If I Gave the Oscars: 2013 Edition

The premise is simple: these are how I would give out awards to the movies of 2013, if that was a power that I had.  I'm not going to go through all the exact same categories as the Academy Awards, because some of them are just tiresome and others require inside knowledge that I do not possess.  This post is obviously meant to be complementary to my Best of 2013 post, where I listed all my favorites, so I have left out Best Picture nominees here; they would be the same as the top 10 from that post, so no need to list them twice.  

Each category is listed in order of preference, with the first director/actor/etc. being my choice for the winner.  Things should be fairly self-explanatory from there.

Best Director

1. Hayao Miyazaki (The Wind Rises)

2. Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)

3. Abbas Kiarostami (Like Someone in Love)

4. Terrence Malick (To the Wonder)

5. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

HM: Richard Linklater (Before Midnight), Shane Carruth (Upstream Color)


Best Screenplay (Adapted or Original, doesn't matter)

1. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

2. Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street)

3. Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy (Before Midnight)

4. Shane Carruth (Upstream Color)

5. Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Actor

1. Leonardo DiCarprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)

2. Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis)

3. Simon Pegg (The World's End)

4. Chiwetel Ejiofer (12 Years a Slave)

5. Joaquin Phoenix (Her)

Best Actress

1. Olga Kurylenko (To the Wonder)

2. Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha)

3. Julie Delpy (Before Midnight)

4. Brie Larsen (Short Term 12)

5. Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color)

Best Supporting Actor

1. Matthew McConaughey (The Wolf of Wall Street)

2. Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)

3. Jiang Wu (A Touch of Sin)

4. Tadashi Okuno (Like Someone in Love)

5. Nick Frost (The World's End)

HM: Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)



Best Supporting Actress

1. Zhang Ziyi (The Grandmaster)

2. Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street)

3. Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

4. Zhao Tao (A Touch of Sin)

5. Shailene Woodley (The Spectacular Now)

Best Cinematography

1. Emmanuel Lubezki (To the Wonder)

2. Philippe Le Sourd (The Grandmaster)

3. Hoyte van Hoytema (Her)

4. Nelson Yu Lik Wai (A Touch of Sin)

5. Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity)

HM: Sean Bobbitt (12 Years a Slave)


Best Editing

1. Keith Fraase (To the Wonder)

2. Shane Carruth, David Lowery (Upstream Color)

3. Bahman Kiarostami (Like Someone in Love)

4. Eric Zumbrunnen, Jeff Buchanan (Her)

5. Shigeru Nishiyama (Wolf Children)

HM: Takeshi Seyama (The Wind Rises), Paul Machliss (The World's End), Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)


Best Musical Score

1.  Joe Hisaishi (The Wind Rises)

2.  Arcade Fire (Her)

3.  Steven Price (Gravity)

4. Hanan Townshend (To the Wonder)

5.  Shane Carruth (Upstream Color)

HM: T. Bone Burnett (Inside Llewyn Davis) for an expert collection of beautiful folk songs


Best Scene

1. The Opening Dream (The Wind Rises)

2. Quaaludes (The Wolf of Wall Street) 

3. From 1st Grade to 4th Grade (Wolf Children)

4. "My head is made of the same substance as the sun" (Upstream Color)

5. Final Homily (To the Wonder)

6. Earthquake (The Wind Rises)
7. Please Mr. Kennedy (Inside Llewyn Davis)
8. Sky-Diving Rescue (Iron Man 3)
9. First Impact (Gravity)
10. Roll Jordan Roll (12 Years a Slave)


(actually published Feb 28, 2016)

Best of 2013

1. The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki)

1. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)

2. Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen Bros.)

3. Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)

4. Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami)

5. To the Wonder (Terrence Malick)

6. A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke)

7. Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)

8. Upstream Color (Shane Carruth)

9. The Grandmaster (Chinese Cut) (Wong Kar-Wai)

10. Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki (Mamoru Hosoda)

11. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)

12. Short Term 12 (Destin Daniel Cretton)

Honorable Mentions:  The World's End (Edgar Wright), Mud (Jeff Nichols), Ernest & Celestine (Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner), Iron Man 3 (Shane Black), Pacific Rim (Guillermo Del Toro), Monsters University (Dan Scanlon)


Most Overrated:  American Hustle (David O. Russell)

Most Underrated/Underseen:  The Lone Ranger (Gore Verbinski)

Favorite Guilty Pleasure:  The Wolverine (James Mangold), I guess?

Worst Movie I Saw This Year:  Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine)


(actually posted Feb 2015)