28 February 2026

Skandiewrap, or More Than You Wanted to Know

No doubt people are weary of my annual complaint that movies suck now (2025's Skandie eligibility offered literally zero films that I was genuinely excited about, with my three favorites barely climbing out of B into a low B+), so let me pivot to a different tiresome whine: This year's results are boring as fuck. To be clear, I want voters to be honest about their preferences, not avoid obvious front-runners for novelty's sake; I myself gave e.g. Rose Byrne 23 points, because that performance is undeniable no matter how many previous awards it justifiably won. But the Skandies were created 30 years ago with the express intent of providing an alternative to other honors (specifically a sort of people's-choice Usenet poll called the RAMmies, but also the Oscars and even the major critics' prizes; there were as yet no significant widespread critics' polls). And if we're merely affirming what everyone else is saying, there's not much point. As I noted elsewhere, 2025 marks the first time in Skandie history that all seven of our winners (not counting Scene) are Oscar-nominated, and many of them—One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson (as director), Byrne, Del Toro—also won two or more of the big three (NYFCC, LAFCA, NSFC). That denies me the sense of pride I feel when we recognize greatness that's been overlooked, as when Red Rooms won Picture and Supporting Actress last year, or (going way back) to when we named Jeff Bridges 1998's best actor for The Big Lebowski. 

Thing is, it fluctuates from year to year. Last year we were mavericks. This year we were not, in part because everyone agreed on the year's best movie (One Battle did the first clean sweep, apart from the Oscars which haven't yet happened as I write this, since The Social Network...though we gave Picture to Dogtooth that year!), in part because recent membership changes have made the Oscars significantly less embarrassing than they were throughout the Skandies' early history. And when I actually looked, it turned out that we completely buck consensus less frequently than I supposed (though still pretty frequently). Here are all the Skandie winners over the years that did not win the same (or similar) prize from any of (1) the Oscars; (2) the New York Film Critics Circle; (3) the Los Angeles Film Critics Association; (4) the National Society of Film Critics; why not, (5) The National Board of Review; (6) the Indiewire poll; (7) the Village Voice poll; or (8) the Film Comment poll. 

PICTURE

1997: The Sweet Hereafter
2001: In the Mood for Love
2002: 25th Hour
2003: Irreversible
2004: Dogville
2005: Grizzly Man
2008: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
2009: Inglourious Basterds
2010: Dogtooth
2014: Under the Skin
2017: Nocturama
2018: Burning
2019: Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood
2024: Red Rooms

14 years out of 30, so nearly half the time. That's pretty good, though it's happened only once in the past six years. (I'd have thought First Cow was ours alone, but nope, NYFCC likewise named it Best Picture.)

DIRECTOR

1995: Atom Egoyan, Exotica
1997: Atom Egoyan, The Sweet Hereafter
1999: Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut
2000: Ang Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2002: Spike Lee, 25th Hour
2003: Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill Vol. 1
2004: Lars von Trier, Dogville
2005: Terrence Malick, The New World
2008: Carlos Reygadas, Silent Light
2009: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
2012: Leos Carax, Holy Motors
2013: Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street
2014: Jonathan Glazer, Under the Skin
2016: Jim Jarmusch, Paterson
2017: Bertrand Bonello, Nocturama
2018: Lee Chang-dong, Burning
2020: Steve McQueen, Lovers Rock
2021: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Memoria
2022: Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave
2023: Wes Anderson, Asteroid City
2024: Luca Guadagnino, Challengers

Wow. We've chosen a unique winner for Director over ⅔ of the time. Need to qualify that somewhat—there weren't yet any critics' polls when Kubrick won, for example, and Memoria is absent from Picture but not Director because Film Comment's poll ignores the latter—but still, not much rubber-stamping going on here. 

When it comes to actors, though, there aren't nearly as many instances. 

ACTRESS

1995: Julianne Moore, Safe
1997: Victoire Thivisol, Ponette
1998: Christina Ricci, Buffalo '66
2003: Uma Thurman, Kill Bill Vol. 1
2005: Sibel Kekilli, Head On
2007: Carice van Houten, Black Book
2015: Rooney Mara, Carol
2017: Vicky Krieps, Phantom Thread
2020: Carrie Coon, The Nest
2021: Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza

That's it. From 2008–2014, our Actress winner matched the Voice poll winner every single time. I'd grown to think of Tilda Swinton in Julia and Anna Paquin in Margaret and Rachel Weisz in The Deep Blue Sea as unique choices, but they were not. Also, I suspect Van Houten would've won in 2007 had the Voice poll not had Anamarica Marinca eligible that year. (She won the Skandies in 2008.) 

ACTOR

1996: William H. Macy, Fargo
1997: Ian Holm, The Sweet Hereafter
1998: Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski
2000: Mark Ruffalo, You Can Count on Me
2003: Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
2009: Joaquin Phoenix, Two Lovers
2011: Peyman Moaadi, A Separation
2013: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
2024: Glen Powell, Hit Man
2025: TBD (Chalamet would be here if he doesn't win the Oscar)

Again, there are more unique choices early on, when there were fewer awards-bestowing bodies around. 

SUPPORTING ACTOR

1997: Robert Forster, Jackie Brown
2005: Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale
2015: Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina
2016: Tom Bennett, Love & Friendship
2021: Mike Faist, West Side Story
2022: Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
2024: Guy Pearce, The Brutalist

If anything, this category is trending more unique of late. 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1997: Sarah Polley, The Sweet Hereafter
2001: Scarlett Johansson, Ghost World
2002: Meryl Streep, Adaptation (how is this possible? oh, Far From Heaven)
2006: Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson
2008: Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married
2009: Mélanie Laurent, Inglorious Basterds
2011: J. Smith-Cameron, Margaret
2013: Scarlett Johansson, Her
2018: Zoe Kazan, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
2019: Florence Pugh, Little Women
2020: Norma Kuhling, Fourteen
2023: Rachel McAdams, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. 
2024: Laurie Babin, Red Rooms

McAdams won an award for some crix group, I'm pretty sure, but not from any of the biggies. Some superb left-field winners in that group, I gotta say, particularly citing Johansson's voice-only performance. 

And then there are a bunch of Screenplay winners that largely match Picture and/or Director. You get the idea. It's fun when we honor someone not on the Gold Derby list or whatever, but I shouldn't expect that every single year. Sometimes the best seems obvious, to everyone else if not necessarily to me. 

Okay, on to the number-crunching. You presumably already know whether or not that's of any interest to you; no shame, certainly, if it isn't. And if by some chance you've stumbled onto this blog without knowing what the Skandies even is: It's an annual poll of cinephiles (mostly not professional critics, though some are) that I've been conducting since 1995, and complete results for the past 29 years—yes, this is the 30th goddamn time I've conducted this thing—can be found here

NOTE: The layout below is not optimized for mobile. Some of it (the Directors' Gallery at the bottom in particular) will be gobbledygook unless you're on a laptop/desktop.



HIGHEST AVERAGE RATING (1996–2025)
(includes only films receiving a minimum of ten votes)

01. 3.65 The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
02. 3.61 Being John Malkovich (1999)
03. 3.61 A Separation (2011)
04. 3.58 Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
05. 3.57 In the Company of Men (1997)
06. 3.56 Secrets & Lies (1996)
07. 3.53 La Promesse (1997)
08. 3.52 Yi Yi (A One and a Two…) (2000)
09. 3.50 From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1996)
10. 3.49 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)


It's nearly impossible for new films to make this list, due to a significant uptick in voter stinginess with high ratings since the '90s. Here's how it looks for the last decade-plus (since 2010):

01. 3.61 A Separation (2011)
02. 3.49 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
03. 3.48 Margaret (2011)
      3.48 Memoria (2021)
05. 3.46 Nocturama (2017)
      3.46 Phantom Thread (2017)
07. 3.45 The Tree of Life (2011)
08. 3.44 Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019)
09. 3.43 Certified Copy (2011)
10. 3.41 Holy Motors (2012)


No new additions this year, and in fact there've been no new additions since 2019 (when movies went to shit imo). Highest-rated film of 2025 was, as you might expect, One Battle After Another, with 3.38. Close (for the recent list), but no cigar. 



LOWEST AVERAGE RATING (1996–2025)
(includes only films receiving a minimum of five votes)

01. 0.20 Date Movie (2006)
01. 0.20 America (2014)
03. 0.50 Collateral Beauty (2016)
04. 0.58 Miss March (2009)
05. 0.60 Dragonfly (2002)
05. 0.60 The Last Face (2017)
07. 0.61 The Roommate (2011)
08. 0.67 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
09. 0.67 The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence) (2015)
10. 0.70 Beastly (2011)
10. 0.70 Left Behind (2014)


Nothing new here, either. Voters are avoiding the truly terrible films as they get older, and the most hated of 2025, among those that received at least five votes, was Love Hurts, with a comparatively robust 1.20 average. 



HIGHEST AVERAGE POINTS PER VOTE (1996–2025)
(includes only films receiving a minimum of five votes)

Don't know why it never occurred to me to keep track of this before. The way voting works, for those unaware of Pazz & Jop rules, is that everyone gets 100 points in each category, to be divided as preferred among 10 choices. Some people mostly or (in one case) entirely ignore this option and just allot 10 points to everything/one, because ranking is for nerds or whatever the fuck. But you're allowed to give as many as 30 or as few as 5, so long as the ten add up to 100. Most averages fall pretty close to 10, but there are exceptions; here's what's engendered the most passion over three decades. 

01. [21.82] Billy Bob Thornton, Sling Blade (Adapted Screenplay*, 1996, 175/8)
02. [20.56] Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves (Actress, 1996, 370/18)
03. [20.27] The New World (Picture, 2005, 223/11)
04. [19.83] Elles alfresco, In the City of Sylvia (Scene, 2008, 119/6)
      [19.83] 20th Century Women (Picture, 2016, 119/6)
06. [19.65] Kenneth Lonergan, Margaret (Screenplay, 2011, 511/26)
07. [19.55] Hafsia Herzi, The Secret of the Grain (S. Actress, 2008, 215/11)
08. [19.34] Asghar Farhadi, A Separation (Screenplay, 2011, 619/32) 
09. [18.69] Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York (Screenplay, 2008, 243/13)
10. [18.60] A White, White Day (Picture, 2020, 93/5)

(Yes, we had a year in which 511 points was somehow not even close to good enough for a Screenplay win. Jesus.)

Very hard to reach this exalted level—Naomi Watts isn't on this list for Mulholland Drive! she got 591/32, for "only" an 18.47 average—and nothing has managed it in the past few years. 2025's highest average was 17.71 for Reflection in a Dead Diamond (Picture, 124/7). 

* 1996 was the sole year that Adapted Screenplay existed as a category, and Thornton being atop this list is mostly due to the fact that voters had enormous trouble coming up with 10 original and 10 adapted screenplays worth voting for. Consequently, I combined Original and Adapted into just plain Screenplay the following year, adding Scene in order to keep the number of categories even, which I wanted to do because back then I was printing the results out double-sided and snail-mailing them to voters. Anyway, that's why there's such an odd record-holder here. Thought about going to 11, like Nigel, but nah. 

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MOST DIVISIVE FILMS (2025)
(std. deviation >= 0.75; minimum two votes 3.5 or higher, two votes 1.5 or lower)

• Sound of Falling (0.79)
• Afternoons of Solitude (0.75)
• If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (0.75)

Not much extreme dissension this year—these three films barely even qualified. Least divisive were Night Call and Song Sung Blue, both mildly enjoyed by the handful who saw them. 



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

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)
2010: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2.71)
2011: Midnight in Paris (2.47)
2012: Beasts of the Southern Wild (2.37)
2013: American Hustle (2.50)
2014: Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2.44)
2015: While We're Young (2.67)
2016: Knight of Cups (2.52)
2017: The Shape of Water (2.48)
2018: A Star Is Born (2.68)
2019: Joker (2.44)
2020: Mank (2.30)
2021: Titane (2.54)
2022: Babylon (2.10)
2023: Beau Is Afraid (2.40)
2024: Henry James' Drive-Away Dykes (2.10)
2025: Mickey 17 (2.37)

Though you could argue that it's actually Jay Kelly, which fell one viewer short of 75% and received a 2.30 average. Either way, c'mon, you (Bong, Baumbach) can do better than that. 



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)
2010: The Exploding Girl (2.75)
2011: Shame (2.63)
2012: Damsels in Distress (2.76)
2013: Spring Breakers (2.72)
2014: Goodbye to Language (2.64)
2015: The Assassin (2.73)
2016: Knight of Cups (2.52)
2017: Downsizing (2.50)
2018: You Were Never Really Here (2.86)
2019: Midsommar (2.80)
2020: I Was at Home, but... (2.69)
2021: The Killing of Two Lovers (2.75)
2022: Athena (2.73)
2023: Past Lives (2.73)
2024: Aggro Dr1ft (2.62)
2025: The Temptation of Ann Lee (2.78)

I went 19/20 in my predictions this year, missed Temptation of Ann Lee because the one voter whose favorite film of the year it was went hog-wild with points, it was really his favorite. Few agreed. 



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)
2010: Another Year (3.21)
2011: Senna (3.07)
2012: The Imposter (3.10)
2013: Drug War (3.17)
2014: National Gallery (3.25)
2015: The Look of Silence (3.28)
2016: I Am Not Your Negro (3.18)
2017: Ex Libris (3.06)
2018: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (3.10)
2019: Apollo 11 (3.13)
2020: City Hall (3.03)
2021: Quo Vadis, Aida? (3.17)
2022: Onoda (3.10)
2023: Menus-Plaisirs: Les Troisgros (3.09)
2024: Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (3.13)
2025: Black Bag (3.08)

Poor Steven Soderbergh. Maybe someday he'll place a film in the top 20 again. (Last one was Traffic; he's directed 26 since, though The Christophers, which is likely to be on my ballot next year, is still TBD at this writing.) Also of note: high averages for About Thirty (3.20, didn't receive a U.S. release of any sort but was still seen by five voters) and Chain Reactions (3.10), a doc about Texas Chain Saw Massacre that pleased probably five different voters than the ones who saw About Thirty.  

For whatever reason, this is the spot where I've been noting Atli Sigurjónsson's annual predictions, which he sends me privately before the daily countdown kicks off. As usual, just looking at voters' top 10 lists and Letterboxd and/or Crix Pix ratings got him reasonably close, though I can't imagine that anyone would have foreseen Red Rooms winning. Here they are, with the film's actual placement noted parenthetically. 

1. One Battle After Another (1) 2. Sinners (2) 3. Marty Supreme (5) 4. It Was Just an Accident (11) 5. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (4) 6. Bugonia (7) 7. Sirāt (3) 8. The Mastermind (8) 9. Eephus (10) 10. Reflection in a Dead Diamond (6) 11. Nouvelle Vague (15) 12. The Secret Agent (9) 13. Sound of Falling (19) 14. Afternoons of Solitude (14) 15. The Shrouds (did not place, #26) 16. Die My Love (13) 17. Misericordia (16) 18. Weapons (18)
19. The Testament of Ann Lee (20) 20. Baby Invasion (did not place, #25)
He missed Blue Moon (#12) and The Phoenician Scheme (#17). As noted above, I missed only Ann Lee (had No Other Choice in its place) and somehow got the top five exactly right, including order. (This was mostly luck as my estimated points—not meant to match actual points; it's way too complicated to bother explaining—were 146/118/65/63/62. And then 61/59. I likewise had It Was Just an Accident too high, though at #7 rather than #4; not sure what happened there.) 



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

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)
2010: The Last Airbender (1.05)
2011: Vanishing on 7th Street (1.55)
2012: This Means War (1.50)
2013: Gangster Squad (1.29)
2014: That Awkward Moment (1.45)
2015: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (1.79)
2016: Zoolander 2 (1.60)
2017: The Assignment (1.77)
2018: Vice (1.67)
2019: Serenity (1.05)
2020: Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (1.95)
2021: House of Gucci (2.00)
2022: Moonfall (1.86)
2023: Saltburn (1.72)
2024: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (1.68)
2025: Jurassic World Rebirth (1.77)

Very nearly the first film to receive this "honor" thanks to my dad, as I wouldn't have seen Rebirth had he not wanted to go for his birthday. 11 voters total, though, so it would have qualified without me. 



SELECTION COMMITTEE ON CRACK
(lowest average for a film that screened at the New York Film Festival)
(post-expansion: Main Slate only, plus "Special Event" world premieres)

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)
2010: Hereafter (2.05)
2011: We Are What We Are (1.64)
2012: Hyde Park on Hudson (1.69)
2013: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1.92)
2014: Child of God (2.00)
2015: The Princess of France (2.42)
2016: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2.10)
2017: My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea (1.96)
2018: Wildlife (2.29)
2019: A Faithful Man (2.08)
2020: The Wild Goose Lake (2.18)
2021: Tragic Jungle (1.90)
2022: The Inspection (2.10)
2023: Stonewalling (2.00)
2024: A Traveler's Needs (2.30)
2025: After the Hunt (1.84)

Gotta go all the way back to 2012's Hyde Park on Hudson for an NYFF selection with a lower average. Remember when its director made our second-favorite film of 2024? That was awesome. (It was not however Queer.



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 (ret.)
1999: Twin Falls Idaho (2.28) | Milton Lawson (ret.)
2000: Beautiful People (2.29) | Keith Collins (ret.)
2001: The Road Home (1.88) | Erik Gregersen (ret.)
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 (ret.)
2007: Southland Tales (1.88) | Dave Cowen; Jeremy Heilman
2008: Jellyfish (2.36) | Daniel Waters
2009: 12 (2.29) | Bilge Ebiri
2010: Somewhere (2.41) | Nictate (ret.)
2011: A Serbian Film (1.81) | Daniel Waters
2012: Alps (2.43) | Don Marks
2013: Maniac (2.50) | Jeremy Heilman
2014: Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (2.43) | Victor J. Morton
2015: The Tribe (2.43) | Daniel Waters
2016: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2.10) | Jeremy Heilman
2017: Song to Song (2.24) | Jeremy Heilman
2018: The 15:17 to Paris (2.07) | Jeremy Heilman
2019: Jojo Rabbit (2.25) | Jeff McCloud
2020: The Devil All the Time (2.21) | Jeremy Heilman; Zach Ralston
2021: Spencer (2.31) | Jeremy Heilman; Victor J. Morton
2022: Stars at Noon (2.42) | Jeremy Heilman
2023: Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (2.19) | Jeff McCloud
2024: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2.36) | Jeff McCloud
2025: Tron: Ares (2.28) | Jeff McCloud

Think I may retire this one soon, as it became first the Heilman Show and now the McCloud Show. 



AUTEUR! AUTEUR!

Highest-ranked director whose movie didn't place in Picture.

 

1996: Peter Jackson, The Frighteners (#7)

1997: Wong Kar-wai, Happy Together (#17)

1998: Alex Proyas, Dark City (#17)

1999: Steven Soderbergh, The Limey (#11)

2000: David Gordon Green, George Washington (#7)

2001: Michael Mann, Ali (#8)

2002: Michael Haneke, The Piano Teacher (#14)

2003: Robert Altman, The Company (#7)

2004: Martin Scorsese, The Aviator (#8)

2005: Peter Jackson, King Kong (#10) 

2006: Michael Mann, Miami Vice (#9)

2007: Paul Greengrass, The Bourne Ultimatum (#9)

2008: Lance Hammer, Ballast (#14)

2009: Lucrecia Martel, The Headless Woman (#8)

2010: Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (#14)

2011: Raúl Ruiz, Mysteries of Lisbon (#13)

2012: Hong Sang-soo, The Day He Arrives (#17)

2013: Johnnie To, Drug War (#17)

2014: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (#19)

2015: Aleksei German, Hard to Be a God (#10)

2016: Kelly Reichardt, Certain Women (#10)

2017: Yorgos Lanthimos, The Killing of a Sacred Deer (#14)

2018: Lucrecia Martel, Zama (#9)

2019: Nemes László, Sunset (#10)

2020: Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night (#4)

2021: Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part One (#9)

2022: Noah Baumbach, White Noise (#10)

2023: Mark Jenkin, Enys Men (#9)

2024: Robert Zemeckis, Here (#15)

2025: Park Chan-wook, No Other Choice (#12)


Park won Director for his previous film so it makes sense that he'd still place 12th even for a followup that whiffed. 

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AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

Highest-ranked screenwriter whose movie didn't place in Picture.


1996: Belinda & Philip Haas, Angels & Insects (#4 in Adapted)

1997: David Mamet and Hilary Henkin, Wag the Dog (#5)

1998: Whit Stillman, The Last Days of Disco (#8)

1999: M. Night Shyamalan, The Sixth Sense (#18)

2000: John Cusack et al., High Fidelity (#6)

2001: Karen Walton, Ginger Snaps (#6)

2002: Dylan Kidd, Roger Dodger (#2)

2003: Billy Ray, Shattered Glass (#4)

2004: David Mamet, Spartan (#11)

2005: Skander Halim, Pretty Persuasion (#4)

2006: Frank Cottrell Boyce, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (#6)

2007: Noah Baumbach, Margot at the Wedding (#4)

2008: Martin McDonagh, In Bruges (#5)

2009: Scott Z. Burns, The Informant! (#8)

2010: Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain and Chris Morris, Four Lions (#5)

2011: Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants (#12)

2012: Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard, The Cabin in the Woods (#7)

2013: Cormac McCarthy, The Counselor (#7)

2014: James Ward Byrkit, Coherence (#6)

2015: Andrew Haigh, 45 Years (#8)

2016: Shane Black & Anthony Bagarozzi, The Nice Guys (#4)

2017: Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (#3)

2018: Mark Perez, Game Night (#8)

2019: Mike Leigh, Peterloo (#14)

2020: Mike Makowsky, Bad Education (#5)

2021: Nicole Holofcener & Ben Affleck & Matt Damon, The Last Duel (#13)

2022: Rian Johnson, Glass Onion (#4)

2023: Christian Petzold, Afire (#10)

2024: Azazel Jacobs, His Three Daughters (#5)

2025: David Koepp, Black Bag (#9)


A rare Soderbergh film that placed highly in Screenplay but not at all in Director. Usually it's the other way around. 


_______________________________________________________________________________________

AWESOME! AWESOME!

Highest-ranked scene from a film that failed to place in Picture. (Starts a year later because I didn't create Best Scene until '97, after I combined Original and Adapted Screenplay into just Screenplay.) 


1997: The car scene, Scream 2 (#6)

1998: Protein-rich hair gel, There's Something About Mary (#7)

1999: Monologus interruptus, Deep Blue Sea (#7)

2000: Smack my Crispin up, Charlie's Angels (#4)

2001: Jimmy shanks a nonplussed Chopper, Chopper (#3)

2002: Evaluating Elizabeth, Lovely & Amazing (#3)

2003: Rainstorm pas de deux, The Company (#4)

2004: "Cousins?" (Molina/Coogan), Coffee and Cigarettes (#3)

2005: First encounter of the close kind, War of the Worlds (#2)

2006: Nude wrestling, Borat (#3)

2007: Han River attack, The Host (#1)

2008: Deranged penguin, Encounters at the End of the World (#10)

2009: Honeymoon on the tracks, You, the Living (#4)

2010: Backseat murder attempt, Let Me In (#5)

2011: Scaling Burj Khalifa, Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol (#4)

2012: Landing the plane, Flight (#4)

2013: Opening, Post tenebras lux (#2)

2014: Wedding dance, In Bloom (#9)

2015: Donnie vs. Leo (single shot), Creed (#2)

2016: "Would that it were so simple," Hail, Caesar! (#2)

2017: "Bellbottoms," Baby Driver (#4)

2018: Extracting the bullet, Game Night (#1)

2019: Umbrella attack, Shadow (#5)

2020: Meeting with HR, The Assistant (#2)

2021: “Night Colonies,” The Year of the Everlasting Storm (#5)

2022: "Hello, college!", Babylon (#8)

2023: Train collapse, Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One (#2)

2024: Performance/Notes, Hit Man (#1)

2025: Snowman, The Naked Gun (#6)


Nothin's gonna stop it. 


_______________________________________________________________________________________

MAJOR FESTIVAL PRIZE WINNERS: OUR VERDICT

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)
2010: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (#9, 2011)
2011: The Tree of Life (#1, 2011)
2012: Amour (#6, 2012)
2013: Blue Is the Warmest Color (#8, 2013)
2014: Winter Sleep (#15, 2014)
2015: Dheepan (did not place)
2016: I, Daniel Blake (did not place)
2017: The Square (did not place)
2018: Shoplifters (#19, 2018)
2019: Parasite (#2, 2019)
2020: festival cancelled
2021: Titane (did not place)
2022: Triangle of Sadness (did not place)
2023: Anatomy of a Fall (#6)
2024: Anora (#3)
2025: It Was Just an Accident (#11)

Venice Golden Lion

1995: Cyclo (#14, 1996)
1996: Michael Collins (did not place)
1997: Fireworks (Hana-Bi) (#5, 1998)
1998: The Way We Laughed (N/A, not theatrically released during window of eligibility)
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 (did not place)
2010: Somewhere (did not place)
2011: Faust (did not place)
2012: Pieta (did not place)
2013: Sacro GRA (N/A, not theatrically released during window of eligibility)
2014: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (did not place)
2015: From Afar (did not place)
2016: The Woman Who Left (did not place)
2017: The Shape of Water (did not place)
2018: Roma (#4, 2018)
2019: Joker (did not place)
2020: Nomadland (#18, 2020)
2021: Happening (did not place)
2022: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (did not place)
2023: Poor Things (#3)
2024: The Room Next Door (did not place)
2025: Father Mother Sister Brother (did not place)

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)
2010: Winter's Bone (#2, 2010)
2011: Like Crazy (did not place)
2012: Beasts of the Southern Wild (did not place)
2013: Fruitvale Station (did not place)
2014: Whiplash (#20, 2014)
2015: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (did not place)
2016: The Birth of a Nation (did not place)
2017: I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (unreleased, placed 5th in the Undies)
2018: The Miseducation of Cameron Post (did not place)
2019: Clemency (did not place)
2020: Minari (did not place)
2021: CODA (did not place)
2022: Nanny (did not place)
2023: A Thousand and One (did not place)
2024: In the Summers (did not place)
2025: Atropia (did not place)

Cannes juries still delivering, Venice has whiffed four of the past five, been over a decade since the Sundance winner placed. (To be fair, Sundance deliberately restricts itself to newbies. But where are the Primers and Winter's Bones? 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

AVERAGE RATINGS FOR OSCAR WINNERS

 

Again, take ratings for films from the '90s with a grain of salt—no way would The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love get anything close to 3.20+ today. 


No Country for Old Men: 3.45

The Departed: 3.42

Parasite: 3.37

The English Patient: 3.27

Anora: 3.26

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: 3.26

Titanic: 3.23

Shakespeare in Love: 3.21

The Hurt Locker: 3.18

Oppenheimer: 3.17

Moonlight: 3.14

Million Dollar Baby: 3.06

Gladiator: 3.04

12 Years a Slave: 3.04

American Beauty: 2.97

Argo: 2.86

Spotlight: 2.85

The Artist: 2.82

Chicago: 2.78

A Beautiful Mind: 2.73

Nomadland: 2.72

The King's Speech: 2.63

The Shape of Water: 2.48

Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance): 2.44

Everything Everywhere All at Once: 2.43

Slumdog Millionaire: 2.42

CODA: 2.28

Crash: 2.11

Green Book: 2.07


Normally I'd have this year's winner in bold, but it looks like I'm gonna get this out prior to the ceremony for once. One Battle  seems to be considered the front-runner; that would land it third after No Country and The Departed. 


_______________________________________________________________________________________

Most Appearances in Top 20 (Actors)

(ties for number of appearances broken by average placement)

01. Tilda Swinton (19)

1. Julia
4s. Michael Clayton
4s. Snowpiercer
5. The Deep End
5. We Need to Talk About Kevin
7. Only Lovers Left Alive
8. Memoria
9s. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
11. I Am Love
11s. The Killer
12s. Burn After Reading
12s. Suspiria
13. The Eternal Daughter
13s. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
14. A Bigger Splash
16s. The Dead Don't Die
18. Female Perversions
19s. Thumbsucker
19s. Trainwreck

02. Philip Seymour Hoffman (15)

1s. The Master
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
18. A Most Wanted Man
19s. Mission: Impossible III

03. Isabelle Huppert (15)

1. Elle
2. The Piano Teacher
2s. 8 Women
4. Gabrielle
8. Abuse of Weakness
8. The School of Flesh
8. Things to Come
12. White Material
13s. I ♥ Huckabees
13s. Amour
15. La Cérémonie
17. Time of the Wolf
17. In Another Country
19s. Claire's Camera
19. Home

04. Joaquin Phoenix (13)

1. Two Lovers

3. The Master

3. Inherent Vice

3. You Were Never Really Here

5. Her

9s. Gladiator

10. Walk the Line

10. The Immigrant

11. I’m Still Here

13. C’mon C’mon

15. Beau Is Afraid

15. Joker


05. Julianne Moore (13)

1. Far From Heaven

3s. Boogie Nights (1997)
5s. May December (2023)
6. Still Alice (2014)
8s. Magnolia (1999)
11. The End of the Affair (1999)
13s. The Big Lebowski (1998)
15s. An Ideal Husband (1999)
16s. A Single Man (2009)
16. Gloria Bell (2019)
17s. The Room Next Door (2024)
19. Savage Grace (2008)
19. The Kids Are All Right (2010)

She also won Actress in the survey's Oscar-style inaugural year, for Safe, but that doesn't count for this tally.

Phoenix, who was passed by Moore last year (The Room Next Door), regains 4th place with his Eddington nod. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Most Films Landed in Top 20 (Directors)
(again, ties broken by average placement)

01. Richard Linklater (11)

3. Before Sunset
3. Boyhood
4. Before Midnight
7. Everybody Wants Some!!
9. The School of Rock
11. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
12. Blue Moon
12. A Scanner Darkly
15. Nouvelle Vague
15. Waking Life
18. Bernie

Did not place: subUrbia; The Newton BoysTapeBad News BearsFast Food NationMe and Orson WellesLast Flag FlyingWhere'd You Go, BernadetteHit Man
Ineligible: Everything prior to subUrbiaInning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach

02. Wes Anderson (10)

 

2. Asteroid City

2. Fantastic Mr. Fox

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel

2: Moonrise Kingdom

2: Rushmore

5. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More

8. The Royal Tenenbaums

9. The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun

17. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

17. The Phoenician Scheme


Did not place: Bottle RocketThe Darjeeling LimitedIsle of Dogs. 

Ineligible: None.


03. Joel [& Ethan] Coen (10)

1. Inside Llewyn Davis
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
10. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
11. Burn After Reading
12. The Big Lebowski
12. True Grit

Did not place: Intolerable Cruelty; The Ladykillers; Paris je t'aime [segment]; Hail, Caesar!The Tragedy of Macbeth
Ineligible: Everything prior to FargoTo Each His Own Cinema [segment]

04. Martin Scorsese (9)

1. The Departed
2. The Wolf of Wall Street
4. Silence
5. I Heard You Paint Houses
7. Kundun
8. Killers of the Flower Moon
9. Gangs of New York
14. Shutter Island
19. Hugo

Did not place: Bringing Out the DeadThe AviatorShine a LightPublic SpeakingLiving in the Material WorldConjuring the Rolling Thunder Re-vuePersonality Crisis: One Night Only
Ineligible: Everything prior to KundunMy Voyage to ItalyThe Concert for New York City [segment]; Lady by the Sea: The Statue of LibertyA Letter to EliaThe 50 Year Argument

05. Christopher Nolan (9)

2. The Prestige
3. Memento
4. Oppenheimer
5. The Dark Knight
13. Inception
14. Dunkirk
18. Interstellar
19. Batman Begins
20. Tenet

Did not place: FollowingInsomniaThe Dark Knight Rises
Ineligible: nothing

Linklater leaps from 4th place to 1st by placing two films this year. (And that's with Hit Man somehow failing to make the cut last year.) Wes ties the Coens for number of films and passes them via average placement. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________


Where Are They Now?


New-ish category! Actors who've had at least two appearances in the top 20, but haven't made the cut in the past ten years. We used to like them. What happened? (Actors who die will be removed a year following their last eligible performance.)

Note: The two-nod minimum, which is meant to keep this list manageable (as there are many, many actors who've shown up only once, most of them in no way notable), also eliminates some big names that one might expect to be here: Dustin Hoffman, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, etc.

Each actor's most recent Skandie appearance is in [brackets]. New additions are in bold. Removed because they finally placed again this year: Gwyneth Paltrow, Sean Penn, Stellan Skarsgård (who'd just been added last year, didn't care for that it seems). 

• Joan Allen [2005: The Upside of Anger]
• Mathieu Amalric [2008: A Christmas Tale]
• Daniel Auteuil [2005: Caché (Hidden)]
• Alec Baldwin [2006: The Departed]
• Eric Bana [2005: Munich]
• Javier Bardem [2012: Skyfall]
• Sacha Baron Cohen [2006: Borat Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby]
• Kathy Bates [2002: About Schmidt]
• Paul Bettany [2011: Margin Call]
• Thora Birch [2001: Ghost World]
• Jack Black [2012: Bernie]
• Helena Bonham Carter [2007: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]
• Jim Broadbent [2010: Another Year]
• Steve Carell [2014: Foxcatcher]
• Jim Carrey [2010: I Love You, Phillip Morris]
• Michael Cera [2007: Superbad Juno]
• Maggie Cheung [2006: Clean]
• Julie Christie [2007: Away From Her]
• Patricia Clarkson [2005: The Dying Gaul]
• Suzanne Clément [2015: Mommy]
• George Clooney [2011: The Descendants]
• Jennifer Connelly [2003: House of Sand and Fog]
• Paddy Considine [2005: My Summer of Love]
• Steve Coogan [2011: The Trip]
• Chris Cooper [2007: Breach]
• Kevin Costner [2005: The Upside of Anger]
• Brian Cox [2002: 25th Hour]
• James Cromwell [1997: L.A. Confidential]
• Joan Cusack [2003: The School of Rock]
• John Cusack [2000: High Fidelity]
• Claire Danes [2005: Shopgirl]
• Jean-Pierre Darroussin [2004: Red Lights]
• Hope Davis [2003: The Secret Lives of Dentists American Splendor]
• Judy Davis [1998: Celebrity]
• Julie Delpy [2013: Before Midnight]
• Judi Dench [2012: Skyfall]
• Catherine Deneuve [2008: A Christmas Tale]
• Johnny Depp [2003: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Once Upon a Time in Mexico]
• Zooey Deschanel [2006: Failure to Launch]
• Emmanuelle Devos [2008: A Christmas Tale]
• Rosemarie DeWitt [2012: Your Sister's Sister]
• Cameron Diaz [2001: Vanilla Sky]
• Mati Diop [2013: Simon Killer]
• Illeana Douglas [1996: Grace of My Heart]
• Minnie Driver [1997: Grosse Pointe Blank Good Will Hunting]
• Robert Duvall [2003: Open Range]
• Aaron Eckhart [2008: The Dark Knight]
• Jesse Eisenberg [2010: The Social Network]
• Chiwetel Ejiofor [2013: 12 Years a Slave]
• Ronit Elkabetz [2015: Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem]
• Dakota Fanning [2014: Night Moves]
• Anna Faris [2008: The House Bunny]
• Vera Farmiga [2009: Up in the Air]
• Colin Firth [2010: The King's Speech]
• Bridget Fonda [1998: A Simple Plan]
• Jodie Foster [2002: Panic Room]
• Jamie Foxx [2012: Django Unchained]
• Morgan Freeman [2004: Million Dollar Baby]
• Charlotte Gainsbourg [2014: Nymph()maniac Vol. II]
• Gael García Bernal [2012: The Loneliest Planet]
• Jennifer Garner [2007: Juno]
• Luminita Gheorghiu [2014: Child's Pose]
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt [2009: (500) Days of Summer]
• Olivier Gourmet [2003: The Son]
• Eva Green [2014: 300: Rise of an Empire]
• Bruce Greenwood [2011: Meek's Cutoff]
• Maggie Gyllenhaal [2006: Sherrybaby Stranger Than Fiction]
• Jackie Earle Haley [2009: Watchmen]
• Ed Harris [2005: A History of Violence]
• Leila Hatami [2011: A Separation]
• Jonah Hill [2013: The Wolf of Wall Street]
• Bryce Dallas Howard [2010: Hereafter]
• Danny Huston [2004: Birth]
• Vlad Ivanov [2009: Police, Adjective]

• Samuel L. Jackson [2015: The Hateful Eight]

• Tommy Lee Jones [2012: Lincoln]
• Milla Jovovich [2010: Stone]

• Michael Keaton [2015: Spotlight]

• Catherine Keener [2007: Into the Wild]
• Anna Kendrick [2013: Drinking Buddies]
• Rinko Kikuchi [2009: The Brothers Bloom]
• Val Kilmer [2005: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang]
• Ben Kingsley [2013: Iron Man Three]
• Greg Kinnear [2002: Auto Focus]
• Keira Knightley [2011: A Dangerous Method]
• Frank Langella [2008: Frost/Nixon]

• Brie Larson [2015: Room]

• Denis Lavant [2012: Holy Motors]

• Jennifer Jason Leigh [2015: The Hateful Eight Anomalisa]

• Valérie Lemercier [2007: Avenue Montaigne]
• Melissa Leo [2010: The Fighter]
• Tony Leung [2005: 2046]
• Laura Linney [2007: The Savages]
• Alison Lohman [2009: Drag Me to Hell]
• Sergi López [2006: Pan's Labyrinth]
• Kelly Macdonald [2007: No Country for Old Men]
• Anthony Mackie [2009: The Hurt Locker]
• Tobey Maguire [2002: Spider-Man]
• John Malkovich [2008: Burn After Reading]
• Leslie Mann [2012: This Is 40]
• Rose McGowan [2007: Grindhouse]
• Ewan McGregor [2010: I Love You, Phillip Morris]
• Ian McKellen [2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring]

• Ben Mendelsohn [2015: Mississippi Grind]

• Helen Mirren [2006: The Queen]
• Alfred Molina [2004: Coffee and Cigarettes]
• David Morse [2003: The Slaughter Rule]
• Samantha Morton [2008: Synecdoche, New York]
• Peter Mullan [2001: The Claim]
• Liam Neeson [2012: The Grey]
• Thandie Newton [2002: The Truth About Charlie]
• Jack Nicholson [2002: About Schmidt]
• Nick Nolte [2011: Warrior]
• Gary Oldman [2011: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy]
• Timothy Olyphant [2009: A Perfect Getaway]
• Haley Joel Osment [2001: AI]
• Patton Oswalt [2011: Young Adult]
• Clive Owen [2009: Duplicity]
• Elliot Page [2011: Super]
• Gwyneth Paltrow [2009: Two Lovers]
• Joe Pantoliano [2001: Memento]
• Simon Pegg [2013: The World's End]
• Sean Penn [2012: This Must Be the Place]
• Barry Pepper [2010: True Grit]
• Rebecca Pidgeon [2000: State and Main]
• Sarah Polley [1999: Go]
• Jérémie Renier [2009: Lorna's Silence]
• Christina Ricci [2007: Black Snake Moan]
• Julia Roberts [2009: Duplicity]
• Mickey Rourke [2008: The Wrestler]
• Geoffrey Rush [2010: The King's Speech]
• Kurt Russell [2015: The Hateful Eight Bone Tomahawk]
• Ludivine Sagnier [2008: A Girl Cut in Two]

• Peter Sarsgaard [2015: Experimenter: The Stanley Milgram Story]

• Liev Schreiber [2015: Spotlight]

• Jason Schwartzman [2009: Fantastic Mr. Fox]
• Campbell Scott [2003: The Secret Lives of Dentists]
• Kristin Scott Thomas [2008: I've Loved You So Long]
• Andy Serkis [2011: Rise of the Planet of the Apes]
• Toni Servillo [2013: The Great Beauty]
• Chloë Sevigny [2000: American Psycho]
• Tony Shalhoub [2001: The Man Who Wasn't There]
• Michael Sheen [2008: Frost/Nixon]
• Ruth Sheen [2010: Another Year]
• Shu Qi [2006: Three Times]
• Kevin Spacey [2011: Margin Call]
• Timothy Spall [2014: Mr. Turner]
• Imelda Staunton [2007: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]
• David Strathairn [2008: My Blueberry Nights]
• Meryl Streep [2011: The Iron Lady]

• Mickey Sumner [2015: The Mend]

• Hilary Swank [2004: Million Dollar Baby]
• Channing Tatum [2014: Foxcatcher]
• Lili Taylor [2013: The Conjuring]
• Miles Teller [2014: Whiplash]
• Sylvie Testud [2010: Lourdes]

• Charlize Theron [2015: Mad Max: Fury Road]

• Billy Bob Thornton [2003: Bad Santa]
• Uma Thurman [2014: Nymph()maniac Vol. I]
• Stanley Tucci [2009: Julie & Julia]
• Maribel Verdú [2006: Pan's Labyrinth]
• Mark Wahlberg [2010: The Fighter]
• Christopher Walken [2012: Seven Psychopaths]
• Emily Watson [2002: Punch-Drunk Love]
• Naomi Watts [2008: Funny Games]
• Sigourney Weaver [1999: A Map of the World]
• Forest Whitaker [2006: The Last King of Scotland]
• Tom Wilkinson [2007: Michael Clayton]
• Owen Wilson [2011: Midnight in Paris]

• Kate Winslet [2015: Steve Jobs]

• Ray Winstone [2006: The Proposition The Departed]
• Reese Witherspoon [2014: Wild]
• Evan Rachel Wood [2006: Down in the Valley]
• Shailene Woodley [2013: The Spectacular Now]
• Steve Zahn [2007: Rescue Dawn]
• Renée Zellweger [2003: Cold Mountain Down With Love]
• Ziyi Zhang [2013: The Grandmaster]

Always eye-opening for me. I didn't realize it's been a decade since we last saw Charlize Theron or Kate Winslet. (The latter used to show up so frequently that she's still top 15 all-time in spite of this long drought.) 



And finally. Back when I started the survey, I remember looking forward to the time, a decade or so later (i.e. 20 years ago 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. 2025 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.


Paul Thomas Anderson

 

Phantom Thread (2)                        3.46

There Will Be Blood (1)                   3.46

One Battle After Another (1)              3.38

Licorice Pizza (3)                        3.23

Boogie Nights (8)                         3.18

Magnolia (7)                              3.17

The Master (4)                            3.17

Punch-Drunk Love (8)                      2.93

Hard Eight                                2.87

Inherent Vice (7)                         2.81


Wes Anderson

 

Rushmore (2)                              3.45

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2)              3.38

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (5)    3.33

Moonrise Kingdom (2)                      3.32

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2)                     3.21

Asteroid City (2)                         3.10

The Royal Tenenbaums (8)                  3.03

The French Dispatch (9)                   2.89

Isle of Dogs                              2.89

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (17)   2.89

The Phoenician Scheme (17)                2.79

Bottle Rocket                             2.63

The Darjeeling Limited                    2.40


Darren Aronofsky

 

mother! (6)                               3.05

The Wrestler (13)                         3.02

Black Swan (3)                            2.97

Requiem for a Dream (15)                  2.73

π                                         2.65

Caught Stealing                           2.53

Noah                                      2.47

The Fountain                              2.21

The Whale                                 1.97


Olivier Assayas

 

Irma Vep (5)                              3.48

Summer Hours (3)                          3.23

Carlos (6)                                3.21

Clouds of Sils Maria (9)                  3.16

Personal Shopper (5)                      3.05

Late August, Early September              2.88

Something in the Air                      2.82

Les Destinées                             2.79

Clean                                     2.78

(Suspended Time)                          2.56

Non-Fiction                               2.52

demonlover                                2.45

Boarding Gate                             2.35

Paris je t'aime                           2.24

Wasp Network                              2.23


Ari Aster

 

Midsommar (14)                            2.80

Hereditary                                2.69

Eddington                                 2.54

Beau Is Afraid                            2.40


Noah Baumbach

 

Frances Ha (3)                            3.32

Marriage Story (4)                        3.25

The Squid and the Whale (6)               3.21

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) 3.04

De Palma                                  3.00

Mistress America (19)                     2.94

Margot at the Wedding                     2.92

Greenberg                                 2.84

White Noise                               2.77

Mr. Jealousy                              2.72

While We're Young                         2.67

Jay Kelly                                 2.30


Kathryn Bigelow

 

The Hurt Locker (8)                       3.18

Zero Dark Thirty (11)                     3.07

Detroit                                   2.73

K-19: The Widowmaker                      2.62

A House of Dynamite                       2.43

The Weight of Water                       2.05


Bong Joon-ho

 

Parasite (2)                              3.37

The Host                                  3.19

Memories of Murder (9)                    3.16

Mother (5)                                3.11

Snowpiercer (13)                          3.03

Okja                                      2.73

Mickey 17                                 2.37

Tokyo!                                    2.37


Danny Boyle

 

Trainspotting (11)                        3.19

Millions                                  2.93

28 Days Later                             2.90

T2 Trainspotting                          2.82

28 Years Later                            2.77

127 Hours                                 2.76

Sunshine                                  2.74

Steve Jobs                                2.62

Slumdog Millionaire                       2.42

(Yesterday)                               2.36

(A Life Less Ordinary)                    2.22

The Beach                                 2.08

(Trance)                                  1.88


James Cameron

 

Titanic (6)                               3.23

Avatar: The Way of Water                  2.89

Avatar                                    2.65

Avatar: Fire and Ash                      2.41

(Ghosts of the Abyss)                     2.30

Aliens of the Deep                        N/A


Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani

 

Let the Corpses Tan (8)                   3.16

Reflection in a Dead Diamond (6)          3.12

Amer                                      2.79

The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears    2.78

The ABCs of Death                         1.69


Ethan Coen

 

No Country for Old Men (2)                3.45

Inside Llewyn Davis (1)                   3.26

Burn After Reading (11)                   3.01

True Grit (12)                            2.98

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (10)         2.97

Hail, Caesar!                             2.88

A Serious Man (7)                         2.83

The Ladykillers                           2.24

Paris je t'aime                           2.24

Henry James' Drive-Away Dykes             2.10

Honey Don't!                              2.03


Ryan Coogler

 

Sinners (2)                               3.28

Creed                                     3.03

Black Panther                             2.83

Fruitvale Station                         2.31

(Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)          2.17


Zach Cregger

 

Weapons (18)                              2.98

Barbarian                                 2.86

(Miss March)                              0.58


David Cronenberg

 

A History of Violence (7)                 3.11

The Shrouds                               2.85

Crimes of the Future (7)                  2.77

Cosmopolis (15)                           2.76

eXistenZ                                  2.74

Eastern Promises                          2.73

Crash (18)                                2.52

A Dangerous Method                        2.48

Maps to the Stars                         2.48

Spider                                    2.34


Guillermo del Toro

 

Pan's Labyrinth (8)                       2.95

Crimson Peak                              2.76

The Devil's Backbone                      2.66

Blade II                                  2.63

Nightmare Alley                           2.61

Hellboy II: The Golden Army               2.53

The Shape of Water                        2.48

Frankenstein                              2.44

Pinocchio*                                2.39

Hellboy                                   2.33

Pacific Rim                               2.18

Mimic                                     2.06

 

* with Mark Gustafson


Bruno Dumont

 

Jeannette: Childhood of Joan of Arc (15)  3.07

Hadewijch                                 3.00

Flanders                                  2.96

France (15)                               2.89

Slack Bay                                 2.86

The Empire                                2.85

(Joan of Arc)                             2.83

Camille Claudel 1915                      2.79

Humanité (13)                             2.79

Li'l Quinquin                             2.79

Outside Satan                             2.60

Twentynine Palms                          2.42

(Life of Jesus)                           2.19

Coincoin and the Extra-Humans             N/A


Atom Egoyan

 

The Sweet Hereafter (1)                   3.65

Seven Veils                               2.79

Felicia’s Journey                         2.66

Where the Truth Lies                      2.50

Adoration                                 2.44

(Remember)                                2.39

Ararat                                    2.33

Chloe                                     2.21

(Guest of Honour)                         1.92

(The Captive)                             1.86

(Devil's Knot)                            1.43


Mona Fastvold


The Testament of Ann Lee (20)              2.78

The Sleepwalker                            N/A

The World to Come                          N/A


Miguel Gomes

 

Tabu (13)                                 3.13

Arabian Nights: Volume Two                2.92

The Tsugua Diaries* (18)                  2.79

Grand Tour                                2.68  

(Our Beloved Month of August)             2.64

Arabian Nights: Volume One                2.57

Arabian Nights: Volume Three              2.54

 

* with Maureen Fazendeiro


Paul Greengrass

 

United 93 (3)                             3.34

The Bourne Ultimatum                      3.05

Captain Phillips                          2.88

(News of the World)                       2.71

Bloody Sunday                             2.58

The Bourne Supremacy                      2.57

Green Zone                                2.39

(The Lost Bus)                            2.20

Jason Bourne                              2.09

22 July                                   N/A


Luca Guadagnino

 

Call Me by Your Name (3)                  3.31

Challengers (2)                           3.17

A Bigger Splash                           2.74

I Am Love                                 2.71

Bones and All                             2.57

Suspiria                                  2.57

Queer                                     2.31

After the Hunt                            1.84

Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams            N/A


Alain Guiraudie

 

Stranger by the Lake (5)                  3.17

Misericordia (16)                         3.02

Staying Vertical (15)                     3.02

(Nobody's Hero)                           2.72


Hong Sang-soo

 

Right Now, Wrong Then (11)                3.24

In Front of Your Face (8)                 3.11

Woman on the Beach (13)                   3.10

Night and Day                             3.07

The Day He Arrives                        3.05

On the Beach at Night Alone (16)          3.03

Oki's Movie                               2.88

Grass                                     2.85

The Woman Who Ran                         2.85

Hotel by the River                        2.83

In Another Country                        2.82

The Day After                             2.80

Woman Is the Future of Man                2.79

in water                                  2.77

Walk Up                                   2.69

Claire's Camera                           2.66

The Novelist’s Film                       2.63

Introduction                              2.60

In Our Day                                2.57

By the Stream                             2.55

A Traveler's Needs                        2.30


Andrew Jarecki

 

Capturing the Friedmans (3)               3.33

All Good Things                           1.81

The Alabama Solution*                     N/A

 

* with Charlotte Kaufman


Jim Jarmusch

 

Paterson (2)                              3.37

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (18)    3.03

Only Lovers Left Alive (9)                3.03

Dead Man (13)                             2.94

(Gimme Danger)                            2.83

Coffee and Cigarettes                     2.70

Father Mother Sister Brother              2.68

Broken Flowers                            2.56

The Dead Don't Die                        2.55

(Year of the Horse)                       2.42

The Limits of Control                     2.34


Jia Zhang-ke

 

A Touch of Sin                            3.00

Ash Is Purest White (15)                  2.92

The World                                 2.89

Still Life (18)                           2.88

Caught by the Tides                       2.79

Mountains May Depart                      2.59

(Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue)    2.56

24 City                                   2.50

Unknown Pleasures                         2.45


Rian Johnson

 

Knives Out (9)                            3.06

Brick (7)                                 2.99

Glass Onion                               2.95

Looper (14)                               2.95

Wake Up Dead Man                          2.93

The Brothers Bloom                        2.83

Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi   2.83


Radu Jude

 

Do Not Expect Too Much... (4)             3.17

("I Do Not Care if We Go Down…")          3.10

Aferim!                                   3.08

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (13)       3.03

(Uppercase Print)                         2.80

(Dracula)                                 2.33


Harmony Korine

 

The Beach Bum                             2.74

Spring Breakers (18)                      2.72

Aggro Dr1ft (20)                          2.62

Trash Humpers                             2.57

(Mister Lonely)                           2.39

julien donkey-boy                         1.95

(Gummo)                                   1.75

Baby Invasion                             N/A


Joseph Kosinski

 

Top Gun: Maverick (9)                     3.04

(Only the Brave)                          3.00

F1                                        2.73

Oblivion                                  2.50

Tron: Legacy                              2.23

(Spiderhead)                              2.17


Kiyoshi Kurosawa

 

Tokyo Sonata                              2.81

Creepy                                    2.77

Cloud                                     2.74

Before We Vanish                          2.71

Wife of a Spy                             2.67

To the Ends of the Earth                  2.58

Bright Future                             2.37


Yorgos Lanthimos

 

Dogtooth (1)                              3.28

The Favourite (5)                         3.09

Bugonia (7)                               3.07

Poor Things (3)                           3.07

The Lobster (13)                          3.02

The Killing of a Sacred Deer              2.72

Kinds of Kindness                         2.59

Alps                                      2.43


Oliver Laxe

 

Sirāt (3)                                 3.11

(Fire Will Come)                          2.50

(Mimosas)                                 2.43

You All Are Captains                      N/A


Spike Lee

 

25th Hour (1)                             3.42

Get on the Bus                            3.29

(4 Little Girls)                          3.14

BlacKkKlansman                            3.02

Inside Man (16)                           2.99

Da 5 Bloods (13)                          2.96

(Passing Strange)                         2.94

David Byrne's American Utopia             2.88

Chi-Raq                                   2.74

Highest 2 Lowest                          2.74

The Original Kings of Comedy              2.73

(Bad 25)                                  2.60

He Got Game                               2.59

Summer of Sam                             2.57

Oldboy                                    2.46

Red Hook Summer                           2.42

(Girl 6)                                  2.28

Bamboozled                                2.13

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus                   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

Boyhood (3)                               3.36

Before Midnight (4)                       3.33

Everybody Wants Some!! (7)                3.23

The School of Rock (9)                    3.16

Hit Man                                   3.07

Nouvelle Vague (15)                       3.02

A Scanner Darkly (12)                     2.97

Blue Moon (12)                            2.94

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (11)    2.86

Waking Life (15)                          2.86

Bernie (18)                               2.85

Tape                                      2.77

The Newton Boys                           2.75

Me and Orson Welles                       2.70

subUrbia                                  2.63

Where'd You Go, Bernadette                2.59

Bad News Bears                            2.50

Last Flag Flying                          2.46

Fast Food Nation                          2.28


Julia Loktev

 

The Loneliest Planet (8)                  3.34

My Undesirable Friends: Part I            3.05

Day Night Day Night                       3.02

Moment of Impact                          N/A


David Mamet

 

The Winslow Boy (14)                      3.07

The Spanish Prisoner                      3.02

State and Main (17)                       2.95

Spartan                                   2.82

(Henry Johnson)                           2.75

Redbelt                                   2.64

Heist                                     2.47


Kleber Mendonça Filho

 

Aquarius                                  3.13

The Secret Agent (9)                      3.04

Neighboring Sounds (17)                   2.97

Pictures of Ghosts                        2.91

Bacurau* (19)                             2.80

 

* with Juliano Dornelles


Roberto Minervini

 

(Stop the Pounding Heart)                 3.17

The Other Side                            2.91

(What You Gonna Do When…World's on Fire?) 2.36

(The Damned)                              1.92


Lukas Moodysson

 

Together (18)                             3.13

Show Me Love                              2.89

We Are the Best!                          2.88

Lilya 4-Ever                              2.68

A hole in my heart                        1.88

Mammoth                                   N/A

Together 99                               N/A


Errol Morris

 

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (4)          3.42

The Fog of War (11)                       3.24

Mr. Death                                 3.10

Tabloid                                   3.00

Standard Operating Procedure              2.98

Wormwood (17)                             2.97

American Dharma                           2.64

The Unknown Known                         2.64

(The B-Side)                              2.56

The Pigeon Tunnel                         2.50

(My Psychedelic Love Story)               2.31

(Chaos: The Manson Murders)               2.07

Separated                                 N/A


Jafar Panahi

 

Offside (11)                              3.25

Crimson Gold (11)                         3.20

(The Mirror)                              3.20

The White Balloon                         3.14

It Was Just an Accident (11)              3.06

No Bears (17)                             3.03

This Is Not a Film                        3.00

Jafar Panahi's Taxi                       2.84

The Circle                                2.70

3 Faces                                   2.67

Closed Curtain                            2.63

(The Year of the Everlasting Storm)       2.43


Park Chan-wook

 

The Handmaiden (10)                       3.26

Decision to Leave (3)                     3.15

No Other Choice                           2.84

Oldboy (17)                               2.68

Stoker                                    2.66

Thirst                                    2.58

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance               2.52

Three…Extremes                            2.47


Alex Ross Perry

 

Her Smell (8)                             2.90

Listen Up Philip                          2.77

Pavements                                 2.74

The Color Wheel                           2.63

Queen of Earth                            2.63

Golden Exits                              2.58

Videoheaven                               N/A


Cristi Puiu

 

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (11)           3.06

Malmkrog                                  2.91

Aurora                                    2.29

MMXX                                      N/A


Lynne Ramsay

 

Ratcatcher                                3.12

Morvern Callar (20)                       2.96

You Were Never Really Here (18)           2.86

We Need to Talk About Kevin (20)          2.85

Die My Love (13)                          2.84


Unusual case here of a director who's placed four films out of five, with the only one that didn't place having the highest average.


Kelly Reichardt

 

First Cow (1)                             3.21

Old Joy (5)                               3.17

Meek's Cutoff (8)                         3.13

The Mastermind (8)                        3.12

Certain Women                             3.10

Showing Up (5)                            3.09

Wendy and Lucy                            2.98

Night Moves                               2.86


Benny Safdie

 

Uncut Gems (3)                            3.21

Heaven Knows What                         3.02

Good Time (9)                             2.91

Daddy Longlegs                            2.25

The Smashing Machine                      2.24

Buttons                                   N/A

Lenny Cooke                               N/A

The Pleasure of Being Robbed              N/A

 

Josh Safdie

 

Uncut Gems (3)                            3.21

Marty Supreme (5)                         3.12

Heaven Knows What                         3.02

Good Time (9)                             2.91

Daddy Longlegs                            2.25

Buttons                                   N/A

Lenny Cooke                               N/A

The Pleasure of Being Robbed              N/A


Albert Serra

 

Pacifiction                               2.94

(Quixotic)                                2.92

Liberté                                   2.80

Afternoons of Solitude (14)               2.79

The Death of Louis XIV                    2.68

Birdsong                                  2.59

(Story of My Death)                       2.31


Steven Soderbergh

 

Out of Sight (1)                          3.37

Traffic (5)                               3.24

Erin Brockovich                           3.14

Black Bag                                 3.08

The Limey                                 2.99

Contagion                                 2.96

(Gray’s Anatomy)                          2.94

Ocean’s Eleven                            2.93

The Informant!                            2.92

KIMI                                      2.91

Solaris                                   2.86

Haywire                                   2.85

Let Them All Talk                         2.83

No Sudden Move                            2.79

Logan Lucky                               2.77

High Flying Bird                          2.76

And Everything Is Going Fine              2.75

The Girlfriend Experience                 2.72

Magic Mike                                2.70

Schizopolis                               2.70

Bubble                                    2.66

The Good German                           2.66

Full Frontal                              2.63

Side Effects                              2.59

Ocean's Thirteen                          2.52

Ocean’s Twelve                            2.52

Presence                                  2.48

Unsane                                    2.40

Che                                       2.35

Magic Mike's Last Dance                   2.22

Eros                                      2.15

The Laundromat                            1.83


Paolo Sorrentino

 

The Great Beauty (15)                     3.00

(Loro)                                    2.94

This Must Be the Place                    2.91

(La grazia)                               2.80

Il Divo                                   2.74

The Hand of God                           2.71

Youth                                     2.46

Parthenope                                2.35


Joachim Trier

 

The Worst Person in the World (18)        2.93

Oslo, August 31st                         2.88

Reprise                                   2.87

Sentimental Value                         2.76

Louder Than Bombs                         2.70

Thelma                                    2.40


Gus Van Sant

 

Paranoid Park (6)                         3.15

Gerry (4)                                 2.93

Good Will Hunting                         2.84

Milk                                      2.83

Last Days                                 2.79

Dead Man's Wire                           2.60

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot     2.50

Elephant                                  2.40

Paris je t'aime                           2.24

Promised Land                             2.15

Psycho                                    2.11

Finding Forrester                         2.10

(Restless)                                1.94

(The Sea of Trees)                        1.79


Leigh Whannell

 

The Invisible Man                         2.95

(Upgrade)                                 2.94

(Insidious: Chapter 3)                    2.06

Wolf Man                                  1.92


Edgar Wright

 

The World's End (20)                      3.00

Grindhouse (4)                            2.93

Shaun of the Dead                         2.90

Hot Fuzz                                  2.89

Baby Driver                               2.72

The Sparks Brothers                       2.72

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World               2.71

Last Night in Soho                        2.55

The Running Man                           2.08


Chloé Zhao

 

The Rider                                 3.02

(Songs My Brothers Taught Me)             2.75

Nomadland (18)                            2.72

Hamnet                                    2.18

(Eternals)                                1.81


Ramon Zürcher


The Strange Little Cat (11)               3.05

The Girl and the Spider (10)              2.97

The Sparrow in the Chimney                2.64

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