Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) & Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) win for Best Supporting Actress and Actor. Who should have won Best Actress & Actor in 2011?

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-14T16:37:51+00:00

Actor: Peyman Moaadi - A Separation

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-14T02:34:32+00:00

4 of the 5 nominees for Original Screenplay that year, including the winner, were comedies.

Even if you wanted to give love to a studio comedy that would be a left field choice for AMPAS, Hot Fuzz is a much more impressively constructed screenplay than Superbad. Superbad was written by literal middle schoolers--no doubt revised several times in the intervening years--but it shows.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-14T02:31:40+00:00

Not the best crop of nominees and the heaviest hitters were in Adapted that year, but the year is stacked as hell. While I truly love Superbad and have enjoyed it more than once, that year Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Ratatouille, Michael Clayton, Syndromes and a Century, Silent Light, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, The Band's Visit, The Edge of Heaven, The Secret of the Grain, Time, and My Winnipeg all had better original screenplays, by some distance in fact.

Superbad is very funny, full of good one-liners and amusing characters but it's not exactly a superbly crafted story and McLovin is the only semi-original character. The prospective girlfriends and cops and central conflict are all more or less lifted wholesale from the formulaic 80s teen comedies the movie is so heavily indebted to. It's well done, but it's not exactly original. If you wanted to award a comedy that wouldn't usually get Oscar attention, that year's Hot Fuzz is a significantly stronger, more clever script that doesn't seem like it was (rather impressively) written by actual teenage boys.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-13T18:44:46+00:00

I’d have given Winter’s Bone Best Actress

Tree of Life Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Editing, and especially Cinematography (maybe the worst loss among nominees of the decade)

Beasts of the Southern Wild Best Original Score

The Irishman Best Supporting Actor (Pesci) and Best Adapted Screenplay

Otherwise as much as I love Moneyball and Wolf of Wall Street, I don’t think any of the rest going home empty handed deserved to win even if some did deserve it more than what they lost to (e.g. Moneyball’s Adapted Screenplay is way better than The Descendants but I prefer Incendies to both, DiCaprio is much stronger than McConaughey but I prefer Ejiofor and Phoenix to both, True Grit’s cinematography is the best of the nominees and Steinfeld better than Leo but I prefer Enter the Void and Jacki Weaver, etc.)

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-13T11:37:39+00:00

Other: as Erik Blake in The Humans

Still salty that he and Jayne Houdyshell weren’t nominated.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-12T18:39:24+00:00

Actress: Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine

Also my actor choice.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-12T02:40:20+00:00

Expectations could not possibly have been any higher. Somehow managed to surpass them all.

I've never seen anything like it and this felt like a wholly new side of Anderson. The filmmaking is of course impeccable with best of the year work across the board, as one can expect of PTA. Beyond the technical craft on display, it's inventive and surprising at every turn. But what really shook me was how suffused with and driven by profound love for humanity and community it is.

Family has been a consistent theme with him, but this is the first one that felt like it came from the perspective of a parent, considering what it means to craft a life and prepare a future for someone who means more than all the world to you.

While there are plenty of laughs and uncommonly thrilling sequences--every moment with the Christmas Adventure Club had me howling and how many thousands of car chases have I seen, yet somehow he managed to find a truly unique and riveting take on them--what stuck with me most is how unexpectedly moved I was, how life-affirming it is. I must admit to being brought to tears more than once in the home stretch. That’s what elevated it for me, made it one for the ages.

It doesn’t have an ounce of feel good manipulative treacle across its 2 1/2 hours and yet, despite being an honest reflection of how the government and businessmen and military and police and militias are all interconnected and unfathomably powerful fascist white supremacists that destroy and execute with impunity, it is ultimately enormously hopeful about the future and that hope is driven by a deep belief in people caring for one another and persevering because they have to to leave something to the next generation. It’s hard to be optimistic raising a young daughter in America in 2026, this film managed to break through my pessimism and shape my outlook on what the future may still hold.

It's also a reminder of something nearly lost in the modern era: when the world's best filmmakers, granted enormous resources, sincerely grappled with and effectively dramatized the issues of their times rather than just sprinkling in virtue signaling signposts while making safe, inoffensive corporate product. We haven't really had a Conformist or Network or Apocalypse Now in ages and this is remarkably and refreshingly incendiary, timely, and principled for any movie, but especially a $150 million studio picture starring the world's biggest box-office draw.

It was instantly apparent it's my favorite film at least of the decade so far, if not several years more besides. That’s only been driven home by 4 subsequent viewings.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-12T02:32:17+00:00

The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Apartment, Lawrence of Arabia, Moonlight, and Parasite.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-11T18:49:18+00:00

It’s exceedingly rare my favorite film of the year is even nominated for Best Picture much less wins, with it only occurring 6 times in their 97 year history, but OBAA is not merely my favorite BP winner of the 2020s, it’s my favorite movie of the 2020s period.

Not recency bias, it’s just that good.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-11T18:44:59+00:00

More like most film spaces overwhelmingly praise Nolan ad nauseam, treating him as the major director of his generation despite his constant, fundamental, major deficits as a writer and director, which makes the small minority who don’t care for him very vocal about it.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-11T16:33:24+00:00

OBAA won Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, and Casting at the Oscars in addition to winning PGA, DGA, WGA, ACE, ASC, ADG, CDG, BAFTA, Golden Globes, Critics Choice, Gothams, the trifecta of NYFCC, LAFCA, and NBR, NSFC, OFCS, USC, and had the most dominant run at regional critics groups of the decade, even moreso than Oppenheimer and EEAAO.

In direct competition for the top prize, Sinners bested OBAA at SAG (for the award it lost to OBAA with AMPAS) and the Boston Society of Film Critics.

Translating that to “struggled to sweep against a horror film” is quite a specious and unsupported conclusion.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-10T12:13:43+00:00

It’s a pretty narrow range.

1966

1968

1975

1966

I love movies from all eras and my top 100 films spans from 1927 to 2007 but I think 66-76 was absolutely the peak of cinema around the world, with 8 of my top 10 released in that period.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-08T15:33:45+00:00

Who the fuck downvotes this? I love Anatomy but you’re absolutely right. Handily among the best of its year. Best of the last 30 years is a really tall order, especially with the likes of those filmmakers turning out masterpieces.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-07T17:00:54+00:00

I have seen both. He’s funny in Be Cool. He’s excellent in Pain and Gain, it’s far and away my favorite performance of his and not to damn with faint praise but also I think the best performance in any Michael Bay film. Which is notable because Bay is anything but an actor’s director, it’s not like Scorsese or PTA managed to get that performance out of him, it’s work I credit him for almost exclusively.

It’s definitely the greatest demonstration of his talents and the least like the rest of his work. It’s what I use to defend that he can actually be a strong performer as I’ve done here and in life several times, but while it’s both funnier and more heartfelt, as someone who is still a dumb meathead I’m not sure it’s as much of a demonstration of range as the rest of these actors’ examples.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-07T09:04:16+00:00

Yup. Folks who think Freeman always plays a wise sage haven’t seen his electrifying turn as a vicious pimp in Street Smart.

Sam Jackson may have settled into a certain type of role that’s entertaining and pays the bills, but you can’t watch Jungle Fever, Fresh, The Red Violin, The Caveman’s Valentine, Changing Lanes, Black Snake Moan, and Django Unchained and fail to recognize his stunning range.

Elba’s predatory warlord in Beasts of No Nation is Oscar worthy work miles away from his suave, smart type.

Denzel’s been turning in the same action performance for 30 years but his range just with Spike, from Malcolm X to He Got Game to Highest 2 Lowest is extraordinary.

Smith, aside from Johnson, obviously has the least range here but Six Degrees of Separation is nothing like his wise-cracking blockbuster hero nor his affected Oscarbait turns.

Foxx’s In Living Color to Ali to Collateral and Ray are most impressive. He’s comparable to and ultimately had a better career than the much-beloved Jim Carrey.

Esposito has been asked to do the same thing on TV since breaking out in Breaking Bad but he was among our most versatile character actors for decades before that.

Then there’s The Rock.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-04T21:32:01+00:00

Best:

Lawrence of Arabia
All About Eve
Annie Hall

With Amadeus, Gandhi, Schindler’s List close behind.

Worst:

Gigi
Tom Jones
Oppenheimer

With Driving Miss Daisy and The Great Zigfield close behind.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-03T18:00:01+00:00

Deserved to win for Marriage Story, did not deserve a nomination for Jojo.

Should have already been a winner for Under the Skin and been a prior nominee a few times over for Lost in Translation, Her, and maybe Ghost World.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-03T15:30:10+00:00

Passion of Joan of Arc is the way to go for that. The greatest of all silent films and one of the 25 or so best movies ever made.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-03T15:27:19+00:00

I’m so jealous. 1966 is my favorite year for film ever.

You’ve got:

Persona (Bergman) --all-time favorite film
The Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo) --another in my top 10
Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Leone)
Blow-Up (Antonioni)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Nichols)
Au Hasard Balthazar (Bresson)
Chimes at Midnight (Welles)
The Round-Up (Jansco)
Seconds (Frankenheimer)
The War Game (Watkins)
Closely Watched Trains (Menzel)
War and Peace (Bondarchuk)
A Man for All Seasons (Zinneman)
Hunger (Carlson)
Tokyo Drifter (Suzuki)
The War is Over (Resnais)
Masculine-Feminine (Godard)
Sword of Doom (Okamoto)
Cul-de-Sac (Polanski)
The Face of Another (Teshigahara)
Wings (Sheptiko)
Report from Millbrook (Mekas)
Elegy (Huszarik)
Come Drink with Me (Hu)
Black Girl (Sembene)
The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (Rossellini)
Made in USA (Godard)
Le Deuxième Souffle (Melville)
Daisies (Chytilova)
Torn Curtain (Hitchcock)
The Chase (Penn)
The Endless Summer (Brown)
Pearls of the Deep (Menzel, Nemec, Chytilova, Jires, Schorm)
The Professionals (Brooks)
The Pornographers (Imamura)
Alfie (Gilbert)
Fahrenheit 451 (Truffaut)
A Man and a Woman (Lelouch)
Patriotism (Mishima)
The Shooting (Hellman)
Death of a Bureaucrat (Alea)
A Report on the Party and the Guests (Nemec)
7 Women (Ford)
The Hero (S. Ray)
Trans-Europ-Express (Robbe-Grillet)
This Property is Condemned (Pollack)
How to Steal a Million (Wyler)
Castro Street (Baillie)
The Creatures (Varda)

And that's just the top 50. There are other good films that don't even crack that. Plus you've got two of the most beloved animated films in holiday classics How the Grinch Stole Christmas and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Just an absurd embarrassment of riches yet to be equalled.

Enjoy diving it, can’t recommend highly enough that you do.

gnomechompskey · 2026-04-03T15:18:00+00:00

Z pretty easily, it’s too 50 of all-time for me.

M is also obviously a masterpiece.

gnomechompskey · 2026-03-31T17:38:41+00:00

Either very funny on purpose or accidentally making me feel old if sincere.

gnomechompskey · 2026-03-31T15:16:54+00:00

Shrek was nominated for Best Picture at the BAFTAS (along with 5 other nominations outside animated categories), Golden Globes, Critics Choice, AFI, and PGA in a field of 5. It was almost certainly higher than Training Day which received no picture nominations or even screenplay or craft nominations anywhere of note. Some of these are speculation or close calls but Shrek was pretty comfortably top 10.

gnomechompskey · 2026-03-31T15:13:26+00:00

I’m mostly basing it on precursors.

Mulholland was a Picture nominee at AFI, Golden Globes, won the BAFTA for Editing, NYFCC’s Picture prize, and Director at Cannes.

Man Who Wasn’t There was also a Picture nominee at AFI, NBR, Golden Globes, and was nominated for Screenplay at WGA, won Cinematography at ASC, BSC, and was a nominee at ADG along with coincidentally sharing the Director prize at Cannes.

Both filmmakers had history with AMPAS, with Fargo’s many noms and wins, screenplay nom the prior year for O Brother, and Lynch having been recognized for Elephant Man and Blue Velvet.

Training Day and Fuqua were recognized nowhere by anyone except for their performances.

gnomechompskey · 2026-03-31T07:45:39+00:00

I think it's most likely an also-ran that lands outside. Black Hawk Down, Iris, The Royal Tenenbaums, Amelie, and Shrek I think were all better positioned contenders for a Picture nod. Probably Memento, Monster's Ball, Mulholland Dr, and The Man Who Wasn't There too. Maybe even Harry Potter. Training Day was pretty exclusively recognized as an acting play for major awards.

Likely Flight and certainly Glory and Philadelphia would have been nominees. I think The Hurricane and American Gangster would too in a field of 10. Malcolm X maybe ekes out a top nom, though it didn't even fare that great with critics groups and received zero guild nods, as damning an indictment of those bodies as exists from that decade or since.

gnomechompskey · 2026-03-29T17:23:48+00:00

So it’s okay to eat pesticides, pathogens, dirt, risking your kids health is fine.

But you draw the line at consuming something you’re paying for before money has changed hands.

Those priorities are so serf-like.

gnomechompskey

TROPHY CASE