The 2003 Oliver Awards

As you may or may not know, the Oliver Awards has undergone a few changes, in an effort to meld both the format of the Academy Awards and the format of most Critics' Awards. Thus, I will first be revealing my new yearly top 10 list, and nominees for Oliver Awards in the following categories:

Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenply
Best Cinematography
Best Art/Set Direction
Best Costume Design
Best Visual Effects
Best Make-Up

Because I am not an accredited member of the press, I have to pay to see all the movies that I see (excluding the occasional EW sneak preview). Thus, I cannot see every movie. The following is a list of movies that I have not seen and are thus ineligible for Oliver consideration, but have received praise this year. They are, in no specific order:

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
In America
The Cooler
Whale Rider
Girl With a Pearl Earring
The Fog of War
The Magdalene Sisters
Shattered Glass
The Triplets of Belleville

In addition, there are several movies this year that are eligible, but you won't find a review for them in the archives. These are either movies I saw theatrically but didn't write a review for, or saw on DVD throughout the year. They are, in alphabetical order:

Camp
Finding Nemo
In the Cut
A Mighty Wind
Pieces of April
Thirteen

Phew. Ok, so without further ado, this year's Oliver Award nominees are:

Best Make-Up

Toni G, Lee Grimes, Art Sakamoto, Monster
Greg Cannom, Ve Neill, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Rebeccah Delchambre, Patricia Murray, Freddy VS. Jason

And the winner is...(highlight blank space to uncover the winner and explanation)
[start]Toni G, Lee Grimes, Art Sakamoto, Monster - Charlize Theron would never have been as convincing as she is in Monster if not for the phenomenal job done by the make-up team.[end]

Best Visual Effects

Daniel Sudick, Stefen Fangmeier, Nathan McGuinness, Robert Stromberg, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
John Knoll, Hal Hickell, Charles Gibson, Terry Frazee, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Scott Farrar, Kenneth Nakada, Arthur Spink Jr., Peter Pan

And the winner is...(highlight blank space to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]John Knoll, Hal Hickell, Charles Gibson, Terry Frazee, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - This was a real toss-up, and I easily could have given it to either of the other nominees. The reason I chose PotC though, is because of how effective the skeletons work, and how often special effects shots were used during the movie.[end]

Best Art/Set Direction

Martin Whist, Don Diers, Down With Love
Jeannine Claudia Oppewall, Leslie A. Pope, Seabiscuit
Lilly Kilvert, Gretchen Rau, The Last Samurai
Michelle McGahey, Kerrie Brown, Peter Pan
Maria-Teresa Barbasso, Pier Luigi Basile, Robert Guerra, Christian Niculescu, Luca Tranchino, Francesca LoSchiavo, Cold Mountain

And the winner is (highlight blank space to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]Martin Whist, Don Diers, Down With Love - The sets were great! The movie? Not so much. Still, the vibrant colors schemes of the movie, and Catcher's cool love pad, give the team from Down With Love the Oliver.[end]

Best Costume Design

Ngila Dickson, The Last Samurai
Daniel Orlandi, Down With Love
Penny Rose, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Carlo Poggioli, Ann Roth, Cold Mountain
Judianna Makovsky, Seabiscuit

And the winner is...(highlight blank space to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]Judianna Makovsky, Seabiscuit - I decided this one based on difficulty, and Makovsky pulls of various Great Depression looks with ease: from the oppulent to the poor, from the slums to the track[end]

Best Cinematography

John Seale, Cold Mountain
Cesar Charlone, City of God
Lance Acord, Lost in Translation
John Schwartzman, Seabiscuit
Rodrigo Prieto, 21 Grams

And the winner is...(highlight blank area to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]Lance Acord, Lost in Translation - Like last year, delicate beauty beats scope, and Lance Acord's cinematography is so beautiful, several shots feel like they could be painting hanging in a gallery someplace. In such an understated movie, Acord's visuals provide just the right mood, without ever being boring[end]

Best Adapted Screenplay

Brian Helgeland, Mystic River
Sheri Springer Berman, Robert Pucini, American Splendor
Anthony Minghella, Cold Mountain
Vadim Perelman, House of Sand and Fog
Braulio Mantovani, City of God

And the winner is...(highlight blank area to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]Sheri Springer Berman, Robert Pucini, American Splendor - After looking over the nominees for the 2003 Oliver Awards, one might be shocked by the snub of these two individuals in the Director's race, considering American Splendor is this year's Best Picture. The reason is because this movie's writing is so fantastic, it makes directing the material easy as pie. This script has everything -- humor, sadness, and its poignant as all-hell.[end]

Best Original Screenplay

Steven Knight, Dirty Pretty Things
Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, A Mighty Wind
Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation
Guillermo Arriaga, 21 Grams
Catherine Hardwick, Nikki Reed, Thirteen

And the winner is...(highlight blank area to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]Steven Knight, Dirty Pretty Things - A bit of a surprise. The script categories are always hard to pick, but I feel that Dirty Pretty Things was a masterpiece of writing, more so than its two closest rivals in this category (Thirteen - acting; Lost in Translation - direction and acting). The Academy gave my pick a nod, which is surprising considering how "indie" this movie is. So...way to go Oscars![end]

Best Supporting Actress

Shohreh Aghdashloo, House of Sand and Fog
Holly Hunter, Thirteen
Hope Davis, American Splendor
Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation
Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain

And the winner is...(highlight blank area to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation - From the moment I saw her 2001 pic, Ghost World, I knew that she was going to be big. Its great to see Scarlett becoming Hollywood's new "It Girl" (I found her first!), but its even better seeing her being honored for her acting. In some ways, her character of Charlotte is not as fleshed out as Bill Murray's Bob (which is why she is in the supporting category, and not the lead), but her performance is so 3-demensional, that Charlotte touches our souls. Johansson beats all the competitors by a mile, even though Aghdashloo and Hunter turn in fantastic performances.[end]

Best Supporting Actor

Kevin Bacon, Mystic River
Benicio Del Toro, 21 Grams
Sam Rockwell, Matchstick Men
Jason Isaacs, Peter Pan
Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai

And the winner is...(highlight blank area to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]Benecio Del Toro, 21 Grams - This was a weak year for the supporting actor category. Nevertheless, Del Toro's performance is the stuff dreams are made of. Even in a strong year, my guess is that Benecio would still have walked away with the trophy here. Having an Oscar, and now with an Oliver, Benecio Del Toro is quietly climbing the ladder into the A-list of actors.[end]

Best Actress

Naomi Watts, 21 Grams
Jennifer Connelly, House of Sand and Fog
Evan Rachel Wood, Thirteen
Jamie Lee Curtis, Freaky Friday
Charlize Theron, Monster

And the winner is...(highlight blank area to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]Charlize Theron, Monster - This was a very competitive category this year, but nevertheless, Theron takes the prize in a landslide, in the face of brilliant performances both comic (Jamie Lee Curtis; Diane Keaton who just missed the cut) and dramatic (Connelly, Wood, and Watts). Her performance is nothing short of genius. All hail Queen Charlize![end]

Best Actor

Paul Giamatti, American Splendor
Ben Kingsley, House of Sand and Fog
Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
Sean Penn, 21 Grams

And the winner is...(highlight blank area for winner and explanation)
[start]Ben Kingsley, House of Sand and Fog - Another tough category, but this race was much closer than the Best Actress race. This was a close call between Kingsley, Bill Murray, and Paul Giamatti, but in the end I had to go with Kingsley, because he radiates such power in this movie by making his character exhibit surprisingly subtle emotion.[end]

Best Director

Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation
Anthony Minghella, Cold Mountain
Fernando Meirelles, City of God
Vadim Perelman, House of Sand and Fog
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 21 Grams

And the winner is...(highlight blank area to uncover winner and explanation)
[start]Fernando Meirelles, City of God - Each of other nominees in this category interestingly enough represent seperate types of direction and vision. For example, Minghella and his big-budget epic; Coppola and her vision of 'lost' characters; etc. But what separates City of God from the rest is that it rolls all these categories into one, fantastic film.[end]

Top 10 Movies of 2003
1. American Splendor
2. 21 Grams
3. City of God
4. Lost in Translation
5. House of Sand and Fog
6. Cold Mountain
7. Thirteen
8. Dirty Pretty Things
9. The Last Samurai
10. A Mighty Wind

Top 5 Worst Movies of 2003
1. House of 1,000 Corpses
2. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
4. 2 Fast 2 Furious
5. Down With Love

This concludes the 2003 Oliver Awards. From everyone here at Your Movie Connection, good night, and we will see you here again next year!