Second Annual Tommen Awards (WINNERS)

so I'm going to announce the nominees on Sunday the 10th and just wanted to get the housekeeping stuff out of the way with some thoughts and with a list of films I haven't seen yet that might have affected my lineups. This way, I can get the long rambling out of the way today and just jump right into the nominations on Sunday. If I was less lazy and illiterate, I'd do a top 25 in the vein of my obsession David Ehrlich but this is what I have for now.

Full disclosure, I fucking loved 2018. And I didn't realize how much I loved 2018 until January of this year, where I strapped in and watched 2018 films for pretty much the whole month, even getting through some films that have been out for awhile (Sorry to Bother You, Buster Scruggs) that I just hadn't gotten to yet. I must have watched something like 40 2018 films last month and now 2018 is my most viewed year ever, currently sitting at a grand total of 83 films (I know that's chicken feed to some of the board's more obsessive obsessives but it's a new high for me and I'm pretty picky ). Seriously January basically built my top 10 from scratch. Last year was such a great month that I'm ready to call it quits and just get these awards out of the way. Partially because I wanted to do these the same time as last year but also because I'm really happy with what I have right now. Too happy in fact, because some categories are ridiculously stacked (this is one of the best years for Best Actress I've ever seen) and some great stuff will get left out. That part is going to hurt, but I am really happy with the variety this year. Just from the acting categories alone I think something like 20 films are going to be represented. On the flipside the year is so competitive that films I really liked might only get one or two nominations. I'm going to do 6 nominees for acting / screenplays / ensemble and 5 for the rest. Arbitrary I know, but I like to keep Picture and Director competitive while still being able to put on blast excellent performances and screenplays.

As always, there are some films I haven't gotten to yet. Mostly foreign films but even some mainstream stuff that I think a lot of folks have already seen. I'm sure some of these would have affected my lineups but it is what it is. Here'a a full-disclosure list of films in my watchlist that I think had the best chance to make a splash:

Foreign films:
Birds of Passage (this looks ridiculously good)
Capernaum
Climax
Custody
Girl
The Guilty
Never Look Away (Deschanel you sneaky bastard!)
Shoplifters (definitely the most anticipated 2018 film still in my watchlist)

P.S. What I have seen in this category has mostly disappointed me, so I'll probably only have 4 nominees but hey that's 4 more than last year! And I will get to represent a couple of wonderful lesser-seen films (thanks again, Netflix) while snubbing a couple that a lot of people love

More mainstream stuff:
Mary Poppins Returns (costumes, production design)
Mary Queen of Scots (supporting actress, costumes, makeup)
Overlord (I don't know, maybe makeup?)
Solo: A Star Wars Story (for VFX...I could watch on Netflix now but....eh)
Vox Lux

Docs:
Free Solo
On Her Shoulders
RBG
Seeing Allred
Science Fair

P.S. It is worth noting that even having not seen these documentary films I DID in fact see several wonderful documentaries in 2018. And because I didn't have anything for this category last year, this time around I'm not going to limit myself to 5 nominees and just put on blast the ones I really liked. I think it's going to be 6 or 7.

alright blah blah blah. Too many words. These nominations are a year coming and I can't wait to announce them! Expect lots of twists and surprises

It's a brilliant year if you ignore most of what the Academy has recognized. I vastly prefer it to 2016 and '17.

as promised, the nominees:

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Burning
The Favourite
The Rider
Support the Girls

BEST DIRECTOR
Joel & Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scrubbs
Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Chang-dong Lee, Burning
Paul Schrader, First Reformed

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Regina Hall, Support the Girls
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, Leave No Trace
Carey Mulligan, Wildlife
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Alessandro Borghi, On My Skin
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity's Gate
Daveed Diggs, Blindspotting
Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Brady Jandreau, The Rider

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Elizabeth Debicki, Widows
Zoe Kazan, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Blake Lively, A Simple Plan
Haley Lu Richardson, Support the Girls
Tilda Swinton, Suspiria

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Jonah Hill, Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot
Tim Blake Nelson, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Alessandro Nivola, Disobedience
Jesse Plemmons, Game Night
Steven Yeun, Burning

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Cold War - Paweł Pawlikowski, Janusz Głowacki and Piotr Borkowski
The Favourite - Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara
First Reformed - Paul Schrader
Sorry to Bother You - Boots Riley
Support the Girls - Andrew Bujalski
Thoroughbreds - Cory Finley

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - Joel & Ethan Coen
Burning - Jung-mi Oh and Chang-dong Lee
Can You Ever Forgive Me? - Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
Disobedience - Sebastián Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz
If Beale Street Could Talk - Barry Jenkins
Leave No Trace - Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE CAST
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Crazy Rich Asians
The Favourite
Game Night
If Beale Street Could Talk
Support the Girls

a short break!


the techs and the rest!

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - Bruno Delbonnel
Cold War - Łukasz Żal
The Rider - Joshua James Richards
Roma - Alfonso Cuarón
Suspiria - Sayombhu Mukdeeprom

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
At Eternity's Gate - Tatiana Lisovskaya
First Man - Justin Hurwitz
Hereditary - Colin Stetson
If Beale Street Could Talke - Nicholas Britell
Suspiria - Thom Yorke

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Roma
Shadow
Suspiria
Upgrade

BEST FILM EDITING
BlacKkKlansman
The Favourite
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
Suspiria

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Roma
Suspiria

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther
Colette
The Favourite
Suspiria

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The Favourite
On My Skin
Suspiria
Vice

BEST SOUND DESIGN
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
First Man
Incredibles 2
A Quiet Place
Roma

BEST SOUND MIXING
Bohemian Rhapsody
A Quiet Place
Roma
A Star Is Born
Suspiria

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Annihilation
Avengers: Infinity War
First Man
Mission Impossible: Fallout
A Quiet Place

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Girl in the Movies" - Dumplin'
"I'll Never Love Again" - A Star Is Born
"Keep Reachin'" - Quincy
"We Won't Move" - The Hate U Give
"When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Crime + Punishment
Jane Fonda in Five Acts
McQueen
Minding the Gap
Shirkers
Three Identical Strangers
Whitney

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
And Breathe Normally
Burning
Cold War
On My Skin
Roma
____________________________________________________

statistics
- Buster Scruggs leads the pack with 12 nominations. The Favourite and Suspiria follow suit with 10 and 9 respectively.
- I had seen 59 films when I did these for 2017. This year I was working with 83.
- A total of 51 films are recognized (if I counted right). That's 19 up from last year's 32, although I didn't have FLF or documentary last year and only nominated five screenplays each.
- Of my 10 least favorite films of the year, 2 received nominations tonight
- The Rider is the least-nominated film in the Best Picture category with only 3 nods (narrowly missing director and screenplay). Burning and Support the Girls have 5 each
- Of the 5 films nominated for FLF, 4 of them received nominations elsewhere
- The Tommen Awards continue to be a questionable predictor for the rest of the awards race. It is NOT a precursor.

winners will be announced next week on Sunday the 17th! 

Reeeally good stuff, mostly. I wasn't big on Burning, but that's my only real complaint. I especially love these: Support the Girls love, Mulligan, Nivola, Plemons, Buster Scruggs across major categories, and Crazy Rich Asians in Ensemble. 

Edit for tech stuff: More divergence with these (you know), but still a lot to like. My favorites here are the nods for The Rider's cinematography and Hereditary's score -- not sure that these make my own line-ups unfortunately, but they are inspired choices and very deserving. 

I just misread that one documentary as Minding the Fap...

Just saw Support the Girls, good stuff. Haley Lu Richardson is crazy likable.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs should sweep tbh. I can't stop thinking about it, especially that first segment. Is the best line of dialogue in a Coen Brothers film yet?

Major categories went 7/8 last year where the AMARA Winner was nominated for a Tommen. So we can look at BP, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and the two screenplays and determine what we think will win the AMARA because you know they make it a 100% clip. very valuable stat/precursor

I do and sadly I hadn't seen it when I did these last year.

there's been more than enough fanfare so let's just get into it, shall we?

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Crime + Punishment
Jane Fonda in Five Acts
McQueen
Minding the Gap
Shirkers
Three Identical Strangers
Whitney

AND THE WINNER IS


BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
And Breathe Normally
Burning
Cold War
On My Skin
Roma

AND THE WINNER IS