Alex in Movieland

my Alex In Movieland awards, 2nd edition: Episode 1.

My favorites for 2009 will go down in 2 sets:
Episode 1: Film, Director, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score.
Episode 2 (most important ones): Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress.

Let the Right One In was last year’s big winner. Some facts about this year:
- all the eligible films will be mentioned.
- no movie ranked higher than an 8.5/10 for me, so it was a pretty weak year, from that point of view.
- the men were far better (but more on that on Episode 2).
- lots of interesting Directing perspectives and lots to choose from. Directors were better than the films themselves.
- the screenplays were quite good.
- I don’t know much about Original Score, so it’s mostly based on impressions and feelings.
- on Episode 2 I will also add short impressions on the top performances. Here, I’ll just let the ranking do the talking. Obviously, all are my subjective choices.
- out of personal reasons I avoided seeing: The Stoning of Soraya M., The Maid, Paranormal Activities, Bruno, Me and Orson Welles and just couldn’t take all of Tetro. So they won’t be on the list.
- in case you are wondering about the cat on the right, it’s my fake trophy, I’m gonna fed-ex one to Kathryn Bigelow :P


List of eligible/seen films (60):

500 Days of Summer, Ajami, Antichrist, Avatar, Away We Go, The Blind Side, Bright Star, Broken Embraces, Bronson, Brothers, Capitalism: A Love Story, Cheri, Coco Before Chanel, Coraline, Crazy Heart, District 9, Il Divo, Duplicity, An Education, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hurt Locker, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, In the Loop, The Informant!, Inglourious Basterds, Invictus, It’s Complicated, Julia, Julie & Julia, The Last Station, The Lovely Bones, Mary and Max, The Messenger, The Milk of Sorrow, Moon, Nine, Precious, The Princess and the Frog, A Prophet, Public Enemies, The Road, The Secret in Their Eyes, The Secret of Kells, The September Issue, Seraphine, A Serious Man, Sherlock Holmes, A Single Man, Star Trek, Summer Hours, Transformers II, Two Lovers, Up, Up in the Air, Whatever Works, The White Ribbon, Where the Wild Things Are, The Young Victoria.

And here we go:

BEST FILM

1. Precious

2. The Hurt Locker

3. Public Enemies

4. An Education

5. (500) Days of Summer

6. Up

7. Fantastic Mr. Fox

8. Avatar

9. Ajami

10. Up in the Air

Almost there: The September Issue, In the Loop, Mary and Max, The Messenger, Cheri.

Also: Inglourious Basterds, Coraline, Summer Hours, A Prophet, Moon.

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker

2. Michael Mann – Public Enemies

3. Michael Haneke – The White Ribbon

4. Lee Daniels – Precious

5. Spike Jonze – Where the Wild Things Are

6. Wes Anderson – Fantastic Mr. Fox
7. James Cameron – Avatar
8. Jacques Audiard – A Prophet
9. Adam Elliot – Mary and Max
10. Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

Almost there: Tom Ford – A Single Man, Duncan Jones – Moon, Mark Webb – (500) Days of Summer, Jason Reitman – Up in the Air, Lone Scherfig – An Education.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1. Mary and Max

2. Ajami

3. (500) Days of Summer

4. Up

5. A Prophet

6. The Messenger
7. Julia
8. Inglourious Basterds
9. The Hurt Locker
10. The Hangover

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1. Precious

2. An Education

3. Up in the Air

4. In the Loop

5. Fantastic Mr. Fox

6. The Secret in Their Eyes
7. A Single Man
8. Where the Wild Things Are
9. Public Enemies
10. Coraline

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. Bright Star (Greig Fraser)

2. Where the Wild Things Are (Lance Acord)

3. The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

4. Public Enemies (Dante Spinotti)

5. The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)

Almost there: The Road, A Single Man, Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, Cheri.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1. Up (Michael Giacchino)

2. Public Enemies (Elliot Goldenthal)

3. The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders)

4. Where the Wild Things Are (Carter Burwell & Karen Orzolek)

5. Coraline (Bruno Coulais)

Almost there: Moon, Cheri, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Invictus, The Secret in Their Eyes