BIGGIE'S PLACE

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1.  Jarin Blaschke, The Lighthouse

2.  Roger Deakins, 1917

3.  Kyung-pyo Hong, Parasite

4.  Robert Richardson, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

5.  Lawrence Sher, Joker

I loved the behind-the-scenes video Hurlbut Academy did on YouTube explaining the intricate details used in creating the look of The Lighthouse. I encourage you to check that out (and of course to watch this weird, but great film):

And here we have cinematography with narrative purpose:

There are also a dozen great videos on how they pulled off 1917. Just go on there, search “1917 cinematography” and dive in. And then say a thankful prayer you got to be alive at the same time as Roger Deakins.

Master of Light Roger Deakins takes his third Biggie cinematography win, following his work on True Grit and Skyfall. This was his 11th nomination overall, making him the Biggies’ most decorated cinematographer.

BEST FILM EDITING

1.  Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker, Ford v Ferrari

2.  Tom Eagles, JoJo Rabbit

3.  Evan Schiff, John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum

4.  Thelma Schoonmaker, The Irishman

5.  Jinmo Yang, Parasite

BEST ART DIRECTION

1.  1917

2.  The Irishman

3.  Little Women

4.  Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

5.  Parasite

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1.  Ruth E. Carter, Dolemite is My Name

2.  Julian Day, Rocketman

3.  Jacqueline Durran, Little Women

4.  Arianne Phillips, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

5.  Sandy Powell, Christopher Peterson, The Irishman

Dolemite being ignored by the Oscars in favor of Joker here was a sin. I have rectified it.

BEST MAKEUP

1.  1917

2.  Bombshell

3.  Captain Marvel

4.  It: Chapter Two

5.  Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1.  Nicholas Britell, The King

2.  Hildur Guðnadóttir, Joker

3.  Thomas Newman, 1917

4.  Alan Silvestri, Avengers: Endgame

5.  Hans Zimmer, Dark Phoenix

Only two of my nominees here match The Academy’s. It wasn’t a great year for original scores on the whole. There were a lot of good scores that recycled themes from older movies, most notably John Williams‘ work on Rise of Skywalker, which was essentially a Star Wars Greatest Hits album. Much as I worship Williams, what new material there is here wasn’t enough for a nomination. Then there were other movies, like Parasite, The Irishman or Us, that had one really great track and that’s it.

Hans Zimmer was the final nominee here. Dark Phoenix is no classic, but it’s a lot better than its reputation suggests. Because X-Men: Apocalypse was so bad, I never followed who was involved with Dark Phoenix. So when I finally saw it, throughout the film I kept thinking, “Damn this score is good”, then when I sat through the end credits I was shocked but not surprised to learn that Zimmer was the composer. How had that slipped under my radar? And of course in hindsight I instantly recognized it as being his style. His work here sounds more like he did in the 90’s than the more experimental stuff he’s been doing over the past decade. It was cool to see him go back to that.

This guy ‘PianoplayerElijah’ on YouTube did such an amazing job covering “Gap” from Dark Phoenix (the best track from the movie) that I’m gonna show you his video instead of linking to the official soundtrack. Bravo, sir:

Thomas Newman takes his first Original Score win in 25 years, when he won for The Shawshank Redemption. Unofficially, he’s been nominated 9 times in total.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1.  “I’m Standing With You”, written by Dianne Warren

performed by Chrissy Metz, Breakthrough

2.  “Into the Unknown”, written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez

performed by Idina Menzel, Frozen II

3.  “Stand Up”, written by Cynthia Erivo, Joshuah Brian Campbell

performed by Cynthia Erivo, Harriet

4.  “I’m Gonna Love Me Again”, written by Elton John & Bernie Taupin – performed by Elton John & Taron Egerton, Rocketman

I only put 4 nominees in this category because the remaining options for the 5^th spot were not worthy of making the cut. I could only find 6 different songs to even consider. It was an awful year for new songs in movies.

BEST STUNTWORK & CHOREOGRAPHY

1.  1917

2.  6 Underground

3.  Avengers: Endgame

4.  John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum

5.  Rocketman

I’ve been doing this category since 2005, and Rocketman becomes the first film to be nominated here for its dance choreography. The John Wick series goes 3/3 being nominated here. Just when you think they can’t come up with any more clever badass shit in these movies:

6 Underground is not a good movie, but it’s still worth watching on Netflix because it is Michael Bay truly unleashed. It’s got some pretty wild shit going on, particularly whatever the hell was happening with the magnets on that ship at the end.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1.  1917

2.  Avengers: Endgame

3.  The Irishman

4.  John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum

5.  Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Yeah, yeah, there are parts during The Irishman where you can tell their faces are off because of the effects, but for the vast majority of the movie, it was completely convincing and you didn’t even think about it. They had to invent a new method on set to shoot this technology, using 3 cameras for every 1 camera position to capture all the detail they needed.

1917 and John Wick feature a lot of shots you wouldn’t assume were effects shots. This is called “supporting effects”, and I almost always nominate one or two films with subtle supporting effects that enhance the already great work being done practically on set. It’s also interesting to note that because of the way they used effects to hide the cuts in 1917, this can also be considered the editing nomination for that film, which is probably why it won the Oscar in this category.

Maybe I’m naive, or maybe it’s because I was so into the movie, but at no point during John Wick 3 did I assume those dogs were CGI. Probably because CGI dogs usually look like absolute shit. But movie magic can still fool me:

Of course, Avengers and Star Wars get in for having the MOST effects, but all of that work is still incredible.

By the way, the Oscars’ nominating The Lion King in this category this year was a fucking joke. That’s an ANIMATED FILM. Photoreal CGI is a type of animation. There’s nothing real there. If the entire film is effects shots with zero real elements, your film is animated. That’s it. End of story. I’m glad it didn’t win that Oscar. kthxbye

BEST SOUND

1.  1917

2.  Ad Astra

3.  Ford v Ferrari

4.  The Lighthouse

5.  Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

BEST SOUND EDITING

1.  1917

2.  Avengers: Endgame

3.  Ford v Ferrari

4.  John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum

5.  Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

Oscar matches this year: 12/18 (66.7%)

Me agreeing with the Oscars in two-thirds of the categories is unprecedented. I’m usually under 50%. A lot of times, my winners aren’t even nominated at the Oscars, as is the case twice this year (Supporting Actress, Film Editing). For the record, I do NOT expect this to become a trend. But it’s still nice to see, since I created the Biggies in defiance of the Oscar results.

There you have it! Continue on for this year’s honorary awards recipients and the winner of the 2019 Studio of the Year…