
The best film in what is one of the best years in film history.
You can read more about this year in film here. The Best Picture race is discussed here, with reviews of all the nominees. 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 (or directors) in olive are links to earlier posts that I don’t want to have show up in blue and be mistaken for a nominee. 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:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers *
- Gangs of New York *
- Spirited Away
- Talk to Her
- The Pianist **
- The Hours *
- Minority Report
- Y tu mamá también
- Chicago *
- Adaptation
- Road to Perdition
- Solaris
- The Quiet American
- Catch Me if You Can
- 8 Women
- Heaven
- Lilo and Stitch
- 24 Hour Party People
- Spider-Man
- Sunshine State
Analysis: This year is a bit of an oddity. First, for the first time in five years, the five Oscar nominees are also the five Consensus nominees. But, much more strangely, for the only time after 1965, the Consensus winner (The Pianist) doesn’t have the highest raw total, but its weighted total turns a 20 point deficit to Chicago into a 10 point advantage. The Pianist has three wins (BAFTA, NSFC, BSFC) among six total noms (Oscar, Globe, BFCA) while Chicago wins four awards (Oscar, Globe, PGA, BFCA) and earns one other nom (BAFTA). It will be another decade before the second place film is even within 100 points of the 1st place film. This is also the first time we have two films that go 0 for 5, earning nominations from all five awards groups (Oscar, PGA, BAFTA, Globe, BFCA) and winning none: Gangs of New York and Two Towers. There won’t be another year with two such films until 2008. (more…)