Keeping film award nominations weird since 2005
It’s perhaps an understatement to say that 2018 was a slog. A year of bad news and living on the edge. But at least movies are good. Very good in fact. Which only makes these end of year awards all the harder, having to select the best performances, scripts, scores, and more, from a rich pool of releases. Being predominantly based out of Austin, Cinapse has ties to Austin film, notably in this instance with five of our regular contributors being proud members of the AFCA, myself included. We’ll run a post soon showing how the Cinapse team ranked their favorites of the year but for now, the AFCA’s.
Leading the pack is The Favourite, with 9 nominations including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Ensemble. The other Best Film nominees are Blindspotting, If Beale Street Could Talk, Roma, and Suspiria. The other categories and nominees are listed below, which this year for the first time include four new categories: Best Ensemble, Best Editing, Best Stunts, and Best Motion Capture/Special Effects Performance. The collective had already announced the nominees for Best Austin Film, which will be announced along with the rest of the winners on Jan 7th.
Best Film
Blindspotting
If Beale Street Could Talk
Roma
Suspiria
The Favourite
Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk
Debra Granik, Leave No Trace
Lynne Ramsay, You Were Never Really Here
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Christian Bale, Vice
Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Actress
Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Regina Hall, Support the Girls
Toni Collette, Hereditary
Best Supporting Actor
Brian Tyree Henry, If Beale Street Could Talk
Hugh Grant, Paddington 2
Michael B. Jordan, Black Panther
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Steven Yeun, Burning
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Vice
Claire Foy, First Man
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Original Screenplay
Eighth Grade
First Reformed
Roma
Sorry to Bother You
The Favourite
Best Adapted Screenplay
Blackkklansman
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
If Beale Street Could Talk
Leave No Trace
The Death of Stalin
Best Cinematography
Burning
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
Roma
The Favourite
Best Original Score
Annihilation
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
Mandy
Suspiria
Best Foreign Language Film
Burning
Cold War
Roma
Shoplifters
The Guilty
Best Documentary
Free Solo
Minding the Gap
RBG
Shirkers
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Best Animated Film
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse
Best Ensemble (new category)
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Crazy Rich Asians
The Favourite
Widows
Best Editing (new category)
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
Roma
The Favourite
Widows
Best Motion Capture/Special Effects Performance (new category)
Ben Whishaw, Paddington 2
Josh Brolin, Avengers: Infinity War
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Solo: A Star Wars Story
Shameik Moore, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse
Sonoya Mizuno, Annihilation
Best Stunts (new category)
Black Panther
Mandy
Mission Impossible: Fallout
The Night Comes for Us
Upgrade
Best First Film
A Star is Born (dir. Bradley Cooper)
Blindspotting (dir. Carlos López Estrada)
Eighth Grade (dir. Bo Burnham)
Hereditary (dir. Ari Aster)
Sorry To Bother You (dir. Boots Riley)
Breakthrough Artist
Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You
Brian Tyree Henry, If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse
Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade
Jim Cummings, Thunder Road
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Austin Film Award (previously announced)
1985 (dir. Yen Tan)
Call Her Ganda (dir. PJ Raval)
Damsel (dir. David & Nathan Zellner)
Run Like the Devil (dir. Steve Mims)
Support the Girls (dir. Andrew Bujalski)
On a personal note, I’m very happy to see the magnificent Suspiria getting some love, as well as a very special marmalade loving bear. Think Widows deserved more appreciation though. Follow the AFCA on twitter, or their website here, where the winners will be announced on Monday, January 7th!