Film Nominations 2014

#FilmNominations2014 : Foreign Language

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Almost 40% of our soon to be released list of Top 50 best films of 2014 comes from a non English speaking country, a symptom perhaps of the healthy moment and creative wealth filmmaking all over the world is enjoying.

Always a heavily competitive category, among those films that were left at the gate of our 7 nominee selection were Korean Bong Joon-Ho’s post-apocalyptic political sci-fi ‘Snopiercer’; Mexicans Diego Quemada-Díez and his moving ‘The Golden Cage’ and Amat Escalante’s violent corruption denounce ‘Heli’; the latest from such acclaimed directors as Iranian Asghar Farhadi, ‘The Past’ or Chinese Jia Zhangke, “A Touch Of Sin”, the Palestinian drama ‘Omar’ or the charming Swedish teen girls punk rebellion of ‘We Are The Best’.

The ones that did make it to our nominations shortlist are

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#FilmNominations2014 : Best British Picture

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20,000 Days on Earth

2014 has been hailed as a terrific year for British Cinema, crowned by the independent, creative success stories of titles such as the tense prison drama ‘Starred Up’; the doppelganger in a dystopian future of ‘The Double’; The gripping Ulster-set thriller ’71’; or the tradition of impeccably executed period dramas carried on with the likes of ‘Belle’ and ‘Testament of Youth’, plus a number of massive crowd-pleasers such as the Oscar hopeful ‘The Imitation Game’ and the all family appeal of Paddington’s winning adaptation. A range as diverse as it was well received.

All of those titles could have been worthy contenders for the heavily disputed Best British film of the year title, and some of them have been nominated for the Rober in other categories, but the fact the following seven prevented them from getting shortlisted is an indicator of the quality of this year’s Brit crop. The actual nominees are

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#FilmNominations2014 : Best Hispanic Picture

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Despite the severe financial crisis affecting film production in Spain, this has been an excellent year for Hispanic movies. All across Latin America young auteurs with fresh voices keep on being discovered for the world, whereas the Spanish theaters themselves saw a record number of tickets sold, thanks to the biggest box office hit the Mediterranean country has ever released, the comedy “Spanish Affair (Ocho Apellidos Vascos)”.

The nominees for best Hispanic picture feature works from all corners of the Latin world such as

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#FilmNominations2014 : Best Soundtrack

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In the soundtrack category several notable works deserve to be mentioned, from Johann Johannsson’s gorgeous score for ‘The Theory of Everything’ to Hans Zimmer’s overpowering ‘Interstellar; ‘Boyhood’ and its excellent use of indie classics as one of the key elements to help underlining the pass of the twelve years it took to make, from Coldplay to Arcade Fire, or the ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ 80’s mixtape, part of its storyline. Also noteworthy are some films that dealt with a music subject, such as the jazz drumming of ‘Whiplash’ and the indie band shenanigans of ‘Frank’.

But the ones that were finally shortlisted are

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#FilmNominations2014 : Best Genre Film

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THE BABADOOK

The next category of our awards is dedicated to reward the best thrillers, sci-fi, adventures, crime films and other genres traditionally ignored by more established accolades.

In 2014 Anton Corbijn gave Philip Seymour-Hoffman his swansong role on a great adaptation of Le Carre’s ‘A Most Wanted Man’; ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ proved another successful installment, both creatively and financially, in the latest reboot of the franchise; Alex De La Iglesia produced ‘Musarañas (Shrew’s Nest)’, an accomplished historical and psychological horror and the promising debut of Madrid helmers Esteban Roel y Juan Fernando Andrés; Dan Stevens left Downtown Abbey all the way to the gates of Hollywood with an excellent turn as a psychopath in ‘The Guest’; The Martial Arts genre got another adrenalin-filled injection with ‘The Raid 2’, hailed as an even better film than the original, and David Michod took Robert Pattinson to a post-Apocalyptic nightmare in ‘The Rover’, all of them worthy of mention, but left without a nomination.

The ones which did get nominated are

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#FilmNominations2014 : Best Comedy

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PRIDE

2014 was a good year for funny movies, covering a wide range that went from indie smashes such as Jenny Slate’s abortion-themed ‘Obvious Child’ or ‘Chef’’s culinary delights, to multiplex successes of the calibre of ‘Bad Neighbours’ and its young family clashing with frat boys arriving next door antics or Channing Tatum & Jonah Hill’s hilarious return as undercover cops in the bromance of the summer, 22 Jump Street.

Romantic comedy merged with musical in ‘Begin Again’, where Mark Ruffalo helped the singing career of Keira Knightley, paired for the occasion with Maroon 5’s heartthrob Adam Levine; and in ‘God Help The Girl’, the Glaswegian band Belle & Sebastian’s long awaited movie, were released back-to-back with Crowd-pleasing world movies such as India’s romance ‘The Lunchbox”, depicting the well-established tradition of lunch delivery men, whose accidental mistake ignites the flame of passion in a bored wife and Laos’ ‘The Rocket’, using heart-warming humor to deal with the thorny subject of landmines left after the war in the Asian country.

Accomplished micro budget UK works such as ‘Gone Too far’, playfully toying with African immigrant communities and Estate-living stereotypes, next to big projects with such all family appeal as ‘Paddington’ and the (unfairly) tepidly received ‘Muppets Most Wanted’ helped maintaining a constant supply of laughter in our cinemas throughout the year.

But above all of them, our shortlist of favourite comedies features

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#FilmNominations2014 : Most Underrrated Picture

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On a year graced with a large number of excellent works is easy to overlook many equally worthy titles. Among the ones that didn’t get the support they deserved we can count John Curran’s beautiful adaptation of Robyn Davidson’s account of her adventures crossing the Australian outback, ‘Tracks’, which boasted a superb performance by Mia Wasikowska; Kelly Reichardt climate activists gone too far drama ‘Night Moves’; Michael H. Roskam’s first Hollywood opus, crime drama ‘The Drop’, adapted from a Denis Lehane novel and featuring the last role for the big screen by the late James Gandolfini, forming an excellent trio with Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace; or the darkly comic Scandinoir ‘In Order Of Disappearance’.

All of them could have been here, but this year’s nominations as most under appreciated film

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#FilmNominations2014 : Blockbuster Of The Year

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Tinseltown didn’t have the most successful summer ever, albeit without many spectacular flops, fewer tickets sold in cinemas and many disappointments in big titles’ numbers shaped 2014 as its least profitable year since 2006. However, the International market and, particularly China with an apparently endless appetite for Hollywood big budget offer, came to the rescue.

Sequels, reboots and rehashes kept reigning on the multiplexes, not even the bad reviews could put people off such vile propositions as the new Transformers or the universally appalled but still quite successful Ninja Turtles reboot. And it seems their kingdom is going to be extended during 2015 with the planned return of virtually everything you can think of that has been a hit in the past. It doesn’t help that the few films made from original ideas didn’t ignite the box office as expected. Among them the surprisingly good Tom Cruise’s Groundhog Day meets Alien Invasion ‘Edge Of Tomorrow”, which didn’t live up to the commercial expectations.

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