Team Experience Awards 2018: Our Favourites

by staff

We couldn't let the Oscar season go without our team of writers giving you our 7th annual Team Experience Awards (Nathaniel doesn't vote on these but his Film Bitch Awards will resume in a couple of days). We've given ourselves some time to catch up to 2018's offerings and as a result we have some fun surprises in store for our ballot! This year our Best Film goes to Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite, one of the six prizes we've given it of thirteen total nominations. Next behind is Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk with nine mentions, and then the love is spread pretty wide elsewhere with Roma, Hereditary, BlacKkKlansman, and Can You Ever Forgive Me? doing well among nominations.

Best Picture

1. The Favourite
2. If Beale Street Could Talk
   
3. Roma
   
4. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
5. Hereditary
   
6. BlacKkKlansman
   
7. Widows
   
8. Annihilation
   
9. First Man
   
10. We the Animals

Best Director

• Alfonso Cuarón - Roma
• Marielle Heller - Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Barry Jenkins - If Beale Street Could Talk
• Yorgos Lanthimos - The Favourite
• Spike Lee - BlacKkKlansman

Best Foreign Language Film

• Burning
  
• Cold War
  
• Happy as Lazarro
  
• Roma
  
• Shoplifters

Best Actress

• Toni Collette - Hereditary
• Olivia Colman - The Favourite
• Regina Hall - Support the Girls
• Melissa McCarthy - Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Emma Stone - The Favourite

Since some of you will likely be asking, our Oscar frontrunners Glenn Close and Lady Gaga only received two bids apiece from members of our team - never a threat to make our lineup. While these five names are some of the more mentioned underdogs of the season, our TFE writers clearly craved to see some new names recognized this season (as the rest of the ballot will show...).

Best Actor

• Bradley Cooper - A Star is Born
• Daveed Diggs - Blindspotting
• Ethan Hawke - First Reformed
• Joaquin Phoenix - You Were Never Really Here
• John David Washington - BlacKkKlansman

Best Supporting Actress

• Sakura Andô - Shoplifters
• Elizabeth Debicki - Widows
• Regina King - If Beale Street Could Talk
• Blake Lively - A Simple Favor
• Rachel Weisz - The Favourite

Best Supporting Actor

• Richard E. Grant - Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Brian Tyree Henry - If Beale Street Could Talk
• Nicholas Hoult - The Favourite
• Alessandro Nivola - Disobedience
• Steven Yeun - Burning

Best Adapted Screenplay

• BlacKkKlansman
• Can You Ever Forgive Me?
  
• The Death of Stalin
  
• If Beale Street Could Talk
  
• Leave No Trace

Best Original Screenplay

• Eighth Grade
• The Favourite
• Private Life
• Sorry to Bother You
• Tully

Best Ensemble

• Black Panther
  
• The Favourite
  
• If Beale Street Could Talk
  
• Shoplifters
• Widows

Best Documentary Feature

• Free Solo
  
• McQueen
• Minding the Gap
  
• Shirkers
• Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Best Animated Feature

• Incredibles 2
  
• Isle of Dogs
  
• Mirai
• Ralph Breaks the Internet
  
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Best Editing

• BlacKkKlansman
• The Favourite
  
• Hereditary
• Suspiria
• Widows

Best Cinematography

• Cold War
  
• The Favourite
  
• If Beale Street Could Talk
  
• Roma
• A Star is Born

Best Costume Design

• Black Panther
  
• The Favourite
  
• If Beale Street Could Talk
  
• Mary Poppins Returns
  
• A Simple Favor

Best Production Design

• Annihilation
  
• Black Panther
  
• The Favourite
  
• Hereditary
• Roma

Best Sound

• Annihilation
• First Man
  
• Hereditary
• Roma
• A Star is Born

Best Music

• First Man
  
• If Beale Street Could Talk
  
• Mary Poppins Returns
  
• A Star is Born
  
• Suspiria

Best Visual Effects

• Annihilation
• Avengers: Infinity War
  
• First Man
  
• Mission: Impossible - Fallout
  
• Paddington 2

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Black Panther
  
• Border
• The Favourite
  
• Mary Queen of Scots
  
• Suspiria

Best Unreleased Film

• Ash is Purest White
  
• Her Smell
  
• High Life
  
• Three Faces
  
• Woman At War

Some fun trivia:

• A total 121 films received bids across all ballots/categories, with 55 films receiving Best Picture mentions.
• Some favourites that had no nominations though came close: Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Crazy Rich Asians, and The Rider.
• Films that missed our Top Ten despite getting a #1 vote from one of our writers: American Animals, Leave No Trace, Madeline's Madeline, Mandy, and The Rider.
• The most contentious acting category was (naturally) Supporting Actress where 38 different performances showed up on ballots.
• The closest race was in Best Actor with winner Cooper duking it out with Ethan Hawke for a photo finish - and far ahead of their competition.
• Last year's Best Unreleased Film winner Western breaks the category's streak of the winning film appearing on the next year's ballot (A shame, because the film is a wonder). Your move Her Smell.

Previous Team Experience Award Winners:
2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

More About Team Experience

Comments

[Morganb]

Interesting that Rachel Weisz ended up in supporting despite Nathaniel banging the category fraud drum all season long - I actually agree that she is the supporting role of the three but she could easily be a lead!

Did people not watch The Wife? The film wasn't great but Glenn was actually amazeballs in it - every frame, every reaction - her face during his speech and the scene with the biographer, she blew me away completely and I can't believe that she's actually being commended with the 'its time career oscar' label when her performance is, for my money, her absolute best since the double whammy of Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons!

[Kieran Scarett]

Oh my God...imagine if these were the actual Oscar shortlist. This is a glorious roster of nominees.

[eurocheese]

I'd take these over the Oscar picks in a heartbeat. The Favourite is so incredible - loved seeing all the love here. And yay Toni, Bradley and Roma!

[brandz]

The Favourite is my top of the year too.

[Bruno]

I liked Regina Hall and Melissa McCarthy but no way were their performances superior to Glenn Close.

[/3rtful]

@Morganb

Nathaniel is the only Film Experience staff that has reverence for Close. When he asked his writers to name their favorite Best Actress nominee who lost the category she only received one citation. Clearly those of us who like her are a niche that has gained steam because Glenn's competitors have more minuses than pluses.

[goran]

I rewatched bits of Beale Street and for the life of me I cannot grasp what is so special about what Regina King is doing. It's merely solid, serviceable work. She's even flat in several scenes - unlike eg. Bryan Tyree Henry and especially Colman Domingo who work miracles in the *same* scenes.

I still want her to win to prevent the inevitable backlash against Adams (especially since Amy's performance - is similarly solid but unspectacular). But good god - King's critics awards steamroll makes no sense to me.

Anyway let's put that aside, because overall these awards/nominations are super cool. I love that The Favourite finally gets a victory of any sort, rather than just being the perpetual nominee.

I love the mentions of undervalued actors/achievements, like Colette, Tyree Henry, Sakura GOD Ando, the Shoplifters ensemble, Debicki, Widows in general, We the Animals.

Even work I didn't quite love (I'm still not sure what made people go crazy for Can You Ever Forgive Me and its performances, though I enjoyed both) is kind of nice to see just for the sake of variety and commemorating the fact that this year (like every year) had more than just the eight or so significant films that have dominated every set of awards.

I will just nitpick one aspect though - it's always sad to me to see Top 10 lists that make so little room for foreign language cinema. In reality it's all but impossible for ALL of the best films in one year to be made by the US/UK/Netflix. And I'm fully aware that this blog does more than just about any other to bring awareness to great work done overseas. It's a shame that both bloggers and audiences are increasingly resistant/dismissive of foreign films.

[Hustler]

Under fun trivia, can you explain what this means:

"Some favourites that had no nominations though came close: Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Crazy Rich Asians, and The Rider."

If they had no nominations, how do you know they came close...?

[Tr]

@goran

Completely agree on Regina King. Serviceable, even pretty good, but award-worthy? Nope. She's not even nominated on my ballot.

[Mya]

Glad to see Gaga and Elliott not make the cut. Solid but overpraisied.

Kudos to the staff for recognizing Yeun, Tyree Henry, Ando, Annihilation and Private Life. Some of my favorites of the year that I wished would have been Oscar nominated.

[Bruno]

Weisz in supporting here really undercuts a lot of the category fraud arguments, doesn't it?

[Claran]

Thx for the truly inspiring n really gr8 list!! 😁

Juz curious, did Colman n Stone end up splittin their votes in Lead Actress race? How close is Collette n the runner-up, who I presume is Queen Anne?

I can accept tt one o the Ladies in The Favourite goes supp, but NOT two o em taking up precious slots meant for real supp players. Its kinda o like The Hours situation, whr Kidman n Streep went Lead n Moore, supp.

Sad tt Dafoe din crack the Lead Actor cat 😕 did he recv any mention??

[When it’s right]

Weisz supporting means no mention of category fraud for the rest of this season to avoid irony and or being hypocritical. Cool beans.

[Rami]

I’m living for the Blake Lively nomination.

[Yavor]

The Favourite has three leading roles. All three of the women are leads.

The fact that you people have placed Weisz in supporting raises an extraordinary degree of WTF regarding your credibility, considering that The Film Experience has been talking about category fraud for centuries... What were you thinking?

If we're going to make concessions, that'll have to be Olivia Colman as a supporting character, since 1) she's largely ignorant of what's going on behind the scenes; 2) less screentime than Rachel and Emma.

In which universe is John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) giving a better performance than Stephan James (Beale Street)? Want diversity? Nominate the best Black Male performance!

You nominated Regina King out of political correctness, didn't you?

I'm gay, but Oh My Space, I'm dreading the day when the first ever openly gay man wins Best Actor and gives me the Halle Berry/Viola Davis experience #yuk

[Matty]

Olivia Colman is NOT the lead of The Favourite!

[Marcelo - Brazil]

Emma Stone is leading.

All three can be leading.

I would be place Weisz in leading not only because of screen time but because Weisz and Stone are fighting the whole time to be the FAVOURITE.

Colman can be supporting because of that and because of screen time.

[Andrew Carden]

Cooper winning Lead Actor with A STAR IS BORN missing in Picture, Director, Lead Actress and Supporting Actor is intriguing.

[Sean D]

Thanks again for organizing Chris! I love our choices. Interesting how BEALE STREET couldn't cross the finish line in any category with us- maybe that somehow speaks to its overall difficulties this awards season.

[huh]

you all so obsessed with category fraud (including Nathaniel). Weisz as supporting makes sense and is not egrigious category fraud.

[Chris Feil]

Hustler - I take care of the voting tallies (we vote preferentially in all categories - helps prevent ties in a small group) and these movies had widespread love across multiple categories but didn't eke out a nom. Felt right to at least mention they were still widely loved

Yavor - Stephan James was our sixth place, so he was very close

Re: Favourite women - clearly folks are not unanimous on this (as even this comments section will prove), the only area of any ambiguity with our writers was Colman (who probably missed out on lead here because of the number of supporting bids she received). Stone and Weisz had single bids in the opposite categories

[Nick T]

Those Screenplay categories are to die for, as is the Cooper win and all the love for Hereditary, though my favorite nominee is definitely Blake Lively. What a killer performance.

[Chris Feil]

Sean D - some of our writers are international and haven't had a chance to see the film yet unfortunately - in this regard, you could argue the film fared well

[NATHANIEL R]

Bruno & When It's Right -- please note that *I* do not vote on these awards. My team doesn't allow it haha. When the cat is away the mice will play or some such? So I will continue to rage against category fraud whenever I damn well feel like it, and it's not hypocritical because these are not my votes :) THAT SAID... my team here has pretty great taste, I think, in general.

Everyone -- I love reading these each year because I'm reminded that though I think our team has great taste it's not exactly the same as mine so (I don't, for instance, think IF BEALE STREET is very good, even though it's gorgeously made... and team members definitely like

Yavor -- in my universe Washington is giving a better performance than James and I didn't even vote on these awards! A kindly reminder that people have different tastes. I also think King is terrific in IF BEALE STREET (I personally think the two leads are kind of flat which is one of the reasons why I don't love the movie -- but I think the supporting cast is aces) and so do dozens upon dozens of critical organizations so it's hardly an outlier opinion that screams "political correctness"

[cal roth]

Stone and Weisz are the leads, Colman is a borderline supporting (like Natalie Portman in Closer, could have gone leading or supporting)

[Hayden]

Sad about the lack of support for Disobedience. Wondering how voters categorized McAdams. As a lead, she was better than Stone in The Favourite (also excellent) and could’ve taken Weisz’s supporting spot if campaigned there, with Weisz in lead (for The Favourite and/or Disobedience).

The Weisz thing gave me a lol this morning. Come on, guys! Thanks for all your writing this year but you’re really asking for it. That's the gag of the season.

[Jason]

A couple thoughts on these comments from my own voting ballot: I think Glenn Close is terrific in The Wife, but I think there were five or six ladies who were more terrific this year so she didn't make mine. This was a great great year for actresses!

On that note I personally categorized all three of the women in The Favourite as Leads. That seems to me the only correct route -- they keep swapping in and out but it's a tripod of a film, for sure. (That said the only one who made my final ballot of the three was Colman.)

Anyway thanks again to Chris for all his work on this! I think we did swell.

[/3rtful]

I'm gay, but Oh My Space, I'm dreading the day when the first ever openly gay man wins Best Actor and gives me the Halle Berry/Viola Davis experience #yuk

Berry's historical emotionalism is warranted. Viola Davis continuously working through lived trauma on the world stage is something else.

[Me]

Joaquin and Daveed, very very good.

Weisz as supporting but the other two in lead? Makes no sense.

I don't get Henry in Beale Street.

[Steve]

Curious how many Team Experience members saw Lean on Pete, my favorite of the year (give or take Beale Street).

[Suzanne]

The taste jumped out! Super happy to see Marielle Heller get a nod here since she seemed to be neglected among showier work, but it takes talent to direct such a great ensemble.

[Dancin' Dan]

As I read this I was constantly questioning if Chris just listed my ballot instead of the team's, so... GREAT TASTE, Team Experience! (ESPECIALLY the nods for A Simple Favor!)

I personally was VERY conflicted about the placement of The Favourite ladies. I personally consider them all leads, but admit to voting for Weisz in Supporting in part to ensure she ended up in the team's final five.

I'm also with Jason on LOVING Close's performance in The Wife, but thinking there were 5 or 6 ladies who were as good or better - my shortlist for leading actress was 12 names long and cutting any of them hurt like hell. It was simply a GREAT year for Actresses.

[MDA]

I prefer the categories you have here over the Oscars; since the Academy has such an issue with the shows runtime, they should consolidate categories like you've done here.

[Me]

@Yavor; You are 100% right on The Favourite. And it's not arguable. Hell, if they ALL went supporting it would make way more sense. I had this issue wirh Closer (Jude most lead, Owen most supporting, the girls go back and forth).

Not really with you on King, but no idea what you're talking about with Washington and James. The main problem with Beale Street was that the main story has no strength. Lake is bad and James does some very good eye work but his performance lacks. He doesn't go beyond serviceable, whereas Washington's work is layered and clever. He's great and James is subpar.

[Bruno]

@Nathaniel Oh, definitely aware that you didn't vote on this but I just found it a little disappointing that the team put Weisz in supporting, when category fraud has been SUCH a big issue on this site.

[PB]

So happy to see Brian Tyree Henry here. Snubs like his are so frustrating -clearly people saw the movie because Regina King was nominated (deservedly), but how do you skip over Henry? is it because it was only one scene? I just don't get it. Last time I remember being this frustrated was when the Academy voted for Penelope Cruz in 'Nine' over Marion Cotillard (same movie AND same category!), who I thought was pretty obviously the superior performance.

[/3rtful]

Weinstein campaigned Cotillard in Best Actress. The Academy never demotes placement. @PB

[Hustler]

@Chris Feil: Thanks for answering my question.

@ Team Experience: Thanks for doing this. It's fun to read and think about "alternative" Oscar ballots in general - and it reminds me any group, no matter how small, will tend toward certain consensus, like The Favourite did here. It's always most interesting when an outlier gets to the top of the list. Yay Daveed Diggs!

[JB]

Oh I luuuhuuurve those supporting actor/actress categories :)

[Michael R]

PB : I remember being angry when Weinstein pushed Cotillard in Lead. I didn't love Nine but she was great in it. Superior in every way to Cruz and everyone else in the film.

[When it’s right]

Thoughts on Dancin’ Dan’s second paragraph of his comment?

[Bruno]

@When it's right It gives us some more insight as to why category fraud happens. Not enough room in the main category, so send them to the one where it's easy to kick out someone with less screentime and less opportunity to impress. The other insight is that Rachel Weisz, despite a great performance, was not one of the 5 best lead actress performances this past year.

[Chris Feil]

When it's right / Bruno - while I can't speak for any of the other team members (though I doubt many are just trying to squeeze them all in), I would authentically consider Weisz a supporting character to the arcs of Stone/Colman - and much of that comes from my interpretation of the film's final act and how the film is framed to suit Abigail and Anne's perspectives. For me, it's text that she services their arc and hers is sidelined for the audience. But I also accept that Weisz might be a grey area for others, open to interpretation [shrug]

Hustler - Daveed Diggs made me so happy as well, even though he missed my ballot! Blindspotting was close in one or two other categories too

Hayden - Disobedience was close to making it in a few spots, but I'm similarly so happy for that Supporting Actor mention

[Pam]

Hayden and Chris--yes, yes, yes, on Disobedience. Why is no one talking about that outside of this blog? Small release, early in the year? Really showcases just how talented Rachel McAdams is, especially with Game Night in the same year.

Goran--glad for the shout-out for the Shoplifters ensemble. And what Sakura Ando does in the last 10-20 minutes at the police station, especially the scene about motherhood, is for me, by far, the best performance of the year. Cried all the way home.

But I freaking love the ladies of The Favourite (and Nicholas Hoult.). They are all leads or all supporting.

[Lynn Lee]

I didn't love THE FAVOURITE quite as much as the rest of my fellow TFErs, but it did make my ballot in a lot of the categories. And we can agree to disagree on who's lead vs. supporting, but I think the one thing we can all (mostly) agree on is that it was totally the best frickin' ensemble of the year.

Hurrah for the Daveed Diggs love! Glad I'm not the only Blindspotting fan.

Finally, having caught CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? on a plane ride *after* our ballots were submitted, I wish I'd seen it earlier. It's a great little movie, and McCarthy and Grant were both aces in it.

[Anonny]

I personaly think Weisz in supporting is reasonable BUT for the fervor in which Nathaniel loudly complains when any other awards group nominates her as such (-just read Nathaniel’s reactions to the globe noms and the “two category frauds Stone amd Weisz” hogging spots).

If you are that strongly opinionated to the point there are multiple posts/statements criticizing other awards groups, you better be sure thefilmexperience awards don’t do the same thing. Just my two cents.

Otherwise, great noms!

[Mirko]

I personally think that Sakura Ando has a leading role in Shoplifters...sometimes the perception of leading/supporting is quite subjective

[Claran]

"Re: Favourite women - clearly folks are not unanimous on this (as even this comments section will prove), the only area of any ambiguity with our writers was Colman (who probably missed out on lead here because of the number of supporting bids she received)"

Hi Chris, did Colman lose to Collette due to the category confusion among the TFE voters?? Was she the runner-up in the total votes counted?

Sometime I tink had Colman not insisted on goin Lead, she wld be probably cruising to victories after victories as the clear frontrunner in the best supp actress race. Two of my frenz who watched The Favourite thot tt she seems the most supporting, Stone the most Lead & Weisz somewhr in-between.

I guess her mind & Fox Searchlight's are made up right after she won the Venice Volpi for best actress back in late Aug 2018...A twist of fate indeed...

Btw,I'm also curious how close Cooper & Hawke's' votes are??

[Glenn]

Would you believe that Nathaniel thinks differently to others? I didn’t vote for any of the Favourite ladies anywhere and would consider them all lead, but just because Nathaniel says one thing doesn’t mean everybody who writes for his site has to agree.

[Bruno]

@Glenn: That's of course true. But we have one writer who admitted in here to moving Weisz to supporting despite believing she's a lead. And I think many of us were just a bit surprised that in the months where this has been such a huge topic that we haven't seen or heard any written or spoken opinions to the contrary from TFE writers.