells that challenge of an ending |
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Finalists: Felix Kammerer takes "Paul Bäumer" from dimly eager naif to wide eyed shell-shocked vulnerability in All Quiet on the Western Front and Gabriel Labelle makes an authentic young Spielberg, driven, inquisitive, stubborn, and both sensitive and disconnected as "Sammy Fabelman" in The Fabelmans Semi Finalists: Harris Dickinson proves again as "Carl" in Triangle of Sadness that he is a smart thoughtful actor with this skewering of a trophy boy, Close relies heavily on Eden Dambrine natural screen presence and delicate but piercing feeling in a period of great adolescent confusion, Brendan Fraser is empathetic and committed to sad "Charlie" in The Whale, Daryl McCormack holds his own against a titan of acting as "Leo Grande" in Good Luck to You Leo Grande, and Jack Lowden is wonderfully subtle with internal turmoil as "Siegfried Sassoon" in Benediction |
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Best Supporting Actress
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Kerry Condon |
Jamie Lee Curtis |
Hong Chau "Elsa" THE MENU |
Dolly De Leon |
Gabrielle Union "Inez French" THE INSPECTION |
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A pitch-perfect read of a warm but lonely character that's both in and outside of this highly specific McDonagh world. Bonus points for balancing the guilt of her exit strategy with exasperated smarts |
There's a reason why multiple Curtis characters stick in the memory. Vanity-free comic genius, with physical and verbal specifity, this is yet another bullseye iconic creation |
From wickedly delightful line readings "this is a tortilla" to utter confidence in her own minimalism, she gives so much information/potency even from the sidelines. One of our best character actors. | De Leon comes at you sideways, at first unobtrusively but with great comic grift, and then clobbers you with Abigail's lifetime of being underestimated: She's the captain now! |
A piercing difficult role and she meets the challenge. What a gut punch to watch her smile drop-- you realize Inez hasn't changed at all and, worse, feels betrayed and "tricked" into maternal love again. |
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Finalists: Hong Chau elevating and making emotional sense of enabling "Liz" in The Whale, and Anne Hathaway impatiently riveting as as stressed struggling "Esther Graff" in Armageddon Time Semi-Finalists: Stephanie Hsu having lots of fun and delivering pathos too as "Joy Wang/Jobu Tupaki" in Everything Everywhere All At Once, Kate Hudson for deliriously fun line readings as "Birdie Jay" in Glass Onion, Sigourney Weaver intelligent and commanding and funny, too, as "Virginia" in Call Jane, Nicole Kidman regally amoral as "Queen Gudrun" in The Northman, and Chloe East is a horny delight as "Monica Sherwood" in The Fabelmans |
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| Paul Dano "Burt Fabelman" THE FABELMANS |
Brian Tyree Henry |
Barry Keoghan "Dominic Kearney" BANSHEES OF INISHERIN |
Ke Huy Quan "Waymond Wang" EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE |
Albrecht Schuch "Stanislaus Katczinsky" ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT |
Dano is The Fabelmans MVP. The way he navigates his wife's mercurial nature and his son's unfathomable (to him) "hobby" is superbly modulated. Bonus points: Watch the way he merely looks at them, fully loving yet tired and bewildered, from his nearby planet. |
His stage training is showing. He's always been able to suggest history and depth in small roles but now, with a large canvas, a full fascinating character portrait. You lean in, eager to watch each brush stroke... what they reveal or opaquely conceal. |
He's been so adept at skeeving us out as monsters (Killing of a Sacred Deer, Green Knight, etc) that he flips the script and breaks your heart. Dominic is obnoxious and can't read the room but you end up loving him. And realize no one else has. "There's that dream gone" |
Waymond is one of the year's most endearing characters. But Evelyn's exhausted indifference wouldn't read half as well if Quan didn't risk a whining earnestness to his lovely messaging. Bonus points: All that plus Tony Leung cosplay AND Jackie Chan comic physicality as his other selves. |
Kammerer is nakedly expressive but Schuch's holding-it-all-in counterpoint is crucial to the success of their scenes together. Note the way bigger feeling keeps trying to find purchase in his voice or face, only for him to desperately shove it away before he feels... anything... everything? |
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Finalists: Zlatko Buric gleefully full of it (shit and self-serving politics) as "Dimitry" in Triangle of Sadness, and a comforting grounding Anthony Hopkins dispensing wisdom and calm to a volatile family as "Grandpa Aaron Rabinowitz" in Armageddon Time Semi Finalists: José Luis Gomez hilariously clueless as "Humberto Suárez" in Official Competition, Edward Norton proving once again as "Miles Bron" in Glass Onion that he should do more comedies, Theo Rossi winning whether his guard is up or down (and all gradations inbetween) as "Youcef" in Emily the Criminal, Raul Castillo typically stellar as "Rosales" in The Inspection, and Don Cheadle a superb comic foil as academically earnest "Murray" in White Noise PLEASE NOTE: We also have a "limited role" category for actors with two scenes or less... |
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PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES