This year, Edgar Wright's surprisingly deeply thematic sci-fi comedy The World's End scooped the most nominations, a record seven. The sheer delight that is Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha follows behind with a stand-out five nominations. There are no 'technical awards' here, and gone are the Razzie clones (Bruce Willis and his performances in A Good Day To Die Hard, GI Joe 2 and RED 2 can be relieved), replaced instead by another acting award- The best performance in a bad film. It's the sign of a great actor when you can shine in a pile of rubbish, perhaps more impressive than the performances put in by most stars up for the 'bigger' awards. This, after all, is a celebration of cinema in all it's glory, and it's about time we got that celebration under way...
The first award is that very category- Best Performance in a Bad Film. A tightly-contested category, up for the award are The Host's Saoirse Ronan who was so almost nominated for the Best Actress category for her work in How I Live Now, Keri Russell for Austinland, Ryan Gosling for the controversial Only God Forgives, the effervescent Martin Freeman's turn in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and from two entries from RED 2 in Anthony Hopkins and John Malkovich. And the award goes to...
MARTIN FREEMAN!
"It's an honour. Truely, it is"
Pipping Saoirse Ronan to the post right at the end of the year, Martin Freeman manages the impossible in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and manages to make the stupid three-hour jargon-fest holiday somewhere within the general vicinity of bearable. Bravo Mr. Freeman, a first-time Owen Award Winner.
Next up, we have the much-coveted award for Best Cinematography. It's one thing to write a great movie or put in a great performance, but it's all worthless if the thing's visuals aren't up to scratch. Up for this award are the lovely black-and-white tones of Frances Ha, the endless void of Gravity, Only God Forgives' fantastic neon style, huge robots hitting each other in Pacific Rim, F1 extraordinaire Rush and the crazed, hallucinogenic stylings of Spring Breakers. But, sweeping the prize is...
GRAVITY!
In space, nobody can hear your acceptance speech.
Possibly the most visually striking and spectacular film of all-time, Gravity deserves any and every award that is thrown its way if it praises spectacle and visual penash. That's what this award is. It's less 'Best Cinematography', more 'Best Spectacle and visual penash'. Gravity wins.
Best Animated Film is won by Frozen. There you go, quick one. Frozen is fantastic. Go and see it as soon as humanly possible.
For our third award, we move onto a big one. It's time for the Best Supporting Actress. A hotly-contested category, but it's come down to just six. First is newcomer Elizabeth Debecki, who nails Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby, perhaps the most surprising entry is Kat Dennings for her work in Thor: The Dark World, second-time nominee Anne Hathaway for Les Miserable, the much-underrated Sally Hawkins for Blue Jasmine, Rooney Mara for Side Effects and Emma Thompson for her unfortunately forgotten but best 2013 movie, Beautiful Creatures. Who will win? Why, of course, it's...
ANNE HATHAWAY!
[Crying] "Oh my god. This means everything. I... I don't know if I can thank you enough."
It's a year since she was thrown to her knees, hair restrained and sat, singing and crying and causing an audience to do the same. Maybe without the singing, but it's still a beautiful and astonishing performance from the former Disney star. She may have won the Oscar, the BAFTA and the Golden Globe for the same scene a year ago, but this is the one that really matters to her. After missing out in the same category last year, it's great to see her triumph.
THE WORLDS' END!
"Wow. I wasn't expecting this." "Me neither, but it doesn't mean I'll cherish it any less"
Deceptively deep and hilariously funny, there really only was one winner (Until you realise Nebraska also fits the same description). Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg teamed up for a third time and produced the best of the bunch. It's a tortured character study mascaraing as a knockabout comedy. It's a brilliant study of alcoholism, growing up, addiction, loss, friendship and age through the vise of an alien invasion and a drunken night out. It's an absolutely brilliant screenplay only bettered by the phenomenal performances the cast, Pegg included, put in.
Best Soundtrack is an interesting category. The use of '80s pop/rock music in The Worlds' End wins it a nomination, while The Great Gatsby's contrasting contemporary sound earns it a nod. Stuck in Love's use of charming indie numbers also pleases, while Frances Ha steals from the French New Wave's best original soundtracks. However, there are original scores up on offer for Skrillex's work on Spring Breakers and Kristian and Robert Anderson for Frozen. All in one chatotic category.
The winner? It has to be the fantastic Frozen, with the all-encompassing funny, smart, catching and melancholic Let It Go winning the impromptu award for Best Original Song. There were no other nominees (Well, there were, but they were all from Frozen). Let It Go is so good that it had to win an award. That means Frozen walks away with three awards. Really, see it. You owe yourself this one.
Next, the one category that has chopped and changed the most this year. It's The Bill Nighy Award For Best Supporting Actor. Every performance has been of real note, with Tom Hiddleston (Thor: The Dark World) and title sponsor himself Bill Nighy (About Time) impossibly unlucky to miss out. Beating them into the honourable mentions are Barkhad Abdi, who outshines Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips, James Franco's hilarious and strangely chilling turn in Spring Breakers, Eddie Marsen and Nick Frost both for their performances in The Worlds' End, possibly my favourite actor, Sam Rockwell himself for The Way, Way Back and Ernst Umhauer, a newcomer holding together the fantastic In The House. Such a tight-run thing. However, the winner is clear...
JAMES FRANCO!
"Alright! James Franco, boy! Word up!"
Narrowly pipping Sam Rockwell, James Franco was almost a shoe-in for the award from about half way through his performance in Spring Breakers. A surprising, chilling and laugh-out-loud funny performance, the film is reflected in the Franco's brilliant turn as Florida gangster Alien. The film belongs to Franco, and he's more than happy for you to know it.
The director is the cornerstone of any film. He's responsible for keeping the pulse going, making sure the film is the best it could be, making sure the performances are up to scratch. As such, the award for Best Director is the cornerstone of the ceremony. Up for the key award are Noah Baumbach, who crafted the perfect reflection of New York life in Frances Ha, Gravity's unstoppable Alfonso Curon, Francois Ozon and his meticulous glare for In The House, master of comic timing and coaxing ensemble performances The Worlds' Ends' Edgar Wright, Denis Villeneuve for the oppressive and impressive Prisoners, Steven Soderberg for the sheer quantity of work- Magic Mike, Haywire, Side Effects and Behind the Candelabra and Ben Wheatley for the supremely directed A Field in England. Apologies to Alexander Payne. He can present the award. Present it to...
STEVEN SODERBERG!
"Thank you. It's an honour. I have no more to say on the matter, I'm too busy being retired."
Maybe he didn't direct the best film of the year, but, by god, he's made a pretty good go at it. Behind The Candelabra is perhaps the perfect biopic- funny and gripping, showing affection for its topic matter without being afraid to show the dirtier side of their life. Side Effects is a thriller with so many twists and turns it's akin to falling down the stairs in Dumbledor's study. He's done both of them, with the surprisingly great Magic Mike and terrific romp Haywire also getting released on DVD this year. That's four films. Four fantastic films. He deserves all the recognition he can get for his workrate and sheer quality. Hopefully it'll coax him out of retirement. Maybe it's not what the award is intended for, but, goddammit, my awards, my rules. Well done Mr Soderberg.
OK. Now then. It's Best Actor time. Chiwitel Eijofor is not eligible. The first actor up for the award is the unknown Aneurin Barnard, the Welshman really knocking it for six in small-budget British horror movie Citadel. Daniel Day-Lewis is nominated for his turn as Lincoln, the evergreen Bruce Dern is magnificent in Nebraska and is honoured accordingly. Last year's winner Jake Gyllenhaal picks up another nomination for Prisoners, while Frank Langella is nominated for providing the heart and soul of Robot & Frank. Simon Pegg is up for the title after producing the performance of a lifetime as Gary King in The World's End. It's going to be a tough one...
For the first time in the history of the Grand Owen Awards, it's a tie! I have honestly lost sleep over this decision. Simon Pegg puts in a remarkably nuances performance; his long-term problems and addictions are laid on the table, but it's wearing the coat of one of the funniest comic performances of the year, obscuring its depth on first viewing. In terms of layered perfomances, it's right up there with... Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in Lincoln. Lincoln is three and a half hour long and Day-Lewis must be in 85% of the scenes, and the 15% he isn't you're praying for him to come back. It's again, deep and immensely watchable. He, as his method methods dictates, becomes Lincoln, and it's incredible. It's a well deserved on both accounts. Two performances of the highest order, both well above anything else ever nominated in the three-year history of the Owen Awards.
And now for the most hotly-contested category. Best Actress. Saorise Ronan is amazing in How I Live Now and is so unlucky. The same goes for Philomena's Judi Dench, Zero Dark Thirty's Jessica Chastain and so many more. I have never seen one category get so flooded with amazing entries. Nominations eventually went to the outstanding Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, Sandra Bullock's fantastic, desperate performance in Gravity, Greta Gerwig's immersive, charming turn as the titular Frances Ha, Short Term 12's Brie Larson, who moves and inspires with every scene, the unstoppable Jennifer Lawrence for a Hunger Games movie for the second year running and Amanda Seyfried, who turns Lovelace from an average biopic into something really worth seeing, all by herself. It's an amazing category, but who comes out on top?
GRETA GERWIG!
"Umm, are you sure? I won? Not, like, Cate Blanchett or Judi Dench or someone? OK. Wow."
It couldn't've been anyone else. Greta Gerwig is Frances Ha. Frances Ha is Greta Gerwig. Having co-written the script, she had the same sort of insight into the character Simon Pegg would have found. Frances may be up on the screen, but thanks to Gerwig's infallible performance, she's now your friend. If you are alive and have a pulse and managed to watch Frances Ha without falling at least a little bit in love with Greta Gerwig, then you need to check your pulse, because you're clearly dead. Me? I fell completely head-over-heels.There was no real competition.
This is the big one. It's time for Best Picture. There are eight films up for this category, not the usual six. It's an all-out celebration of cinema. What are these films? Well...
Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, a film built on two fantastic performances from Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins, sprinkled with his own wonderful dialogue and style.
Frances Ha, directed by Noah Baumbach and co-written with it's beaming, effervescent star, Greta Gerwig. It's a celebration of the human ability to smile.
The most visually striking film anyone will ever see, Alfonso Curon's 3D masterpiece, Gravity, with two great performances from Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.
In The House, a darkly comic satire on storytelling and the parallel nature of human lives. It's directed by acclaimed Frenchman Francois Ozon.
Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. It's three hours of men sitting in chairs talking to each other, and I'd watch another three hours, no questions asked.
An honest contender for the best road movie ever made, Nebraska is a tour de force from director Alexander Payne, screenwriter Bob Nelson and star Bruce Dern.
The final part of Edgar Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, The Worlds' End is the funniest film of the year, wrapped in tragedy and thematic leverage.
'The bin Laden movie' Zero Dark Thirty is blockbuster cinema as it should be. Edge-of-the-seat stuff from director Kathrine Bigalow and stand-out star Jessica Chastain.
Yet, there can only be one winner. Up to present the award is director of last years' winner, A Royal Affair, Nikolaj Arcel. This is going to be difficult for him as he doesn't speak a word of English. But, not to undermine the victory, which goes to...
FRANCES HA!
"I can't describe this feeling. This is the highlight of my career. Thank you." "Oh, my, wow. I don't know what to... Wow."
Frances Ha is a film to fall in love with. It's so long since we last had one of those. Greta Gerwig is amazing, Mickey Sumner (Who so cruelly missed out on a nomination for Supporting Actress) is really great and Baumbach's direction nails the atmosphere the film requires. I love Frances Ha. I
love Frances Ha so much the thought of watching it causes me to cry soup. Just imagine that. I'm
crying soup. Fresh, creamy tomato soup. I'll never need to buy food again. I
just think about my love for Noah Baumbach's latest creation and dinner comes
to me. That's how wonderful Frances Ha is. It can cure world hunger. Make a point of seeing it, and as soon as possible. It is, after all, officially, the Best Film of 2013.
Well, thank you all, folks, for joining us for the 2013 Grand Owen Awards! Join us again next Christmas Eve for the nominations for the year that was/will be 2014, and then again in January to see 12 Years a Slave absolutely sweep the board and win Best Picture! See you then!
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