Welcome to the first ever Whole Damn Thing Awards where the Cinecdoche Academy of Motion Fiction Arts and Sciences award those movies we think deserved it. The rules are
fairly simple: eligibility, the number of nominees and pretty much everything else is left to the discretion of the Academy. The Academy will, however, attempt to steer clear of
categories it has absolutely no idea about (which includes the three short film
categories and the distinctions between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing and
Original and Adapted Screenplay). Let’s get the proceedings underway.
First, for Achievement
in Hair and Make-Up the nominees are:
Inherent Vice, for creating a distillation of imagined ‘70s
Los Angeles and its attendant cultures with precision and wit
The Grand Budapest Hotel, for creating a fictional world
with an astonishing degree of character and specificity
Foxcatcher, for giving essential shape and direction to the
three central performances
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I, for creating a viral
sensation in the creation of Natalie Dormer’s hairstyle
Under the Skin, for sculpting the form of its lead actress
to best exemplify its themes
And the Whole Damn Thing goes to….
Under the Skin!
For Achievement in
Visual Effects the nominees are
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, for taking the art of motion capture to newer and more impressive heights
Under the Skin, for creating spaces unknown to the human eye
with astonishing fidelity
Goodbye to Language 3D, for its inspired manipulation of the
cinematic frame and everything that fits in it
The Grand Budapest Hotel, for using wit and charm that
reflects its thematic ideals
…and the winner is…
Goodbye to Language 3D!
We now turn to a lighter category, one that is possibly very
incorrect about its nominees - Best
Original Song. The nominees in this category are
“Everything is Awesome” by Tegan and Sara ft. The Lonely Island in The Lego Movie, for being the most cheerful earworm to emerge this year from the movies
“Glory” by John Legend and Common from Selma, for crafting a
powerful anthem of hope and activism
"Unknown Song" from Timbuktu, for
creating a sonic landscape that offers human resistance to religious
totalitarianism
"Unknown Song" from A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness, for a howl that
embraces the abyss
…and the winner is…
"Unknown Song" from Timbuktu!
While we linger on music, let us move on to the award for Best Original Score. Our nominees are:
Alexandre Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel, for creating a score that embraces whimsy and charm while never losing sight of its melancholy
Micah Levi for Under the Skin, for building a bewildering,
tense and unnerving sense of dread throughout
Antonio Sanchez for Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of
Ignorance), for a pulsing, propulsive beat that careens us from scene to scene
Joe Hisaishi for The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, for
navigating the disparate emotions of an old folk tale with resonance and
honesty
…and the winner is…
Alexandre Desplat for The Grand Budapest Hotel! While the
other nominees certainly created memorable, haunting works Desplat’s score
moves through a cavalcade of emotions with sprightly elegance while never seeming
to break a sweat. Just delightful.
Our next award is for Achievement
in Production Design. The nominees are:
The Strange Little Cat, for decorating an apartment with all the messy ephemera of real life
The Grand Budapest Hotel, for creating an entire world that
is as much Looney Tunes as it is Lubitsch
The Babadook, for the best children’s book ever
The Lego Movie, for being loud, brash and proud
The Missing Picture, for the depth of emotion it plumbs
using handmade still lives
…and the winner is…
The Missing Picture!
Now we move on to the award for Achievement in Costume Design. The nominees are:
Inherent Vice, for recreating the textures of color and ugliness that are ‘70s fashions
Jauja, for making period costumes look rich, colorful and
profoundly uncomfortable
Under the Skin, for creating one iconic costume image
Guardians of the Galaxy, for creating a wide variety of
looks to inhabit the universe
The Grand Budapest Hotel, for the delightful cheekiness of
its precision in creating characters
…and the winner is…
The Grand Budapest Hotel!
Next we come to the special feature categories. To start, Best Animated Feature. The nominees
are:
The Lego Movie, for an avalanche of jokes that culminate in an emotionally satisfying finale
The Wind Rises, for embracing the ambiguity of artistic
expression in complex political climates
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, for creating a fable that
remains true to its history and culture but loses none of its resonance
…and the winner is…
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya!
Our next category is Best
Documentary Feature. The nominees are:
The Missing Picture, for telling a story that deserves to be heard
What Now? Remind Me, for inviting us to live as close to a
person as is possible in the cinematic medium
Citizenfour, for elevating its essential political discourse
with eerie and terrifying images
Manakamana, for giving us the time and space to think about
all that is important
Private Violence, for humanizing a political issue with a
gut punch
…and the winner is…
Manakamana!
The final special mention award of the night, Best Non-English Feature. The nominees
are:
Goodbye to Language 3D, for inventing new ways of looking at cinema and being obnoxious and grouchy about it
Jauja, for creating a fairy tale world filled with humor,
beauty and surprise
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, for telling a story as
universal as it is specific and strange
The Strange Little Cat, for evoking the truest sensation of
what it feels like to live in an apartment
The Midnight After, for couching its commentary on Hong Kong
society in the wondrous and the weird
…and the winner is…
Jauja!
The Academy has just announced the remaining The Whole Damn Thing award winners! Find out who takes Best Director, Actress, Picture and more here!
No comments:
Post a Comment