My hometown (well, adopted hometown) awards group announced their winners yesterday, and damn right I’m going to share the results with you. A long-time friend of mine is a member of the Circle, and I’ll attribute all the best decisions to them. Luckily, there seem to be a few.
Best Picture (TIE): The Favourite and Roma
A tie, huh? Having now seen both, I can honestly say I liked The Favourite much more (although it’s not my #1), though Roma is quite good in its own right. But given what else is in contention this year, a totally acceptable result.
Robert Altman Award for Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
- Runner-up: Paul Schrader, First Reformed
I personally would’ve gone with Schrader, but this works fine. Roma was certainly a director’s showcase.
Best Actor (TIE): Christian Bale, Vice and Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Another tie? Damn.
I’d say Hawke should’ve won outright, but co-winning is still a respectable result. And I’m glad they went so strongly for First Reformed.
Best Actress: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
- Runner-up: Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Good call. Colman is great there (even if you could argue she isn’t a lead—and I would). Aparicio is good, too, but at least on first-viewing I didn’t think the film gave her as much to work with as some do.
Best Supporting Actor: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
- Runner-up: Timothée Chalamet, Beautiful Boy
Sure. I have nothing much to say about this category anymore. Grant is very good, Chalamet is very good, but…I think many of the best performances are getting passed over. Not blaming the KCFCC specifically, it’s just that kind of a year.
Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, Vice
- Runner-up: Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace
It’s too bad McKenzie didn’t win, as she’s incredible, but she’s also a lead (and I’ll continue to rank her as such until the Oscars nominate her Supporting, which they won’t), so I’ll accept. Plus, it’s Amy Adams.
Kind of surprised they didn’t go with Rachel Weisz or Emma Stone here (I’d have gone with Weisz myself).
Best Original Screenplay: The Favourite
- Runner-up: Eighth Grade
Makes sense. I’d have gone with First Reformed instead (if anything, what holds The Favourite back for me is the fact that Lanthimos didn’t write it), but it’s still a good script. And everyone likes Eighth Grade.
Best Adapted Screenplay: BlacKkKlansman
- Runner-up: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Perfect choice. BlacKkKlansman is still easily my #1 in that category. Good job, Kansas City.
Best Foreign Language Film: Roma
- Runner-up: Cold War
Sure? I haven’t seen that many foreign films yet this year. I think Roma is the best of what I’ve seen, at least. I do really want to see Cold War, though.
Best Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- Runner-up (TIE): Incredibles 2 and Isle of Dogs
Nice. I wanted to see this over the weekend, but time didn’t permit (I saw three movies in the theater, though, it’s not like I wasn’t active). I’m sure it’s a good pick. Sorry about the runners-up (another tie!), as I was a fan of both, but so it goes.
Best Documentary: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
- Runner-up: Free Solo
No argument here. Saw them both, Neighbor was the stronger of the two (but they’re both really good), zis boom bah.
Vince Koehler Award for Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Film: A Quiet Place
- Runner-up: Sorry to Bother You
Eh? I can think of several films in that vein I much preferred to either of these (Black Panther, Annihilation, Suspiria), but I won’t argue too much with their at least noticing Sorry.
Tom Poe Award for Best LGBT Film: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
- Runner-up: Love, Simon
Why not? I still haven’t seen Love, Simon, so I can’t say if it was better than Forgive, but that film was quite solid, especially in how it handled its protagonists’ queerness.
Nice picks all around. I’m gonna start trying to get some year-end lists together; I normally do them in late January, but this year I’ve seen a lot more movies before the end of the year than usual, so we’ll see what I can manage.
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