56 films seen, all considered, but only a handful will achieve recognition in the Golden Stans. 2007 was a tough year: early on, it looked like there might not be that many contenders, but with such a high quality London Film Festival, I had the toughest judging ever.
Many excellent films and performances have gone unrecognised this time, when they might easily have made the nomination lists in years passed.
Working in reverse then, the first award is for Original Score. Clint Mansell's work on The Fountain was simply outstanding: I had to get the CD immediately after the screening.
The Best Cinematography Award is a no brainer: Roger Deakins' work on No Country For Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James was untouchable.
The Best Adapted Screenplay Award goes to Flags Of Our Fathers, while Juno scoops the Best Original Screenplay Award.
The nominations for Best Supporting Actress are:
Adrianna Barraza in Babel
Rinko Kikuchi in Babel
Kristin Scott Thomas in The Walker
Meryl Streep in Lions For Lambs
Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton
Rachel Weisz in The Fountain
And the winner is... Rinko Kikuchi.
The nominations for Best Supporting Actor are:
Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James
Adam Beach in Flags Of Our Fathers
Tom Cruise in Lions For Lambs
Chiwetel Ejiofor in Talk To Me and American Gangster
Tristan Ulloa in Mataharis
Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton
And the winner is... Casey Affleck.
The nominations for Best Actress are:
Halle Berry in Things We Lost In The Fire
Cate Blanchett in The Good German, Notes On A Scandal, and I'm Not There
Laura Dern in Inland Empire
Laura Linney in Jindabyne and The Savages
Ellen Page in Juno
Jodie Whittaker in Venus
And the winner is... Laura Linney.
The nominations for Best Actor are:
John Cusack in Grace Is Gone
Hugh Jackman in The Fountain
Ulrich Muhe in The Lives Of Others
Benecio del Toro in Things We Lost In The Fire
Thomas Turgoose in This Is England
Forrest Whitaker in The Last King Of Scotland
And the winner is... John Cusack.
The nominations for the penultimate award, Best Director, are:
Darren Arronovsky for The Fountain
Andrew Dominik for The Assassination Of Jesse James
Clint Eastwood for Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck for The Lives Of Others
Kevin Macdonald for The Last King Of Scotland
Shane Meadows for This Is England
And the winner is... Darren Arronovsky.
And now the final award - and the most prestigious - Best Film. 15 films qualify; 14 are listed in alphabetical order before the winner is revealed at the end. Many themes presented themselves this year: war and its representation by the media, intrusion by the state and the media, violence begets violence, the refusal to accept old age and death as inevitable, and also, like 2006, the power of hope.
So, 14 of the best that I saw in 2007 are:
Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima
Grace Is Gone
Hot Fuzz
The Assassination Of Jesse James
Juno
The Last King Of Scotland
The Lives Of Others
No Country For Old Men
Once
The Savages
Son Of Rambow: A Home Movie
This Is England
Venus
Zodiac
Settling on the 15th and best film I saw was difficult with Grace Is Gone, The Lives Of Others, The Savages and Son Of Rambow in there pitching, but in the end I had to go for the film that probably divided more critics than any other in 2007, a film that requires the audience to make a huge leap, a film that refuses to accept death, a film that combines dizzying imagination, strong performances, startling visuals, and beautiful music, a film that left me emotionally shattered and yet full of hope: that film is The Fountain and it collects the Golden Stan for Best Film 2007.
May 2008 be as good!
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2 comments:
Dagnabbit! I can't even argue with your choices as I haven't seen more than a third of the films on the list. Grr
Although it does, rather usefully, supply me with a nice list of things I need to see on DVD.
I can't believe 'Hot Fuzz' made it into the top 14 best films though... Last King of Scotland was amazing. Hot Fuzz was good, but no comparison!
What?! The Fountain? Are you on drugs? The premise I agree is intreguing: the circle of life preserved by love, yes ok I get it. And there were some great visual stylings. But did you not find it really clunky and a bit up its own back side? There was not even one attempt to engage the audience. I did not feel included at all and found the baron script a bit cold. In terms of coming away from a film with a sense of magic or feeling different about the world or even being uplifted you have at least three films there that do it far more effectively. Namely: The Lives Others, Juno and even Hot Fuzz. Ps. Don't mean to grumble or dicredit your taste but I just thought Aranovksy could do better.
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