A.s for everyone and everything else, this has been a difficult year for cinema. Many new movies had to be watched at home, on streaming services, and cinemas had to accept this arrangement, like gourmets who see their favorite restaurants survive by relocate them as delivery centers and take them with you. And streaming can be said to have brought a new audience to an independent cinema and arthouse that would not be largely a show in theaters.
Lockdown has intensified the debate about the legitimacy of the small screen experience in cinema – and it is especially intense for me, when I consider one of my favorite films of the year. Steve McQueen’s Rock Lovers is one of the glorious works in McQueen’s elegant five-film Small Ax series about the Black British experience. It’s cinematic glory and slate was screened at this year’s Cannes film festival (postponed). But it was commissioned by the BBC, so most people who enjoy this amazing film do so on the small screen. That is why it is sensibly described as one of the highlights of television of the year.
Well, it can be both, so I list it in the Braddies, my personal favorites that are available apart from the best account of the year at a Guardian movie.
As always, there are 10 nominees in 10 categories: film, director, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actor, documentary, cinematography, screenshot, directing debate. There’s also the one-entry naming in the special category: a quirkiest cult cult classic in the future that a conventional boomer media center is likely to overlook. The candidates are listed in a specific order and readers are invited to vote below the line for their favorite winner and talk about neglect.
Best movie
Creag Lovers (dir Steve McQueen)
Tenet (dir Christopher Nolan)
Domain (dir Natsuka Kusano)
Uncut Gems (dirs Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie)
The Assistant (dir Kitty Green)
Parasite (dir Bong Joon-ho)
The Invisible Man (dir Leigh Whannell)
Mank (dir David Fincher)
Saint Maud (dir Rose Glass)
Clemency (land of Chinonye Chukwu)
Best Director
Steve McQueen for Rock Lovers
Spike Lee for Da 5 blood
Christopher Nolan for Tenet
Sam Mendes for 1917
Roy Andersson for About Endlessness
Céline Sciamma for a Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Pete Docter and Kemp powers for soul
Alexandra Márquez Arbella for The Good Girls
Sarah Gavron for Rocks
Shahrbanoo Sadat for the orphan
Best actor
Michael Ward for Rock Lovers (dir Steve McQueen)
Adam Sandler for Uncut Gems (dirs Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie)
Hugh Jackman for Poor Education (dir Cory Finley)
Kelvin Harrison Jr for Waves (dir Trey Edward Shults)
Robert Pattinson for the lighthouse (dir Robert Eggers) and the Devil all the time (dir Antonio Campos)
Willem Dafoe for the lighthouse (dir Robert Eggers)
Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (dir George C Wolfe)
Gary Oldman for Mank (dir David Fincher)
Lance Henriksen for fall (dir Viggo Mortensen)
James Norton for Mr Jones (dir Agnieszka Holland)
The best actress
Amarah-Jae St Aubyn for Rock Lovers (dir Steve McQueen)
Viola Davis for Bun Dubh Ma Rainey (dir George C Wolfe)
Alfre Woodard for Clemency (dir Chinonye Chukwu)
Buckley will stand for I’m Thinking About Finishing Things (dir Charlie Kaufman)
Elisabeth Moss for The Invisible Woman (dir Leigh Whannell) and Shirley (dir Josephine Decker)
Bukky Bakray for Rocks (dir Sarah Gavron)
Maria Bakalova for Borat Moviefilm afterwards (dir Jason Woliner)
Trine Dyrholm for Queen of Hearts (dir May el-Toukhy)
Morfydd Clark for Saint Maud (Rose Glass land)
Monica Dolan for Summer Days Bagnold (dir Simon Bird)
Best supporting actor
Andrew Scott for 1917 (dir Sam Mendes)
Hugh Laurie for David Copperfield’s Personal History (dir Armando Iannucci)
Matthew Macfadyen for Assistant (dir Kitty Green)
Udo Kier for the painted bird (dir Václav Marhoul) and Bacurau (dir Kleber Mendonça Filho)
Zachary Quinto for the boys in the band (dir Joe Mantello)
Michael Stuhlbarg for Shirley (dir Josephine Decker)
Mick Jagger for The Burnt Orange Heresy (dir Giuseppe Capotondi)
Michael Caine for Tenet (dir Christopher Nolan)
David Thewlis for I’m Thinking About Finishing Things (dir Charlie Kaufman)
Harris Dickinson for County Lines (dir Henry Blake)
The best supporting actress
Toni Collette because I’m thinking of finishing things (dir Charlie Kaufman)
Daisy May Cooper for the Personal History of David Copperfield (dir Armando Iannucci)
Tuppence Middleton for Mank (dir David Fincher) and Possessor (dir Brandon Cronenberg)
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi for Only the Animals (dir Dominik Moll) and Summer 85 (dir François Ozon)
Elle Fanning for the roads not taken (dir Sally Potter)
Jennifer Ehle for Saint Maud (dir Rose Glass)
Gina Rodriguez for Kajillionaire (dir Miranda July)
Ashley Madekwe for County Lines (dir Henry Blake)
Mia Goth for Emma (dir Autumn de Wilde)
Molly Harris for Monsoon (dir Hong Khaou)
Best management discussion
Catherine Linstrum for Nuclear
Simon Bird for Bagnold Summer Days
Fyzal Boulifa for Lynn + Lucy
Claire Oakley for Make Up
Melina Léon for Anonymous Song
Andrew Patterson for The Vast of Night
Ladj Ly for Les Misérables
Viggo Mortensen for fall
Tayarisha Poe for Selah and the Spades
Rose glass for Saint Maud
Best cinematographer
Roger Deakins for 1917 (dir Sam Mendes)
Jörg Widmer for Hidden Life (dir Terrence Malick)
Jarin Blaschke for the lighthouse (dir Robert Eggers)
Łukasz airsonal for I’m Thinking About Finishing Things (dir Charlie Kaufman)
Laurie Rose for Rebecca (dir Ben Wheatley)
Erik Messerschmidt for Mank (dir David Fincher)
Mandy Walker for Mulan (dir Niki Caro)
Marcel Zyskind for Fall (dir Viggo Mortensen)
Acácio de Almeida for The Portuguese Wife (dir Rita Azevedo Gomes)
Karim Hussain for owner (dir Brandon Cronenberg)
Best screenwriter
Krysty Wilson-Cairns for 1917 (dir Sam Mendes)
Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci for the Personal History of David Copperfield (dir Armando Iannucci)
Céline Sciamma for a Portrait of a Lady on Fire (dir Céline Sciamma)
Eliza Hittman for Never Rarely Hours Forever (dir Eliza Hittman)
Jack Fincher for Mank (dir David Fincher)
Charlie Kaufman because I’m thinking of finishing things (dir Charlie Kaufman)
Amy Seimetz for She Will Die Tomorrow (dir Amy Seimetz)
Robert Eggers and Max Eggers for the lighthouse (dir Robert Eggers)
Caitlin Moran for How to Raise a Girl (dir Coky Giedroyc)
Brandon Cronenberg for owner (dir Brandon Cronenberg)
Best documentary
Consortium (dir Alexander Nanau)
Be Natural: A Tale of Alice Guy-Blaché (dir Pamela B Green)
The Big Buster (dir Peter Bogdanovich)
Women making a film: a new roadshow through cinema (dir Mark Cousins)
Boy State (dirs Amanda McBaine, Jesse Mosse)
Bright Dispute (dir Rubika Shah)
Dick Johnson Is Dead (dir Kirsten Johnson)
Time (dir Garrett Bradley)
American Utopia David Byrne (dir Spike Lee)
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (dirs Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer)
Quirkiest Cult Classic: The film most likely to be watched by the MSM Boomer Foundation
I used to go here (dir Kris Rey)