2018 Scriptophile Film Awards

Awards Races 6 Minutes

I’ve spent plenty of time following the pundits’ opinions of the key races and predicting what is likely to make the cut at the Oscars this year. What I haven’t spent much time doing yet is deciding what I would vote for if I had a ballot! So regardless of the internal politics and trends within Hollywood, here is how I wish the major races would play out.

Best Ensemble Cast

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This is a category that only the SAG Awards recognizes but I still think the Academy should implement in the future. Some films make their mark with a wide breadth of strong performances, even if there isn’t necessarily a standout in the bunch. I really loved the diversity of characters that these five films gave us, and they will make for great rewatches to explore all the different options they give us to connect to performances. Of these, I thought Steve McQueen’s latest had so many stellar performances – at least ten distinct, interesting players in the giant chess game, each with their own unique and compelling stories to tell. It’s the easy victor.

Winner: Widows

Best Young Actor

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Another category that really ought to be introduced to the Academy. After many years of enduring criticism for including the same old, boring stars, this could be an opportunity to showcase the new up-and-comers of the industry and spruce up the broadcast with fresh faces. Just imagine if this category existed when What’s Eating Gilbert Grape came out…Leo would have had his Oscar decades ago! And there were some great performances from the young’uns this year! The easy victor is Elsie Fisher for her spectacular role in Eighth Grade, but all of these names are ones to watch out for in the future.

Winner: Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade)

Best Supporting Actor

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Although the Academy generally uses this award for films where the supporting performance complements a powerful leading one, I prefer when the supporting actor steals the show and commands attention every time he/she is in a scene. Many of these performances could even be classified as leads, just because the narrative revolves around them so much that they have lots of screen time to assert their presence. Daniel Kaluuya is a narrow runner-up, as he is utterly captivating and terrifying in Widows, but the youngster Timothee Chalamet really owns his film. He portrays the ups and downs of addiction so effortlessly, able to lose himself in the moment and make you feel for his character deeply. It almost feels like cheating because he’s basically a main character, but hey, whatever gets him the gold.

Winner: Timothee Chalamet (Beautiful Boy)

Best Supporting Actress

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There were some great supporting actresses this year, and I couldn’t make room for a few great performances. Each of these performers stole the show whenever they were on screen, and it was difficult to decide what my favorite was. But I have to give this to Emily Blunt, who totally owns this role. That bathtub birth sequence is the easy highlight of the film, a hair-raising moment that is so unbelievably tense and emotionally draining. It’s almost the opposite of a scream-queen performance because she CAN’T scream, which makes it all the more impressive.

Winner: Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place)

Best Adapted Screenplay

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I wasn’t particularly tickled by most of the actual awards contenders in this category, and found myself going for less well-regarded fare. First Man narrowly misses my list, an impressive feat in condensing a huge plot into a contained two-hour film but still overbearing and overlong. It was a two-way race for me between The Death of Stalin and Wildlife, and while I loved the writing in both, I have to give it to Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan for their beautiful and insightful look at a family falling apart through the eyes of an innocent teen.

Winner: Wildlife (Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan)

Best Original Screenplay

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This was a tough category to narrow down because most of my favorite (favourite?) screenplays of the year were original stories. I could not make room for Drew Goddard’s Bad Times at the El Royale, Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, or Tamara Jenkins’s Private Life, although I adored all three. It’s close between Tully and The Favourite, but the subversive period drama had me hanging on every word and featured some of the most nuanced and well-rounded characters of the year.

Winner: The Favourite (Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara)

Best Lead Actor

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This wasn’t a gangbusters year for leading men, and I had to scour the entire year for performances I really connected with. Furthermore, most of these movies didn’t place super highly on my Best of the Year list, which makes selecting a winner more about picking diamonds out of the rough than awarding an absolutely brilliant performance. But when it comes to a performer losing themselves in a role and carrying the load of the film on their shoulders, I have to give it to Ethan Hawke for his haunting performance as the troubled pastor of First Reformed. It’s a pretty quiet performance, but one loaded with subtext and nuance – shame on the Academy for not recognizing this tour de force performance!!

Winner: Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)

Best Lead Actress

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It was a strong year for leading ladies, and I loved all these performances and then some. Compared to the male category, for instance, I could see each and every one of these ladies taking gold over the leading men of 2018. The winner here is no-contest, however: Toni Collette’s turn as a grieving mother in a horror setting was absolutely riveting and deserves far more than she’s gotten in terms of awards recognition. Her performance will haunt me for years to come, and if I ever get the chance to meet her in person, I’m giving her a warm hug and telling her everything’s gonna be okay.

Winner: Toni Collette (Hereditary)

Best Director

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What do I look for in a Best Director? I want them to show me something I’ve never seen before, or execute something so flawlessly that no one else could have done in their place. Not just in visual or acting direction, but in conceptual guidance over the project. Someone like Bradley Cooper, for example, doesn’t belong here because although A Star is Born was his brainchild, any established director could have taken the helm and done just as well with it (if not better). These five (six?) directors put their distinctive marks on their films and made them all the better for it. My personal bias might come into play here, but Alfonso Cuaron takes the cake by far. He’s the only human being on the planet who could have made Roma into the beautiful work of art it is, and he served as his own cinematographer, an amazing accomplishment that could net him an armful of Oscars this year. And he deserves every one of them.

Winner: Alfonso Cuaron (Roma)

Best Picture

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This is an awkward category to fill out without just reading as my Top 10 films of the year. These are films that I think could realistically be nominated for Best Picture, not necessarily just my ten favorites in order. But if you read my Top 20 Films list a few weeks ago, you’ll know what my favorite film of the year was (by the narrowest of margins). No other film represents 2018 better for me than Bo Burnham’s directorial debut, a stunning expose of the social media culture of today’s youth. It did things no other film did to endear me to its central character, and while simplistic and over-dramatic at times, it fits the theme of middle school so well because everything is over-dramatic for an eighth grader. I love the film and hope it gets more recognition at the Oscars than the precursor awards shows suggest it will.

Winner: Eighth Grade

Conclusion

What would you vote for the Oscars if given the chance? What performances have been tragically overlooked so far in awards season? Who are you rooting for among those that ARE in the conversation?

-Austin Daniel

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