Film Awards 2011 - Suggestions Thread

johnny_ultimate

Congratulations! You've somehow survived another year. What better way to celebrate than with a meaningless Internet poll about the best and worst films released over the last 12 months! And guess what? There was no Christopher Nolan and an unusually ****ty Pixar film this year so everything's up for grabs!

Yes indeedie, ladies and gentlemen, it's the film forum awards again. Like last year, we'll be running the nominations from late December through to early/middle January. But first we want to know how you, the boards.ie poster and avid film watcher, want things to proceed!

We, your moderating overlords, have had some preliminary discussions and the consensus was simple: keep things pretty much the same as last year! Sad Professor has suggested the organisation of a long list where we all chip into remind people of what came out this year, assuring no deserved nominees are unfairly forgotten. I'm inclined to agree with the sentiment, and we'll get that up-and-running before nominations.

To refresh your memory of last years categories, I've posted 'em below. The Best Adaptation / Remake category may be excised to tidy things up, and thinking about it I'm considering consolidating the two animation categories together as this year hasn't been all that great for either American or World animation (bar a few high quality animes). But we're all for democracy here (within reason), so you're input will be much appreciated

Acting Awards:
Best Actor
Supporting Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actress
Best Newcomer

Best Film Awards:
Hollywood
Irish / British
Foreign Language
Adaptation / Remake
Animation
World Animation
American Independent / Arthouse
Documentary

Misc Awards:
Best Director
Best Screenplay
Best Character
Best Soundtrack / Score
Best Cinematography
Best Scene
Best Special Effects
Newcomer of the Year (director)
Film That Deserved Better

Walk of Shame 'Awards':
Worst Film
Worst Acting Performance
Most Overrated Film
Biggest Missed Opportunity

Fishooks12

Easiest to rattle off

Walk of Shame 'Awards':
Worst Film The Green Lantern
Worst Acting Performance Chris Evans (Captain America)
Most Overrated Film Fast Five (given it's positive reviews I found it atrociously bad)
Biggest Missed Opportunity Insidious (The first film in years to genuinely terrify me in the cinema until it lost all credibility towards the last hour )

Galvasean

The award for the film that finally broke what was left of Galvasean's spirit: Transformers 3

I also think Battle: LA is worthy of aworst movie nomnomnom...

Best Adaptation remake: X-Men:First Class

johnny_ultimate

Oi, no nominating yet :pac:

This is just a 'heads-up' thread to see if anyone has any noteworthy ideas on how to run it this year. If not, we'll just go ahead with your regularly scheduled programming.

Fishooks12

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Oi, no nominating yet :pac:

This is just a 'heads-up' thread to see if anyone has any noteworthy ideas on how to run it this year. If not, we'll just go ahead with your regularly scheduled programming.

Apologies!

A big list of all the various films released would be a good start

Very hard not to forget about films

JP Liz V1

What about a one to watch for 2012 could be actor/director/writer etc

Sad Professor

Merging the two Animation categories seems like a good idea. There wasn't much interest in the World Animation category last year.

I also wonder if perhaps the Best Irish/British category should be expanded to include other non-American English language films. Some notable films came out of Australia this year, for example. It might make it simpler as there was a bit of confusion last year about what exactly made a film Irish or British. But on the other hand, if we come up with a decent "long list" of candidates that shouldn't be a problem this year.

Re: the "long list", ideally we would have one for each category. I think it will make things a lot easier for people. Films that were released earlier in the year tend to be forgotten, especially if they were released late in Ireland. Black Swan wasn't eligible for last year's awards, for example, but is this year. Of course, these lists will just a be a guide.

LittleBook

Fishooks12 wrote: »

A big list of all the various films released would be a good start

Would this help?

Wikipedia 2011 in Film

Can't vouch for it's accuracy obviously and it has nothing to do with when films were released in Ireland (it's US/Canada), but at least we'd all be singing from same hymn sheet ...? And we could just manually add any glaring inconsistencies with Irish releases.

Tipsy McSwagger

Film you thought would be rubbish but was actually good.

losthorizon

Shouldnt it be Independent/Arthouse rather than American Independent/Arthouse ?

don ramo

is there a best popcorn flick, you know the films that had just passable scripts but entertained through other mediums, like fast five and battle LA and T3:o people want to know good shut your brain down films

what about genres action, adventure, sci-fi, comedy

ones to watch out for could be a good one alright,

Sad Professor

"One to watch for" is kinda covered by the two Best Newcomer categories.

I think we discussed the possibility of genres last year and agreed it wouldn't work. There's too much overlap.

Best "Leave your brain at the door" Film might be a runner, though.

Galvasean

How about the "Movie which managed to be very enjoyable despite not being very good" award?

Case in point : The Immortals

p to the e

An RIP section showing famous actors, directors etc who have died during the year. People can send in contributions to make a compilation

I think we need a section for films which bypassed theatres or only played on the IFI. So many excellent films never screen over here, atm I'm watching 5 Days of War and it's quite an enjoyable film which is also one of the best looking films I have ever seen yet it went direct to DVD and Blu in most places.

johnny_ultimate

I'll be honest and say I'm not particularly up for adding too many new categories, especially ones that aren't easily defined. Best dumb fun could certainly be a runner, although personally I think Darko's suggestion is served by a number of categories already. Again, if there's a demand, happy to add it to the pile.

Antar Bolaeisk

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Film you thought would be rubbish but was actually good.

Sounds tailor made for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

With all the super hero movies this year they'd almost need a category unto themselves (Best use of Spandex in a Supporting Role?)

Tipsy McSwagger

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Sounds tailor made for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

With all the super hero movies this year they'd almost need a category unto themselves (Best use of Spandex in a Supporting Role?)

Paul was surprisingly good.

SVG

Am I the only one who thinks there's way too many categories? Here's what I'd change:

Acting Awards:
Best Actor
Supporting Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actress
Best Newcomer

Best Film Awards:
Hollywood Maybe call this Blockbuster instead?
Irish / British
Foreign Language
Adaptation / Remake
Animation
World Animation
American Independent / Arthouse I'd just call this Indie
Documentary

Misc Awards:
Best Director
Best Screenplay
Best Character
Best Soundtrack / Score
Best Cinematography
Best Scene Maybe change this to Movie Moment in case someone just wants to nominate a line or something
Best Special Effects I'd maybe combine cinematography and special effects into Best Visuals
Newcomer of the Year (director)
Film That Deserved Better

Walk of Shame 'Awards':
Worst Film
Worst Acting Performance
Most Overrated Film
Biggest Missed Opportunity

Anyway, that might be too extreme! Looking forward to see how everyone votes.

bnt

I think a good idea will be to clarify what "this year" means - I assume it means the Irish release date, not the date used on IMDB. One of my nominations for Film of the Year is marked 2010, because it played quite a few festivals then, but it didn't get released here or the UK until May 2011.

sportzstar

There should be one for 'Should win best picture award at Oscars but won't'.

Sad Professor

bnt wrote: »

I think a good idea will be to clarify what "this year" means - I assume it means the Irish release date, not the date used on IMDB. One of my nominations for Film of the Year is marked 2010, because it played quite a few festivals then, but it didn't get released here or the UK until May 2011.

Yeah, it means films released in Ireland during 2011. This has always been made clear. Although in some years films released in January were also included. But this means pushing the awards back and creates added confusion for subsequent years.

Does anyone know of any significant, potentially award-winning films that aren't due for release here until the new year? Black Swan was a big one last year that many people wanted to nominate but we couldn't allow because it wasn't released here until January.

p to the e

Best Death Scene could also throw up some winners. What is my fascination with death?

JP Liz V1

What about best casting or best ensemble cast?

johnny_ultimate

Sad Professor wrote: »

Does anyone know of any significant, potentially award-winning films that aren't due for release here until the new year? Black Swan was a big one last year that many people wanted to nominate but we couldn't allow because it wasn't released here until January.

The Artist and Margaret are the two I can think of off the top of my head, although the former is out on December 30th or something :pac:

Anyway, I'm going to suggest a provisional list based on some of the suggestions in the thread. Please note I haven't added too many new categories, as I think keeping it minimal is the best approach. If you all profoundly disagree with any inclusions and/or exclusions, feel free to shout loudly.

Acting Awards:
Best Actor
Supporting Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actress
Best Newcomer

Best Film Awards:
Hollywood Blockbuster
Dumb Fun
Non-American English Language
Foreign Language
Animation
American Indie
Documentary

Misc Awards:
Best Director
Best Screenplay
Best Character
Best Soundtrack / Score
Best Cinematography
Best Scene / Moment
Best Special Effects
Newcomer of the Year (director)
Film That Deserved Better

Walk of Shame 'Awards':
Worst Film
Worst Acting Performance
Most Overrated Film
Most Disappointing (less of a mouthful than 'biggest missed opportunity')

SVG

This being an Irish site, I think it's a pity to lose the Irish film category for Best Non-American English Language (because of the small number of Irish films and the close links between UK and Irish film, I'm ok with a British/Irish category but I don't think it should be diluted further). I know some people might want a place to vote for something like Snowtown but stuff like that could be accommodated if the Indie category were not restricted to American films.

johnny_ultimate

I would tend to agree with that (even if the Guard is just going to win no matter what :rolleyes:), but was just going with what seemed like consensus!

I'm not too keen on changing it to a general 'indie' category - I think the American scene is deserving of a category of its own (although nothing has a chance against Drive or The Tree of Life) and it's also an area more people will have experience of.

SVG

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I'm not too keen on changing it to a general 'indie' category - I think the American scene is deserving of a category of its own.

Well, whatever you think but I'd (obviously) be ok with taking away the American part.

I've just realised there's no best overall film- it's all divided up. That's one thing I'd like to see added.

johnny_ultimate

SVG wrote: »

I've just realised there's no best overall film- it's all divided up. That's one thing I'd like to see added.

There is a reason for that. Last year, the intention was to put the winners of each individual category up for nomination for an overall best film, but then Inception came along and basically destroyed every other category. There wasn't any point in running a final poll when it was painfully obvious what was going to win.

If there's a more even split / competition this year, it certainly could be worth putting them up for a vote. Although I do like having a diverse list of winners rather than a single dominating one, which was the (mostly successful!) reason for diversifying the 'best film' category last year.

Sad Professor

I agree with johnny_ultimate about keeping the “American” in American Indie & Art-house. But it would be nice to have somewhere for Australian films. I wasn’t just thinking of Snowtown, but also Animal Kingdom, Beautiful Kate, Oranges & Sunshine and Sleeping Beauty. Plus others like Samson & Delilah that I never got around to. Interesting little Australian films that probably don’t deserve their own category and wouldn’t stand a chance in the American indie category.

As a compromise, how about we keep the name of the category as “Irish / British” and only list Irish-British films in the long list, but make an allowance for Australian films if people (mostly me) want to nominate them? However, if everyone feels the Irish-British category should be kept as it is, I'm fine with that too.

SVG

I think it's important there's something Irish so how about keeping Non-American English Language (it's a mouthful:)) and adding an Irish Achievement in Film Award? People could nominate a film like The Guard, a performance like Saoirse Ronan in Hanna or a director like Jim Sheridan for Dream House:p.

nyarlothothep

There should be a best fantasy comedy film with dick jokes category.

johnny_ultimate

Already have it, but it goes by the name of 'worst film'. It's latin.

Its a shame that is no way to enforce a rule that in order to vote you have to have seen all the films in each catagory. I can see loads of people voting for The Guard as its the only Irish/English film they've seen this past year.

Goldstein

Deleted User wrote: »

Its a shame that is no way to enforce a rule that in order to vote you have to have seen all the films in each catagory. I can see loads of people voting for The Guard as its the only Irish/English film they've seen this past year.

Yes, that's the quintessential problem with all favourite/best type voting systems and why the less widely viewed movies will always suffer. In order to ever have balanced properly weighted proportionate results, a desirable system has to know which movies people have or haven't seen.
(I'm not suggesting that be done here, just talking in general)

I admit to feeling guilty whenever I vote in a category in which I haven't yet seen all the nominated movies. I usually just don't vote for that category as it's not fair to those movies I'm not voting for without ever seeing.

don ramo

Goldstein wrote: »

Yes, that's the quintessential problem with all favourite/best type voting systems and why the less widely viewed movies will always suffer. In order to ever have balanced properly weighted proportionate results, a desirable system has to know which movies people have or haven't seen.
(I'm not suggesting that be done here, just talking in general)

I admit to feeling guilty whenever I vote in a category in which I haven't yet seen all the nominated movies. I usually just don't vote for that category as it's not fair to those movies I'm not voting for without ever seeing.

yeah but even though youll vote for the one youve seen, having the other choices will bring other films to your attention, even if you dont have a fair amount of time to view them,

johnny_ultimate

Just an update that we're looking to have 'long lists' prepared by the middle of the week. We'll probably move all discussion over to film awards to keep things tidier over here. Prepare for walls of text and lists :pac:

Peyton Manning

Any chance of a Best Trailer category that completely ignores the feature length film itself, and only awards the, emm, best trailer itself?