2002, 8th Annual Awards

Best Movie - It's a Tie!

In the Mood for Love – Next-door neighbors in 1962 Hong Kong discover that their spouses are having an affair in this intense story of sublimated desire. Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung (both nominated in the acting categories) superbly convey erotic yearning restrained by propriety. Close shots in confined spaces, the deep reds used by the lenser, Cheung's gorgeous dresses, and a hot and cool soundtrack help to set the Mood.--sb

Mulholland Dr. – You have to love David Lynch. Mulholland Dr. was developed for and subsequently rejected by ABC as a TV Series because it was too dark, too weird. So Lynch got funding to finish the project, re-cut the film and turned it into one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2001. What results is a perfectly structured story of Hollywood dreams shattered. Or not. Depends how you read the film. And therein lies its beauty. Lynch does not look down on his audience, rather, he allows the films meaning to be fluid. Mulholland Dr. is one of those rare films where the first viewing serves as a launching point. Watch it again and again; each time you'll find new pieces that alter your perception of what is really happening. And while you are dissecting the film, feel free to revel in the beautiful cinematography, detailed sound, sharp editing and incredible performances. It's all there, after all, for your enjoyment.--sd

Public Winner: Amélie

also nominated: Amores Perros, The Circle (Dayereh), In the Bedroom, Memento, Yi Yi 

Best Director

Best Actress

Best Actor

Best Supporting Actress - It's a Tie!

Best Supporting Actor

Best Original Screenplay

Mulholland Drive, screenplay by David Lynch - Lynch's inscrutable, sexy story was originally set to be a mini-series, rejected by the network for being too risque. You can see almost to the moment at which point he stopped worrying about profanity and nudity, too, but this brilliantly dense and hypnotic film is far too good for TV. The Byzantine story, of alternate realities and unlived lives examined perhaps too closely in the throes of suicidal ideation, not to mention surreal Hollywood parties and shamanic street people, offers its actors (particularly Naomi Watts) opportunities to shine in ways one does not usually associate with Lynch's controlled and often bloodless (figuratively-speaking) worlds. Long, pensive scenes like the one in the opera house (a triumphant melding of unique sound design, melodramatic acting and exquisite pacing) linger in the mind's eye and heart long afterwards. --pa

Public Winner: Mulholland Drive, screenplay by David Lynch

also nominated: Amores Perros, screenplay by Guillermo Arriaga, In the Mood for Love, screenplay by Wong Kar-Wai, Our Song, screenplay by Jim McKay, Waking Life, screenplay by Richard Linklater, Yi Yi, screenplay by Edward Yang

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Cinematography

Christopher Doyle and Mark Li Ping-bin for the film In the Mood for Love - Australian cinematographer Chris Doyle has been working with Hong Kong art film director Wong Kar-wai from the beginning, and In the Mood for Love delivers one of the most visually accomplished achievements of their collaboration. Working with fellow DP Mark Lee Ping-bin, Doyle and Wong have, at least temporarily, given up the dependence on widely varying film stock textures and intense color saturation for a more unified tone, which gives its elegiac reverie about a love story in the 1960s that never quite happened a sort of metaphorical sepia tint. Doyle's and Ping-bin's camera is particularly adept at capturing the details of the many interiors in which Wong sets his story; together with Wong's astonishing compositions this creates all the space necessary for the silent exposure of the two main characters ultimate inability to connect with each other. --sb

Public Winner: Donald McAlpine for the film Moulin Rouge!

also nominated: Roger Deakins for the film The Man Who Wasn't There, Bruno Delbonnel for the film Amélie, Mark Li Ping-bin for the film The Vertical Ray of the Sun, Eduardo Serra for the film The Widow of St. Pierre
 

Best Cast

Sexy Beast - Ben Kingsley's commanding presence may have attracted the critics' attention, but the cast of this stylishly inventive heist movie is pitch perfect. From Ray Winstone's brilliantly subdued work as Gal to Ian McShane's menacing gaze as Teddy Bass, the ensemble work in Sexy Beast is to be cheered. Even Alvaro Monje's smaller role as the teenage Spanish pool cleaner makes an impression. On the whole, Sexy Beast is a successful movie, but wouldn't be anywhere near as entertaining without the superb work of its cast. --nt

Public Winner: Sexy Beast

also nominated: Our Song, Taste of Others, The, Together, Vertical Ray of the Sun, Yi Yi

Best Documentary

Best Short Film

tHE tOWeR oF BaBBLe by Jeff Wadlow (USA - 21 min.) – "The exact same dialogue is used in a drama, a comedy, and a police-thriller. The words, repeated verbatim, take on different meanings as the plots are intercut. A monkey at a typewriter frames the film, accompanied by a Narrator, who suggests that while language might be finite, expression is infinite."

Jeff graduated Dartmouth with a double major in History and Film. As an actor, you can catch him in various projects, including Pearl Harbor and "Roswell." While enrolled in USC, he was awarded a Special Projects Grant and an Associates' Endowment Scholarship. He was also selected as a finalist nationwide for the Coca-Cola Filmmakers Awards.

tHE tOWeR oF BaBBLe is 2001's 1st place Chlotrudis Award winner AND 1st place Audience Award Winner! Congratulations, Jeff!

Blink by Deborah Vancelette (USA - 9 minutes) – "A harried businesswoman rushes through her day without even taking a moment to blink. She should have."

Blink is the first time effort for Deborah Vancelette. A photographer, writer and actress for several years, filmmaking seemed the next logical progression. Not only did she direct Blink, she did pretty much every job - producer, editor, casting director, director of photography, camera operator, sound design, grip, craft services... not to mention starring in the film.

Blink is 2001's 2nd place Chlotrudis Award winner! Congratulations, Deborah

Sunday by Andrew Bloch (USA - 10 min.) – "It is 1946. A bereaved war-widow receives a note under her door. The contents of the note set in motion an event that will alter her life."

Andrew Bloch began his acting career with successes in both New York and Hollywood. On Broadway, he played Happy Loman to Dustin Hoffman's Willy in Death of a Salesman. Among his many film roles, he is probably best-known as Steven Seagal's nemesis, Captain Hulland in Hard to Kill. For the last five years he has also been Dialogue Coach for "The Drew Carey Show." He recently wrote and directed Sunday, his first short film, starring Linda Purl.

Sunday is 2001's 2nd place Audience Award winner! Congratulations, Andrew!

also nominated: The Hero (Hrdina) - Petr Zahrádka, A Man of Substance - Jana Sinyor, Natasha - Signe Baumane and Josh Rechnitz, The Quarry - Greg Chwerchak, Roadside Assistance - Jennifer Derwingson, Shoofly - Sajit Warrier, The Terms - Johnny O'Reilly, Tous les Deux (Both of Them) - Marc Beurteaux, Waldemar - Michael Blank

Special Awards

Chloe Award

"Khanjian has worked twice with French director Olivier Assayas; Irma Vep and Late August, Early September, and recently appeared in Michael Haneke's acclaimed Code Unknown. She was also featured in a small but memorable role in Don McKellar's Last Night.

"Her most recent role is in Catherine Breillat's controversial, acclaimed film Fat Girl. Playing the ineffectual mother of two teenaged girls, Arsinée captures the ennui and barely hidden disinterest this matriarch feels, only trying to keep her husband happy. During an horrifically tense highway drive home, Khanjian masterfully keeps the mother's rising tensions and barely-restrained emotions on a tight leash to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

In addition to her film work, Khanjian has done extensive television and stage work, most recently at the Theatre de Bobigny in Paris in a new production of Goethe's "Stella." Her next film role will be in Atom Egoyan's epic film, Ararat." --mrc

On Exotica: "Khanjian is a sensual beauty whose poise offers the viewer balance in contrast to the angst and excess of a complex plot." --asd

Gertrudis Award

2001's Gertrudis Award is awarded to Scarlett Johnasson. After an outstanding year during which Scarlett starred in not one, or two, but three independent films, it seemed natural to present her with our breakout award. Scarlett made her movie debut in Rob Reiner's ambitious but poorly received film North. She took small part with big stars like Sean Connery in Just Cause and Sarah Jessica Parker in If Lucy Fell, before surprising us all by taking a starring role in a little-seen but well-liked film, Manny & Lo. Lisa Kreuger's directorial debut finds Scarlett playing Amanda (Manny) as the younger of two sisters who run away from their respective adoptive parents. After kidnapping a baby store clerk played by the marvelous Mary Kay Place, a surprising and warm relationship develops between the older woman and young girls. Johnasson is terrific as the young girl following her older sister's lead as an independent rebel, yet longing for a stable home and a parent's love.

Johansson followed up this terrific star turn with parts in a notable studio film, Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer, so it was a pleasant surprise that found her starring in three independent films in 2001. Her highest profile of the three parts was as the high school outcast Rebecca in Ghost World (for which she is nominated as Best Supporting Actress.) Playing opposite Thora Birch's Enid, Johansson faces the difficult task of showing the audience that she is indeed an outcast, but then slowly bringing her to a place where she matures into a realization that it's time to leave the outcast barbs of high school behind and take her place in society as a young woman. Scarlett gives an warm and utterly convincing performance in what could have been a one-dimensional part.

In American Rhapsody, Scarlett had the unevniable task of playing the daughter of Hungarian parents who fled their country during the communist regime. Coming of age in 1950's and 1960's California, Scarlett's Suzanne embodies the rebellious teen, as well as a young woman struggling to understand her mother and her heritage. Despite a flawed film, she does so with grace and a naturalness that highlights her talent.

Finally, in the much lauded The Man Who Wasn't There, Scarlett plays Birdy Abundas, a young woman with a talent for the piano, whom Billy Bob Thornton's Hank latches onto as a chance to do some good in the world after his own personal life falls apart in tatters. Scarlett once again plays the 1950's teenager who is quite, demure, respectful, yet this time quite normal. She quietly holds her own with the Chlotrudis nominated Thornton and brings a complex dimension to a small role. --mrc


"I'm continually impressed by Scarlett Johansson. She first caught my attention in Manny & Lo, and I've been watching out for her ever since. I think she makes interesting choices in roles, not falling into the trap of doing all commercial films, unlike the majority of actresses her age. In her three 2001 films, she offered a real range of her talents. I felt that she was one of the only sucessful parts of American Rhapsody, going beyond the oft-played angsty teen with restrictive parents, she was an excellent foil to Thora Birch's manic behavior in Ghost World, and although her subplot in The Man Who Wasn't There never quite fully developed, I thought she offered a fine, subtle performance in what was ultimately a character-driven film filled with great performances. I look forward to seeing her career develop over the coming years as she moves into "adult" roles." -- hn

" In Ghost World, Scarlett deftly carries the character of Rebecca from maudlin high school outcast toward maturing, mainstream citizen in a gentle transition as the sidekick and voice of common sense to contrast Thora Birch's Enid." -- asd

Taskforce Award

"Hal's films took an international flavor with the introduction of French superstar Isabelle Huppert as the lead in Amateur, yet Hal's trademarks were still there. Amateur found Hal flirting with the thriller genre, yet still filled with the ironic humor yet with more evident moments of sadness and powerful emotion present. The experimental Flirt looked at the same story in three different countries/cultures with different combinations of people involved, and his 60-minute digital feature, The Book of Life, an early entry into the us of digital video. Between these two inventive films came one of Hal's most ambitious films to date, Henry Fool. This dark look at genius married outright humor with moments of difficult tragedy.

"Hal's latest film features an all-star cast, gorgeous Icelandic vistas, and borrows from the monster-movie genre to create a magnificent tale of society, their fears and beliefs and the ever-invasive media. No Such Thing is a tour de force that's quintessential Hal. Utilizing strong performances by Sarah Polley, Helen Mirren, Julie Christy and Robert John Burke as 'The Monster," No Such Thing blends drama, humor, romance and dark horror to create a modern fantasy for the hip and devoted." --mrc

On The Unbelievable Truth: "Hartley's sense of humor and irony tickle the viewers fancy through tricks of dialog and characters tip toeing in counterpoint to rival Shakespeare's summer night escapades." --asd

On No Such Thing: "From idiosyncratic filmmaker/composer Hal Hartley comes something wholly unexpected: An Icelandic monster movie. But not quite a horror film. Dark, absurd, romantic, No Such Thing is quintessential Hartley (inscrutable dialogue, bold color, emotional dysfunction) but also bears the stamp of filmmaker/ co-producer Fridrik Thór Fridriksson (Children of Nature) and production designer Árni Páll Jóhannsson, whose vision of Iceland is a mossy, alien moonscape. There will be inevitable comparisons to Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast, but Hartley eschews melodrama for a knowing clarity, and his dreamy, edgy musical score is a revelation." --lc