The Films of 2021. The 22nd annual FiLM BiTCH Awards
PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES
gold medal
silver medal
bronze medal
and the nominees and winners are...
BEST PICTURE
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IN THE HEIGHTS
Jon M. Chu (Warner Bros) June 11th |
PASSING Rebecca Hall (Netflix) Oct 27th |
POWER OF THE DOG Jane Campion (Netflix) Nov 17th |
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Joachim Trier (Neon) Qualifying Only |
ZOLA
Janicza Bravo (A24) June 30th |
A joyous big screen musical that understands and loves the form. What spirit! | A thematically precise but visually ambiguous race drama set in 1920s Harlem. | An instant classic psychosexual western chamber drama from one a world great filmmakers. | The romcom as existential restless character study with a generation gap undertow. | A raucous inventive road trip stripper comedy ripped straight from the headlines twitter |
Finalists: The Green Knight haunts with its eery medieval hallucinations, tick tick...BOOM! is a ragged collage of a musical biopic filled with urgency and purpose. Semi Finalists: The supreme silliness of Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar, the angry horny damning Benedetta , the miniature profundity of Petite Maman (MORE ON THE TOP TEN LIST HERE) the showmanship and thoughtful reinvention of West Side Story, and the jagged tetchy character study of The Lost Daughter |
BEST DIRECTOR
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Janicza Bravo ZOLA |
Jane Campion POWER OF THE DOG |
Jon M Chu IN THE HEIGHTS |
Rebecca Hall PASSING |
Joachim Trier WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD |
Invention, control, economy, humor, and keeping so many lively performances in sync | Tension worthy of Hitchcock and her usual mastery of psychosexual collisions | For channeling old Hollywood movie musicals techniques into a vibrant contemporary mosaic | What clarity of vision for a debut. Thoughtful choices, smart visuals, and guiding rich star turns | Norway's greatest auteur outdoes himself with this fascinating fun complex existential romcom. |
Finalists: David Lowery for the lingering ancient hallucinatory dramas of The Green Knight, Steven Spielberg for an electric fresh take on the classic West Side Story and a firm grasp on the movie-musical form Semi Finalists: Denis Villeneuve brings majestcy, scale, and wonder to Dune Part One... can he stick the landing with Part Two (or Three)? , Paul Verhoeven proves with Benedetta that he hasn't lost any of his edge or humor at prickliness at 83, David Pablos does sensual, rich, and mournful work on Dance of the 41, Julia Ducournau's Titane isn't for everyone (is it even for me?) but there's no denying that she has a vision and utter faith in it and the ability to deliver it, and the world's greatest autuer Pedro Almodóvar adds another rich film to his stunning filmography with Parallel Mothers |
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
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C'MON C'MON Mike Mills |
MASS Fran Kranz |
PETITE MAMAN Celine Sciamma |
PARALLEL MOTHERS Pedro Almodóvar |
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier |
Mills never fails to deliver compelling endearing drama, this time child-sized. | This controlled but angry drama packs quite a wallop. Beautiful characterizations | An intellectual exercize, sure, but with beautifully succint emotional profundity. | This master of melodrama braids the personal to something more overtly political this time. | Melancholy, deep, hilarious, and restless, Vogt & Trier continue to be a dream team. |
Finalists: Emma Seligman gives delicious debut with Shiva Baby. A sharp comedy with zero fat but plentiful flavor, nobody is doing morality ethical puzzle boxes like Asghar Farhadi who is back with A Hero Semi-Finalists: The French Dispatch by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugo Guiness, and Jason Schwartzmann, Licorice Pizza - Paul Thomas Anderson, Red Rocket - Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch, Pig - Michael Sarnoski & Vanessa Block, and Belfast Kenneth Branagh |
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
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DRIVE MY CAR Ryüsuke Hamaguchi and Takamae Oe |
PASSING Rebecca Hall |
THE POWER OF THE DOG Jane Campion |
WEST SIDE STORY Tony Kushner |
ZOLA Janicza Bravo & Jeremy O'Harris |
Expanded and inspired by the short story from Haruki Murakami and "Uncle Vanya" by Anton Chekhov | A delicate beautiful rendering of the tricky-to-adapt novel by Nella Larsen | A brilliant cinematic and bold adaptation of the novel by Thomas Savage | A contemporary rethink of the classic musical (music: Bernstein, lyrics: Sondheim, book: Laurents) | A sly singular riff on the tweet thread by A'Ziah King and the article "Zola Tells All" by David Kusher |
Finalists: The Lost Daughter by Maggie Gyllenhaal based on the novel by Elena Ferrante, and I'm Your Man Jan Schomburg and Maria Schrader based on the short story by Emma Braslavsk, Semi Finalists: tick tick...BOOM! Steven Levenson based on the rock monologue by Jonathan Larson, Benedetta Favid Birke and Paul Verhoeven based on the book by Judith C Brown, Dune Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, and Eric Roth based on the novel by Frank Herbert, Prayers for the Stolen Tatiana Huezo based on the novel by Jennifer Clement, and The Green Knight - David Lowery based on the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, |
ENCANTO Jared Bush & Byron Howard (Disney) Nov 24th |
FLEE Jonas Poher Rasmussen (NEON) Dec 3rd |
LUCA Enrico Casarosa (Pixar) June 18th |
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Despite Disney's well worn house style and tropes, the chaotic comic energy, undertow of individual anxieties of purpose, and propulsive song score, gives this tale peculiar charms all its own. |
Beautiful expressive use of the medium to tell the story of a gay man who flees Afghanistan as a child and must reconcile his past with his adult future as a gay man in Denmark. |
Simplicity does not equal lesser or "minor" art. This intimate "small" story of a sea creature experimenting with life on land, doubles as a moving coming of age story |
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Finalist: N/A Semi-Finalist: Summit of the Gods, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Vivo, and Belle NOTE: We only have three nomination spots a year since the Academy's rules for this are kind of crazy. You only need 16 features to trigger a 5 wide race with AMPAS. That's about a 33% chance of being nominated if you so much as exist! If Best Picture had the same ratio of existence to nominees, our Best Picture list would be around 80-90 nominees long each year based on how many films qualify! Can you imagine? |
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