The Hawaii Film Critics Society announced their picks for the best of 2020 yesterday and they did not pick Nomadland. Instead, they named The Trial of the Chicago 7 as the best picture of the year and they named Spike Lee as a best director for Da 5 Bloods. (It’s interesting that, after years of struggling to get awards recognition, Lee is feeling getting recognized for films that are nowhere close to being as effective or as revolutionary as his best work.) Nomadland, however, did not go home empty-handed. Frances McDormand won Best Actress and Chloe Zhao did pick up an award for her screenplay. (Zhao won adapted screenplay. Sorkin won original screenplay. I dread that the same thing is going to happen on Oscar night and we’re going to have to sit through an Aaron Sorkin filibuster about protest, politics, and why women need to learn more about sports.)
(“Let me fix you,” Aaron Sorkin says as he pulls out a DVD boxset of Sports Night.)
The best thing about the Hawaii Film Critics Society is that they also gave out awards for Best Comic Book movie so congratulations, Bloodshot! (To be honest, Bloodshot probably deserved the award because it’s not like there’s a lot of competition this year and, seriously, have you tried to sit through Birds of Prey more than once?) Possessor won the award for Best Overlooked Film of the year. (I agree, by the way.) And, of course, Wonder Woman 1984 won worst film of the year, despite all of those early reviews that declared it to be “the film that we need right now.” Then again, with the way things are going, maybe we deserve a bad movie? Who knows?
All I do know is that I wish I lived in Hawaii and now learning that they have their own Film Critics Society, I’m probably even more likely to look into moving. Seriously, Hawaii is beautiful and the film critics are apparently quirky.
Here are the winners!
BEST PICTURE
The Trial of the Chicago 7
BEST DIRECTOR
Spike Lee – Da 5 Bloods
BEST ACTOR
Delroy Lindo – Da 5 Bloods
BEST ACTRESS
Frances McDormand – Nomadland
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Paul Raci – Sound of Metal
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Olivia Cooke – Sound of Metal
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Aaron Sorkin – The Trial of the Chicago 7
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Chloe Zhao – Nomadland
BEST ART DIRECTION
Chris Craine and Dan Webster – Mank
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Ann Roth – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Hoyte Van Hoytema – Tenet
BEST EDITING
Alan Baumgarten – The Trial of the Chicago 7
BEST ANIMATED FILM
Lupin III: The First
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Beastie Boys Story
BEST MAKE-UP
Mank
BEST SOUND
Sound of Metal
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Mank
BEST SONG
“Speak Now” – One Night in Miami…
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Tenet
BEST STUNT WORK
Tenet
BEST NEW FILMMAKER
Regina King – One Night in Miami…
BEST FIRST FILM
Florian Zeller – The Father
BEST OVERLOOKED FILM
Possessor – Brandon Cronenberg
BEST VOCAL/MOTION CAPTURE PERFORMANCE
Jamie Foxx – Soul
BEST HORROR FILM
Relic – Natalie Erika James
BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE
Bloodshot – Dave Wilson
BEST SCI-FI FILM
Tenet – Christopher Nolan
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Life Ahead – Edoardo Ponti (Italy)
BEST HAWAIIAN FILM
Waikiki – Christopher Kahunahana (Oahu)
WORST FILM OF 2020
Wonder Woman 1984
Through the Shattered Lens 