Amir here, to welcome you to the third edition of Team Experience Awards, one of the most prestigious critics’ prizes around the world, bestowed on the best in cinema by members of this website sans Nathaniel. We previously honoured Leos Carax’s Holy Motors (with a lot of support for The Master) and Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (with several awards for Gravity). There was a similar situation this year, with two films gaining most of our attention across the categories. Our pick for best picture, however, was a clear consensus favourite and won by a very comfortable margin.
As always, individual ballots proved a lot more interesting than the final results, making the otherwise tedious process of making up spreadsheets really exciting for me. Though there is no sign of it on the list of winners here, there was passionate support for films as varied as We Are the Best!, Norte, the End of History, The Babadook, Godzilla, A Most Wanted Man and The Last of the Unjust. We will get to some of those titles in the trivia section at the bottom of the post, but for now, here are the Team Experience Awards’ winners:
BEST PICTURE
Under the Skin Runner-up: Selma
BEST DIRECTOR
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer) Runner-up: The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Obvious Child Runner-up: The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Gone Girl Runner-up: Edge of Tomorrow
BEST ACTOR
Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel) Runner-up: Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler)
BEST ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night) Runner-up: Marion Cotillard (The Immigrant)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ethan Hawke (Boyhood) Runner-up: Edward Norton (Birdman)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Marisa Tomei (Love Is Strange) Runner-up: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
BEST ENSEMBLE
Pride Runner-up: Selma
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Mr. Turner Runner-up: The Immigrant
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel Runner-up: Snowpiercer
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel Runner-up: The Immigrant
BEST MAKEUP
The Grand Budapest Hotel Runner-up: Only Lovers Left Alive
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Under the Skin Runner-up: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
BEST EDITING
Edge of Tomorrow Runner-up: Under the Skin
BEST SOUND DESIGN
Under the Skin Runner-up: Birdman
BEST SCORE
Under the Skin Runner-up: Begin Again
BEST DOCUMENTARY
National Gallery Runner-up: Citizenfour
BEST FOREIGN FILM
Ida Runner-up: Two Days, One Night
BEST ANIMATED FILM
The LEGO Movie Runner-up: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
BEST UNRELEASED FILM
Tie: The Look of Silence; Silvered Water: Syria Self Portrait
TRIVIA
• Interested in our collective full top ten? Here are our films ranked:
- Under the Skin
- Selma
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Pride
- Birdman
- Love Is Strange
- Boyhood
- The Immigrant
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Force Majeure.
• Fourteen members of Team Experience voted for this poll. (Nathaniel does not because you can see his choices over the Film Bitch Awards and his top ten here.) Overall, 163 different films received votes across all categories. 56 different films received best picture votes.
• There were two lonely passions, films placed at number one on a ballot that received no other best picture votes from other contributors: Glenn put A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night at the top of his ballot; I – Amir – chose The Strange Little Cat. My choice turned out to be even less popular than Glenn’s, given that it received no votes in any categories from other voters, not just best picture. Girl, on the other hand, was a popular choice in cinematography and music. On the other hand, only one film placed first on two different ballots: Pride.
• As with previous years, several films fell victim to the release date limbo, that void between NY, LA and festival releases. Chief among these were Mommy, The Missing Picture (which would have surely been a top five entry if we combined its votes from this year and last) and Gloria. Blame the Oscar qualifying run, The Film Experience’s number one pet peeve.
• Widest margin of victory: The Grand Budapest Hotel gained three times as many points as the second placed film in production design. 10 of our 14 contributors put the film at number one on their ballots!
• Narrowest miss: Ava DuVernay (Selma) was one point shy of a runner-up place in best director. Essie Davis (The Babadook) was in a similar position in the best actress race.