“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
You can read more about this year in film here. The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees but I also wrote more about the year, originally, here. First 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 – it might be eligible in a different year. Films in red won the Oscar in that category (or Globe, in the Globes section). Films in blue were nominated. Films with an asterisk (*) were Consensus nominees (a scale I put together based on the various awards) while those with a double asterisk (**) were the Consensus winners.
I’m listing the top 20 in the categories but only the top 5 earn Nighthawk nominations.
Nighthawk Awards:
- Good Night and Good Luck *
- Munich
- Brokeback Mountain **
- King Kong
- Kingdom of Heaven
- A History of Violence
- Batman Begins
- The Constant Gardener
- Pride and Prejudice
- Downfall
- Cache
- Syriana
- Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
- Saraband
- Match Point
- Twin Sisters
- Corpse Bride
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Kung Fu Hustle
Analysis: A truly fantastic year. Brokeback ranks among the best ever #3 films, King Kong among the best #4 films and Kingdom among the best #5 films. A History of Violence would be a nominee in most years. The Top 5 is tied for 10th all-time. The Top 10 is second all-time behind only 2002. Downfall is the third best #10 film ever. The Top 20 is the best all-time as is the 11-20. Not only are all 20 of these films **** films, but there are actually a record 26 (the others are Sin City, Capote, Proof, Cinderella Man, Don’t Move, Elizabethtown).
I feel a little weird about this year. Brokeback is a brilliant film and I have thought so since I saw it in the theater, but except for the stretch from when I saw it to when I first saw Munich, it has never been my #1 film. It was Munich for years then eventually moved to Good Night and Good Luck. But all three films are just about a tie and they come one right after the other on my grand list of all Best Picture nominees. There’s no question, given how the year went, that it should have won Best Picture. It won three of the six critics awards and the other four awards groups. Only three films have more Consensus points without winning the Oscar and all three of those (LA Confidential, Social Network, Boyhood) lost the PGA and DGA and the first two also lost the Globe while Brokeback won all of those. It was the first film ever to sweep the other four awards groups and lose the Oscar (La La Land would later do it but it would lose to a film that won more critics awards and won the Globe – Drama). It joined The Aviator as only the second film to this point to win both the Globe and the PGA and fail to win the Oscar. It is the only film to win the PGA, DGA and WGA and fail to win the Oscar. Yet, it would lose to Crash, the film with the lowest Consensus point total to win the Oscar since 1995 and the first film since 1973 to win the Oscar without a Globe nomination and only the second Oscar winner to fail to be nominated for a Globe. In fact, ironically, the most comparable year to this one is 1995, when Ang Lee’s film also looked like it should have won but lost to a film that had not done nearly as well with earlier awards groups, though at least that year had been more telegraphed when Lee failed to earn a Best Director nomination at the Oscars.
Crash, at #101, becomes the fourth Oscar winner to fail to make the Top 100 for the year. It also finishes a period of twelve years when the Oscars awarded the worst of the five nominees a whopping seven times; it has not done so again since (through 2016). It joins 1989 and 2000 as years where the Picture winner isn’t in my Top 50 but the Director winner is my #2. (more…)
