These are the 2016 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Rankings & Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. You can see my live-tweeting of the ceremony here. And the Endy goes to. . .
endy awards
2015 Endy Awards

Best Picture:
1. Arabian Nights
2. The Assassin
3. Baahubali: The Beginning
4. Blackhat
5. Cemetery of Splendour
6. Happy Hour
7. Kaili Blues
8. Mad Max: Fury Road
9. Mountains May Depart
10. The Royal Road
Best Director:
1. Miguel Gomes, Arabian Nights
2. Hou Hsiao-hsien, The Assassin
3. Bi Gan, Kaili Blues
4. George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
5. Jia Zhangke, Mountains May Depart
Best Actor:
1. Michael B. Jordan, Creed
2. Wang Baoqiang, Detective Chinatown
3. Samuel L. Jackson, The Hateful 8
4. Aaron Kwok, Port of Call
5. Jung Jaeyung, Right Now, Wrong Then
Honorable Mentions: Jafar Panahi (Taxi), Subaru Shibutani (La La La at Rock Bottom), Tom Courtenay (45 Years), Elmer Bäck (Eisenstein in Guanajuato), John Boyega (The Force Awakens), Li Wen (Li Wen at East Lake), Matt Damon (The Martian), Kurt Russell (The Hateful 8), Nick Cannon (Chi-Raq), Feng Xiaogang (Mr. Six), Guy Pearce (Results), and Tony Jaa (SPL 2).
Best Actress:
1. Shu Qi, The Assassin
2. Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
3. Daisy Ridley, The Force Awakens
4. Zhao Tao, Mountains May Depart
5. Kim Minhee, Right Now, Wrong Then
Honorable Mentions: Rooney Mara (Carol), Tang Wei (A Tale of Three Cities), Crista Alfaiate (Arabian Nights), Lola Kirke (Mistress America), Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road), Katana Kiki Rodriguez (Tangerine), Jenjira Pongpas (Cemetery of Splendour), Isabella Leong (Murmur of the Hearts), Ai Hashimoto (Little Forest: Winter/Spring), Bai Baihe (Go Away Mr. Tumor), Sarina Suzuki (La La La at Rock Bottom), Charlotte Rampling (45 Years), Elizabeth Moss (Queen of Earth), Carey Mulligan (Far from the Madding Crowd), Nithya Menen (O Kadhal Kanmani), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), Agyness Deyn (Sunset Song), Akari Hayami (Forget Me Not) and the entire cast of Happy Hour.
Supporting Actor:
1. Michael Keaton, Spotlight
2. Richard Jenkins, Bone Tomahawk
3. Emory Cohen, Brooklyn
4. Harrison Ford, The Force Awakens
5. Walton Goggins, The Hateful 8
HM: Tom Hardy (The Revenant), Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina), Michael Ning (Port of Call), Kevin Corrigan (Results), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), Liev Schreiber (Spotlight), Adam Scott (Sleeping with Other People), Sylvester Stallone (Creed), Chow Yun-fat (Office), Chico Chapas (Arabian Nights), and Liev Schreiber (Spotlight).
Supporting Actress:
1. Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful 8
2. Greta Gerwig, Mistress America
3. Sylvia Chang, Mountains May Depart
4. Tang Wei, Office
5. Mya Taylor, Tangerine
HM: Cate Blanchett (Carol), Emma Stone (Aloha), Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation), Jessie Li, (Port of Call), Viola Davis (Blackhat), Katherine Waterston (Queen of Earth), Sylvia Chang (Office), Tang Wei (Blackhat), Tang Wei (Monster Hunt), Hana Saeidi (Taxi), and Tessa Thompson (Creed).

Original Screenplay:
1. Evan Johnson, Robert Kotyk & Guy Maddin, The Forbidden Room
2. Luo Li, Li Wen at East Lake
3. Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach, Mistress America
4. Jenni Olson, The Royal Road
5. Don Hertzfeldt, World of Tomorrow
Adapted Screenplay:
1. Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo & Telmo Churro, Arabian Nights
2. Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Chu Tien-wen, Hsieh Hai-Meng & Zhang Acheng, The Assassin
3. Phyllis Nagy, Carol
4. Andrew Haigh, 45 Years
5. George Miller, Brendan McCarthy & Nico Lathouris, Mad Max: Fury Road
Tough to leave a pair of adventurous Chinese films out of the Original Screenplay mix: Murmur of the Hearts and Kaili Blues. Laurie Anderson’s script for Heart of a Dog was another painful omission. And of course, the fact that Hong Sangsoo isn’t nominated is major Endy news. In fact, this is only the second year this century (the other being 2005) that neither a Hong nor a Johnnie To/Wai Ka-fai film is nominated for Best Screenplay.
Non-English Language Film:
1. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)
2. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
3. Baahubali: The Beginning (SS Rajamouli)
4. Happy Hour (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
5. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke)
Baahubali is the big surprise here, as Rajamouli’s gonzo CGI musical epic gets the nod over fine films from established Endy favorites Johnnie To, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Hong Sangsoo.
Non-Fiction Feature:
1. Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)
2. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
3. Junun (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. The Royal Road (Jenni Olson)
5. The Thoughts that Once We Had (Thom Andersen)
This is the strongest set of five Non-Fiction Feature nominees in Endy history.
Animated Feature:
1. Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman & Duke Johnson)
2. Inside Out (Pete Docter & Ronnie del Carmen)
3. The Peanuts Movie (Steve Martino)
4. Shaun the Sheep Movie (Mark Burton & Richard Starzak)
Short Film:
1. Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson)
2. Greed: Ghost Light (Kim Nakyung)
3. Night Without Distance (Lois Patiño)
4. No No Sleep (Tsai Ming-liang)
5. World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt)
Unseen Film:
1. Aferim! (Radu Jude)
2. Afternoon (Tsai Ming-liang)
4. No Home Movie (Chantal Akerman)

Film Editing:
1. The Assassin
2. 88:88
3. The Forbidden Room
4. Mad Max: Fury Road
5. SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
Cinematography:
1. The Assassin
2. Kaili Blues
3. Mad Max: Fury Road
4. Mountains May Depart
5. Night Without Distance
Production Design:
1. The Assassin
2. Baahubali: The Beginning
3. Crimson Peak
4. Office
5. The Witch
Costume Design:
1. The Assassin
2. Carol
3. Crimson Peak
4. Far from the Madding Crowd
5. Mad Max: Fury Road
Make-up:
1. Baahubali: The Beginning
2. Crimson Peak
3. The Forbidden Room
4. Jupiter Ascending
5. Mad Max: Fury Road

Original Score:
1. The Assassin
2. Blackhat
3. Heart of a Dog
4. O Kadhal Kanmani
5. The Revenant
Adapted Score:
1. Arabian Nights
2. The Hateful 8
3. La La La at Rock Bottom
4. Mountains May Depart
5. Office
Sound Design:
1. The Assassin
2. Blackhat
3. 88:88
4. Heart of a Dog
5. Topophilia
Sound Editing:
1. Blackhat
2. Crimson Peak
3. The Force Awakens
4. Mad Max: Fury Road
5. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Visual Effects:
1. Baahubali: The Beginning
2. The Forbidden Room
3. The Force Awakens
4. Go Away, Mr. Tumor
5. Jupiter Ascending

1990 Endy Awards
These are the 1990 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Rankings & Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .
Continue reading
1991 Endy Awards
These are the 1991 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Rankings & Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .
1992 Endy Awards
These are the 1992 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Rankings & Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .
Continue reading
1965 Endy Awards
These are the 1965 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. 1965 is the year we covered in 2015 on The George Sanders Show, on our year-end wrap-up episode and with reviews scattered throughout the year. Awards for many other years can be found in the Rankings & Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .

Best Picture:
1. Le bonheur
2. Chimes at Midnight
3. Pierrot le fou
4. Red Beard
5. The War Game
Best Director:
1. Agnès Varda, Le bonheur
2. Orson Welles, Chimes at Midnight
3. Jean-Luc Godard, Pierrot le fou
4. Akira Kurosawa, Red Beard
5. Kon Ichikawa, Tokyo Olympiad
Best Actor:
1. Orson Welles, Chimes at Midnight
2. Omar Sharif, Dr. Zhivago
3. Lee Van Cleef, For a Few Dollars More
4. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Pierrot le fou
5. Toshiro Mifune, Red Beard
Best Actress:
1. Claire Drouot, Le bonheur
2. Carol Lynley, Bunny Lake is Missing
3. Anna Karina, Pierrot le fou
4. Edie Sedgwick, Poor Little Rich Girl
5. Catherine Deneuve, Repulsion
Supporting Actor:
1. Laurence Olivier, Bunny Lake is Missing
2. John Gielgud, Chimes at Midnight
3. Jim Hutton, Major Dundee
4. King Hu, Sons of the Good Earth
5. Oskar Werner, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Supporting Actress:
1. Anna Karina, Alphaville
2. Senta Berger, Major Dundee
3. Kyōko Kagawa, Red Beard
4. Sylvia Pinal, Simon of the Desert
5. Claire Bloom, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Original Screenplay:
1. Agnès Varda, Le bonheur
2. Charlies Schulz, A Charlie Brown Christmas
3. Luciano Vincenzo, Sergio Leone & Sergio Donati, For a Few Dollars More
4. Harry Julian Fink, Sam Peckinpah & Oscar Saul, Major Dundee
5. Peter Watkins, The War Game
Adapted Screenplay:
1. Orson Welles, Chimes at Midnight
2. Jean-Marie Staub & Danièle Huillet, Not Reconciled
3. Jean-Lu Godard, Pierrot le fou
4. Masato Ide, Hideo Oguni, Ryûzô Kikushima & Akira Kurosawa, Red Beard
5. Julio Alejandro & Luis Buñuel, Simon of the Desert
Non-English Language Film:
1. Le bonheur (Agnès Varda)
2. Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard)
3. Red Beard (Akira Kurosawa)
4. Simon of the Desert (Luis Buñuel)
5. Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa)
Documentary Film:
1. Dizzy Gillespie (Les Blank)
2. Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa)
Animated Film:
1. A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez)
2. The Dot and the Line (Chuck Jones)
Unseen Film:
1. The Holy Man (Satyajit Ray)
2. Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini)
3. The Saragossa Manuscript (Wojciech Has)
4. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Paradjanov)
5. Vinyl (Andy Warhol)

Film Editing:
1. Le bonheur
2. Chimes at Midnight
3. For a Few Dollars More
4. Not Reconciled
5. Pierrot le fouCinematography:1. Le bonheur
2. Chimes at Midnight
3. Dr. Zhivago
4. Pierrot le fou
5. Tokyo Olympiad
Art Direction:
1. Alphaville
2. Chimes at Midnight
3. Dr. Zhivago
4. Planet of the Vampires
5. Red Beard
Costume Design:
1. Chimes at Midnight
2. Dr. Zhivago
3. For a Few Dollars More
4. Planet of the Vampires
5. Temple of the Red Lotus
Make-up:
1. Chimes at Midnight
2. Dr. Zhivago
3. For a Few Dollars More
4. Major Dundee
5. The War Game

Original Score:
1. Alphaville
2. A Charlie Brown Christmas
3. Dr. Zhivago
4. For a Few Dollars More
5. Help!
Adapted Score:
1. Bunny Lake is Missing
2. A Charlie Brown Christmas
3. Poor Little Rich Girl
4. The Sound of Music
Original Song:
1. “Christmastime is Here”, Vince Guaraldi, A Charlie Brown Christmas
1. “I Need You”, The Beatles, Help!
2. “Lara’s Theme”, Maurice Jarre, Dr. Zhivago
3. “Ticket to Ride”, The Beatles, Help!
4. “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”, The Beatles, Help!
Sound:
1. Alphaville
2. The Sound of Music
3. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
4. Tokyo Olympiad
5. The War Game
Sound Editing:
1. Alphaville
2. For a Few Dollars More
3. Major Dundee
4. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
5. The War Game
Visual Effects:
1. Alphaville
2. Dr. Zhivago
3. For a Few Dollars More
4. Major Dundee
5. The War Game

1993 Endy Awards
These are the 1993 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Endy Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .
Best Picture:
1. The Age of Innocence
2. Dazed and Confused
3. Green Snake
4. Iron Monkey
5. Matinee
6. The Piano
7. The Puppetmaster
8. Six Degrees of Separation
9. Sonatine
10. Three Colors: Blue
Best Director:
1. Martin Scorsese, The Age of Innocence
2. Richard Linklater, Dazed and Confused
3. Tsui Hark, Green Snake
4. Hou Hsiao-hsien, The Puppetmaster
5. Krzysztof Kieślowski, Three Colors: Blue
Linklater’s chronicle of the last day of school/first night of summer of a bygone era grows as it recedes in the memory. 20 years ago it was a goofy bit of comic nostalgia, an excuse to laugh at 70s fashions and the importance of Aerosmith. But the older I get, the better it gets. But I just recently watched The Age of Innocence again, and it’s now my favorite Martin Scorsese movie and I’m giving it the Endy here. This is Scorsese’s first directing nomination, but surely not his last. It’s Hou’s sixth nomination.
Best Actor:
1. Daniel Day-Lewis, The Age of Innocence
2. Bill Murray, Groundhog Day
3. Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Last Action Hero
4. Anthony Hopkins, Shadowlands
5. Takeshi Kitano, Sonatine
Best Actress:
1. Brigitte Lin, The East is Red
2. Maggie Cheung, Green Snake
3. Holly Hunter, The Piano
4. Stockard Channing, Six Degrees of Separation
5. Juliette Binoche, Three Colors: Blue
This is Murray’s fourth nomination (third in Best Actor) and his first win. Binoche won previously in 2007 and 2010. This is Cheung’s fifth nomination (fourth in Best Actress) with no wins as yet.
Supporting Actor:
1. John Goodman, Matinee
2. Larenz Tate, Menace II Society
3. Li Tien-lu, The Puppetmaster
4. Will Smith, Six Degrees of Separation
5. Val Kilmer, Tombstone
Also receiving votes: Harvey Keitel (The Piano), Tony Leung Ka-fai (He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Father), Dennis Hopper (True Romance), Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List), Sean Penn (Carlito’s Way), Matthew McConaughey (Dazed and Confused), John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire), and Kevin Costner (A Perfect World). This is the best selection of Supporting Actors I’ve seen in the course of handing out the Endys. Of course I’m giving the award to the guy who’s playing himself.
Supporting Actress:
1. Christina Ricci, Addams Family Values
2. Winona Ryder, The Age of Innocence
3. Josephine Siao, Fong Sai-yuk
4. Joey Wang, Green Snake
5. Emma Thompson, Much Ado About Nothing
The Supporting Actress group this year is not as good, but still has a pair of all-time great performances. Josephine Siao, with the best supporting performance in a kung fu comedy ever, just edges out Ryder’s career-best performance.

Original Screenplay:
1. Richard Linlater, Dazed and Confused
2. Danny Rubin & Harold Ramis, Groundhog Day
3. Jane Campion, The Piano
4. Chu Tien-wen & Wu Nien-jen, The Puppetmaster
5. Krzysztof Kieślowski & Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Three Colors: Blue
Adapted Screenplay:
1. Jay Cocks & Martin Scorsese, The Age of Innocence
2. Lillian Lee & Tsui Hark, Green Snake
3. Steven Zaillian, Searching for Bobby Fischer
4. John Guare, Six Degrees of Separation
5. Robert Altman & Frank Barhydt, Short Cuts
Non-English Language Film:
1. Green Snake (Tsui Hark)
2. Iron Monkey (Yuen Woo-ping)
3. Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano)
4. The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
5. Three Colors: Blue (Krzysztof Kieślowski)
Three Colors: Blue was the first art film I ever saw that made me want to watch and rewatch it until I took it all in and felt I really understood what was happening and why. As such, it’s probably overrated in my memory. I can’t tell and I don’t care: these are my fake movie awards.
Non-Fiction Film:
1. Latcho Drom (Tony Gatlif)
2. The War Room (Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker)
Animated Film:
1. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick)
2. Ninja Scroll (Yoshiaki Kawajiri)
Unseen Film:
1. Blue (Derek Jarman)
2. The Blue Kite (Tian Zhuangzhuang)
3. Naked (Mike Leigh)
4. Stalingrad (Joseph Vilsmaier)
5. 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould (François Girard)
Also receiving votes: Madadayo (Akira Kurosawa), Surviving Desire (Hal Hartley), The Scent of Green Papaya (Tran Anh Hung), Smoking/No Smoking (Alain Resnais), Caro diario (Nanni Moretti), Fearless (Peter Weir), and M. Butterfly (David Cronenberg).

Film Editing:
1. The Age of Innocence
2. Dazed and Confused
3. The Piano
4. The Puppetmaster
5. Three Colors: Blue
Those dissolves.
Cinematography:
1. The Age of Innocence
2. Green Snake
3. The Piano
4. Schindler’s List
5. Three Colors: Blue
Art Direction:
1. The Age of Innocence
2. Green Snake
3. Matinee
4. The Piano
5. The Puppetmaster
Costume Design:
1. The Age of Innocence
2. The Eagle Shooting Heroes
3. Green Snake
4. The Heroic Trio
5. Matinee
Mant vs. Maggie Cheung. Mant wins.
Make-up:
1. Army of Darkness
2. The Bride with White Hair
3. The Eagle-Shooting Heroes
4. Executioners
5. Matinee

Original Score:
1. Jurassic Park
2. The Nightmare Before Christmas
3. The Piano
4. Schindler’s List
5. Three Colors: Blue
Adapted Score:
1. Coneheads
2. Dazed and Confused
3. Judgement Night
4. Matinee
5. True Romance
Sound:
1. Jurassic Park
2. The Piano
3. The Puppetmaster
4. Schindler’s List
5. Three Colors: Blue
Sound Editing:
1. Gettysburg
2. Jurassic Park
3. The Last Action Hero
4. Schindler’s List
5. True Romance
Visual Effects:
1. Army of Darkness
2. Green Snake
3. Jurassic Park
4. Kung Fu Cult Master
5. Matinee
1995 Endy Awards
These are the 1995 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Endy Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .
Best Picture:
1. Ballet
2. The Blade
3. Dead Man
4. Fallen Angels
5. Good Men, Good Women
6. Heat
7. Kamikaze Taxi
8. Kicking and Screaming
9. Pride and Prejudice
10. Whisper of the Heart
Best Director:
1. Jim Jarmusch, Dead Man
2. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Good Men, Good Women
3. Michael Mann, Heat
4. Masato Harada, Kamikaze Taxi
5. Yoshifumi Kondō, Whisper of the Heart
Very close race for the top prize this year, as Good Men, Good Women might be Hou Hsiao-hsien’s best movie. But Dead Man is simply one of my all-time favorite films. We discussed it way back on Episode 2 of The George Sanders Show.
Best Actor:
1. Johnny Depp, Dead Man
2. Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fallen Angels
3. Robert DeNiro, Heat
4. Colin Firth, Pride & Prejudice
5. Morgan Freeman, Se7en
This is DeNiro’s first Endy nomination, but I suspect it won’t be his last. Depp previously won for 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean. Firth’s performance is deservedly considered definitive. For those who say it a performance in a TV miniseries and not a film, I say “Pffffbbbbtt.”
Also receiving votes: Ralph Fiennes (Strange Days), Leslie Cheung (The Chinese Feast), Denzel Washington (Devil in a Blue Dress and Crimson Tide), Ian McKellen (Richard III), Stephen Chow (A Chinese Odyssey), Chris Farley (Tommy Boy) and Lau Ching-wan (Loving You).
Best Actress:
1. Alicia Silverstone, Clueless
2. Annie Shizuka Inoh, Good Men, Good Women
3. Parker Posey, Party Girl
4. Jennifer Ehle, Pride & Prejudice
5. Nicole Kidman, To Die For
Also receiving votes: Miho Nakayama (Love Letter), Julienne Moore (Safe), Charlie Yeung (Love in the Time of Twilight), Julie Delpy (Before Sunrise), Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility), Lili Taylor (The Addiction), Catherine Keener (Living in Oblivion), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Georgia), Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking) and Elizabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas).
Supporting Actor:
1. Gary Farmer, Dead Man
2. Kōji Yakusho, Kamikaze Taxi
3. Chris Eigeman, Kicking and Screaming
4. Ciarán Hinds, Persuasion
5. Alan Rickman, Sense and Sensibility
Supporting Actress:
1. Sharon Stone, Casino
2. Chloë Sevigny, Kids
3. Miki Sakai, Love Letter
4. Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite
5. Gina Gershon, Showgirls
Farmer is an obvious pick, of course. In Supporting Actress, this is one of the rare times when the Oscars and I agree on an acting winner. Sorvino really is quite wonderful, it’s a shame she never got another role half this good again.

Original Screenplay:
1. Jim Jarmusch, Dead Man
2. Masato Harada, Kamikaze Taxi
3. Noah Baumbach, Kicking and Screaming
4. Shunji Iwai, Love Letter
5. Daisy von Scherler Meyer & Harry Birckmeyer, Party Girl
Adapted Screenplay:
1. Amy Heckerling, Clueless
2. Chu T’ien-wen, Good Men, Good Women
3. Andrew Davies, Pride & Prejudice
4. Emma Thompson, Sense & Sensibility
5. Hayao Miyazaki, Whisper of the Heart
That’s right: three Jane Austen adaptations. There’s a fourth that just missed a nomination as well. There was something in the air in 1995.
Non-English Language Film:
1. The Blade (Tsui Hark)
2. Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai)
3. Good Men, Good Women (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
4. Kamikaze Taxi (Masato Harada)
5. Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondō)
Just missing are Shunji Iwai’s Love Letter, Tsui Hark’s Love in the Time of Twilight, and Pedro Costa’s Casa de Lava.
Documentary Film:
1. Ballet (Frederick Wiseman)
2. The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman)
3. Unzipped (Douglas Keeve)
This is Wiseman’s second win and eighth nomination. He won in 2014 for National Gallery.
Animated Film:
1. Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii)
2. Toy Story (John Lasseter)
Unseen Film:
1. La Cérémonie (Claude Chabrol)
2. Mabarosi (Koreeda Hirokazu)
3. Ulysses’s Gaze (Theo Angelopolous)
4. Underground (Emir Kusturica)
5. The White Balloon (Jafar Panahi)
Also receiving votes: La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz), Cyclo (Tran Anh Hung), The Flower of My Secret (Pedro Almodóvar), and Village of the Damned (John Carpenter).

Film Editing:
1. The Blade
2. Dead Man
3. Fallen Angels
4. Good Men, Good Women
5. Heat
Tsui Hark reaches the apotheosis of the fast-cutting action movie, a full decade before Hollywood begins to (badly) imitate the style.
Cinematography:
1. The Blade
2. Casa de Lava
3. Dead Man
4. Fallen Angels
5. Good Men, Good Women
What can I say? I’m a sucker for fish-eyes.
Also receiving votes: Love Letter, Se7en, Dead Presidents, Strange Days, City of Lost Children, Heat, Nixon, Shanghai Triad, Ballet, Sense and Sensibility.
Art Direction:
1. The Blade
2. Casino
3. City of Lost Children
4. Dead Man
5. Pride & Prejudice
Costume Design:
1. The Blade
2. Casino
3. A Chinese Odyssey
4. Dead Man
5. Sense & Sensibility
Everything Sharon Stone wears.
Make-up:
1. The Blade
2. Casino
3. A Chinese Odyssey
4. City of Lost Children
5. Species

Original Score:
1. City of Lost Children
2. Dead Man
3. Friday
4. Toy Story
5. Whisper of the Heart
Adapted Score:
1. Clueless
2. Dead Presidents
3. Devil in a Blue Dress
4. Kicking and Screaming
5. Kids
If it was “Adapted Song” this would easily go to Whisper of the Heart, as it is, “Country Roads” is almost enough to get it nominated in both categories.
Sound:
1. Casino
2. Dead Man
3. Good Men, Good Women
4. Heat
5. Seven
That telephone ringing.
Sound Editing:
1. The Blade
2. Braveheart
3. Crimson Tide
4. GoldenEye
5. Heat
Visual Effects:
1. Apollo 13
2. Babe
3. A Chinese Odyssey
4. Love in the Time of Twilight
5. Species
That’ll do, pig.
1996 Endy Awards
Best Picture:
1. Big Night
2. Bound
3. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
4. The English Patient
5. Goodbye South, Goodbye
6. Irma Vep
7. Mahjong
8. Romeo + Juliet
9. Trainspotting
10. Viva Erotica
Best Director:
1. Peter Chan, Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. Anthony Minghella, The English Patient
3. Edward Yang, Mahjong
4. Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep
5. Danny Boyle, Trainspotting
Like with Boogie Nights in 1997 and Pulp Fiction in 1994, the exuberance of Trainspotting defines for me a stage of cinephilia, when I first began to really believe in the joy of making cinema. The Assayas film is a more refined expressions of that same drive, while the Chan and Minghella are sublime examples of more traditional romantic forms. But the Endy this year goes to Edward Yang, for what I consider to be his finest film.
Best Actor:
1. Stanley Tucci, Big Night
2. Anthony Wong, Ebola Syndrome
3. Ralph Fiennes, The English Patient
4. Philip Baker Hall, Hard Eight
5. Christopher Guest, Waiting for Guffman
Fiennes will eventually win in 2014 for The Grand Budapest Hotel. Anthony Wong gets the win for one of the all-time great sleazy performances.
Best Actress:
1. Maggie Cheung, Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. Frances McDormand, Fargo
3. Lili Taylor, I Shot Andy Warhol
4. Maggie Cheung, Irma Vep
5. Josephine Siao, Stage Door
Disaster as Maggie Cheung becomes the first actor to be nominated twice in the same category in one year, only to split the vote and allow Frances McDormand to sneak away with the Endy. One of the biggest upsets in Endy history. Nicole Kidman, Gina Gershon and Michelle Yeoh just miss out on nominations for Portrait of a Lady, Bound and The Stunt Woman, respectively.
Supporting Actor:
1. Tony Shaloub, Big Night
2. Owen Wilson, Bottle Rocket
3. Vince Vaughn, Swingers
4. Francis Ng, Young & Dangerous
5. Anthony Wong, Young & Dangerous 2
Supporting Actress:
1. Jennifer Tilly, Bound
2. Juliette Binoche, The English Patient
3. Virginie Ledoyen, Mahjong
4. Sylvia Sidney, Mars Attacks!
5. Shu Qi, Viva Erotica
Binoche will win Best Actress in 2007 (Flight of the Red Balloon) and 2010 (Certified Copy).

Original Screenplay:
1. Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson, Bottle Rocket
2. Ivy Ho, Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep
4. Edward Yang, Mahjong
5. Derek Yee, Law Chi-leung & Bosco Lam, Viva Erotica
Adapted Screenplay:
1. Anthony Minghella, The English Patient
2. Jonathan Gems, Mars Attacks!
3. David Koepp & Robert Towne, Mission: Impossible
4. Laura Jones, Portrait of a Lady
5. John Hodge, Trainspotting
Non-English Language Film:
1. Comrades, Almost a Love Story (Peter Chan)
2. Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
3. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)
4. Mahjong (Edward Yang)
5. Viva Erotica (Derek Yee)
Documentary Film:
1. La Comédie-Française (Frederick Wiseman)
2. Get on the Bus (Spike Lee)
3. Hype! (Doug Pray)
4. The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera (Adam Simon)
5. When We Were Kings (Leon Gast)
The is the second year to feature a film about Samuel Fuller in the Best Documentary category, after 2013’s A Fuller Life.
Animated Film:
1. Beavis & Butthead Do America (Mike Judge)
2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise)
Unseen Film:
1. A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
2. The Pillow Book (Peter Greenaway)
3. La Promesse (The Dardennes)
4. A Summer’s Tale (Eric Rohmer)
Also receiving votes: Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier), Crash (David Cronenberg), Evita (Alan Parker), Kansas City (Robert Altman), Escape from LA (John Carpenter), and Gabbeh (Mohsen Makhmalbaf).

Film Editing:
1. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. The English Patient
3. Irma Vep
4. Romeo + Juliet
5. Trainspotting
Cinematography:
1. Bound
2. Goodbye South, Goodbye
3. Irma Vep
4. Mahjong
5. Romeo + Juliet
Art Direction:
1. The English Patient
2. Portrait of a Lady
3. Romeo + Juliet
4. Shanghai Grand
5. Trainspotting
Costume Design:
1. Irma Vep
2. Kingpin
3. Mars Attacks!
4. Romeo + Juliet
5. Trainspotting
Claire Danes with wings.
Make-up:
1. The English Patient
2. From Dusk til Dawn
3. Kingpin
4. Mars Attacks!
5. Romeo + Juliet
Farrelly grotesquerie at its best.

Original Score:
1. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. The English Patient
3. Goodbye South, Goodbye
4. Irma Vep
5. That Thing You Do!
Adapted Score:
1. Basquiat
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. Romeo + Juliet
4. Swingers
5. Trainspotting
Very tough category this year. Swingers rode a wave of swing dance/Rat Pack revivalism, so that’s obviously out. Tough to pass over the New Wave/Punk hits and The Cardigans, but I have to go with the Teresa Teng tribute that is Comrades.
Sound:
1. Big Night
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. The English Patient
4. Irma Vep
5. Trainspotting
The sound of scrambling eggs.
Sound Editing:
1. The Frighteners
2. Independence Day
3. Mission: Impossible
4. The Rock
5. Twister
Visual Effects:
1. The Frighteners
2. From Dusk til Dawn
3. Independence Day
4. Trainspotting
5. Twister

1997 Endy Awards
These are the 1997 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Endy Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .

Best Picture:
1. Boogie Nights
2. Cure
3. Happy Together
4. Jackie Brown
5. Lost Highway
6. The Mirror
7. Starship Troopers
8. Taste of Cherry
9. Too Many Ways to Be No. 1
10. Xiao Wu
Best Director:
1. Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights
4. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Cure
2. Quentin Tarantino, Jackie Brown
3. David Lynch, Lost Highway
5. Wong Kar-wai, Happy Together
Honestly I’m afraid to go back and rewatch Boogie Nights. It’s been years since I’ve seen it, a film that defined the youthful exuberance and openness of the early stages of cinephilia for me in my younger days. I’d hate to go back and find it to be less than the thrill I got walking into the theatre right at the start of that opening tracking shot. Lynch will win Best Director in 2001 for Mulholland Dr. This is Tarantino’s first nomination for directing, he will have been nominated for Original Screenplay in 2009.
Best Actor:
1. Kōji Yakusho, Cure
2. Leslie Cheung, Happy Together
3. Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Happy Together
4. Thomas Jay Ryan, Henry Fool
5. Leonardo DiCaprio, Titanic
Best Actress:
1. Joey Lauren Adams, Chasing Amy
2. Pam Grier, Jackie Brown
3. Patricia Arquette, Lost Highway
4. Mina Mohammad Khani, The Mirror
5. Kate Winslet, Titanic
I’m arguing back and forth on whether this should go to Cheung or Leung, they’re both so good. Giving it to Leung, as his perspective dominates so much of the film, while knowing that both will have more chances at the Endy as we move backward in time. Leung will be nominated another four times between 1997 and 2004, winning in 2000 for In the Mood for Love.
Supporting Actor:
1. John C. Reilly, Boogie Nights
2. Chris Tucker, The Fifth Element
3. Robert DeNiro, Jackie Brown
4. Robert Forster, Jackie Brown
5. Russell Crowe, LA Confidential
Supporting Actress:
1. Julianne Moore, Boogie Nights
2. Minnie Driver, Grosse Pointe Blank
3. Parker Posey, Henry Fool
4. Bridget Fonda, Jackie Brown
5. Sarah Polley, The Sweet Hereafter
You could fill out two or three supporting actor categories with the cast of Boogie Nights, Jackie Brown and LA Confidential. 1997 was a great year for ensembles. Moore just missed a nomination for The Big Lebowski in 1998, so this might be a bit of a make-up award for her.

Original Screenplay:
1. Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights
2. David Lynch & Barry Gifford, Lost Highway
3. Jafar Panahi, The Mirror
4. Abbas Kiarostami, Taste of Cherry
5. Matt Chow, Szeto Kam-yuen & Wai Ka-fai, Too Many Ways To Be No. 1
Adapted Screenplay:
1. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Cure
2. Hideaki Anno, End of Evangelion
3. Quentin Tarantino, Jackie Brown
4. Sadayuki Murai, Perfect Blue
5. Edward Neumeier, Starship Troopers
Non-English Language Film:
1. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
2. Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai)
3. The Mirror (Jafar Panahi)
4. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
5. Xiao Wu (Jia Zhangke)
Documentary Film:
1. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (Errol Morris)
Morris picks up his first (but surely not the last) Endy with the only doc I’ve seen from this year.
Animated Film:
1. End of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki)
2. Evangelion: Death and Rebirth (Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki & Masayuki)
3. Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon)
4. Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)
Unseen Film:
1. Destiny (Youssef Chahine)
2. Made in Hong Kong (Fruit Chan)
3. Same Old Song (Alain Resnais)

Film Editing:
1. Boogie Nights
2. Cure
3. Happy Together
4. Kundun
5. Lost Highway
Cinematography:
1. Boogie Nights
2. Happy Together
3. The River
4. Titanic
5. Too Many Ways to Be No. 1
Art Direction:
1. Boogie Nights
2. The Fifth Element
3. Starship Troopers
4. Titanic
5. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs
Costume Design:
1. Boogie Nights
2. The Fifth Element
3. The Ice Storm
4. Starship Troopers
5. Titanic
Don Cheadle’s King Tut outfit.
Make-up:
1. Boogie Nights
2. The Fifth Element
3. Kundun
4. Men in Black
5. Titanic
Not only because of Milla Jovovich’s hair. Other stuff too.

Original Score:
1. Kundun
2. LA Confidential
3. Princess Mononoke
4. Starship Troopers
5. Titanic
Score, not song. The song is terrible, the score is good.
Adapted Score:
1. Boogie Nights
2. Grosse Pointe Blank
3. Happy Together
4. The Ice Storm
5. Jackie Brown
The Delfonics in an upset!
Sound:
1. Boogie Nights
2. Lost Highway
3. The Mirror
4. The River
5. Xiao Wu
The sound design in Jia Zhangke’s debut is extraordinary, the noises and chaos of the rapidly modernizing city intruding on and dominating every aspect of the young pickpocket’s life.
Sound Editing:
1. Face/Off
2. The Lost Word: Jurassic Park
3. Men in Black
4. Starship Troopers
5. Titanic
Visual Effects:
1. Lifeline
2. Men in Black
3. Starship Troopers
4. Titanic
5. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs





