Skandiewrap, or: More than you really needed to know.

Before I get to the summing up and the statting out, we have breaking goddamn news in the Supporting Actress category! Immensely grateful though I am to Mark Pittillo for creating the e-ballot, which has saved me literally days worth of man-hours over the past several years, it does have one very frustrating glitch: zero tolerance for discrepancies. That means I need to manually check and recheck as ballots come in to ensure that names are spelled precisely the same way, which is no big deal—still takes way less time than actual tabulation. However, the program's intolerance also extends to discrepancies you can't even see. Specifically, it chokes when someone includes a space at the end of the name. And when it chokes, what it sometimes does is just refuse to include any votes for that individual on the results page.

All of which is by way of revealing that Marion Cotillard, who was not cited during the daily countdown, in fact finished 14th in Supporting Actress for her performance in Public Enemies, with 84 points from eight votes. (Mariana Loyola, The Maid, thus gets knocked out of the #20 spot.) Thanks to Jason Overbeck for noticing her absence, and my apologies to Ms. Cotillard, who has no doubt been severely depressed, if not in tears, since the fake nominees were announced a week ago and she had to conclude that her work had been completely ignored. Or maybe that's C. Mason Wells I'm thinking of.

(Hopefully there aren't any other omissions—I did a quick skim—but if you happen to spot one, let me know.)

As for the previously announced results, turns out I did most of my bitching in the comments for the previous post. (Short version: I don't think Inglourious Basterds is much more than two terrific chapters + Christoph Waltz, and am annoyed that it broke a longstanding Skandie record by winning six of our eight awards.) At least we correctly gave a landslide victory to Julia's Tilda Swinton, who did mindblowing work in a film too obscure for any major awards body to notice, and recognized the excellence of what may or may not turn out to be Joaquin Phoenix's final performance. Gotta say, I miss the days before the indieWire and Voice polls, when such victories came totally out of nowhere—I'm fairly certain we were the only award Jeff Bridges won at the time for The Big Lebowski, for example. Likewise Christina Ricci in Buffalo '66.

We have our sins of omission, too, sadly. The most egregious, to my mind, would be The Headless Woman, which was correctly recognized as one of last year's five or ten best films in all the critics' polls but finished way down at #22 here. And it's not as if Skandie voters didn't see it, and appreciate certain aspects in isolation: María Onetto came in at #4 in Actress, and Martel finished 8th in the Director race. Yet somehow the film as a whole garnered very little support. Too cerebral? Too opaque? Other pictures the Film Comment crowd liked a lot more than we did: Police, Adjective (#24); The Beaches of Agnès (#44); 24 City (got one token 5-point vote—though Still Life managed to crack last year's top 20, we're still generally not buying Jia as one of world cinema's giants, and by "we" I emphatically include me); The White Ribbon (tied with Varda at #44; see also fest rundown below); The Limits of Control (#34; see also list of ultra-divisive films below); The Sun (not eligible; placed 5th two years ago among undistributed films of 2005); Bright Star (#59; well liked but little passion); Tulpan (no votes at all); and Antichrist (#23 and the year's most divisive film).

Also fairly notable by its absence—though I wouldn't call this particular omission a sin—is Avatar, which placed 30th. If that doesn't seem anomalous, recall that Titanic came in a very respectable 6th back in 1997, with Cameron finishing 2nd in Director (behind Egoyan). So it's not as if we're a bunch of terminal art snobs who automatically dismiss high-tech gargantuanism. Avatar just isn't as satisfying on a basic popcorn level, I suspect—once you've had time to absorb its alleged "game-changing" qualities, it doesn't have much left to offer.

I would also like to thank the August Voting Body for giving Precious (Based on a Laughable Conception of Wanton Cruelty and Grudging Self-Determination by Sapphire) a 2.18 average, ranking it a dismal 184th out of the 264 films that received at least five votes, just below Race to Witch Mountain. Though that's still way too high.

Okay, now for the number-crunching. (Many of you will want to check out at this point.) Longtime Skandie voters will recall that I used to produce a massive Word file every year (originally snail-mailed to everyone!) that featured a bunch of statistical odds and ends. I still put that together, actually, but for the past few years I'm the only person who's seen it. Might as well put that stuff up here, I figure, if not eventually on the official Skandies site.

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HIGHEST AVERAGE RATING (1996–2009)
(includes only films receiving a minimum of ten votes)

01. 3.65 The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
02. 3.61 Being John Malkovich (1999)
03. 3.58 Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
04. 3.57 In the Company of Men (1997)
05. 3.56 Secrets & Lies (1996)
06. 3.53 La Promesse (1997)
07. 3.52 Yi Yi (A One and a Two…) (2000)
08. 3.50 From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1996)
09. 3.48 Irma Vep (1997)
3.48 Lone Star (1996)

3.46 Inglourious Basterds (2009)
3.46 There Will Be Blood (2007)
3.45 In the Mood for Love (2001)
3.45 No Country for Old Men (2007)
3.43 Before Sunset (2004)
3.43 Mulholland Dr. (2001)
3.43 Spirited Away (2002)
3.42 The Departed (2006)
3.42 25th Hour (2002)

(NOTE: The dominance of films from the '90s on the "real" list is almost certainly due to the fact that many participants have become much stingier with the higher ratings over the past few years. No film has managed to crack the top ten since Yi Yi back in 2000. Hence the subsidiary list of the highest-rated films since, many of which would surely supplant the likes of Lone Star and Secrets & Lies if we were to vote on them again.)

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LOWEST AVERAGE RATING (1996–2009)
(includes only films receiving a minimum of five votes)

01. 0.20 Date Movie (2006)
02. 0.58 Miss March (2009)
03. 0.60 Dragonfly (2002)
04. 0.67 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
05. 0.75 The Mod Squad (1999)
06. 0.80 Just One Time (2000)
0.80 13 Ghosts (2001)
0.80 What’s the Worst That Could Happen? (2001)
09. 0.83 Battlefield Earth (2000)
10. 0.90 Company Man (2001)
0.90 Evan Almighty (2007)
0.90 Shadow Hours (2000)

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MOST DIVISIVE FILMS (2009)
(std. deviation >= 0.75; minimum 2 votes 3.5 or higher, 2 votes 1.5 or lower)

• Antichrist (0.96)
• A Serious Man (0.93)
• Observe and Report (0.91)
• Away We Go (0.90)
• Brüno (0.87)
• My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (0.87)
• The Limits of Control (0.83)
• Hunger (0.80)
• The Hangover (0.76)
• Precious (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire) (0.76)

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BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
(lowest-ranked film seen by at least 75% of respondents)

1996: Twister (1.80)
1997: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (2.33)
1998: He Got Game (2.59)
1999: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (2.18)
2000: Nurse Betty (2.31)
2001: Vanilla Sky (2.20)
2002: Storytelling (2.03)
2003: The Matrix Reloaded (2.29)
2004: The Village (2.30)
2005: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2.49)
2006: Little Miss Sunshine (2.52)
2007: Ocean's Thirteen (2.52)
2008: Milk (2.83)
2009: The Hangover (2.35)

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PASSIONATE MINORITY AWARD
(lowest average among top 20 films in Picture voting)

1996: Dead Man (2.94)
1997: Crash (2.52)
1998: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (2.68)
1999: The End of the Affair (2.96)
2000: Requiem for a Dream (2.73)
2001: Amélie (2.71)
2002: 8 Women (2.79)
2003: The Good Thief (2.81)
2004: I ♥ Huckabees (2.84)
2005: Oldboy (2.68)
2006: Manderlay (2.69)
2007: Once (2.79)
2008: Funny Games (2.83)
2009: A Serious Man (2.83)

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DAMNED WITH FAINT PRAISE
(highest-ranked film by average rating not to place in Picture voting [10+ voters] )

1996: Get on the Bus (3.29)
1997: Forgotten Silver (3.36)
1998: The Kingdom II (3.14)
1999: My Name Is Joe (3.18)
2000: Erin Brockovich (3.14)
2001: No Man’s Land (3.19)
2002: Roger Dodger (3.14)
2003: The Weather Underground (3.18)
2004: Bright Leaves (3.16)
2005: Howl's Moving Castle (3.15)
2006: The Devil and Daniel Johnston (3.18)
2007: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (3.25)
2008: The Duchess of Langeais (3.20)
2009: Night and Day (3.07)

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DAMN THE REVIEWS, FULL SPEED AHEAD
(lowest average among films seen by at least 10 respondents)

1996: Twister (1.80)
1997: Batman & Robin (1.28)
1998: The Avengers | Stepmom [tie] (1.50)
1999: Jawbreaker (1.14)
2000: Pay It Forward (1.41)
2001: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (1.26)
2002: Scooby-Doo (1.08)
2003: Bad Boys II (1.60)
2004: Exorcist: The Beginning (1.21)
2005: Undead (1.29)
2006: The Hills Have Eyes (1.65)
2007: Smokin' Aces (1.64)
2008: Jumper (1.54)
2009: Gigantic (1.00)

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SELECTION COMMITTEE ON CRACK
(lowest average for a film that screened at the New York Film Festival)

1996: Flirt (2.20)
1997: Kiss or Kill (1.79)
1998: Voyage to the Beginning of the World (1.80)
1999: Dogma (1.89)
2000: Before Night Falls (2.31)
2001: La Ciénaga (1.95)
2002: In Praise of Love (1.95)
2003: Chi-Hwa-Seon: Painted Fire (2.19)
2004: Free Radicals (2.08)
2005: Palindromes (2.15)
2006: Rolling Family (1.83)
2007: The Go Master (1.93)
2008: Married Life (2.25)
2009: The Windmill Movie (2.13)

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ALONE AGAIN (NATURALLY)
(suggested by Alex Fung; lowest average for a film that received a 4-star rating

1996: The Stupids (2.30) | Bryan “Frankenseuss” Theiss (ret.)
1997: Kissed (2.46) | Alex Fung
1998: Psycho (2.11) | Erik Gregersen
1999: Twin Falls Idaho (2.28) | Milton Lawson (ret.)
2000: Beautiful People (2.29) | Keith Collins
2001: The Road Home (1.88) | Erik Gregersen
2002: In Praise of Love (1.95) | Jeremy Heilman
2003: Gigli (1.92) | Jeremy Heilman
2004: The Passion of the Christ (2.18) | Victor J. Morton
2005: The Brothers Grimm (2.29) | Bilge Ebiri
2006: The Fountain (2.21) | Peter Reiher
2007: Southland Tales (1.88) | Dave Cowen; Jeremy Heilman
2008: Jellyfish (2.36) | Daniel Waters
2009: 12 (2.29) | Bilge Ebiri

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The next three items I put together for the first time this year. We do not often agree with festival juries in my opinion.

Cannes Palme d'Or

1995: Underground (#15, 1997)
1996: Secrets & Lies (#2, 1996)
1997: Taste of Cherry (#15, 1998)
1997: The Eel (did not place)
1998: Eternity and a Day (did not place)
1999: Rosetta (did not place)
2000: Dancer in the Dark (#10, 2000)
2001: The Son's Room (did not place)
2002: The Pianist (did not place)
2003: Elephant (did not place)
2004: Fahrenheit 9/11 (did not place)
2005: L'Enfant (The Child) (#6, 2006)
2006: The Wind That Shakes the Barley (did not place)
2007: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (#1, 2008)
2008: The Class (did not place)
2009: The White Ribbon (did not place)

Venice Golden Lion

1995: Cyclo (#14, 1996)
1996: Michael Collins (did not place)
1997: Fireworks (Hana-Bi) (#5, 1998)
1998: The Way We Laughed (did not place)
1999: Not One Less (did not place)
2000: The Circle (did not place)
2001: Monsoon Wedding (did not place)
2002: The Magdalene Sisters (did not place)
2003: The Return (did not place)
2004: Vera Drake (#6, 2004)
2005: Brokeback Mountain (#3, 2005)
2006: Still Life (#18, 2008)
2007: Lust, Caution (did not place)
2008: The Wrestler (#13, 2008)
2009: Lebanon (TBD)

Sundance Grand Jury (Dramatic)

1995: The Brothers McMullen (did not place)
1996: Welcome to the Dollhouse (did not place)
1997: Sunday (did not place)
1998: Slam (did not place)
1999: Three Seasons (did not place)
2000: Girlfight (did not place)
2000: You Can Count on Me (#3, 2000)
2001: The Believer (did not place)
2002: Personal Velocity (did not place)
2003: American Splendor (#20, 2003)
2004: Primer (#10, 2004)
2005: Forty Shades of Blue (did not place)
2006: Quinceañera (did not place)
2007: Padre Nuestro (did not place)
2008: Frozen River (did not place)
2009: Precious (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire) (did not place)

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Most Appearances in Top 20 (Actors)
(ties for number of appearances broken by average placement)

01. Philip Seymour Hoffman (13)

3s. Charlie Wilson's War
5. Capote
6. Synecdoche, New York
6s. The Talented Mr. Ripley
6s. Almost Famous
10s. Magnolia
10s. 25th Hour
11. Doubt
12. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
12s. State and Main
15s. Happiness
15. Owning Mahowny
19s. Mission: Impossible III

02. Kate Winslet (9)

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
8. Titanic
9. Jude
10s. Quills
10. Revolutionary Road
12. Little Children
13. Holy Smoke
16s. Hamlet
17. Hideous Kinky

03. Nicole Kidman (8)

2. Eyes Wide Shut
2. Dogville
2. Margot at the Wedding
6. Moulin Rouge
9. The Others
9. The Hours
11. Birth
18. Birthday Girl

04. Isabelle Huppert (8)

2. The Piano Teacher
2s. 8 Women
4. Gabrielle
8. The School of Flesh
13s. I ♥ Huckabees
15. La Cérémonie
17. Time of the Wolf
19. Home

05. Tilda Swinton (8)

1. Julia
4s. Michael Clayton
5. The Deep End
9s. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
12s. Burn After Reading
13s. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
18. Female Perversions
19s. Thumbsucker

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Most Films Landed in top 20 (Directors)
(again, ties broken by average placement, though there's still an actual 3-way tie for 5th)

01. Joel & Ethan Coen (7)

2. No Country for Old Men
4. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
5. The Man Who Wasn't There
6. Fargo
7. A Serious Man
11. Burn After Reading
12. The Big Lebowski

02. Lars von Trier (5)

1. Breaking the Waves
1. Dogville
10. Dancer in the Dark
19. The Five Obstructions
20. Manderlay

03. Quentin Tarantino (4)

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Kill Bill Vol. 1
4. Kill Bill Vol. 2
4. Grindhouse

04. Paul Thomas Anderson (4)

1. There Will Be Blood
7. Magnolia
8. Boogie Nights
8. Punch-Drunk Love

05. Wes Anderson (4)

2. Rushmore
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
8. The Royal Tenenbaums
17. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

05. Mike Leigh (4)

2. Secrets & Lies
6. Vera Drake
9. Topsy-Turvy
12. Happy-Go-Lucky

05. Christopher Nolan (4)

2. The Prestige
3. Memento
5. The Dark Knight
19. Batman Begins

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And finally. Back when I started the survey, I remember looking forward to the time, a decade or so later (i.e. now), when there'd be tons of accumulated data to wade through. In particular, I was excited about the prospect of being able to compare how various films from major directors had been received over the years. Granted, that process isn't exactly definitive—the AVB has mutated over the years and even the diehards tend to be stingier with their star ratings than they were back in the mid-'90s. But perhaps my favorite task after receiving the averages is updating my Directors' Gallery, plugging this year's films into various post-'94 oeuvres. Here are the entries that saw additions this year—every filmmaker who's ever placed in the Director top 20. 2009 films are in bold. Numbers in parentheses indicate how the film placed in Best Picture that year, if applicable; if the film title is in parentheses that means it received fewer than 10 votes and hence the result is a bit less meaningful. N/A (not applicable) means it was eligible but didn't even get five votes and so didn't make the main list.

Woody Allen

Everyone Says I Love You: 3.09
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (19): 2.98
Match Point (13): 2.93
Sweet and Lowdown: 2.63
Deconstructing Harry: 2.61
Cassandra's Dream: 2.60
Small Time Crooks: 2.37
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion: 2.33
Scoop: 2.28
Whatever Works: 2.24
Anything Else: 2.13
Hollywood Ending: 2.13
Celebrity: 2.04
Melinda and Melinda: 2.00

Pedro Almodóvar

Talk to Her (12) 3.21
All About My Mother 3.11
Volver (14) 3.00
Live Flesh 2.88
Bad Education 2.87
The Flower of My Secret 2.75
Broken Embraces 2.65

Wes Anderson

Rushmore (2) 3.45
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2) 3.21
The Royal Tenenbaums (8) 3.03
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (17) 2.89
Bottle Rocket 2.63
The Darjeeling Limited 2.40

Roy Andersson

Songs From the Second Floor (9) 3.23
You, the Living 2.96

Olivier Assayas

Irma Vep (5) 3.48
Summer Hours (3) 3.23
Late August, Early September 2.88
Les Destinées 2.79
Clean 2.78
demonlover 2.45
Boarding Gate 2.35
Paris je t'aime 2.24 [for entire film]

Joe Berlinger

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (7) 3.58
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster 3.06
(Crude) 2.58
(Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2) 1.13

Kathryn Bigelow

The Hurt Locker (8) 3.18
K-19: The Widowmaker 2.62
The Weight of Water 2.05

James Cameron

Titanic (6) 3.23
Avatar 2.65
(Ghosts of the Abyss) 2.30
Aliens of the Deep N/A

Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Distant 2.93
Climates 2.84
Three Monkeys 2.58

Joel [/and Ethan] Coen

No Country for Old Men (2) 3.45
Fargo (6) 3.31
The Man Who Wasn’t There (5) 3.28
The Big Lebowski (12) 3.03
Burn After Reading (11) 3.01
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (4) 2.94
A Serious Man (7) 2.83
Intolerable Cruelty 2.72
The Ladykillers 2.24
Paris je t'aime 2.24 [for entire film]

Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

La Promesse (13) 3.53
L'Enfant (The Child) (6) 3.26
The Son (6) 3.16
Lorna's Silence (11) 3.09
Rosetta 2.89

Claire Denis

Beau travail (6) 3.15
Friday Night (14) 3.09
35 Shots of Rum (10) 3.02
(Nenette et Boni) 2.92
Trouble Every Day (13) 2.88
The Intruder 2.23

Pete Docter

Up (4) 3.17
Monsters, Inc. 3.06

Clint Eastwood

Million Dollar Baby (9) 3.06
Letters From Iwo Jima 2.82
Mystic River 2.81
Changeling 2.70
Space Cowboys 2.63
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil 2.57
Invictus 2.53
Flags of Our Fathers 2.52
Gran Torino 2.46
Blood Work 2.35
Absolute Power 2.32
True Crime 2.31

Atom Egoyan

The Sweet Hereafter (1) 3.65
Felicia’s Journey 2.66
Where the Truth Lies 2.50
Adoration 2.44
Ararat 2.33

Philippe Garrel

Regular Lovers (9) 3.07
Frontier of Dawn 2.91

Terry Gilliam

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (18) 2.68
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus 2.30
The Brothers Grimm 2.29
Tideland 2.21

Tony Gilroy

Duplicity (5) 3.15
Michael Clayton 3.00

James Gray

Two Lovers (12) 3.13
We Own the Night 2.82
The Yards 2.78

Peter Greenaway

(Rembrandt's J'Accuse...!) 3.00
The Pillow Book 2.83
8 1/2 Women 2.00

Michael Haneke

Caché (Hidden) (5) 3.21
Code Unknown (16) 3.15
Funny Games [1997] (16) 2.96
The Piano Teacher 2.83
Funny Games [2008] (20) 2.83
Time of the Wolf 2.79
The White Ribbon 2.72

Werner Herzog

Grizzly Man (1) 3.40
(Little Dieter Needs to Fly) 3.10
Encounters at the End of the World 3.09
The Bad Lieutenant—Port of Call: New Orleans 2.91
My Best Fiend 2.85
(The White Diamond) 2.83
Rescue Dawn 2.73
(Wheel of Time) 2.57
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done 2.53
(The Wild Blue Yonder) 2.25
Invincible N/A

Hong Sang-soo

Woman on the Beach (13) 3.10
Night and Day 3.07
Woman Is the Future of Man 2.79

Peter Jackson

Forgotten Silver 3.36
The Two Towers (7) 3.33
The Return of the King (5) 3.26
The Fellowship of the Ring (11) 2.96
The Frighteners 2.93
King Kong 2.83
The Lovely Bones 1.80

Jim Jarmusch

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (18) 3.03
Dead Man (13) 2.94
Coffee and Cigarettes 2.70
Broken Flowers 2.56
(Year of the Horse) 2.42
The Limits of Control 2.34

Jia Zhang-ke

The World 2.89
Still Life (18) 2.88
24 City 2.50
Unknown Pleasures 2.45

Rian Johnson

Brick (7) 2.99
The Brothers Bloom 2.83

Spike Jonze

Being John Malkovich (1) 3.61
Adaptation. (6) 3.16
Where the Wild Things Are 2.63

Richard Kelly

Donnie Darko (10) 3.05
The Box 2.31
Southland Tales 1.88

Hirokazu Kore-eda

After Life (13) 3.26
Still Walking (19) 3.11
Nobody Knows (18) 3.07
(Maborosi) 2.40

Ang Lee

Brokeback Mountain (3) 3.40
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2) 3.32
The Ice Storm (11) 3.13
Ride with the Devil 2.73
Lust, Caution 2.71
Taking Woodstock 2.38
Hulk 2.34

Spike Lee

25th Hour (1) 3.42
Get on the Bus 3.29
(4 Little Girls) 3.14
Inside Man (16) 2.99
(Passing Strange) 2.94
The Original Kings of Comedy 2.73
He Got Game 2.59
Summer of Sam 2.57
(Girl 6) 2.28
Bamboozled 2.13
Miracle at St. Anna 2.00
She Hate Me 1.32
Jim Brown: All American N/A

Richard Linklater

Before Sunset (3) 3.43
The School of Rock (9) 3.16
A Scanner Darkly (12) 2.97
Waking Life (15) 2.86
Tape 2.77
The Newton Boys 2.75
Me and Orson Welles 2.70
subUrbia 2.63
Bad News Bears 2.50
Fast Food Nation 2.28

Michael Mann

The Insider 3.07
Ali 2.82
Collateral 2.81
Miami Vice 2.79
Public Enemies 2.58

Lucrecia Martel

The Holy Girl 2.89
The Headless Woman 2.81
La Ciénega 1.95

Sam Mendes

American Beauty (16) 2.97
Road to Perdition 2.82
Revolutionary Road 2.65
Jarhead 2.44
Away We Go 2.19

Hayao Miyazaki

Spirited Away (3) 3.43
Howl's Moving Castle 3.15
Princess Mononoke 2.90
Ponyo 2.83

Lukas Moodysson

Together (18) 3.13
Show Me Love 2.89
Lilya 4-Ever 2.68
A hole in my heart 1.88
Mammoth N/A

Park Chan-wook

Oldboy (17) 2.68
Thirst 2.58
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance 2.52
Three…Extremes 2.47 [for entire film]

Alex Proyas*

Dark City 2.69
I, Robot 2.21
Knowing 1.90
Garage Days N/A

* What is he doing here? you're wondering. He did in fact make the Director list for Dark City.

Sam Raimi

A Simple Plan (10) 3.19
Spider-Man (17) 3.09
Drag Me to Hell 3.05
Spider-Man 2 (15) 3.04
Spider-Man 3 2.46
For Love of the Game 2.23

Robert Rodriguez

Grindhouse (4) 2.93
Frank Miller's Sin City (10) 2.74
Spy Kids 2.71
The Faculty 2.60
Spy Kids 2 The Island of Lost Dreams 2.50
Once Upon a Time in Mexico 2.44
From Dusk Till Dawn 2.43
(Spy Kids 3D: Game Over) 2.06
Shorts N/A

Henry Selick

Coraline (18) 3.09
James and the Giant Peach 2.66
Monkeybone 1.97

Steven Soderbergh

Out of Sight (1) 3.37
Traffic (5) 3.24
Erin Brockovich 3.14
The Limey 2.99
(Gray’s Anatomy) 2.94
Ocean’s Eleven 2.93
The Informant! 2.92
Solaris 2.86
The Girlfriend Experience 2.72
Schizopolis 2.70
Bubble 2.66
The Good German 2.66
Full Frontal 2.63
Ocean’s Twelve 2.52
Ocean's Thirteen 2.52
Che 2.35
Eros 2.15 [for entire film]

Iain Softley**

The Wings of the Dove 2.97
(The Skeleton Key) 2.11
(Inkheart) 2.00
(K-PAX) 2.00

** What is he doing here? you're wondering. He did in fact make the Director list for Wings of the Dove.

Quentin Tarantino

Inglourious Basterds (1) 3.46
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2) 3.21
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (4) 3.16
Grindhouse (4) 2.93 [for entire film]
Jackie Brown 2.90

Tom Tykwer

Run Lola Run 2.94
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (17) 2.75
Heaven 2.74
The International 2.43
The Princess and the Warrior 2.31
Paris je t'aime 2.24 [for entire film]

Lars von Trier

Breaking the Waves (1) 3.43
Dogville (1) 3.22
The Kingdom II 3.14
The Five Obstructions (19) 3.03
The Boss of It All 2.85
Dancer in the Dark (10) 2.74
Manderlay (20) 2.69
The Idiots 2.59
Antichrist 2.53

John Woo

Face/Off (10) 3.33
Red Cliff 2.75
Paycheck 2.64
Windtalkers 2.43
Broken Arrow 2.37
Mission: Impossible II 2.33

Joe Wright

Pride & Prejudice 3.02
Atonement (20) 3.00
(The Soloist) 2.14

Robert Zemeckis

Cast Away (12) 3.06
Contact 2.83
The Polar Express 2.65
(Disney's A Christmas Carol) 2.61
Beowulf 2.47
What Lies Beneath 2.00

Rob Zombie***

Grindhouse (4) 2.93 [for entire film]
The Devil's Rejects 2.63
Halloween 2.15
(Halloween II) 1.72
(House of 1000 Corpses) 1.64

*** What is he doing here? you're wondering. I have no fucking idea.

Erick Zonca

Julia (9) 3.22
The Dreamlife of Angels (12) 3.19
The Little Thief 2.82

Until next year...

Skandies: #1

Best Picture: Inglourious Basterds (323/23)

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Best Director: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds (308/25)
Skandie history: #1, Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003); #5, Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004); #4, Grindhouse (2007)

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Best Actress: Tilda Swinton, Julia (528/29)
Skandie history: #18, Female Perversions (1997); #5, The Deep End (2001); #9s, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005); #19s, Thumbsucker (2005); #4s, Michael Clayton (2007); #12s, Burn After Reading (2008); #13s, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). With eight total appearances in the top 20, she ties Nicole Kidman and Isabelle Huppert for 3rd on the all-time list.

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Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, Two Lovers (244/21)
Skandie history: #9s, Gladiator (2000); #10, Walk the Line (2005)

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Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds (571/33)
Skandie history: None

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Best Supporting Actress: Mélanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds (321/25)
Skandie history: None.

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Best Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds (408/27)
Skandie history: #2, Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), #8, Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004), #6, Grindhouse (2007)

---

sk1 from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

Best Scene: Once upon a time…in Nazi-occupied France, Inglourious Basterds (275/25)

Complete results available here (soon, if not this instant). Thanks to all voters, and especially to Mark Pittillo for programming the automated ballot and maintaining the website. Brief post-mortem coming up on Monday.

Skandies: #2

Picture: Fantastic Mr. Fox (196/17)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker (231/20)
Actress: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist (290/27)
Actor: Nicolas Cage, The Bad Lieutenant—Port of Call: New Orleans (237/18)
S. Actor: Peter Capaldi, In the Loop (261/21)
S. Actress: Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air (259/20)
Screenplay: Armando Iannucci et al., In the Loop (315/20)
Scene: Scenes from a marriage, Up (220/15)



HISTORY:

Bigelow has never made the cut before, though her only previous films during the Skandie era are The Weight of Water [holds nose] and K-19: The Widowmaker. (And Strange Days, but that was the initial Oscar-style year.)

This is the second time Nicolas Cage has taken the runner-up spot, as he placed 2nd in 2002 for Adaptation. He also won for Leaving Las Vegas (in 1995, the aforementioned Oscar-style year) and finished 5th for Face/Off (1997). Gainsbourg gets her third nod in the past four years, though the other two were in Supporting: 14th for The Science of Sleep (2006) and 9th for I'm Not There (2007). Likewise for Farmiga, who placed 10th in '06 for The Departed and 8th in '07 for Joshua. Capaldi debuts, as do Iannucci and his team of gag men.

Skandies: #3

Picture: Summer Hours (174/14)
Director: Steve McQueen, Hunger (198/15)
Actress: Arta Dobroshi, Lorna's Silence (231/21)
Actor: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker (235/23)
S. Actor: Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles (188/14)
S. Actress: Rachel Weisz, The Brothers Bloom (232/20)
Screenplay: Tony Gilroy, Duplicity (279/23)
Scene: "Night Shift," 35 Shots of Rum (148/13)



[This scene doesn't really work out of context in my opinion—you need to know who these people are in relation to one another, and that's frequently tough to decipher even when you see the entire film. (I spent a recent second viewing straining for clues as to whether Jo and Noé are rekindling a relationship that ended some time ago or belatedly starting one that's never begun, to no avail.) But hey, it's a great song.]

HISTORY:

Hunger is McQueen's feature debut.

Of the actors, we've only seen Weisz before; she finished 13th in the same category for The Constant Gardener (2005).

Gilroy placed 7th two years ago for Michael Clayton.

Skandies: #4

Picture: Up (156/12)
Director: Wes Anderson, Fantastic Mr. Fox (185/16)
Actress: María Onetto, The Headless Woman (175/19)
Actor: Matt Damon, The Informant! (222/20)
S. Actor: Paul Schneider, Bright Star (140/14)
S. Actress: Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air (208/17)
Screenplay: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man (235/19)
Scene: Honeymoon express, You, the Living (113/12)



HISTORY:

Anderson previously placed 5th for Rushmore (1998), 6th for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), and 15th for The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004).

Damon makes his fourth and highest appearance in the top 20, following nods at #20 for Good Will Hunting (1997), #9 for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and #15 for The Departed (2006). Kendrick finished 16th in the same category three years ago for Rocket Science. Onetto and Schneider are new.

The Coens remain the most honored screenwriters in Skandie history. 3rd for Fargo (1996), 7th for The Big Lebowski (1998), 4th for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), 3rd for The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), 2nd for No Country for Old Men (2007), and they finally won just last year for Burn After Reading.

Skandies: #5

Picture: Duplicity (149/16)
Director: Olivier Assayas, Summer Hours (141/13)
Actress: Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia (164/13)
Actor: Michael Fassbender, Hunger (209/17)
S. Actor: Liam Cunningham, Hunger (133/13)
S. Actress: Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds (175/17)
Screenplay: Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach, Fantastic Mr. Fox (212/19)
Scene: The goy's teeth, A Serious Man (103/9)

Untitled from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

HISTORY:

Assayas previously placed 6th in 1997 for Irma Vep and 14th in 2003 for demonlover.

Of the actors, only Streep is a Skandies veteran; this is her 7th appearance in the top 20. In addition to the three "nominations" listed in the previous post, she also placed 8th for One True Thing (1998), 8th in Supporting for The Manchurian Candidate (2004), and 12th last year for Doubt.

Anderson and Baumbach jointly finished at #10 in 2004 for The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. Their individual appearances as writers are all "nominations," listed in the previous post.

Skandies 2009: The "nominees"

Not all that much suspense about who/what remains, so let's answer potential questions about near-misses and no-chances here, as well as give the top picks a little additional airtime. (Sorry it's all text, incidentally—I have virtually no HTML skills and invariably mangle any attempt to combine words and images, except in the most basic just-one-image-up-at-the-top kind of way.)

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Best Picture

• Duplicity
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Inglourious Basterds
• Summer Hours
• Up

Overlap with Oscar nominees: Inglourious Basterds and Up, though I doubt the latter would have made the cut had Best Picture not doubled in size.
Notable films that failed to make the top 20: The Headless Woman (#22), Antichrist (#23), Avatar (#30), Up in the Air (#35), Drag Me to Hell (#36), An Education (#59), Precious (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire) (#81), The Blind Side (no votes), District 9 (no votes).

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Best Director

• Wes Anderson, Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Olivier Assayas, Summer Hours
• Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
• Steve McQueen, Hunger
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Previous "nominations": Tarantino ties the Coens' record of four in this category, having won in 2003 for Kill Bill Vol. 1, placed 5th in 2004 for Kill Bill Vol. 2, and finished 4th in 2007 for his section of Grindhouse. And Anderson gets his second nom, having placed 5th in 1998 for Rushmore. (Assayas just missed 12 years ago for Irma Vep, finishing at #6, just one point short of #5.)
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Bigelow and Tarantino.
Notable directors who failed to make the top 20: Ursula Meier, Home (#28); Hirokazu Kore-eda, Still Walking (#35); Jason Reitman, Up in the Air (#37); Lynn Shelton, Humpday (#40); Armando Iannucci, In the Loop (#43); Lee Daniels, Precious (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire) (#83); Clint Eastwood, Invictus (no votes).

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Best Actress

• Arta Dobroshi, Lorna's Silence
• Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist
• María Onetto, The Headless Woman
• Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
• Tilda Swinton, Julia

Previous "nominations": Four nominations is the record so far for actors, and Streep is now one of five thesps who share it, having won Supporting in 2002 for Adaptation. and placed both 3rd and 5th in the same category in 2006 (for The Devil Wears Prada and A Prairie Home Companion, respectively). Swinton is just behind with three; her previous nods were for The Deep End (#5, 2001) and Michael Clayton (#4s, 2007).
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Streep
Notable actresses who failed to make the top 20: Gabourey Sidibe, Precious (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire) (#22); Helen Mirren, The Last Station (#43); Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side (#56).

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Best Actor

• Nicolas Cage, The Bad Lieutenant—Port of Call: New Orleans
• Matt Damon, The Informant!
• Michael Fassbender, Hunger
• Joaquin Phoenix, Two Lovers
• Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Previous "nominations": Cage, like Streep, is tied for the acting record with four. (The other three tied with them, who didn't place this year, are Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman and Billy Bob Thornton.) He won in 1995 for Leaving Las Vegas, placed 5th in 1997 for Face/Off, and came in second (to Campbell Scott) in 2002 for Adaptation.
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Only Renner, though Damon somehow got a Best Supporting Actor nom for his totally forgettable work in Invictus. The performance, people, not the fucking "worthiness" of the film.
Notable actors who failed to make the top 20: Morgan Freeman, Invictus (#61).

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Best Supporting Actor

• Peter Capaldi, In the Loop
• Liam Cunningham, Hunger
• Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles
• Paul Schneider, Bright Star
• Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Previous "nominations": Nobody
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Waltz
Notable actors who failed to make the top 20: Woody Harrelson, The Messenger (#32); Christopher Plummer. The Last Station (#92); Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones (also #92; each got a single 5-pt. vote); Matt Damon, Invictus (no votes).

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Best Supporting Actress

• Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
• Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
• Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
• Mélanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
• Rachel Weisz, The Brothers Bloom

Previous "nominations": Nobody
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Farmiga, Kendrick
Notable actresses who failed to make the top 20: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart (#24); Penélope Cruz, Nine (no votes)

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Best Screenplay

• Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach, Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
• Tony Gilroy, Duplicity
• Armando Iannucci et al., In the Loop
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Previous "nominations": The Coens get a record sixth nod, having previously placed 3rd for Fargo (1996, back when there were two categories), 4th for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), 3rd for The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), 2nd for No Country for Old Men (2007), and 1st last year for Burn After Reading. Anderson and Baumbach each have two past nominations—the former for Rushmore (#3, 1998) and The Royal Tenenbaums (#5, 2001); the latter for The Squid and the Whale (#1, 2005) and Margot at the Wedding (#4, 2007). Tarantino, surprisingly, has only one previous nomination as a writer, having placed 2nd in 2003 for Kill Bill Vol. 1.
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Coens, Iannucci & Co, Tarantino
Notable screenwriters who failed to make the top 20: Hirokazu Kore-eda, Still Walking (#21); Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker (#32); Nick Hornby, An Education (#33); Ursula Meier et al., Home (#36); Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9 (#39); Henry Selick, Coraline (#42); Antonio Campos, Afterschool (#56); Claire Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau, 35 Shots of Rum (#61); Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire) (#73); Alessandro Camon & Owen Moverman, The Messenger (no votes).

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Best Scene

Nah, I gotta save something as a surprise.

---

Skandies: #6

Picture: Hunger (148/11)
Director: Claire Denis, 35 Shots of Rum (122/11)
Actress: Abbie Cornish, Bright Star (151/14)
Actor: Johannes Krisch, Revanche (142/13)
S. Actor: Fred Melamed, A Serious Man (133/10)
S. Actress: Alycia Delmore, Humpday (127/11)
Screenplay: Olivier Assayas, Summer Hours (168/16)
Scene: Expectations | Reality, (500) Days of Summer (92/10)

sk6 from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

HISTORY:

Denis previously placed 4th in 2000 for Beau travail, 13th in 2002 for Trouble Every Day, and 11th in 2003 for Friday Night.

All four actors are new.

Assayas's script for Irma Vep also placed 6th back in 1997.

Skandies: #7

Picture: A Serious Man (129/9)
Director: Pete Docter, Up (115/11)
Actress: Carey Mulligan, An Education (143/12)
Actor: Colin Firth, A Single Man (137/12)
S. Actor: Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker (120/12)
S. Actress: Mo'Nique, Precious (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire) (121/9)
Screenplay: Bob Peterson and Pete Docter, Up (150/14)
Scene: Tarmac attack, Duplicity (91/8)

sk7 from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

HISTORY:

Docter failed to place in 2001 for Monsters, Inc.

Of the actors, only Mackie, who finished 6th in the same category three years ago for Half Nelson, has previously placed. (That's a lot of years of ignoring Colin Firth, but after looking at his filmography I can't say we overlooked anything.)

Peterson co-wrote the script for Finding Nemo, which finished 11th in 2003. Docter has a lot of story credits (including Toy Story 2), but Up was his first actual screenplay.

Skandies: #8

Picture: The Hurt Locker (127/14)
Director: Lucrecia Martel, The Headless Woman (110/10)
Actress: Alison Lohman, Drag Me to Hell (141/17)
Actor: Stephen McHattie, Pontypool (132/12)
S. Actor: Bob Peterson, Up (113/9)
S. Actress: Gwyneth Paltrow, Two Lovers (109/14)
Screenplay: Scott Z. Burns, The Informant! (116/16)
Scene: Opening title sequence, Watchmen (83/10)

[Embedding disabled; click here.]

HISTORY:

Martel finished 19th in 2005 for The Holy Girl. This year she's the highest-ranked director whose film failed to place.

Paltrow makes her 7th appearance in the top 20, tied with several others as the third-most-cited actor in Skandie history. The rundown:

19s. Hard Eight (1997)
7. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
16. Shallow Hal (2001)
10s. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
14. Proof (2005).
15s. Iron Man (2008)

(Amusingly, Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw finished in consecutive spots with only one point separating them; we were as Torn Between as Joaquin.)

Lohman gets her first nod since placing 5th in the Supporting category for Matchstick Men six years ago. Both men debut. (Peterson was the voice of Dug and Alpha.)

Burns' only previous eligible screenplay was The Bourne Ultimatum, which didn't make the cut. This year he's the highest-ranked screenwriter whose film failed to place.

Skandies: #9

Picture: Julia (110/13)
Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man (108/9)
Actress: Julia Roberts, Duplicity (118/15)
Actor: Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man (128/13)
S. Actor: Jérémie Renier, Lorna's Silence (87/9)
S. Actress: Vinessa Shaw, Two Lovers (108/9)
Screenplay: Rian Johnson, The Brothers Bloom (104/11)
Scene: The parking garage, Drag Me to Hell (72/7)

Untitled from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

HISTORY:

The Coens (or just Joel, as they used to claim) previously placed 3rd for Fargo (1996), 10th for The Big Lebowski (1998), 5th for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), 3rd for The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), 2nd for No Country for Old Men (2007), and 13th last year for Burn After Reading.

Julia Roberts makes her first top 20 appearance since finishing 5th in 2000 for her Oscar-winning turn in/as Erin Brockovich. Jérémie Renier gets his third nod for work in a Dardennes Bros. joint, having previously placed twice in the lead category: at #17 for La Promesse (1997) and at #11 for L'Enfant (The Child (2006). Stuhlbarg and Shaw debut.

Rian Johnson's screenplay for Brick placed 3rd in 2006.

Skandies: #10

Picture: 35 Shots of Rum (94/9)
Director: James Gray, Two Lovers (103/10)
Actress: Catalina Saavedra, The Maid (93/8)
Actor: Tom Hardy, Bronson (118/9)
S. Actor: Brad Pitt, Inglourious Basterds (84/9)
S. Actress: Edith Scob, Summer Hours (101/9)
Screenplay: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Lorna's Silence (103/10)
Scene: Dictionary smackdown, Police, Adjective (70/7)



HISTORY:

Gray failed to place for The Yards or We Own the Night. (Little Odessa was just before our time.)

Of the actors, only Pitt, who finished 2nd in the same category last year for Burn After Reading, has made a previous appearance in the top 20. He also placed 10th as a lead in 1999 for Fight Club and was one of the Supporting Actor nominees in the Skandies' inaugural 1995 edition for Twelve Monkeys. I can't say I understand what he's doing here this year, especially in the top ten, but I guess that's just one of the many elements of Basterds that's lost on me.

Rocking an actual plot allows the Dardennes to make their highest finish yet in Screenplay; they previously placed 12th for La Promesse (1997), 16th for The Son (2003) and 17th for L'Enfant (The Child) (2006). (Again, no Rosetta.)

Skandies: #11

Picture: Lorna's Silence (93/8)
Director: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Lorna's Silence (102/9)
Actress: Tilly Hatcher, Beeswax (83/7)
Actor: Sam Rockwell, Moon (106/9)
S. Actor: Stanley Tucci, Julie & Julia (79/9)
S. Actress: Mimi Kennedy, In the Loop (97/10)
Screenplay: Tony Burgess, Pontypool (83/8)
Scene: Sniper fire in the desert, The Hurt Locker (62/8)

[We join this scene already in progress, simply because the torrent I downloaded was in two files that happened to split it and I'm too lazy to figure out how to splice them together. The meat of it is here.]

Untitled from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

HISTORY: The Dardennes previously placed 15th for La Promesse (1997) and 5th for both The Son (2003) and L'Enfant (The Child) (2006). We were not big fans of Rosetta.

Rockwell has made two previous top 20 appearances, at #13 in 2002 for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and at #4 two years ago for Joshua. Tucci gets his first nod since 1996 (!), when he finished a way-too-low 19th in the lead category for Big Night. Both women are new, as is Burgess.

Skandies: #12

Picture: Two Lovers (89/11)
Director: Lars von Trier, Antichrist (87/10)
Actress: Mati Diop, 35 Shots of Rum (65/9)
Actor: Toni Servillo, Il Divo (100/6)
S. Actor: Hilmi Sözer, Jerichow (72/7)
S. Actress: Zoe Kazan, Me and Orson Welles (90/6)
Screenplay: James Gray & Richard Menello, Two Lovers (80/9)
Scene: Car trunk bombs, The Hurt Locker (62/6)

Untitled from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

HISTORY:

Von Trier is a two-time Skandie winner, for Breaking the Waves (1997) and Dogville (2004). He also previously placed 16th in 2000 for Dancer in the Dark. All actors are new, as are Gray and Menello.

Skandies: #13

Picture: Revanche (84/11)
Director: Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues (87/8)
Actress: Sasha Grey, The Girlfriend Experience (64/8)
Actor: George Clooney, Up in the Air (99/13)
S. Actor: Joshua Leonard, Humpday (70/8)
S. Actress: Juliette Binoche, Summer Hours (88/11)
Screenplay: Hong Sang-soo, Night and Day (68/6)
Scene: One last party at the old estate, Summer Hours (60/7)

[SPOILER: This is the end of the film. No subtitles, but it doesn't really matter—all you need to know is that at the end she's reminiscing about having come to this house as a child, and when she gets sad it's because the house is about to be sold.]



HISTORY:

Sita Sings the Blues is Paley's first feature.

Clooney makes his sixth appearance in the top 20, having previously placed 15th for Out of Sight (1998), 5th for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), 8th for Intolerable Cruelty (2003), 10th for Michael Clayton (2007), and 18th in Supporting last year for Burn After Reading. (We didn't love his Oscar-winning performance in Syriana, however.) Binoche makes her fifth appearance, beginning with 6th in Supporting for The English Patient way back in '97; also 13th in Supporting for Code Unknown (2001), 11th for Caché (Hidden) (2005), and 5th last year for Flight of the Red Balloon. Grey and Leonard are new, though the latter seems more awesome to me in The Blair Witch Project every time I rewatch it. (Only Heather Donahue placed.)

Hong placed 11th last year for Woman on the Beach.

Skandies: #14

Picture: In the Loop (69/7)
Director: Antonio Campos, Afterschool (86/7)
Actress: Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones (60/6)
Actor: Patton Oswalt, Big Fan (83/8)
S. Actor: Michael Fassbender, Inglourious Basterds (65/9)
S. Actress: Ursula Strauss, Revanche (82/9)
Screenplay: Aude Py and Erick Zonca, Julia (67/8)
Scene: Guggenheim gunfight, The International (60/6)

[Slightly squeezed, for some reason.]

sk14 from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

HISTORY:

Afterschool is Campos' first feature.

Saoirse Ronan previously placed 7th in Supporting for Atonement. All other actors are new.

Zonca's screenplay for The Dreamlife of Angels (1999) came in at #15. Py has no other Skandie-eligible credits.

Skandies: #15

Picture: Afterschool (69/6)
Director: Erick Zonca, Julia (84/10)
Actress: Kim Ok-bin, Thirst (59/6)
Actor: Clive Owen, Duplicity (80/10)
S. Actor: Timothy Olyphant, A Perfect Getaway (61/5)
S. Actress: Julianne Moore, A Single Man (78/7)
Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air (67/7)
Scene: Rob's memorial video, Afterschool (50/3)



[If you want to watch this and haven't seen the film, it'll work better if you know (a) that the two silent adults in the middle of the video are the dead girls' parents, and (b) that the hallway at the end is the hallway where they died (and that shot is in fact the beginning of a shot on which the kid who made the video accidentally captured their deaths).]

HISTORY:

Zonca placed 12th in 1999 for The Dreamlife of Angels.

Two previous Skandie winners this week. Julianne Moore makes her eighth appearance (tied for third place)—not even counting her victory for Safe in 1995, the Skandies' inaugural year, which had an Oscar-style methodology.

#3s: Boogie Nights (1997)
#13s: The Big Lebowski (1998)
#11: The End of the Affair (1999)
#8s: Magnolia (1999)
#15s: An Ideal Husband (1999)
#1: Far From Heaven (2002)
#19: Savage Grace (2008)

Clive Owen won Supporting Actor five years ago for Closer and also placed 13th for Croupier (2000), 18th for Children of Men (2006), and 16th in Supporting for Inside Man (also 2006). Olyphant previously finished 6th in the same category for The Girl Next Door (2004). Kim makes her debut.

Reitman placed 10th in 2006 for Thank You for Smoking. There was little love for Sheldon Turner's rewrites of The Longest Yard and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Skandies: #16

Picture: Sita Sings the Blues (68/8)
Director: Götz Spielmann, Revanche (74/9)
Actress: Maya Rudolph, Away We Go (58/7)
Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart (76/7)
S. Actor: Jackie Earle Haley, Watchmen (60/9)
S. Actress: Lorna Raver, Drag Me to Hell (68/7)
Screenplay: Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues (58/7)
Scene: The face of Jewish vengeance, Inglourious Basterds (48/5)

sk16 from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

[SPOILERS for Alterna-WWII (among other things), and the audio is slightly out of sync—sorry about that. Also, I'd be grateful if some of the folks who voted for this scene would explain in the comments why they loved it so, because for me it would be Exhibit B in Reasons This Picture Is Not In Fact Awesome. (Exhibit A. being the entirety of Chapter 2.) Are you responding to the audacity or the actual execution (so to speak)? Do you really enjoy that sad little slo-mo zoom into Eli Roth firing from the balcony? Hackiest I've ever seen QT, apart from Shoshanna's ghost face in the smoke.

HISTORY:

Again, Revanche is the first of Spielmann's films to receive a U.S. release.

Oscar front-runner Jeff Bridges didn't fare terribly well with this group, but then he already won our Best Actor award for The Big Lebowski 11 years ago. He also placed 7th for The Door in the Floor in 2004 (hey that rhymes) and 11th in Supporting for The Contender (2000). Jackie Earle Haley finished 4th in the same category for the otherwise mostly reviled (by us) Little Children (2006). Both women are new, as is Ms. Paley.

Skandies: #17

Picture: Humpday (65/7)
Director: James Cameron, Avatar (71/8)
Actress: Elle Fanning, Phoebe in Wonderland (57/5)
Actor: Sharlto Copley, District 9 (69/9)
S. Actor: Daryl Sabara, World's Greatest Dad (57/5)
S. Actress: Kristen Stewart, Adventureland (67/8)
Screenplay: Andrew Bujalski, Beeswax (54/6)
Scene: Dillinger stops by the Dillinger Task Force, Public Enemies (45/2)

sk17 from Daniel Gemko on Vimeo.

HISTORY:

Cameron placed 2nd in 1997 for Titanic, the year Atom Egoyan was our King of the World. (Them were the days—see Chloe later this year and weep.) Bujalski squeaked in at #20 in 2006 for Mutual Appreciation. All four actors are new.

Skandies: #18

Picture: Coraline (61/6)
Director: Tony Gilroy, Duplicity (67/8)
Actress: Yolande Moreau, Séraphine (56/5)
Actor: Alex Descas, 35 Shots of Rum (68/8)
S. Actor: Jason Schwartzman, Fantastic Mr. Fox (55/7)
S. Actress: Rinko Kikuchi, The Brothers Bloom (66/7)
Screenplay: Lynn Shelton, Humpday (43/6)
Scene: Prologue, The Brothers Bloom (44/5)



HISTORY:

Gilroy didn't place for Michael Clayton, to Dan Sallitt's eternal chagrin.

Kikuchi makes her second appearance, having placed 7th in the same category three years ago for Babel. Schwartzman makes his third appearance, following a 4th-place finish for lead in Rushmore (1998) and—still not sure I understand this—a 20th-place Supporting nod for Marie Antoinette (2006). Moreau and Descas debut, as does Shelton (for a film that reportedly had no script, but maybe scenarios count).

Skandies: #19

Picture: Home (53/5) [tie with Still Walking]
Director: Henry Selick, Coraline (63/4)
Actress: Isabelle Huppert, Home (48/6)
Actor: Mark Duplass, Humpday (68/7)
S. Actor: Zach Galifianakis, The Hangover (55/4)
S. Actress: Kirin Kiki, Still Walking (58/8)
Screenplay: Steve McQueen and Enda Walsh, Hunger (42/6)
Scene: Dancing soul, The Bad Lieutenant—Port of Call: New Orleans (42/4)



HISTORY:

Selick failed to place for James and the Giant Peach or Monkeybone. (Nightmare Before Christmas pre-dates the Skandies by two years.)

After a three-year absence, Huppert makes her 8th appearance in the top 20, making her one of the six most honored actors in Skandie history. (Only Kate Winslet and Philip Seymour Hoffman, with 9 and 13 respectively, have more; three others also have 8.) In chronological order:

#15, La Cérémonie (1996)
#8, The School of Flesh (1999)
#2, The Piano Teacher (2002)
#2s, 8 Women (2002)
#17, Time of the Wolf (2004)
#13s, I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
#4, Gabrielle (2006)

The other actors make their debut, as do McQueen and Walsh.

Skandies: #20

Picture: Still Walking (53/5) [tie for #19]
Director: Sam Raimi, Drag Me to Hell (60/6)
Actress: Lisa Houle, Pontypool (43/6)
Actor: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer (57/8)
S. Actor: Vlad Ivanov, Police, Adjective (54/6)
S. Actress: Mariana Loyola, The Maid (55/6)
Screenplay: Götz Spielmann, Revanche (40/7)
Scene: The tablecloth trick, You, the Living (41/4)

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HISTORY:

Raimi also placed 20th for Spider-Man (2002); he did a little better with Spider-Man 2 (2004), finishing 12th. He also placed 14th in 1998 for A Simple Plan.

Gordon-Levitt makes his third appearance in the top 20, having landed at #4 in 2005 and 2006 for Mysterious Skin and Brick, respectively. We saw Ivanov just last year at #7 in the same category, for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The women are new.

Spielmann, to my knowledge, has never had a film receive a U.S. release until now.