Saturn Nominations 2019: Endgame
Tuesday, July 16, 2019 at 8:00AM by Nathaniel R
Avengers Endgame dominated with 14 nominations
The Saturn Awards, which used to be held in June each year are moving to September which means the nominations have been delayed for some time now and the eligibility period for the 2019 nominations covers a 16 month period from March 1st, 2018 through to July 7th, 2019. Moving forward, the eligibility should revert to a July to June basis with the ceremony in September (September 13th this year). They're also soon announcing a streaming partner so it will become a televised ceremony starting this year.
We love the Saturn Awards in concept -- it's a worthy goal to honor genre films (fantasy, horror, action, thrillers, and sci-fi are the pet causes) because any genre is capable of greatness -- but they've never quite been able to get their act together and each year's nominations are always agonizing or inexplicable in some way or another...
Each year there a nominations that make very little sense either from a populist or a critical perspective. Not to pick on one film but take the Pet Sematary remake for example. It's one of the nominees for Horror film but who liked that? It was a big meh for critics (scoring in the 50s at both Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes) and even general audiences didn't go for it (a CinemaScore of C+ is not a good score - they give out As and B+s like candy for any film comfortably aimed at the mainstream). So how does it end up nominated?
And consider for example that the Saturns are meant to honor the best in genre entertainment so the pool of eligible films and television show is much smaller once you move all the traditional dramas and comedies from the equation. Why then do they have the same amount of nominees or more in each category than regular awards shows? Are these trophies for participation? To add to this problem they split their TV awards into traditional TV and streaming so there are a smaller number of shows eligible, a ton of nominee in each category, and then DOUBLE the amount of categories! Basically if you are a TV show featuring superheroes you will be nominated since they have two categories for you.
But on to the nominations. Avengers: Endgame dominated like the cross cultural beast its been with 14 nominations. Here are the nominees in each category with a few more comments.
- Aquaman
- Avengers: Endgame
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Captain Marvel
- Shazam!
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
It seems like every comic book film released got nominated but upon further investigation we realized it isn't truly a "participation" trophy. Turns out there were about double this many releases in those 16 months. The six wide releases they skipped were Deadpool 2, Venom, The Incredibles 2, Dark Phoenix, Hellboy, and Ant-Man and the Wasp, most of which were released near the beginning fo the eligibility period and you know how that goes with ALL awards bodies; everyone's got a short attention span, no matter what organization they belong to, if they don't keep year long lists or get their memory jogged by eager campaign managers.
- Alita: Battle Angel
- Bumblebee
- Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom
- Ready Player One
- Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Sorry to Bother You
- Upgrade
Fun to see Sorry to Bother You noticed (very small for what Saturn usually goes for but totally worthy as sci-fi mindbender) but, the problem with lots of nominees per category is it negates the special achievement that might have been otherwise.
- Aladdin
- Dumbo
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
- Godzilla, King of the Monsters
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Toy Story 4
- Yesterday
Toy Story 4 and fiiiiiine, then, Aladdin (some people do like it, argh) aside, who really loves any of these other pictures? Most were modest successes or underperformers and some were complained about even by the fans, like Godzilla King of the Monsters. Less nominees would have solved the problem.
- The Dead Don’t Die
- Halloween
- Hereditary
- Overlord
- Pet Sematary
- A Quiet Place
- Us
A Quiet Place, released at the very start of their eligibilty period, was remembered but in a rare switch for awards bodies they've ignored the final releases within the eligibility period: Annabelle Comes Home and MidSommar released in the last 3 days of the eligibility period was denied. P.S. What is Overlord?
- Cold Pursuit
- Escape Room
- Glass
- John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout
- Skyscraper
Here we come to the 'who likes this???' problem again. Again, this isn't meant to target these particular films but that's what awards do. Have you ever heard anyone rave about Cold Pursuit (another meh title in terms of general critics and audience response). Escape Room seems a pretty egregious "best" citation, too.
- Bad Samaritan
- Bad Times at The El Royale
- Destroyer
- Dragged Across Concrete
- Greta
- Ma
- Searching
- The Grinch
- How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World
- The Incredibles 2
- Ralph Breaks the Internet
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- Toy Story 4
Only mainstream blockbusters need apply. Note that they passed on low grossing stuff in general like Oscar nominees, flops, and low grossing mainstream stuff like Teen Titans Go! or Missing Link.
- American Animals
- Anna and the Apocalypse
- The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot
- Mandy
- Ophelia
- Summer of 84
- Tomorrow Man
- Aniara (Sweden)
- Border (Sweden)
- Burning (South Korea)
- Ghost Stories (UK)
- The Guilty (Denmark)
- Shadow (China)
Yay, Shadow. We love that one as you know. It's a pity Oscar has such biases against genre films because Border would have made an EXCELLENT nominee last season for the Oscar, not just in makeup but foreign language film, too.
- Jeff Bridges, Bad Times at The El Royale
- Nicolas Cage, Mandy
- Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible – Fallout
- Chris Evans , Avengers: Endgame
- Robert Downey Jr., Avengers: Endgame
- Mel Gibson, Dragged Across Concrete
- Keanu Reeves, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
Household names only need apply! Given their nominees in the various best film categories, there is really zero excuse for not including LaKeith Stanfield for Sorry to Bother You or Chao Deng for Shadow.
- Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins Returns
- Toni Collette, Hereditary
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Halloween
- Nicole Kidman, Destroyer
- Brie Larson, Captain Marvel
- Lupita Nyong’o, Us
- Octavia Spencer, Ma
A fun mix of people and genres, here, don't you think?
- Josh Brolin, Avengers: Infinity War
- John Lithgow, Pet Sematary
- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mary Poppins Returns
- Lewis Pullman, Bad Times at The El Royale
- Jeremy Renner, Avengers: Endgame
- Will Smith, Aladdin
- Steven Yeun, Burning
Jeremy Renner? er, okay. Chris Hemsworth would have been a worthier nominee from that particular film. But what about Armie Hammer in Sorry to Bother You or Alex Wolff in Hereditary, or any number of others. There was so much to choose from! Weird unsatisfying list apart from Brolin & Yeun.
- Cynthia Erivo, Bad Times at The El Royale
- Karen Gillan, Avengers: Endgame
- Amber Heard, Aquaman
- Scarlett Johansson, Avengers: Endgame
- Naomi Scott, Aladdin
- Hailee Steinfeld, Bumblebee
- Zendaya, Spider-Man: Far From Home
Amber Heard? er, okay. And Hailee Steinfeld is the actual lead in Bumblebee, top-billed and everything.
- Evan Alex, Us
- Asher Angel, Shazam!
- Millie Bobby Brown, Godzilla, King of the Monsters
- Jack Dylan Grazer, Shazam!
- Tom Holland, Spider-Man: Far From Home
- Shahadi Wright Joseph, Us
- Millicent Simmonds, A Quiet Place
Some good choices here though the title is hopelessly vague. "Younger" is too malleable. Should Tom Holland, who is 23, be competing with actual children? I mean Chris Evans is "younger" than Robert Downey Jr in Avengers Endgame, so why isn't he nominated? Kidding.
- Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, Captain Marvel
- Karyn Kusama, Destroyer
- Jordan Peele, Us
- Guy Ritchie, Aladdin
- Anthony Russo & Joe Russo, Avengers: Endgame
- Steven Spielberg, Ready Player One
- James Wan, Aquaman
- Zhang Yimou, Shadow
Guy?!? Ritchie?!? *facepalm*. Aladdin is one of the worst directed films I've ever seen in my life. He has had moments in other films here and there but he hasn't a single clue how to shoot a musical sequence, or how to pace a film, or how to give a movie any life beyond "oh here's some freneticism in this short scene. And here's another short scene right next to it. And another. Look, more people are moving around. Here's some slo-mo. Okay, we'll just keep going and hoping some of the shots works and will eventually make it to the end of the picture!" I am NOT a Rob Marshall fan but if you're going to nominate a musical in this category, Mary Poppins Returns is 1000% a better option when it comes to musical direction.
(The world's general and unending stupidity about the movie musical genre is my cross to bear in this lifetime. Weep for me.)
- Bad Times at the El Royale, Drew Goddard
- Avengers: Endgame, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely
- Mission: Impossible - Fallout, Christopher McQuarrie
- Burning, Oh Jung-mi & Lee Chang-Dong
- Us, Jordan Peele
- A Quiet Place, Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, John Krasinski
- Dragged Across Concrete, Craig Zahler
- Aquaman, Bill Brzeski
- Us, Ruth De Jong
- Dumbo, Rick Heinrichs
- Aladdin, Gemma Jackson
- Shadow, Horace Ma Gwong-Wing
- Mary Poppins Returns, John Myhre
- Avengers: Endgame, Charles Wood
Hmmm. Avengers: Endgame is a confusing choice given that they spend the entire picture revisiting production design from previous pictures and then there's sort of a desolate smoky soundstage battlefield for the finale. But, okay.
- Avengers: Endgame, Jeffrey Ford & Matthew Schmidt
- Aladdin, James Herbert
- Us, Nicholas Monsour
- Aquaman, Kirk Morri
- John Wick Chapter 3, Evan Schiff
- A Quiet Place, Christopher Tellefsen
- Dumbo, Danny Elfman
- Godzilla, King of Monsters, Bear McCreary
- Aladdin, Alan Menken
- Mary Poppins Returns, Marc Shaiman
- Avengers: Endgame, Alan Silvestri
- Ready Player One, Alan Silvestri
Love the Godzilla mention here. No really, I do.
- Aquaman, Kym Barrett
- Shazam!, Leah Butler
- Avengers: Endgame, Judianna Makovsky
- Shadow, Chen Minzheng
- Mary Poppins Returns, Sandy Powell
- Aladdin, Michael Wilkinson
I have loved Michael Wilkinson's work before and will again, but shouldn't he get a time out from awardage by forcing Aladdin to cover his chest for literally the entire motion picture?
- Avengers: Endgame, John Blake & Brian Sipe
- The Dead Don't Die, Judy Chin & Mike Marino
- Destroyer, Bill Corso
- Dragged Across Concrete, Lisa Love & Tate Steinsiek
- Overlord, Tristan Versluis, Naomi Dunne & Duncan Jarman
- Pet Sematary, Annick Chartier & Adrien Morot
- Suspiria, Mark Coulier & Fernanda Perez
- A Quiet Place
- Aladdin
- Avengers: Endgame
- Godzilla, King of the Monsters
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout
- Ready Player One
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
No Ant-Man and the Wasp here really irks me. Such fun visual effects. But at least they had the sense to skip Captain Marvel. So why did they include the often janky looking Aladdin?
- Arrow
- Black Lightning
- Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger
- DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
- The Flash
- Gotham
- Supergirl
Did they literally nominate every CW superhero show that's on the air? They did, didn't they? This is why awards categories need to be smaller. The idea of "best" is that you actually have to single something out.
- The 100
- Counterpart
- Doctor Who
- Krypton
- Manifest
- The Orville
- Roswell, New Mexico
- Westworld
The Magicians ♥♥♥♥♥♥- American Gods
- Charmed
- Game of Thrones
- The Good Place
- The Good Witch
- The Magicians
- Outlander
- The Outpost
Same. Is this all the fantasy shows that actually air on non-streaming television?
- NOS4A2
- American Horror Story: Apocalypse
- A Discovery of Witches
- Fear the Walking Dead
- Preacher
- Supernatural
- The Walking Dead
- What We Do in the Shadows
- Better Call Saul
- Killing Eve
- The Last Ship
- Mr. Mercedes
- The Purge
- Riverdale
- The Sinner
- Archer
- Duck Tales
- Family Guy
- The Simpsons
- Star Wars Resistance
No Bob's Burgers? Then this category is cancelled.
- Grant Gustin, The Flash
- Kit Harington, Game of Thrones
- Sam Heughan, Outlander
- Andrew Lincoln ,The Walking Dead
- Seth MacFarlane , The Orville
- Bill Pullman, The Sinner
- Jeffrey Wright , Westworld
Caitronia Balfe. Loved her on season 1 but there's so much television we've never been beyond that.- Caitriona Balfe , Outlander
- Melissa Benoist, Supergirl
- Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones
- Sandra Oh, Killing Eve
- Adrianne Palicki, The Orville
- Candice Patton, The Flash
- Jodie Whittaker, Doctor Who
Seven nominations and you can't include Jodie Comer from Killing Eve despite the fact that you watch it? You have failed. If you put Jodie Comer and Emilia Clarke in a cage to fight it out with only their acting skills, Emilia Clarke would look like she'd been burned alive and then devoured by dragons by the end of it.
- Jonathan Banks, Better Call Saul
- Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game of Thrones
- Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
- David Harewood, Supergirl
- Ed Harris, Westworld
- Lennie James, Fear the Walking Dead
- Khary Payto, The Walking Dead
- Gwendoline Christie, Game of Thrones
- Danai Gurira, The Walking Dead
- Lena Headey, Game of Thrones
- Melissa McBride, The Walking Dead
- Rhea Seehorn, Better Call Saul
- Sophie Skelton, Outlander
- Sophie Turner, Game of Thrones
I don't watch Game of Thrones regularly (as I've pointed out before) but I do think Lena Headey is brilliant on the show. That said she literally spent this last season (the season that's eligible for awards) just staring out windows and then she cries and dies. Everyone I know who loves the show and watches it religiously were shocked at how little they gave her to do in the final season despite being essentially one of the three Big Bads of the entire series.
- KJ Apa, Riverdale
- Tosin Cole, Doctor Who
- Cameron Cuffe, Krypton
- Benjamin Wadsworth, Deadly Class
- David Mazouz, Gotham
- Cole Sprouse, Riverdale
- Maisie Williams, Game of Thrones
Look, it's Tony winner Tonya Pinkins! - Rainer Bock, Better Call Saul
- Jon Cryer , Supergirl
- Sydney Lemmon, Fear the Walking Dead
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan, The Walking Dead
- Tonya Pinkins, Fear the Walking Dead
- Ed Speleers, Outlander
STREAMING SHOWS
The Titans was worse than we ever dreamed it might be . Even Saturn Awards didn't go there even though they nominated every Marvel and every DC show otherwise.- DC’s Doom Patrol
- DC’s Swamp Thing
- Marvel’s Daredevil
- Marvel’s Jessica Jones
- Marvel’s The Punisher
- Marvel’s Runaways
- The Umbrella Academy
Is this literally all of the streaming superhero shows. I think it is except Titans... which, LOL. It's definitely all the Marvel shows on Netflix. It's kind of hilarious that they nominated Swamp Thing which DC immmediately cancelled despite their lack of content on a service people are paying for but left off Titans. But Titans is legimiately terrible in every possible way, save for possibly the casting of Beast Boy/Changeling or whatever they end up calling him once they give them all superhero names. So...
- Black Mirror
- The Expanse
- Lost in Space
- Good Omens
- Russian Doll
- Star Trek: Discovery
- Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
- Castle Rock
- Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
- The Handmaid’s Tale
- Stranger Things
- The Haunting of Hill House
- The Twilight Zone
- You
- Penn Badgley, You
- Jon Bernthal, Marvel’s The Punisher
- Charlie Cox, Marvel’s Daredevil
- John Krasinski, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
- Zac Efron, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
- David Tennant, Good Omens
- Henry Thomas, The Haunting of Hill House
- Carla Gugino , The Haunting of Hill House
- Sonequa Martin-Green, Star Trek: Discovery
- Elizabeth Lail, You
- Natasha Lyonne, Russian Doll
- Molly Parker, Lost in Space
- Krysten Ritter , Marvel’s Jessica Jones
- Kiernan Shipka ,Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
- Wilson Cruz, Star Trek: Discovery
- Michiel Huisman, The Haunting of Hill House
- Timothy Hutton, The Haunting of Hill House
- Doug Jones, Star Trek: Discovery
- Ethan Peck, Star Trek: Discovery
- Maxwell Jenkins, Lost in Space
- Michael Sheen, Good Omens
- Maya Hawke, Stranger Things
- Ellen Page, The Umbrella Academy
- Parker Posey, Lost in Space
- Victoria Pedretti, The Haunting of Hill House
- Taylor Russell, Lost in Space
- Sissy Spacek, Castle Rock
- Deborah Ann Woll, Marvel’s Daredevil
Love the inclusion of Maya Hawke and Sissy Spacek here.
- Fahrenheit 451
- Jonathan
- Kin
- King Cohen
- Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase
- Time Freak
BEST DVD / BD CLASSIC FILM RELEASE- 2001: A Space Odyssey (4K)
- Deep Rising
- Jack the Giant Killer
- Maximum Overdrive
- The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
- The Spiral Staircase
Kino Lorber really cleaned up in this category. They've got four of the six nominees.
- 12 Monkeys Collector’s Edition
- The Changeling Limited Edition
- Crimson Peak Limited Edition
- A Fistful of Dollars Special Edition
- Horror Express Special Edition
- Waterworld Limited Edition
- The Bloodthirsty Trilogy
- The Complete Sartana
- Jack Ryan: 5 Film Collection (4K)
- The Matrix Trilogy (4K)
- The Pink Panther Cartoon Collection
- Universal Classic Monsters 30 Film Collection
BEST DVD / BD TELEVISION MOVIE OR SERIES RELEASE- The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre
- The Martian Chronicles (Complete Mini-Series)
- The Night Stalker
- The Night Strangler
- The Outer Limits (Season 1 and 2)
- Trilogy of Terror
Kino Lorber has literally every nominee in this category !!!!
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Segerstrom Center for the Arts
- A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder , 3-D Theatricals at Cerritos Center
- An Inspector Calls . Wallis Annenberg Center for thePerforming Arts
- The Old Man and the Old Moon , The PigPen Theatre Company at The Wallis
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: The Immersive Experience, After Hours Theatre Company
- Puppet Up! Uncensored, Henson Alternative
- The Secret Garden, 3-D Theatricals at Cerritos Center
We've never really understand what makes a show eligible in this category at the Saturn Awards.
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF ALL THIS. IF YOU'VE MADE IT THIS FAR YOU ARE A TROUPER. A SUPER TROUPER. WE ARE NOMINATING YOU FOR A SATURN AWARD NEXT YEAR. THERE'S GOT TO BE A CATEGORY WHERE THEY CAN SQUEEZE YOU IN.
Reader Comments (15)
The Marvel stranglehold over the film categories is such a pity. Nice to see Burning pick up a few nods, though, and I'm particularly pleased to see Carla Gugino nominated for her tricky role on Hill House, where she has to be both a compelling character in her own right whilst remaining a paragon of virtuous motherhood (her own story being largely told through the reflections of her now-grown children).
Nathaniel you are the Super Trouper for putting this all together. Do awards shows ever explain the number of nominees they have per category? Is there a method in this madness, because as you say, this all seems too much.
That said, apart from Natasha Lyonne and maybe the effects in Ready Player One, I fear that all my favorite things/people listed here - Sorry to Bother You, Destroyer, Karyn Kusama, Counterpart, The Expanse - wouldn't have made the cut if it'd be 5 nominees instead of 7, so perhaps I shouldn't mind nomination overload.
And yeah, no Jodie Comer is nuts.
You're exactly right. Good idea, but it's basically the Genre People's Choice Awards.
I'm horrified
These are a mess. The inclusion of "You", which wasn't even a streaming show (aired on Lifetime first) is bad enough. There's no Thandie Newton, Michelle Yeoh or Maisie Williams in supporting actress. The ladies ofcL "Sabrina", especially Michelle Gomez should have never been left off this list.
Overlord is that nazi zombie film that came out of nowhere last fall that people thought was a surprise Wolfenstein video game adaptation. It's middle of the road action/horror with excellent makeup and effects work.
If "Sorry to Bother You" is an eligible contender, these awards are basically useless if you don't bother to nominate Lakeith Stanfield who gave one of the 3 best leading actor performances of 2018 overall. And that's that on that.
My lord look at all those categories. It's quite the melange. Some good nominees in the mix and some bad ones, but overall there's a sense that these awards need some major streamlining.
It's nice to see Bad Times at the El Royale and Sorry to Bother You get recognized for something but these awards have so many nominees and categories that they're pretty much pointless. Who's voting for these?
John Lithgow is flat out bad in Pet Semetary doesn't bring what Fred Gwynne brought in the original role.
The Tick on Amazon is the other streaming superhero show left out, and it’s a much bigger snub than most of the strange streaming tv omissions.
I think the category I've seen the most nominees for here is Best Actress in a Film. Rather typically, LOL.
They nominated EVERY sci-fi horror movie released
Congrats ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE!
Guy Ritchie is boneless Danny Boyle