the 2018 jdb awards

Here are my personal film awards for 2018!

A look back at last year when Get Out won Picture, Director, Original Screenplay & Sound.



picture

EIGHTH GRADE

2018 offered up many specific and engrossing character studies. Bo Burnham's modestly-mounted but deeply affecting Eighth Grade is a standout coming-of-age tale with funny, wry details and an emotional pull.

nominees

BURNING
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
THE FAVOURITE
HAPPY AS LAZZARO
LEAVE NO TRACE
THE RIDER
ROMA
SHIRKERS
WIDOWS





director


Sandi Tan, SHIRKERS


Sandi Tan's tale is a painful one from an artist's perspective, but it's brought to life in her doc with great complexity, humor, creativity and soul. A bright year for female directors. Chloé Zhao's distinctive efforts almost made my line-up and Marielle Heller's film was wonderful as well.

nominees

Bo Burnham, EIGHTH GRADE
Debra Granik, LEAVE NO TRACE
Yorgos Lanthimos, THE FAVOURITE
Alice Rohrwacher, HAPPY AS LAZZARO





actor


Lakeith Stanfield, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU

Stanfield's well-calibrated, rich turn carries the tricky genre bends of Boots Riley's social commentary dirge.

nominees

Yoo Ah-in, BURNING
Ethan Hawke, FIRST REFORMED
Brady Jandreau, THE RIDER
Adriano Tardiolo, HAPPY AS LAZZARO




actress


Olivia Colman, THE FAVOURITE

Colman finally gets a centerpiece performance in The Favourite--showing tremendous range (vocally and emotionally) through all of Queen Anne's miserable existence.

Outisde of a narrowed-down five, there are so many other great lead female performances from 2018: Nadia Alexander in Blame, Glenn Close in The Wife, Viola Davis in Widows, Zoey Deutch in Flower, Edie Falco in Outside In, Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Kindergarten Teacher, Regina Hall in Support the Girls, Helena Howard in Madeline's Madeline, Lady Gaga in A Star is Born, Andrea Riseborough in Nancy (also great in Mandy), Emma Stone in The Favourite, and Charlize Theron in Tully.

nominees

Toni Collette, HEREDITARY
Elsie Fisher, EIGHTH GRADE
Melissa McCarthy, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, LEAVE NO TRACE





supporting actor

Richard E. Grant, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

Classic supporting turn, given great humor and deep specificity by character actor Richard E. Grant.

nominees

Raul Castillo, WE THE ANIMALS
Josh Hamilton, EIGHTH GRADE
Linus Roache, MANDY
Steven Yeun, BURNING



supporting actress


Sakura Ando, SHOPLIFTERS

I was entranced by Ando's very natural presence in Shoplifters throughout. She delivers the film's most crushing line.

nominees

Elizabeth Debicki, WIDOWS
Jeon Jong-seo, BURNING
Shayna McHayle, SUPPORT THE GIRLS
Molly Parker, MADELINE’S MADELINE



original screenplay


Alice Rohrwacher, HAPPY AS LAZZARO

Exemplary script in dialogue and in its unique, twinning form.

nominees

Bo Burnham, EIGHTH GRADE
Christina Choe, NANCY
Deborah Davis & Tony McNamara, THE FAVOURITE
Boots Riley, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU



adapted screenplay



Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

The mark of Holofcener, one of my favorite screenwriters, is here. Acerbic and moving.

nominees

Desiree Akhavan & Cecilia Frugiuele, THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST
Gillian Flynn & Steve McQueen, WIDOWS
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini, LEAVE NO TRACE
Oh Jung-mi & Lee Chang-dong, BURNING




ensemble


WIDOWS

The hammy collides with the more quietly introspective, in this broad, appealing mix of actorly styles--a throwback to ensemble pics of the 1970s--where, somehow, everyone seems to create a cohesive whole.

nominees

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
THE FAVOURITE
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
SHOPLIFTERS



foreign film


HAPPY AS LAZZARO

Such a mesmerizing fable, made evocative by direction, script and cast. Other nominees here are equally outstanding in their own ways.

nominees


BURNING
COLD WAR
ROMA
SHOPLIFTERS



documentary


SHIRKERS

One of the most interesting docs of the year in its use of the form and the story (and lost film) within it.

nominees

FREE SOLO
MINDING THE GAP
OF FATHERS AND SONS
WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?



cinematography

Pascale Granel, THE WILD BOYS

Really vivid work from Granel, with a mix of hyper-coloring and throwbacks to 30s black & white flicks like Captains Courageous. This was definitely one of the most visually-arresting works I saw this year.

nominees

Alfonso Cuarón, ROMA
Benjamin Loeb, MANDY
Mart Taniel, NOVEMBER
Lukasz Zal, COLD WAR



film editing


Bob Murawski & Orson Welles, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND

Most in this category have very flashy, distinctive editing styles which shape the films with unusual rhythms. The Other Side of the Wind is an astounding feat in Murawksi's six month efforts in editing Welles' famously lost picture.

nominees

Bernard Beets, LET THE CORPSES TAN
Lucas Celler, Sandi Tan, & Kimberley Has, SHIRKERS
Bing Liu, MINDING THE GAP
Joe Walker, WIDOWS



art direction / production design


HEREDITARY

The miniatures, the creepy, woodsy house, Joan's eerie apartment--all an excellent, precise display of art direction and production design at work in Hereditary.

nominees

BLACK PANTHER
EL ANGEL
THE FAVOURITE
SORRY TO BOTHER YOU




film score

Nicholas Brittell, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

One of the finest film scores I've heard in years--not only in its tuneful beauty--but its evocative use of instrumentation and motifs throughout.

nominees

Thomas Adès, COLETTE
Jóhann Jóhannsson, MANDY
Anna Meredith, EIGHTH GRADE
Thomas Newman, UNSANE



song

“Shallow,” A STAR IS BORN

A big, satisfying ballad that soars in the early part of A Star is Born.

nominees

“All the Stars,” BLACK PANTHER
“Amulet of the Weeping Maze,” MANDY
“OYAHYTT,” SORRY TO BOTHER YOU
“Pray for Me,” BLACK PANTHER



costume design


Sandy Powell, THE FAVOURITE

Powell continues her streak of using unusual, out-of-time fabrics for period costuming. She makes the black & white palate so intrinsic to the characters and themes of the picture.

nominees

Ruth E. Carter, BLACK PANTHER
Sarah Edwards, OCEAN’S 8
Caroline Eselin, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
Julio Suárez, EL ANGEL



make-up & hair

SUSPIRIA

Consider me dazzled by the Tilda Swinton transformation, Tilda's long, brushed-out hair, and the gory effects in Suspiria.

nominees

BLACK PANTHER
BORDER
MANDY
ZAMA



sound design

MADELINE’S MADELINE

A clanging, banging, anxious mix--part of the main characters' psyche--a risk that pays off as one of the film's most defining elements.

nominees

FIRST MAN
HEREDITARY
A QUIET PLACE
A STAR IS BORN



visual effects

FIRST MAN

Gorgeous, practical effects. Wish more films of this era employed them.

BLACK PANTHER
PADDINGTON 2

the 2017 jdb awards

picture

GET OUT

"The fact that the entertainment industry is not necessarily inclusive of the African-American experience is a similar form of neglect and is a symptom of a deeper problem. I wanted to make a film that acknowledges neglect and inaction in the face of the real race monster. In the process, I wanted to give a horror movie to everyone, but really to black audiences, who are loyal horror fans. We watch movies, screaming, “Get out!” in dark rooms at this screen that we cannot affect. It’s a symbol for that, which stops us from action." -Jordan Peele

nominees

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

COLUMBUS

THE FLORIDA PROJECT

IN TRANSIT 

LADY BIRD
LOVELESS

MUDBOUND

PHANTOM THREAD

A QUIET PASSION 

director

Jordan Peele, GET OUT

"There’s so many things that have to happen for me to just do my job. To do acting. There’s so many pieces. So many stars have to align.  But a major piece (that) has to be there for me to do my job is belief and someone believed in me... I don’t know why we live in a world where because of who I am and the hue I have people don’t. And that’s tough. So when Jordan did it meant the world to me and I just didn’t want to let him down." -Daniel Kaluuya

nominees

Paul Thomas Anderson, PHANTOM THREAD

Greta Gerwig, LADY BIRD

Luca Guadagnino, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Andrey Zvyagintsev, LOVELESS

actor

Timothée Chalamet, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

"There is a universally human quality to Elio... There’s a tension on the surface of his existence, and he’s in a transitionary period in his life, becoming a man and dealing with feelings of sexual impulse for the first time. It felt rare to read a story about a young person who’s this complex. It’s no surface representation of what young people are. And as an actor, you seize that kind of opportunity." -Timothée Chalamet

nominees

Daniel Day-Lewis, PHANTOM THREAD

Adan Jodorowsky, ENDLESS POETRY 

Daniel Kaluuya, GET OUT

Robert Pattinson, GOOD TIME

actress

Cynthia Nixon, A QUIET PASSION

"What’s amazing about A Quiet Passion is that we’re showing Emily in very different stages of her life. We begin with her youthful optimism and hope and we just follow her until the end of her life, when she’s already bitterly disappointed and in terrible pain, suffering from a horrible illness. There are a lot of different Emily Dickinsons out there. She and her poetry have such a following that it’s easy to find different camps of people who feel that they know Emily so well. But each of them knows a different version of their favorite poetess." -Cynthia Nixon

nominees

Vicky Krieps, PHANTOM THREAD

Saoirse Ronan, LADY BIRD

Meryl Streep, THE POST

Daniela Vega, A FANTASTIC WOMAN

supporting actor

Armie Hammer, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

"I'm not gonna lie, dancing scenes are pretty tough. ... It's really funny about filming a dancing scene because most people who aren't in the business don't realize that there is absolutely no music going on. If you're lucky, you get a click track that just is literally just clicking so that you can keep a rhythm of what you're doing. But then having no music, being completely sober, having everyone stare at you — it does not for an easy scene make. ... And I'm 6'5", so I feel like I'm ... flailing more than anything else. But so much of that scene was about watching someone be totally enraptured and just lost in a moment and enjoying themselves, because that's one of the things that Oliver is able to do that Elio really appreciates." -Armie Hammer

nominees

Willem Dafoe, THE FLORIDA PROJECT

Garrett Hedlund, MUDBOUND 

Barry Keoghan, THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER 

Michael Stuhlbarg, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

supporting actress

Laurie Metcalf, LADY BIRD

“I loved that it was a very balanced relationship, that one of them wasn’t just a monster,” Metcalf said. “I think she’s being a great mom and doing everything within her powers to help her child succeed... It’s all coming from a positive place. It’s just a moment in their lives where there’s so much miscommunication and frustration and tension that everything escalates too fast.” -Laurie Metcalf

nominees

Joanna Bacon, A QUIET PASSION 

Kirin Kiki, AFTER THE STORM 

Melissa Leo, NOVITIATE

Lesley Manville, PHANTOM THREAD

original screenplay

Jordan Peele, GET OUT

"The first time I actually put pen to paper to write this script was three years ago, so the whole idea was marinating for awhile. Then in the shooting of the movie and the drafts that went into shooting it, the last 5, 10% sort of came together. I pitched the movie before I wrote it, and I pitched the movie as you see it, except for a couple of real distinct differences. But that’s my style. I only actually put pen to paper when I know the big picture." -Jordan Peele

nominees

Paul Thomas Anderson, PHANTOM THREAD

Terence Davies, A QUIET PASSION 

Greta Gerwig, LADY BIRD

Kogonada, COLUMBUS

adapted screenplay

James Ivory, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

"I just sat with the novel and I would just write out the script in longhand. I would just go through it bit by bit, scene by scene. Sometimes I would invent things. I mean the whole business of the statue that they find at the bottom of the lake, that's all an invented thing. You have to drop great chunks of things from the book and come up with other things. But it's a slow process.

I would basically just write in longhand, and after I got something that I liked, I would type that up on a typewriter. I never work on a computer. I can't write on a computer. It's just not possible for me to do that. And so gradually, bit by bit by bit, over many, many months, it all came together." -James Ivory

nominees

Hampton Fancher & Michael Green, BLADE RUNNER 2049

François Ozon & Philippe Piazzo, FRANTZ

Dee Rees & Virgil Williams, MUDBOUND

Aaron Sorkin, MOLLY’S GAME

ensemble

GET OUT

"Watching a film like Get Out, it’s clear that Terri Taylor put a tremendous amount of thought into each role, mirroring the director’s wit and darkly subversive tone with the actors she put forth. Anchored by a searing and inspired performance by Daniel Kaluuya, each actor walks the fine line between naturalism and absurdity. Their grounded performances disarm and create more dissonance as the audience is riveted to the unfolding twists and turns. From the opening scene, Lakieth Stanfield’s understated banter shocks us into a reality where things are not as they seem. Allison Williams’ lighthearted charm and effervescent chemistry with Daniel later makes the turn all the more devastating. The veteran heavyweight Catherine Keener stuns in a revelatory role, the unassuming Bradley Whitford leads us effortlessly, while the dynamic Caleb Landry Jones brings danger and LilRel Howery provides a crucial and comedic link. Each and every actor adds intrigue and heightens the unfolding drama without tipping their hand. And while they have very different backgrounds and styles, on screen the actors effortlessly inhabit the same shifting landscape and display both comedic and dramatic chops." -Sarah Finn

nominees

BATTLE OF THE SEXES

BPM (Beats per Minute)

LADY BIRD

MUDBOUND

foreign language film

LOVELESS

"I’m not a teacher, here to preach to viewers. I don’t really think about the lessons that people take away from watching my films. Just like any other film, Loveless is basically all the concentrated experience of somebody else’s emotions and reflections of life, which we offer to the viewer. They can sit on comfortable chairs and all of this is given to them on a plate but in a concentrated form. They can watch somebody else’s destiny, somebody else’s mistakes. Loveless, is all about how people communicate in their relationships. Of course it is then up to the individual, how they will take and use all the experiences they view and they will form whatever thoughts they want." -Andrey Zvyagintsev

nominees

BPM 

AFTER THE STORM 

ENDLESS POETRY 

FRANTZ

documentary

IN TRANSIT

"If life is a journey, we are all fellow travelers. When I have journeyed on trains, I have seen people come together who in no other way would possibly meet. On trains, we discover a unique intimacy, where normal conventions dissolve and we open our lives to complete strangers. Maybe it is because the train holds us in limbo, a moment of truth between stations.

For over thirty years, it has been my dream to make a film about trains. Really, it is a film about the unity of humankind, in which viewers come to experience directly the feelings, hopes, and problems of others. And through this process of getting to know each other, we build the foundation for loving one another." -Albert Maysles

nominees

FACES PLACES

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO

STRONG ISLAND

UNCERTAIN 

cinematography

Elisha Christian, COLUMBUS

"The deliberate framing by Kogonada and cinematographer Elisha Christian emphasizes the interplay of space, structure, and the human form. People pose against the buildings, amble through their interiors, stare up at facades. Sensitive to the way we move in and relate to our environment, Columbus evokes a modernism its practitioners intended—an architecture that may be imposing and grounded in the theoretical, but is ultimately inextricable from a community’s life." -Elbert Ventura

nominees

Roger Deakins, BLADE RUNNER 2049

Mikhail Krichman, LOVELESS

Rachel Morrison, MUDBOUND 

Alexis Zabe, THE FLORIDA PROJECT 

film editing

Lee Smith, DUNKIRK

"With the rhythms of the film, if you put it in the wrong place it felt forced. Where it landed was where it worked the best. And we always knew he had an emotional cannon to fire. But it was a cannon that the film needed right there. You had to have that emotional rush because otherwise the tension, I think, would have probably killed some people. (laughs) It’s the same with the boys when they land back on the beach and a soldier walks into the surf and the guys build the pier out of the trucks and the guys being washed back onto the beach. That in itself was a kind of break. It was tense, but in a different way. So it was intriguing how that needed to be very carefully placed." -Lee Smith

nominees

Robin Campillo, BPM

Maxime Pozzi Garcia, FACES PLACES

Gregory Plotkin, GET OUT

Lynn True, IN TRANSIT 

score

Jonny Greenwood, PHANTOM THREAD

"I spent a long time trying to work out how to avoid pastiche, but at the same time ensure the music was in keeping with the 1950s. I even explored so-called Brixotica (the U.K. versions of Les Baxter) and other British trends from that period. The problem was that there’s no way to use much of it without being tongue-in-cheek—and if Reynolds is anything, he’s not that. He’s not ironic in any way. So instead, I focused on what I imagined Reynolds would have listen to at the time, and settled on things like the Glen Gould recordings of Bach and some of the string-heavy jazz records from that decade, like Ben Webster’s Music for Loving." -Jonny Greenwood

nominees

Michael Abels, GET OUT

Adan Jodorowsky, ENDLESS POETRY 

Oneohtrix Point Never, GOOD TIME 

Philippe Rombi, FRANTZ

song

“Visions of Gideon,” CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

“I’ve always been resistant to work in film... I think it’s because I’m always a little suspicious of the role of music in cinema. But Luca is an exception, because he’s one of those rare directors who uses music and sound so fiercely and with such mastery that you cannot imagine the films without the music.” -Sufjan Stevens

nominees

"If I Dare," BATTLE OF THE SEXES

“Mystery of Love,” CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

"The Pure and the Damned," GOOD TIME

"Was He Slow?", BABY DRIVER

art direction / set decoration

THE SHAPE OF WATER

"It had these symmetrical fire escapes radiating both ways from a central red door high up... And the idea was that the space above the theater at one time would’ve been a grander place for parties and got truncated and split in half in the '20s or '30s when it became a movie theater. And her side was used for film canister storage, and there’s some remnants of that with some racks near her bedroom that she’s modified for her shoe fetish. And what we decided was that her room fell to disuse and the other side [where Giles lives] got used and renovated... We thought there might’ve been a small fire that made the roof leak and water permeates that. And so the room got shaped over time by water. And it rotted the floors and stripped off the hardwood, and and we allowed for the sub floor below to have gaps for the movie theater lights to emanate through the floor boards." -Paul Austerberry

nominees

THE BAD BATCH

BLADE RUNNER 2049 

ENDLESS POETRY 

MOTHER!

costume design

Mark Bridges, PHANTOM THREAD

"I simply adore Phantom Thread’s costumes in the way they display both a superior level of craftsmanship and tempered character development, but perhaps this is a good time to remember that not everyone is thrilled by the creations of ‘The House of Woodcock’. In some reviews and through telling twitter chatter, I noticed that the film’s fashion was found a bit too rigid (and somewhat safe and boring, too), unlike, say, the signature designs of Cristóbal Balenciaga and Charles James; two designers that are often cited as inspirations for Phantom Thread. First, allow me to speculate that ‘rigidity’ was precisely the point Bridges was trying to make with the fashion of The House. Considering how particular and set-in-his-ways Reynolds is (he puts great emphasis on his breakfast rituals and is particular about his asparagus, for instance), it makes sense that his severity that jails the co-habitants of his house would also restrain his designs, the compilation of which unmistakably represents a singular point-of-view. In other words, kudos to Bridges, Phantom Thread’s ‘The House of Woodcock’ costumes unambiguously represent the authorship of Reynolds Woodcock, with several details, silhouettes and even garments thoughtfully repeating over the course of the film." -Tomris Laffly

nominees

Catherine Marchand, A QUIET PASSION

Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky, ENDLESS POETRY 

Ann Roth, THE POST

Mary Zophres, BATTLE OF THE SEXES 

make-up & hair

ENDLESS POETRY

nominees

THE BAD BATCH 

LOGAN LUCKY

A QUIET PASSION 

RAW

sound

GET OUT

"As soon as I saw the dailies, I called the sound mixer and said, “I need a clean version of that teacup, so please go on set, take the teacup, and just stir the spoon around it.” It became this hypnotic sound we carried throughout. I wanted the sequence to work as a straight drama between Chris and Missy. And then, when it felt right — I think when Missy says, “What about your mother? Where were you when she died?” and he says, “I don’t want to think about that” — I cut to the teacup to show she’s turning the spoon, and then Chris acquiesces and says, “Home. Watching TV.” The teacup in that scene became a character." - Film Editor Gregory Plotkin

nominees

BABY DRIVER

BLADE RUNNER 2049

GOOD TIME

PHANTOM THREAD

sound editing

BABY DRIVER

nominees

THE BAD BATCH 

BLADE RUNNER 2049

DUNKIRK

MOTHER!

visual effects

BLADE RUNNER 2049

"We really wanted to use the new technology, but we also had miniatures, as a nod to the first movie, and to make it feel different. I did the same thing with matte paintings. We worked with Deak Ferrand from Rodeo [FX], one of the best matte painters in the world. It made the film seem warmer, and we really wanted the film to feel analogue.

We wanted to shoot as much as we could, and build as much set around the actors as we could, but we were limited by the size of our backlots, and the nature of what we’re doing is, no city looks like what we put in the movie. So we did massive amounts of work, and really, I think every wide shot in the film would be a visual effect. The point is that we had the new technology, but we consciously reined in our effects a bit, and I think we’re a better film for it. CG does shiny things well, but we didn’t like shiny things in our movie. We liked dirty, wet, grimy." -Visual Effects Supervisor John Nelson

nominees

OKJA

THE SHAPE OF WATER

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

A look back at my 2016 Awards.