Skandies: #1

Picture: Grizzly Man (255/20)
Director: Terrence Malick, The New World (278/17)
Actress: Sibel Kekilli, Head-On (283/21)
Actor: Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain (439/26)
S. Actor: Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale (357/24)
S. Actress: Maria Bello, A History of Violence (322/24)
Screenplay: Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale (369/24)
Scene: Majid's final cut, Caché (Hidden) (130/10)
Undistributed 2003: Not on the Lips (Alain Resnais) (98/8)

HISTORY:

Malick placed 4th for The Thin Red Line in 1998.

Ledger placed earlier this year for Lords of Dogtown. All of the other actors are new.

Noah Baumbach finished 10th last year for co-writing The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.

Skandies: #2

Picture: The New World (223/11)
Director: Michael Haneke, Caché (Hidden) (201/18)
Actress: Q'orianka Kilcher, The New World (262/18)
Viggo Mortensen, A History of Violence (236/21)
S. Actor: Mickey Rourke, Frank Miller's Sin City (248/18)
S. Actress: Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain (316/24)
Screenplay: Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana, Brokeback Mountain (295/23)
Scene: First encounter of the close kind, War of the Worlds (127/11)
Undistributed 2003: The Story of Marie and Julien (Jacques Rivette) (89/5)

HISTORY:

Haneke placed 13th for Funny Games in 1998, 12th for Code Unknown in 2001, and 14th for The Piano Teacher in 2002. Everyone else is new.

md'a

Skandies: #3

Picture: Brokeback Mountain (202/18)
Director: David Cronenberg, A History of Violence (198/17)
Actress: Evan Rachel Wood, Pretty Persuasion (222/13)
Actor: Robert Downey, Jr., Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (186/15)
S. Actor: Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man (129/11)
S. Actress: Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale (195/20)
Screenplay: Shane Black, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (239/19)
Scene: "Free Bird," The Devil's Rejects (103/8)
Undistributed 2003: No Rest for the Brave (Alain Guiraudie) (55/6)

HISTORY:

Cronenberg placed 14th for Crash way back in 1996.

Wood previously finished 14th for Thirteen (2003). Downey previously finished 10th for Two Girls and a Guy (1998). Giamatti makes his third consecutive appearance, following two nods as a lead: #7 for American Splendor two years ago and #1 for Sideways last year. And this is Linney's sixth citation:

#8, supporting, The Truman Show (1998)
#1, lead, You Can Count on Me (2000)
#6, supporting, The House of Mirth (2000)
#13, lead, p.s. (2004)
#18, supporting, Kinsey (2004)

Shane Black has been inactive for pretty much the entire existence of the survey.

Skandies: #4

Picture: Tropical Malady (192/11)
Director: Wong Kar-wai, 2046 (193/16)
Actress: Kate Dollenmayer, Funny Ha Ha (190/12)
Actor: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mysterious Skin (180/13)
S. Actor: William Hurt, A History of Violence (109/9)
S. Actress: Ziyi Zhang, 2046 (167/15)
Screenplay: Skander Halim, Pretty Persuasion (132/9)
Scene: Kong vs. the T-Rexes (V-Rexes?), King Kong (91/8)
Undistributed 2003: Ana and the Others (Celina Murga) (51/5)

HISTORY:

Wong won Best Director in 2001 for In the Mood for Love. He also finished 4th in 1996 for Chung King Express and 17th in 1997 for Happy Together.

All of the actors are new with the exception of Zhang, who previously placed twice in the lead category: At #6 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), and at #12 last year for House of Flying Daggers.

I have never heard of this Halim person.

Skandies: #5

Picture: Caché (Hidden) (165/13)
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tropical Malady (184/11)
Actress: Emmanuelle Devos, Kings & Queen (188/19)
Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote (177/16)
S. Actor: Christian Bale, The New World (97/9)
S. Actress: Yuen Qiu, Kung Fu Hustle (165/12)
Screenplay: Woody Allen, Match Point (129/14)
Scene: Street market foot chase, Ong-bak (88/5)
Undistributed 2003: PTU (Johnnie To) (48/6)

HISTORY:

Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul finished 14th last year for Blissfully Yours.

In addition to her previous appearance this year for Gilles' Wife, Devos placed 12th in 2002 for Read My Lips. (I somehow neglected to note this at the time.) Bale was covered when he placed for Batman Begins. Yuen is new. And with this nod, Philip Seymour Hoffman becomes the first actor to hit the top 20 eight times, regaining his spot as the most honored thesp in Skandie history. His previous citations (all in Supporting except for Mahowny):

1998: #15, Happiness
1999: #6, The Talented Mr. Ripley
1999: #10, Magnolia
2000: #6, Almost Famous
2000: #12, State and Main
2002: #10, 25th Hour
2003: #15, Owning Mahowny [lead]

Woody Allen previously placed 20th for his screenplay for Deconstructing Harry in 1997.

Skandies: #6

Picture: The Squid and the Whale (164/17)
Director: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain (166/18)
Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line (185/17)
Actor: David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck. (169/15)
S. Actor: Ed Harris, A History of Violence (94/10)
S. Actress: Scarlett Johansson, Match Point (131/13)
Screenplay: Josh Olson, A History of Violence (117/12)
Scene: Hammer time, Oldboy (81/8)
Undistributed 2003: Falling Angels (Scott Smith) (48/3)

HISTORY:

Lee won Best Director in 2000 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, beating out Edward Yang, whose Yi Yi (A One and a Two...) was that year's Best Picture. Lee also placed 12th in 1997 for The Ice Storm.

Witherspoon won Best Actress in 1999 for Election. She also placed 20th in 2001 for Legally Blonde and 12th in the supporting category for Pleasantville in 1998.

Scarlett Johansson won Best Supporting Actress in 2001 for Ghost World. She also placed 5th in 1998 for The Horse Whisperer, and appeared twice in the lead category two years ago, for Lost in Translation (2nd) and Girl With a Pearl Earring (15th). Had she come in fifth for Match Point instead of sixth, she would have tied Billy Bob Thornton's record for most Skandie "nominations" (four total).

Harris' only previous citation was for The Truman Show (1998); he placed 12th in Supporting. Strathairn gets his first-ever nod.

This is Olson's first eligible screenplay.

Skandies: #7

Picture: A History of Violence (159/12)
Director: Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man (143/12)
Actress: Naomi Watts, King Kong (179/19)
Actor: Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow (125/13)
S. Actor: Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain (84/11)
S. Actress: Catherine Keener, The 40 Year Old Virgin (119/13)
Screenplay: Michael Haneke, Caché (Hidden) (109/12)
Scene: Staircase sex, A History of Violence (55/6)
Undistributed 2003: Soldier's Girl (Frank Pierson) (47/4)

HISTORY:

This is Herzog's first appearance in the top 20.

Naomi Watts won Best Actress by a landslide in 2001 for Mulholland Dr.; she also placed 12th in 2003 for 21 Grams and 20th in Supporting last year for I ♥ Huckabees. It's the fourth appearance for Keener as well, who also placed 7th once in the lead category (Lovely and Amazing, 2002); her previous supporting nods were for Your Friends & Neighbors in 1998 (10th) and Being John Malkovich in 1999 (2nd). Howard and Gyllenhaal are new.

While Haneke has made the Director list multiple times, his sole previous writing citation was for The Piano Teacher (#19, 2002).

Skandies: #8

Picture: 2046 (134/11)
Director: Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller's Sin City (116/11)
Actress: Natalie Press, My Summer of Love (169/15)
Actor: Mathieu Amalric, Kings & Queen (103/12)
S. Actor: Owen Kline, The Squid and the Whale (84/9)
S. Actress: Michelle Monaghan, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (110/12)
Screenplay: Arnaud Desplechin and Roger Bohbot, Kings & Queen (108/10)
Scene: Ennis' trailer (final scene), Brokeback Mountain (51/6)
Undistributed 2003: The Hours of the Day (Jaime Rosales)

HISTORY:

Roger Bohbot finished 15th in 1999 for cowriting The Dreamlife of Angels with Erick Zonca. Amalric was previously covered when he placed for Munich; everyone else is new.

Skandies: #9

Picture: Memories of Murder (77/7)
Director: Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale (86/9)
Actress: Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger (119/9)
Actor: Tony Leung, 2046 (100/13)
S. Actor: Jeffrey Wright, Broken Flowers (75/8)
S. Actress: Tilda Swinton, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (95/8)
Screenplay: George A. Romero, Land of the Dead (90/11)
Scene: But I'm a cheerleader, A History of Violence (50/4)
Undistributed 2003: Vibrator (Ryuichi Hiroki) (40/4)

HISTORY:

Neither Baumbach nor Romero has previously placed in their respective categories.

Joan Allen is one of the most honored actors in Skandie history, though this is her first nod in five years.

#7, Supporting: The Crucible (1996)
#9, Lead: The Ice Storm (1997)
#9, Supporting: Face/Off (1997)
#1, Supporting: Pleasantville (1998)
#14, Lead: The Contender (2000)

Leung makes his fourth appearance as a lead actor, having previously placed 7th in 2001 for In the Mood for Love, 13th in 2004 for Infernal Affairs, and 20th the same year for Hero. Wright finished 4th in 2000 (supporting) for Shaft. And Swinton was covered when she was cited for Thumbsucker.

Skandies: #10

Picture: Frank Miller's Sin City (70/9)
Director: Peter Jackson, King Kong (82/7)
Actress: Emmanuelle Devos, Gilles' Wife (98/6)
Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line (93/7)
S. Actor: Donald Sutherland, Pride & Prejudice (71/7)
S. Actress: Emily Blunt, My Summer of Love (76/8)
Screenplay: Gregg Araki, Mysterious Skin (82/9)
Scene: Ennis visits Jack's folks, Brokeback Mountain (50/3)
Undistributed 2003: Come and Go (João César Monteiro) (40/2)

HISTORY:

This is Jackson's fifth time on the Director list, each time in the top ten. He placed 7th for The Frighteners in 1996, then finished 9th, 5th, and 3rd, in chronological order, for the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03).

Of the actors, only Phoenix, who came in 9th in Supporting for Gladiator five years ago, has previously appeared.

Araki: still new.

Skandies: #11

Picture: Kung Fu Hustle (69/10)
Director: Gregg Araki, Mysterious Skin (78/8)
Actress: Juliette Binoche, Caché (Hidden)(86/11)
Actor: Daniel Auteuil, Caché (Hidden) (90/10)
S. Actor: Kurt Russell, Sky High (70/5)
S. Actress: Kelly Lynch, Dallas 362 (76/7)
Screenplay: Miranda July, Me and You and Everyone We Know (67/9)
Scene: Assassinating the assassin, Munich (49/5)
Undistributed 2003: Doppelgänger (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) (39/4)

HISTORY:

This is the first appearance for both Araki and July.

It's apropos that Auteuil and Binoche wound up in the same slot for the same film, since they've been following each other around throughout Skandie history. Both have placed twice previously: in 1996 (Binoche 6th in Supporting for The English Patient; Auteuil 16th in Lead for Thieves (Les Voleurs)), and again in 2001 (Binoche 13th in Supporting for Code Unknown; Auteuil 18th in Lead for The Widow of Saint-Pierre, for which Binoche didn't make the cut). And this is Russell's third consecutive appearance, following Lead nods in 2003 (#20, Dark Blue) and 2004 (#18, Miracle).

Skandies: #12

Picture: Head-On (64/7)
Director: Steven Spielberg, Munich (71/8)
Actress: Miranda July, Me and You and Everyone We Know (70/10)
Actor: Steve Carell, The 40 Year Old Virgin (87/9)
S. Actor: Heath Ledger, Lords of Dogtown (67/5)
S. Actress: Amy Adams, Junebug (76/6)
Screenplay: Judd Apatow & Steve Carell, The 40 Year Old Virgin (59/7)
Scene: Bomb on a bus, The Interpreter (49/4)
Undistributed 2003: Strong Shoulders (Ursula Meier) (34/2)

HISTORY:

Spielberg's history was previously noted when he landed at #20 for War of the Worlds.

And that's it. Everyone else is new, though obviously we'll be seeing Mr. Ledger again some time from now.

Skandies: #13

Picture: Match Point (61/8)
Director: Chanwook Park, Oldboy (71/6)
Actress: Keira Knightley, Pride & Prejudice (54/7)
Actor: Minsik Choi, Oldboy (80/9)
S. Actor: Kevin Costner, The Upside of Anger (59/7)
S. Actress: Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener (71/8)
Screenplay: Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, Munich (59/5)
Scene: Arrival of the Europeans, The New World (49/3)
Undistributed 2003: The Missing (Lee Kang Sheng) (33/4)

HISTORY:

Oldboy is Park's first eligible film. Both Joint Security Area and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance placed in the Undistributed poll, however.

Of the actors, only Costner has previously shown up in the op 20, landing at #8 (NOTE: 7 rungs too low) for Best Actor in Tin Cup. He's now the third actor from the class of '96 to make a belated second appearance, after Claire Danes and Faye Wang/Wong.

Roth previously placed 19th for The Insider (co-written with Michael Mann).

Skandies: #14

Picture: Munich (60/5)
Director: Stephen Chow, Kung Fu Hustle (70/8)
Actress: Gwyneth Paltrow, Proof (50/3)
Actor: Damian Lewis, Keane (78/7)
S. Actor (tie for #13): Ian McDiarmid, Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith (59/7)
S. Actress: Taraji P. Henson, Hustle & Flow (70/5)
Screenplay (tie for #13): Paul Hernandez and Bob Schooley & Mark McCorkle, Sky High (59/5)
Scene: One-man band, Last Days (42/5)
Undistributed 2003: A Thousand Months (Faouzi Bensaïdi) (32/3)

HISTORY:

This is Chow's first eligible film, Shaolin Soccer having been delayed for 600 years by Miramax Classic.

Of the actors, only Paltrow has previously placed. She makes her fifth appearance. The previous four:

#19, Supporting: Hard Eight (1997)
#7, Lead: Shakespeare in Love (1998)
#16, Lead: Shallow Hal (2001)
#10, Supporting: The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

All of the Sky High screenwriters are new.

Skandies: #15

Picture: Kings & Queen (56/6)
Director: Gus Van Sant, Last Days (67/6)
Actress: Isild Le Besco, À tout de suite (46/7)
Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Squid and the Whale (74/11)
S. Actor: Jeff Goldblum, Dallas 362 (58/5)
S. Actress: Gong Li, 2046 (68/7)
Screenplay: Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, Batman Begins (58/8)
Scene: Harry under the bed, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (42/3)
Undistributed 2003: The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Episodes 1-3 (Peter Greenaway) (30/3)

HISTORY:

Van Sant placed twice in 2003: 4th for Gerry, 18th for Elephant.

Of the actors, only Eisenberg, who finished 6th in Supporting Actor for Roger Dodger three years ago, has made a previous appearance in the top 20.

Nolan won Screenplay in 2001 for Memento. No previous sign of Goyer.

Skandies: #16

Picture: Mysterious Skin (50/7)
Director: Kim Ki-duk, 3-iron (63/9)
Actress: Claire Danes, Shopgirl (45/6)
Actor: Birol Ünel, Head-On (65/9)
Supporting Actor: Mathieu Amalric, Munich (56/5)
Supporting Actress: Patricia Clarkson, The Dying Gaul (63/4)
Screenplay: Dan Futterman, Capote (57/7)
Scene: ))<>((, Me and You and Everyone We Know (41/5)
Undistributed, 2003: Angels in America (Mike Nichols) (30/1)

HISTORY:

Kim finished 11th last year for Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring. Good job August Voting Body continuing to stick it to Tony Rayns.

Danes makes her first appearance in the top 20 since she placed 11th way back in 1996 for William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. Clarkson gets her fourth consecutive Skandie nod in the supporting category (and fifth overall); she previously finished 11th for High Art (1998), 13th for Far From Heaven (2002), 10th for The Station Agent (2003), and 12th for Dogville (2004). Ünel and (incredibly) Amalric are new.

Futterman places for his first produced screenplay.

Skandies: #17

Picture: Oldboy (49/4)
Director: Arnaud Desplechin, Kings & Queen (62/8)
Actress: Marilou Berry, Look at Me (42/6)
Actor: Eric Bana, Munich (53/6)
S. Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Serenity (52/4)
S. Actress: Faye Wong, 2046 (60/7)
Screenplay: George Clooney & Grant Heslov, Good Night, and Good Luck. (55/6)
Scene: Stop with the stabbing, Kung Fu Hustle (40/4)
Undistributed 2003 (tie for #16): The Big Durian (Amir Muhammad) (30/1)

HISTORY:

This is the first nod for Desplechin, as the passionate Esther Kahn crowd was just a bit too small. (I doubt enough voters even saw My Sex Life way back in '97.)

Bana previously placed 3rd in the lead category for Chopper (2001) and 10th in the supporting category for Troy (2004). Ejiofor landed at #13 in 2003 for Dirty Pretty Things. And this is the first return appearance for Faye Wong (who I now realize is the same person as Faye Wang) since she finished 11th for Wong's Chung King Express in 1996. Berry is new.

No previous writing citations for Clooney or Heslov.

Also, I should note for newcomers that Park's other 2005 commercial release, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, was not eligible, having had its premiere prior to 1 Jan 2003. It did previously finish 2nd in the Undistributed poll, however, behind Hong Sang-soo's Turning Gate. (Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse, which would almost certainly have placed here, was likewise ineligible; it won the Undistributed poll for the year 2001.)

Skandies: #18

Picture: Nobody Knows (47/7)
Director: Rob Zombie, The Devil's Rejects (58/3)
Actress: Mercedes Morán, The Holy Girl (36/5)
Actor: Christian Bale, Batman Begins (51/4)
S. Actor: Val Kilmer, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (48/4)
S. Actress: Isla Fisher, Wedding Crashers (57/6)
Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho et al., Memories of Murder (50/5)
Scene (tie for #17): The audio that must be destroyed, Grizzly Man (40/4)
Undistributed 2003 (still a tie for #16): Channels of Rage (Anat Halachmi) (30/1)

HISTORY:

Everyone is new except Bale, previously addressed since he's also a nominee this year, and Kilmer, who placed 17th last year in the lead category for Spartan.

Skandies: #19

Picture: Batman Begins (47/6)
Director: Lucrecia Martel, The Holy Girl (56/7)
Actress: Maria Alché, The Holy Girl (35/5)
Actor: Yûya Yagira, Nobody Knows (50/6)
S. Actor: Oliver Platt, The Ice Harvest (47/5)
S. Actress: Tilda Swinton, Thumbsucker (57/5)
Screenplay: Mike Mills, Thumbsucker (49/4)
Scene: The taking of young Majid, Caché (Hidden) (40/2)
Undistributed 2003 (actually a tie for #16): Where Is Madame Catherine? (Marc Recha) (30/1)

HISTORY:

First appearance in the top 20 for everybody save Swinton, who's placed twice before in the lead category: #18 in 1997 for Female Perversions, and #5 in 2001 for The Deep End.

Skandies: #20

(Parenthetical is number of points/number of votes.)

Picture: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (47/5)
Director: Steven Spielberg, War of the Worlds (56/6)
Actress (tie for #19): Rachel McAdams, Red Eye (35/5)
Actor: Russell Crowe, Cinderella Man (49/6)
S. Actor: Paddy Considine, My Summer of Love (45/6)
S. Actress: Dakota Fanning, War of the Worlds (54/3)
Screenplay: Frank Miller, Frank Miller's Sin City (46/6)
Scene: (tie for #19): Family dinner, Pretty Persuasion (40/2)
Undistributed 2003: The Magic Gloves (Martín Rejtman) (27/3)

HISTORY:

Spielberg previously finished 2nd in 1998 for Saving Private Ryan and 7th in 2001 for AI. Congrats to him for making the cut at least once -- the last time he released two movies in the same year (Minority Report and Catch Me if You Can), neither one placed.

Crowe makes his sixth Skandie appearance, but his first ever outside of the top ten. Breaks down like so:

1997: #4, L.A. Confidential
1999: #5, The Insider
2000: #4, Gladiator
2001: #9, A Beautiful Mind
2003: #9, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

This is Considine's second citation; he placed 10th in the same category for Last Resort in 2001. McAdams and Fanning are both new to the fold.

Now that I check the IMDb, I discover that there actually is no screenplay credit for Sin City. But it's probably safe to assume that Miller deserves the credit, what with his name being in the title and all. It's his first appearance, the Skandies not having been around for Robocop 2.

Skandies: The fake nominees

HOW THIS WORKS: Each of the 40 or so Skandie voters is allotted 100 points in each category, to be divided among exactly ten candidates. The maximum number of points permissible for any one choice is 30; the minimum is 5. (I stole this system from the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll.) In the performance categories, votes are for performances, not for actors; it's not uncommon for someone to turn up more than once in the same year, and in fact Edward Norton finished 1st and2nd in Supporting Actor back in 1996, the first year I used this format.

Now, there's only one round of voting. People submit their ballots, I add up the points, and that's that. So there are aren't actually any "nominees" in a traditional sense. Nonetheless, I always first reveal the top five in each category, in alphabetical order, just to give the project that Oscar-type feel. The reverse countdown, kicking off with all the #20s, will begin tomorrow.


BEST PICTURE

Brokeback Mountain

Caché (Hidden)

Grizzly Man

The New World

Tropical Malady


BEST DIRECTOR

David Cronenberg, A History of Violence

Michael Haneke, Caché (Hidden)

Terrence Malick, The New World

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tropical Malady

Wong Kar-wai, 2046

This is the second "nomination" (all further scare quotes omitted) for Malick, who placed 4th for The Thin Red Line in 1998, and the third for Wong, who placed 4th in 1996 for Chung King Express and won outright in 2001 for In the Mood for Love. Has he done it again? Stay tuned, etc.


BEST ACTRESS

Emmanuelle Devos, Kings & Queen

Kate Dollenmayer, Funny Ha Ha

Sibel Kekilli, Head-On

Q'Orianka Kilcher, The New World

Evan Rachel Wood, Pretty Persuasion

First nomination for all.


BEST ACTOR

Robert Downey, Jr., Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mysterious Skin

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote

Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain

Viggo Mortensen, A History of Violence

First nomination for all.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale, The New World

Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale

Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man

William Hurt, A History of Violence

Mickey Rourke, Frank Miller's Sin City

Bale and Giamatti have each been nominated once before, both in the lead category: Bale placed 3rd in 2000 for American Psycho; Giamatti won last year for Sideways.


SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Maria Bello, A History of Violence

Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale

Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain

Yuen Qiu, Kung Fu Hustle

Ziyi Zhang, 2046

Only Linney, who won in 2000 for You Can Count on Me (lead category), has previously been nominated. (Zhang placed 6th for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, mostly because she wound up landing in Actress rather than Supporting Actress; I believe she had enough points to win the latter, or pretty close.)


SCREENPLAY

Woody Allen, Match Point

Noah Baumbach, The Squid and the Whale

Shane Black, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Skander Halim, Pretty Persuasion

Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana, Brokeback Mountain

First nomination for all.

[YEAH, YEAH, I KNOW: It looks fishy. But while there's no doubt that the voting body's personal knowledge of Mr. Halim -- he's part of same -- resulted in Pretty Persuasion being much more widely seen that it would otherwise have been, I believe that all votes for his screenplay were sincere. (For the record, I didn't give Skander any points, and I consider him a good friend.) I could of course have declared the film ineligible, but in the end I chose to trust the integrity of the voters rather than remove a fairly major picture from all consideration. And it's certainly significant that another film written (and directed) by a Skandie voter was eligible last year, and was widely seen, and got basically no votes.]


SCENE

Caché (Hidden): Majid's final cut

The Devil's Rejects: "Free Bird"

King Kong: Kong vs. the T-Rexes (V-Rexes?)

Ong-bak: Street market foot chase

War of the Worlds: First encounter of the close kind


UNDISTRIBUTED FILM, 2003

(There's a two-year window of eligibility for the main part of the survey -- I prefer that all the movies be at least roughly contemporaneous -- so a few years ago I started doing a separate poll for unreleased [in NYC] films, staggered two years behind the main poll. A smaller group of voters, composed primarily of those who regularly attend one or more major film festivals, votes for this category.)

Ana and the Others (Celina Murga)

No Rest for the Brave (Alain Guiraudie)

Not on the Lips (Alain Resnais)

PTU (Johnnie To)

The Story of Marie and Julien (Jacques Rivette)

Skandie season.

Yes, it's time once again for that colossal waste of time and energy known as the Skander Halim Memorial* Movie Survey. If you don't know what the hell that is, and think you might care, some background (previously posted here), plus bare-bones results dating back to 1996, are now available on my regular old site, where I've substituted them for the long-defunct "Ask Mike" feature. (Still trying to decide whether to leave the header as is or change it to Champagne.) And this year, for the first time, I'll be making the results available publicly as they're announced to the participants, albeit staggered one day behind so as not to divert too much traffic away from the Movie Nerd Discussion Group to which we all belong. Check back on Tuesday for the five fake nominees (I'll explain later) in the major categories, and then every day after that for about the next three weeks. If you can stand the excitement, that is.

* (Skander Halim is still not dead.)