Awarding the 2020 Narrative Features, B Peterson Style

925

Tired of all the awards bodies awarding the same films over and over? Well, how about an entirely unconventional awards ceremony, presented in a single article, sourced from a voting pool of one?

This is how I, B Peterson, honored the best of the best narrative features from 2020, in 18 distinct categories. There are five nominees for each category, with exception of the Lead/Supporting Performance categories, which have ten apiece. Every film mentioned deserves a watch (there is a list at the bottom of all the nominated films). I’ll note, in case you get to wondering why they don’t appear here, that I didn’t get to see Nomadland, Minari, or One Night in Miami by year end.

 

Best Makeup and Hair Design

Bacurau

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

Black is King

I’m No Longer Here

Selah and the Spades

Winner – I’m No Longer Here

There was a lot of brilliant makeup and hair work last year, but only one film featured the amazing cut that is central to Fernando Frias’ I’m No Longer Here. The way the story of a young man’s shifting identity and loss of innocence is told through his dress and specifically his community’s singular hairstyle is a beautiful and heartbreaking thing to behold.

 

Best Costume Design

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

The Half of It

Kajillionaire

Lovers Rock

Nobody Knows I’m Here

Winner – Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

This category was perhaps the toughest to narrow down; Emma., I’m No Longer Here, Black is King, and Promising Young Woman didn’t even get nominations for crying out loud! But while the nominations were difficult to select, the winner was always clear. Birds of Prey rules, and a huge reason why is the costuming. The clothes the women [and men] wear in this are sexy but not objectifying, extravagant and yet practical, and oh my word, I wish I could pull off Black Canary’s golden pants, because they are radiant.

 

Best Original Song

That Which Binds Us Through Time: The Chemical, Physical And Biological Nature Of Love; An Exploration Of The Meaning Of Meaning, Part 1 (Bill and Ted Face the Music)

Poverty Porn (The Forty-Year-Old Version)

Unknown Song* (House of Hummingbird)

Nobody Knows I’m Here (Nobody Knows I’m Here)

B-Loved (Sylvie’s Love)

Winner – Poverty Porn (The Forty-Year-Old Version)

Now, normally, I don’t care at all about original songs in films; the category’s inclusion at the Academy Awards has always seemed to be more about having an excuse to put on a show than celebrating actual cinematic value. However, this year had several films featuring songs that were not only great songs, but were actually interrogating characters, institutions, and life itself. And as much as I want to award the prize to the titular song in Nobody Knows I’m Here, “Poverty Porn” is simply too good not to win. I mean, wow. Way to go, Radha Blank. Also, shoutout to her rap about White men with big butts.

*if anyone knows the name of the song Kim Sae-byuk sings in House of Hummingbird, please let me know!

 

Best Original Score

Kajillionaire

Lucky Grandma

Martin Eden

Tenet

Wolfwalkers

Winner – Kajillionaire

If there was any award that was closest to my heart, it would be the Best Original Score award; I got into film scores before I got into films, and to this day they account for 90% of the music I listen to. And I gotta say…2020 wasn’t the best year for film scores. However, there were still some bangers, Tenet in particular, from Ryan Coogler’s regular composer Ludwig Göransson, as well as the winner, Emile Mosseri’s beautiful score for Kajillionaire. No film got me sobbing last year like Miranda July’s oddball drama, and the biggest reason why was the score; one can listen to it on repeat for hours and not get tired. Fun fact: when it came time to say goodbye to 2020 on New Year’s Eve, I did so while listening to the tracks “Fake Falsey People” and “Rile Me Up.” Give ’em a listen sometime.

 

Best Music Direction

Bacurau

I’m No Longer Here

Lovers Rock

Promising Young Woman

Soul

Winner – Lovers Rock

Music direction is the first of several categories listed here that the Academy does not recognize, but should. After all, with a film like Soul, if you were to award Best Original Score to the film’s composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, you would be ignoring all of the incredible diegetic jazz music, which was written for the film by Jon Batiste; there is always so much more to a film’s musical landscape than just the score. And what better example of this is there than Steve McQueen’s party film Lovers Rock. Some might see the music here as amounting to a simple playlist of good reggae and blues songs. However, it is my opinion that the music direction in Lovers Rock is [in addition to making for a stellar playlist] is also a pitch-perfect demonstration of how to use music to enhance, confront, and relish in emotion.

 

Best Visual Effects Work

Color Out of Space

Greyhound

Soul

Tenet

The Wolf House

Winner – The Wolf House

In the Before Times, these nominations would consist of blockbuster after blockbuster. However, in the year 2020, films that emphasized creativity over sheer quantity also got some spotlight (seriously, Color Out of Space‘s creations are bonkers). Now, attempting to describe the visual effects in The Wolf House is a futile effort, so instead I will say this: prepare to have your jaw on the floor for the entire length of the film. You will be amazed, disgusted, horrified, entranced.

 

Best Stunt Work

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

Black is King

Tenet

Winner – Tenet

Listen folks, I really tried to muster five nominations, but I am sorry, for I could not. However, these three films definitely deserve recognition, as the stunts in them are wildly distinct in style and scale. And ultimately, while the film itself may betray its own work thanks to its narrative obtuseness, there is no more astounding stunt work from last year than what you can find in Tenet; they blew up a freaking jumbo jet for crying out loud.

 

Best Production Design

The Assistant

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

Black is King

Emma.

Tesla

Winner – Tesla

Now that we’re getting to the above-the-line-below-the-line awards, it only gets harder to narrow things down. In the end, though, no film had a more unique and introspective look than Tesla, the never-conventional biopic of a never-conventional man. From the matte backdrops to the machines themselves, every image is just slightly off-kilter, and to beautiful effect.

 

Best Sound Work

7500

Greyhound

Selah and the Spades

Sound of Metal

The Wolf House

Winner – The Wolf House

Perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of filmmaking, sound work is absolutely integral to how a film delivers its message. And while it would seem like Sound of Metal, a film about a loss of hearing and what the means, would have this in the bag, I actually have to award The Wolf House the top prize. What makes The Wolf House so hypnotic an experience is just as much an aural thing as it is a visual thing; the sonic landscape sucks you in and does not let you go. Again: terrifying, but immaculate.

 

Best Editing

I’m No Longer Here

Red, White and Blue

Residue

She Dies Tomorrow

The Vast of Night

Winner – Residue

Editing, if you ask me, is the foundation of cinema itself. It is what takes an image from being just an image, and turns it into an idea. By putting images together in context with each other, you can express narrative, argument, and time. So when it comes to awarding Best Editing, I’m looking for not just functional storytelling, I’m looking for entirely new ways of cinematic expression. All of the above films are exceptional pieces of boundary-pushing cinema, be it the stylized simplicity of The Vast of Night, the clinical heights of Red, White and Blue, or the hypnotic darkness of She Dies Tomorrow. I’m No Longer Here would probably take this any other year, but not for 2020, because 2020 saw the release of Residue. Merawi Gerima is doing something in this piece that Godard only wishes his muddled sizzle reels could accomplish; Residue crafts entire theses on U.S. inequity in minute-long sequences. You are never able to let your guard down, nor are you ever let down by the inspired craft embedded in its cuts.

 

Best Cinematography

Emma.

Song Without A Name

The Vast of Night

Vitalina Varela

Wolfwalkers

Winner – Vitalina Varela

You should see all these movies, and see them on as big a screen as possible. That said, I’m going to spend all of my time here talking about Vitalina Varela, because it is the best-shot film of the decade so far and it’s not close. I have never seen a film so entrenched in blackness. I have never seen a film that used light so specifically, and to greater effect. Watch this one with all the lights out, because it is literally about those who perpetually live in the shadows. Not only that, it is about those who live and survive and thrive despite being in the shadows. Every frame until the last is so rich and so deep, my words cannot do it justice. It’s on Criterion Channel. Go watch it. Now.

 

Best Screenplay (Adapted)

First Cow

Greyhound

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Selah and the Spades

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

Winner – Selah and the Spades

Welcome to Above the Line! Adaptation is a work I do not envy; to be able to translate a tale between mediums and maintain a sense of purity or life is an incredible feat. Which is why for me this award goes to Selah and the Spades. Unlike the other nominees, which were adapted from books or plays or previously-existing IP, Tayarisha Poe managed to do something we haven’t seen much of if at all before: she adapted a multi-medium internet “overture”! Originating from her own short stories, short films, playlists and photographs, Selah and the Spades is filled to the brim with energy and love, and it is never less than obvious that Poe knows her world inside and out. And it doesn’t hurt that the story and characters rock as well.

 

Best Screenplay (Original)

Ainu Mosir

The Assistant

Bacurau

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Promising Young Woman

Winner – Promising Young Woman

Best Original Screenplay turned out to be the hardest category to award. I could choose any of these five nominees to be the winner, and I wouldn’t bat an eye, because they’re all stellar. And since my ultimate choice is maybe the most obvious one, I’ll take this time to explain why the other four are amazing. Ainu Mosir is one of the best faith-based films I’ve yet seen, tenderly exploring a child’s relationship to his culture and his values. The Assistant is a triumph of subtle proportions. By sitting you in its mundanity but never letting you be anything less than unnerved, it becomes one of the most affective horror films of the year. Bacurau is nuts, man. I said it when I first saw it, and I’ll say it again here: this is what a Tarantino film would look like if he were a responsible filmmaker. Never Rarely Sometimes Always is like The Assistant, but with even more of the stylization stripped away. You are asked to simply walk in someone’s shoes, and their life is enough to make for real beauty, and real good cinema too.

 

Best Performance (Supporting)

Jurnee Smollett (Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

Hong Chau (Driveways)

Bill Nighy (Emma.)

Oswin Benjamin (The Forty-Year-Old Version)

Kim Sae-byuk (House of Hummingbird)

Charin Alvarez (Saint Frances)

Celeste O’Connor (Selah and the Spades)

Paul Raci (Sound of Metal)

Christine Ko (Tigertail)

Ventura (Vitalina Varela)

Winner – Christine Ko (Tigertail)

First of all, a note: I don’t divide acting categories by gender, and definitely not by binary gender, because screw that. Now that that’s out of the way, look at all of these amazing performances! From newcomers like Oswin Benjamin to veterans like Bill Nighy, from a beautifully broad turn by Jurnee Smollett to a hyperspecific and yet universal offering by Paul Raci, we got everything! And somehow, after months going by and dozens of scenes being stolen, no supporting performance has stayed with me quite like that of Christine Ko’s tender portrayal of an estranged daughter in Tigertail. The film itself is nothing revolutionary (though it had an early lead in the cinematography category), but Ko is so honest and so piercing that I cannot help but give her the award.

 

Best Performance (Lead)

Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods)

Orion Lee (First Cow)

Leah Lewis (The Half of It)

Park Ji-Hoo (House of Hummingbird)

Juan Daniel García Treviño (I’m No Longer Here)

Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca)

Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)

Sidney Flanigan (Never Rarely Sometimes Always)

Cristin Milioti (Palm Springs)

Vitalina Varela (Vitalina Varela)

Winner – Tie: Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) and Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)

Oh my word, there is so much beauty here. So much raw strength, so much refined talent. Every single one of these people deserves all of the attention for their accomplishments. Seriously, please seek their work out. Now, I realize that I cheated here by awarding a tie. However, I think it is entirely justified, and this is why: Delroy Lindo delivered a knockout performance in Da 5 Bloods, and for almost the entire rest of 2020, he deserved this award no question. But then, well, you know what happened. And then Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom came out, and Chadwick Boseman laid bare before us his greatest triumph in the form of a very similar character to that of Delroy Lindo’s, that of a churning, complex, deeply troubled American Black man who is so strong and in so much pain. These two men interrogated masculinity, weakness, identity, trauma, and failure without ever missing a beat. The gloves were off, and nothing was left on the table. They gave us everything. How could I not honor them both?

 

Best Performance (Ensemble)

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

Driveways

The Forty-Year-Old Version

House of Hummingbird

Promising Young Woman

Winner – Driveways

An ensemble performance is just as important as any individual one, and in 2020, we had outstanding ensembles in spades. Any of these five could have been awarded this prize worthily, as well as several other ones who weren’t nominated (Saint Frances, I’m looking at you). But in the end, Driveways brings together four generations of actors, and all of them are practically perfect. From the late, great Brian Dennehy, to the ever-impressive Hong Chau, to the lovely Lucas Jaye, and everyone in between, no part was too small, and no performer out of place. Well done.

 

Best Direction

The Assistant

House of Hummingbird

Selah and the Spades

She Dies Tomorrow

Vitalina Varela

Winner – She Dies Tomorrow

To quote Jo in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, “WOMEN.” All jokes aside, Amy Seimetz crafted a masterful horror/thriller/something-I’ve-never-seen-before with She Dies Tomorrow, and it’s awesome, and I do mean that it inspires some awe. There is such clear authorship here, so much evidence of a vision and a deft hand to manifest it onscreen. I can’t wait to see what she does next, and the same goes for the other nominees.

 

Best Feature

Driveways

The Forty-Year-Old Version

Lovers Rock

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Promising Young Woman

Winner – Lovers Rock

It’s the party we never got in 2020, and what a party Lovers Rock is. One feels while watching it that the entirety of human joy, perhaps the entirety of human experience, has been captured. It is short, it is sweet, it is sumptuous, and it is the Best Narrative Feature of 2020.

 

There y’are!

 

List of Films Nominated

7500 – 1 nom, 0 win – Sound Work
Ainu Mosir – 1 nom, 0 win – Screenplay (Original)
The Assistant – 3 nom, 0 win – Direction, Screenplay (Original), Production Design
Bacurau – 3 nom, 0 win – Screenplay (Original), Music Direction, Makeup and Hair Design
Bill and Ted Face the Music – 1 nom, 0 win – Original Song
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn – 6 nom, 1 win – Performance (Ensemble), Performance (Supporting), Production Design, Stunt Work, Costume Design, Makeup and Hair Design
Black is King – 3 nom, 0 win – Production Design, Stunt Work, Makeup and Hair Design
Color Out of Space – 1 nom, 0 win – Visual Effects Work
Da 5 Bloods – 1 nom, 1 win – Performance (Lead)*
Driveways – 3 nom, 1 win – Feature, Performance (Ensemble), Performance (Supporting)
Emma. – 3 nom, 0 win – Performance (Supporting), Cinematography, Production Design
First Cow – 2 nom, 0 win – Performance (Lead), Screenplay (Adapted)
The Forty-Year-Old Version – 4 nom, 1 win – Feature, Performance (Ensemble), Performance (Supporting), Original Song
Greyhound – 3 nom, 0 win – Screenplay (Adapted), Sound Work, Visual Effects Work
The Half of It – 2 nom, 0 win – Performance (Lead), Costume Design
House of Hummingbird – 5 nom, 0 win – Direction, Performance (Ensemble), Performance (Lead), Performance (Supporting), Original Song
I’m No Longer Here – 4 nom, 1 win – Performance (Lead), Editing, Music Direction, Makeup and Hair Design
Kajillionaire – 2 nom, 1 win – Original Score, Costume Design
Lingua Franca – 1 nom, 0 win – Performance (Lead)
Lovers Rock – 3 nom, 2 win – Feature, Music Direction, Costume Design
Lucky Grandma – 1 nom, 0 win – Original Score
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – 2 nom, 1 win – Performance (Lead)*, Screenplay (Adapted)
Martin Eden – 1 nom, 0 win – Original Score
Never Rarely Sometimes Always – 3 nom, 0 win – Feature, Performance (Lead), Screenplay (Original)
Nobody Knows I’m Here – 2 nom, 0 win – Original Song, Costume Design
Palm Springs – 1 nom, 0 win, Performance (Lead)
Promising Young Woman – 4 nom, 1 win – Feature, Performance (Ensemble), Screenplay (Original), Music Direction
Red, White and Blue –  1 nom, 0 win – Editing
Residue – 1 nom, 1 win – Editing
Saint Frances – 1 nom, 0 win – Performance (Supporting)
Selah and the Spades – 5 nom, 1 win – Direction, Performance (Supporting), Screenplay (Adapted), Sound Work, Makeup and Hair Design
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon – 1 nom, 0 win – Screenplay (Adapted)
She Dies Tomorrow – 2 nom, 1 win – Direction, Editing, Music Direction
Song Without A Name – 1 nom, 0 win – Cinematography
Soul – 2 nom, 0 win – Visual Effects Work, Music Direction
Sound of Metal – 2 nom, 0 win – Performance (Supporting), Sound Work
Tenet – 3 nom, 1 win – Stunt Work, Visual Effects Work, Original Score
Tesla – 1 nom, 1 win – Production Design
Tigertail – 1 nom, 1 win – Performance (Supporting)
The Vast of Night – 2 nom, 0 win – Cinematography, Editing
Vitalina Varela – 4 nom, 1 win- Direction, Performance (Lead), Performance (Supporting), Cinematography
The Wolf House – 2 nom, 2 win – Sound Work, Visual Effects Work
Wolfwalkers – 2 nom, 0 win – Cinematography, Original Score

*Tie

 

---

Follow MovieBabble and B Peterson on Twitter @MovieBabble_ and @bluegreycloset

Thank you for reading! Have you seen any of these films? Comment down below!

If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to MovieBabble via email to stay up to date on the latest consumer art.

Join MovieBabble on Patreon so that new consumer art will always be possible.