2020: Essie Davis in "Babyteeth" and "True History of the Kelly Gang"

by Nick Taylor

Been a lot of chatter about this year’s supporting actress race. You can check out the comments section of any given post on this site over the past year and probably find this category poking its head into an entirely unrelated conversation. Can’t imagine why! To give a quick word on the race, I think this is a remarkably strong lineup, boasting five incredibly talented women who tangibly elevate their films. The sheer number of contenders popping up at other ceremonies makes these nominations feel truly earned - no one coasted to their slot, and the variations of genre, roles, career trajectory, and screen time are delightfully eclectic. A film or two may be sketchy, but the work isn’t, and every one of those actresses would make a fine winner. 

As per the tradition of my companion pieces to the Supporting Actress Smackdown (coming in a week!), I’ve decided to bypass anyone with visible buzz in favor of an actress whose work I loved and wish had gotten more attention than it did. This category‘s already had plenty of airtime lately, so I’m sticking to just one write-up. Luckily, my favorite supporting actress of the year gave two performances worth talking about...

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The 9th Annual Team Experience Awards!

by Christopher James

Many things may have changed in the past year, but one thing remains the same. The show must go on and the Team Experience Awards must continue! If there's one perk of staying quarantined in one's home for a full year, it's that there is ample time to watch movies. Before Nathaniel reveals all of his Film Bitch winners for the year, the rest of the writers at The Film Experience gathered together to vote on our favorites of 2020 (and the first two months of 2021). Nathaniel will be staying with the calendar year eligibility (plus US festivals) but the Team is using Oscar eligibility rules with one exception: we also decided to consider Small Axe in our awards as five separate films.

In the end, nothing was a match for Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman, which earned the most wins (4) and nominations (11) from the bunch. While that may have taken the top prize, the team nominated fifty movies across 21 categories. Check out the nominees and winners after the jump...

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FYC: Best Ensemble

by Nathaniel R

SAG has a lot of choices for "Outstanding Cast" but will they choose well?

SAG and GLOBE and BFCA members are all voting right now or very soon for their nominations for the 2020 film year. This is as good a time as any then, to do FYCs that also serve as my own ballot in the first wave of the annual Film Bitch Awards. SAG and I don't often see eye to eye in terms of "Outstanding Cast". For my own "Ensemble" Award I tend to think of it as interplay and chemistry between actors. A  perfect ensemble has all performers operating on a high level and doing so together, so group scenes are far more important than a series of one-on-one encounters.

For instance, I wouldn't nominate Promising Young Woman for an Ensemble award even though it has a large talented cast because there's almost no group acting. Each scene is essentially Carey Mulligan versus  _____...

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"Babyteeth" and "Invisible Man" win at the AACTAs

by Travis Cragg

Eliza Scanlen (21) and Toby Wallace (24) won the lead acting trophies for "Babyteeth"

The AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) awards were handed out over two COVID-normal ceremonies in the past week. Kudos to the Film Experience commenter last month who correctly predicted that Babyteeth (streaming on Hulu) would win all the “above the line” awards – it went home with Best Film, Direction, Screenplay and all four acting prizes, as well as Original Score and Casting. The rest of the craft categories were split between The Invisible Man (streaming on HBO Max) and True History Of The Kelly Gang (available to rent online). A full list of cinema winners (and a little commentary) after the jump...

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20:20 (Pt 3) Mind games, mood pieces, and Spanish winners

Since the year will soon wind to a close we're surveying the films of 2020 here and there -- terrific, terrible, and anywhere in between -- based on what's available to stream by freezing them at the 20th minute and 20th second. (Though please note that some services' time stamps make this difficult to get exactly right). What comes up? That's the fun of it. (Here are Part One and Part Two if you missed 'em).

Does this captured moment make you wanna investigate any of these 20 films?

Oh, and there's a murderer in the woods, so stay close.

FIRST COW  (Kelly Reichardt, US)
A24. Original release date: March 6th, 2020. Streaming on Showtime

I must confess that I have never jumped on the Kelly Reichardt bandwagon. Other than Wendy & Lucy I haven't yet been blown away but this is on my list to catch up with. Especially after reading the pieces right here about it from Jason, Claudio, and Daniel. 

This is a total great piece. Absolutely.

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