Once again, the awards season comes to its climax with my “Braddies” for the calendar year, a selection of my personal awards that exists entirely independently of Guardian Film’s best-of-the-year countdown.
As ever, there are 10 “nominees” in 10 categories: film, director, actor, actress, supporting Actor, supporting Actress, documentary, cinematography, screenplay, directorial debut. There is also the single-entry nomination in the special category: quirkiest future cult classic most likely to beoverlooked by the boomer MSM establishment. The nominees are listed in alphabetical order and readers are invited to vote below the line for their preferred winner – and complain about omissions.
Best film
Beanpole (dir Kantemir Balagov)
Happy as Lazzaro (dir Alice Rohrwacher)
High Life (dir Claire Denis)
If Beale Street Could Talk (dir Barry Jenkins)
The Irishman (dir Martin Scorsese)
Little Women (dir Greta Gerwig)
Marriage Story (dir Noah Baumbach)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (dir Quentin Tarantino)
So Long, My Son (dir Wang Xiaoshuai)
The Souvenir (dir Joanna Hogg)
Best director
Pedro Almodóvar for Pain and Glory
Ari Aster for Midsommar
Noah Baumbach for Marriage Story
Alejandro Landes for Monos
Lee Chang-dong for Burning
Ken Loach for Sorry We Missed You
Martin Scorsese for The Irishman
Joe Russo and Anthony Russo for Avengers: Endgame
Peter Strickland for In Fabric
Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Best actor
Christian Bale for Vice
Antonio Banderas for Pain and Glory
Robert De Niro for the Irishman
Leonardo DiCaprio for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Adam Driver for Marriage Story
Stephan James for If Beale Street Could Talk
Eddie Murphy for Dolemite Is My Name
Brad Pitt for Ad Astra and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Wang Jingchun for So Long, My Son
Steven Yeun for Burning
Best actress
Olivia Colman for The Favourite
Virginie Efira for An Impossible Love
Cynthia Erivo for Harriet
Scarlett Johansson for Marriage Story
Nicole Kidman for Destroyer
Kiki Layne for If Beale Street Could Talk
Aneta Piotrowska for My Friend the Polish Girl
Saoirse Ronan for Little Women
Yong Mei for So Long, My Son
Renée Zellweger for Judy
Best supporting actor
Alan Alda for Marriage Story
Tom Burke for The Souvenir
Ross Brewster for Sorry We Missed You
Timothée Chalamet for Little Women
Eero Milonoff for Border
Al Pacino for The Irishman
Joe Pesci for The Irishman
Clarke Peters for Harriet
Wesley Snipes for Dolemite Is My Name
Bernard Verley for By the Grace of God
Best supporting actress
Juliette Binoche for High Life
Nicoletta Braschi for Happy as Lazzaro
Judi Dench for All Is True
Laura Dern for Marriage Story and Little Women
Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk
Danielle Macdonald for Skin
Margot Robbie for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Tilda Swinton for The Souvenir
Julie Walters in Wild Rose
Katherine Waterston for Mid90s
Best documentary
Amazing Grace (dir Sydney Pollack)
Apollo 11 (dir Todd Douglas Miller)
Are You Proud? (dir Ashley Joiner)
For Sama (dir Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts)
The Great Hack (dir Karin Amer, Jehane Noujaim)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (dir RaMell Ross)
Maradona (dir Asif Kapadia)
A Moon for My Father (dir Mania Akbari, Douglas White)
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (dir Martin Scorsese)
Varda by Agnès (dir Agnès Varda)
Best cinematography
Mark Jenkin for Bait
Ryan Eddleston for The Fight
Mike Gioulakis for Us
Julie Kirkwood for Destroyer
Robert Richardson for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Laurie Rose for Pet Sematary
Carlos Rossini for The Chambermaid
Robbie Ryan for The Favourite, Sorry We Missed You and Marriage Story
Laurence Sher for Joker
Jasper Wolf for Monos
Best screenplay
Pedro Almodóvar for Pain and Glory
Simon Amstell for Benjamin
Noah Baumbach for Marriage Story
Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara for The Favourite
Roddy Doyle for Rosie
Greta Gerwig for Little Women
Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel and Katie Silberman for Booksmart
Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Steven Zaillian for The Irishman
Best directorial debut
Simon Amstell for Benjamin
Lila Avilés for The Chambermaid
Richard Billingham for Ray & Liz
Chiwetel Ejiofor for The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Isabella Eklöf for Holiday
Jessica Hynes for The Fight
Reinaldo Marcus Green for Monsters and Men
Camille Vidal-Naquet for Sauvage
Dolly Wells for Good Posture
Harry Wootliff for Only You
Quirkiest cult classic: the film most likely to be overlooked by the boomer MSM establishment
One Cut of the Dead (dir Shini’chirô Ueda)
