The 2008 Front Row Award Winners
The winners of the 3rd Annual Front Row Awards have been announced.And they are:
PICTURE - Silent Light
DIRECTOR - Carlos Reygadas, Silent Light
ACTOR - Sean Penn, Milk
ACTRESS - Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
SUPP. ACTOR - Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
SUPP. ACTRESS - Viola Davis, Doubt
YOUNG PERFORMER - Brandon Walters, Australia
ENSEMBLE CAST - Milk
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - Justin Haythe, Revolutionary Road
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York
ANIMATED FEATURE - WALL-E
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Romania)
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - Waltz with Bashir
BEST DEBUT FEATURE - Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York
ORIGINAL SCORE (DRAMATIC) - Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
ORIGINAL SCORE (COMEDY OR MUSICAL) - A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
ORIGINAL SONG - "Jai Ho," Slumdog Millionaire
MUSIC DIRECTION - Slumdog Millionaire
ART DIRECTION - The Fall
CINEMATOGRAPHY - Silent Light
COSTUME DESIGN - The Fall
FILM EDITING - Slumdog Millionaire
MAKEUP - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
SOUND EDITING - WALL-E
SOUND MIXING - WALL-E
VISUAL EFFECTS - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
LUIS BUNUEL AWARD (Previously Announced) - Synecdoche, New York
Yes I know I gave Best Picture to Silent Light, yet it lost to 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days for Best Foreign Language Film. As I have said before those films are so close for me that I decided to split the awards up and spread the wealth. Also, the fact that I have yet to give Romania the Best Foreign Language Film Award, after nominating three times in three years, seems like a travesty.
Slumdog Millionaire took home the most awards, with four, including three music awards.
Silent Light will join previous Front Row Award Best Picture winners, There Will Be Blood, and Children of Men.
Comments
A good enough lineup I guess, but my problem is that both 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days and Silent Light are 2007 films. In my opinion, the fact that they were released in U.S. in 2008 should not change that fact. But, like everyone else, you are entitled to having your own criteria for your own awards.
Overall, I believe I sympathize with all the nominations and winners except almost every nomination Gran Torino got. Honestly, it was such a complete catastrophe to me that I'm having hard time understanding the attention and praise it's getting from a lot of respected critics.
On a final note: Don't you think Michael Shannon and Maryl Streep overplayed their characters this year?
I love the little website you have made for these awards by the way. Good job.
But I consider a film's year by its US release date. It gets fuzzy sometimes, but it saves confusion for my readers.
And as for overplaying, no I don't think they did. I thought Streep brought remarkable shading to her role, and Shannon's was a role that needed to be a bit over the top to work.