MOVIE GEEKS AWARDS: THE BIGGEST SNUBS AND SURPRISES OF 2020
In the world of big names such as the Oscars and the Golden Globes, Movie Geeks Awards (MGA) hold a special pertinence, and that's because of their reliability in rewarding the films that propped the spirit of cinema that very year. The awards fascinate in more ways than one, majorly because of the lack of involvement of big names and the online, live and free give-away of the Awards, on their Facebook Group portal in the form of notification. Given the ever-changing world of social media, this is still a remarkable medium to give-away the much-awaited awards season hype. The awards this year were conducted by Kashif Bhatti, the founding member and the Rahul Gandhi of the admin panel, i.e., Sahin Mondal.
The enthusiasm throughout the awards was extraordinary, the comment section crossing more than one-thousand comments depending upon the changing moods of the audience and their reactions towards the awards being conferred. I, through my reportorial point of view, try to enlist the major surprises and snubs of the MGA Awards.
SURPRISES
YOUN YUH JUNG FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
In Lee Isaac Chung's acclaimed drama Minari, the grandma had been played radiantly by the veteran actress Youn Yuh-Jung. She matched the spirited nature of her character with the understated homeliness of a woman who is making sense of her new surroundings by blending her time-worn experiences into the mix while brimming under the new joy of being a grandma to two grandchildren. Her win came over as a balmy surprise, and quite an agreeable one.
THE ASSISTANT'S BEST EDITING WIN
Blair McClendon's editing skills in Kitty Green's tormenting office abuse drama The Assistant stood out as a comprehensive masterclass in how to devise minute tension despite the bottoms of the quietude and gloom. With the hype around the editing of Black Bear and Minari, it came as a major surprise that something defter hit home and got its well-deserved recognition. The other reason why it deserved its win was that it matched its constant experimentation with its refreshing do-away from sensationalism associated with films depicting office sexism. The editing crafted a hearty equilibrium between the mundane and the unendurable.
LETITIA WRIGHT AS RUNNER UP FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Steve McQueen's Mangrove was a powerful examination of the West London community protests, an exciting and mainstream procedural drama in the best sense of the word. While everyone in the brilliant supporting cast was uniformly formidable in their way, it was Letitia Wright who stole the show as Altheia Jones LeConte. The caustic effectiveness of her dialogue hit straight to the heart and punched a hard chord. A powerful performance by all means and an underrated one at that, its big "runner-up" win came off as an exhilarating surprise.
TSAI MIN-LIANG'S BEST DIRECTOR FOLLOW UP
Nobody anticipated the second position being presented to the Taiwanese filmmaker Ling Miang-Tsai for his latest feature film Days, following two ordinary men down the lane. They meet, and then part, their days flowing on as before. It came off as an important surprise because there are remarkably few awards with a true inclination for meditative fluidity in cinema. The noble enterprise of Liang struck a second with the audiences and the likeness of isolation and familiarity spellbound people. Certainly, this was more than one could ask for really.
PAUL RACI AS THE BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Supporting character is a boundary that is created by the writer, and to an extent, the director. However, the brilliance of Paul Raci showed up in how he made the character of Joe his own. Initially, he feels like a cold and distant diversion who is only present to fulfil the needs of the screenplay and sound mixing. But gradually, the impassioned flair of Raci's acting does to Joe what Riz does to Ruben, if not to that extent. A persuasive, complex performance and an extremely well-deserved win. But an equally surprising one, given he was competing with names like Christopher Abbott and Sacha Baron Cohen.
CAREY MULLIGAN THE PROMISING YOUNG FIRST RUNNER-UP
After repeated snubs, the beautiful performance of Carey Mulligan as the avenging goddess Cassandra in Promising Young Woman seemed to wear thin, which was apparently unfair since she carried an already amazing piece of film, entirely on her shoulders. Thus, the second place for Carey Mulligan in the Best Actress category was both a refreshing surprise and a pleasant sigh of relief.
THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE BEST PICTURE CATEGORY
Arguably the most astonishing surprise of the Movie Geeks Awards. And one which totally paid off. The Best Picture award for Parasite in 2019 was still understandable, given the marvellous hype and its mainstream value in Korean cinema. But the foreign film achievement truly took a flight this year as Catarina Vasconcelos's incredibly moving and surreally personal drama with a documentary hybrid spin, The Metamorphosis of Birds won the Best Picture. It was an incredible surprise primarily because it put the viewer through the familiar, and yet, the mechanism was indisputably magical and unusual. It might not be the Best Film of the year but it merited this award.
SNUBS
VIOLA DAVIES CANCELLED OUT
It was disheartening to see that the sizzling Ma Rainey of the year, Viola Davies that is, was denied even a fleeting nomination in the Best Actress category. It was a bummer because her co-star Chadwick Boseman did pass the fifth score despite having a more subordinate performance than her in the film. Her electrifying persona deserved a lot better than it got.
SMALL AXE SNUB
Small Axe did have a decent number of wins: Best Supporting Actress runners up, original screenplay runners up, director runners up, and more. But the need for it to get more love was desperately felt. The snub of John Boyega from the Best Actor category was felt, for the actor delivered such a fine performance. One of the three major films: Lovers Rock, Mangrove and Red, White and Blue-should have nominated for the Big Picture.
CUTTING OUT ON PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
THE DISCIPLE DOES HAVE HIS SITAR- BUT HE IS EMPTY HANDED
My personal disappointment. But not mine alone. The Disciple being snubbed out was mentioned by members in hushed, little comments but that was quite resonant. Movie Geeks is a sprightly group- a chanting of world cinema with a desi touch, with a majority of Indian members. Having said that, the snub of an extraordinary screenplay written by Chaitanya Tamhane and his exquisite directorial craft warranted some love. Sadly, it didn't get any.
GU XIAOGANG- Bùshì nǐ, zhè cì bùshì
Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains was a lovely film, a masterpiece on the languid artistic nature of all of our lives, represented through a family of many members living by the Fuyang river and across the Fuchun mountains. A supposed beginning to a trilogy, this was a beautiful directorial debut by a first-timer who displayed the extraordinary flair of an auteur. Xiaogang deserved to be there among the most elegant in the business, although the win of Chloe Zhao did send the blithe waves among the fans.
ALL DRESSED BUT NOWHERE TO GO
Autumn De Wilde's Ema adaptation wasn't quite the stayer everyone wanted it to be, but the production design and costumes were excellent because with each candy-coloured rendition they fairly managed to express the flavour of the various situations in the protagonist's life. Josephine Decker's period costumes in Shirley were absolutely mesmeric. First Cow got the period and designed its sets and dresses with realistic sensibility and seducing sweetness. One Night in Miami particularly had stately suits. None of them got the approval of the audience for either Best Costumes or Best Production Design.
UNLOVE FOR SHIRLEY
Josephine Decker's incredible film Shirley had compelling directorial sensibilities compiled with one of the best-adapted screenplays of the year. Elisabeth Moss delivered a rock-solid and incredible performance as one of the early English horror writers, so did Odessa Young and Michal Stuhlbarg in their supporting acts, respectively amazing. Although Saint Maud, another of the remarkable horror (or in this case, horror-related) offerings were snubbed out too despite the beautiful execution of Rose Glass and the splendid leading turn of Morfydd Clarke, the mod-min panel wasn't on pleasant terms with that film. Seems like the voters weren't too.
WHERE ARE YOU, JULIA?
Julia Garner had delivered a hard-to-top performance as Jane in the exquisitely hard-hitting and harrowing Kitty Green drama "The Assistant". Her aching eyes conveyed the expression of mundanity and uneasiness with gravitas. The actress, unfortunately, was completely overlooked for the Best Actress category, and that came as a shock to almost everyone, especially the chunk that was rooting for her to win. This rounded as the biggest snub of the year's Movie Geeks Awards.
OTHER SNUBS:
The snubs of Kajillionaire, The Nest, Straight Up, One Night in Miami and Da 5 Bloods was mostly unexpected.
MOMENT OF THE SEASON:
Two moments would be hard to brush off: the colossal boo of the Julia Garner snub and the majestic cheer when The Metamorphosis of Birds won the Best Picture, both of them almost came alive from the screens, as did the Awards for the most part.
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