The Nighthawk Awards: 1927-28

You can read more about this year in film here.  The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees.  There are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end.  If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom.  Films in red won the Oscar in that category.  Films in blue were nominated.  But remember, there were only a handful of Oscar categories in this, the first year of the Oscars.

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture

1. Sunrise
2. Metropolis
3. The Man Who Laughs
4. The Circus
5. 7th Heaven

 

The Nighthawk Awards: 1912-26

You can read more about this year in film here.  Since this is the pre-Oscar era, clearly there are no Best Picture reviews to link to.  So, without further ado, here are the initial Nighthawk Awards, covering the entire pre-Oscar era.  There are the categories, followed by all the films with their nominations, then the Globes, where I split the major awards by Drama and Comedy, followed by a few lists at the very end.  If there’s a film you expected to see and didn’t, check the very bottom.

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture:

1. Greed
2. The Battleship Potemkin
3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
4. The Gold Rush
5. The Phantom of the Opera

note:  A good year for films because there are so many.  The next five, in order, are The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Birth of a Nation, Faust, The Last Laugh and Foolish Wives and the **** films go all the way down to #16.

 

Best Adapted Screenplay: the pre-Oscar years (1912-1926)

I grabbed this banner from altscreen.com. They deserve credit, because it’s awesome.

My Top 10 Adapted Screenplays:

1. Greed  (1925)
2. The Phantom of the Opera  (1925)
3. The Hunchback of Notre Dame  (1923)
4. Faust  (1926)
5. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse  (1921)
6. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  (1920)
7. Ingeborg Holm  (1913)
8. Oliver Twist  (1922)
9. The Birth of a Nation  (1915)
10. The Avenging Conscience  (1914)

 

The Year in Film: 2012

That great shot where we first see Lincoln’s face.

My Top 20:

1. Lincoln
2. Argo
3. Les Misérables
4. Zero Dark Thirty
5. Anna Karenina
6. Moonrise Kingdom
7. Django Unchained
8. Amour
9. The Dark Knight Rises
10. Skyfall
11. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
12. Brave
13. Silver Linings Playbook
14. Prometheus
15. Life of Pi
16. The Avengers
17. Frankenweenie
18. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
19. The Master
20. The Secret World of Arietty

 

The Year in Film: 2011

If you’re an 11 year old boy, this is the girl you want to meet – Chloe Grace Moretz in Hugo.

My Top 20:

1. Hugo
2. The Descendants
3. The Artist
4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
5. Midnight in Paris
6. A Separation
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
8. The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
9. The Tree of Life
10. The Ides of March
11. Incendies
12. Jane Eyre
13. Beginners
14. Contagion
15. My Week With Marilyn
16. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
17. Rango
18. Moneyball
19. Margin Call
20. Take Shelter

 

The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 2010

Great old-fashioned movie making: The King’s Speech (2010).

The 83rd annual Academy Awards for the film year 2010.  The nominations were announced on 25 January 2011 and the awards were held on 27 February 2011.

Best Picture:  The King’s Speech

• The Social Network
• Inception
• True Grit
• Winter’s Bone
• Black Swan
• Toy Story 3
• The Kids Are All Right
• The Fighter
• 127 Hours

Most Surprising Omission:  The Town

Best Eligible Film Not Nominated:  The Ghost Writer

Rank (out of 84) among Best Picture Years:  #7  (by far the best among years with more than 5 nominated films)

 

The Year in Film: 2010

A couple of star-making performances in the best film of the year.

My Top 20:

1. The Social Network
2. The King’s Speech
3. Inception
4. True Grit
5. The Ghost Writer
6. Winter’s Bone
7. Black Swan
8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
9. Another Year
10. Toy Story 3
11. The Town
12. Biutiful
13. The Kids are All Right
14. Tangled
15. Shutter Island
16. Never Let Me Go
17. Rabbit Hole
18. The Fighter
19. Green Zone
20. Blue Valentine

 

The Year in Film: 2009

Michael Fassbender makes, shall we say, a costly error, in Inglourious Basterds.

My Top 20:

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. The Hurt Locker
3. A Serious Man
4. An Education
5. Broken Embraces
6. Up
7. Up in the Air
8. The White Ribbon
9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
10. District 9
11. The Informant
12. Sin Nombre
13. Crazy Heart
14. Coraline
15. Revanche
16. Precious
17. (500) Days of Summer
18. A Single Man
19. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
20. Duplicity

note:  There has been a slight change since I first posted this, because I finished re-watching film for Best Picture and dropped District 9 a few spots and moved Up up a few spots.

 

The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 2008

The perfect ending.

The 81st annual Academy Awards, for the film year 2008.  The nominations were announced on 22 January 2009 and the awards were held on 22 February 2009.

Best Picture:  Slumdog Millionaire

• Milk
• The Reader
• Frost/Nixon
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Most Surprising Omission:  The Dark Knight

Best Eligible Film Not Nominated:  The Dark Knight

Rank (out of 84) Among Best Picture Years:  #45

 

The Year in Film: 2008

A brilliant and perfect ending to the best film of the year.

My Top 20:

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. Milk
3. The Dark Knight
4. Wall-E
5. Revolutionary Road
6. Rachel Getting Married
7. The Visitor
8. I’ve Loved You So Long
9. Happy-Go-Lucky
10. Let the Right One In
11. In Bruges
12. Iron Man
13. Burn After Reading
14. A Christmas Tale
15. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
16. Australia
17. The Wrestler
18. Gran Torino
19. Changeling
20. The Reader

note:  Nothing like the year before.  The **** films end with #8.  Zodiac – the #25 of 2007, would be the #9 film here.