2009 NOFF Award Nominations
Welcome! It’s that time of year again and today I am announcing the nominations for the 3rd Annual NOFF Awards. The categories remain exactly as they were last year, but following Oscar’s lead the BEST PICTURE category now has 10 nominees and both the BEST ANIMATED FILM and BEST ORIGINAL SONG categories now have 5 nominees (last year they had only 3). Once again NOFF offers a category that Oscar neglects, BEST SCENE, which has a whopping 20 nominees. Please keep in mind that, unlike the Oscars, the NOFF nominations could change any time between now and when the winners are revealed on Sunday, March 14 (a week after the Academy Awards ceremony so as not to steal Oscar’s thunder). While major changes are highly unlikely it is quite possible that one or two nominees could be bumped in favor of a worthier candidate in the next 2 weeks.
First things first: A word about eligibility. NOFF’s Rules and Regulations Committee, which is comprised of myself, has instituted a rule change. Unlike last year, when only films with an official commercial release date during the awards year were eligible for consideration, NOFF has decided to extend eligibility to films from previous years that did not receive a commercial release in the U.S. until the awards year. Were this rule not enacted several award-worthy films would have to be excluded from consideration, including The Hurt Locker, which according to the IMDB was first released commercially in 2008 in Italy. The rules governing film festival showings have not changed: films shown only at festivals in 2009 are not eligible, whereas films shown at festivals in 2008 (or before) but not released commercially until 2009 are eligible.
In accordance with the above rules I have seen the following 142 eligible films:
Adam
Adoration
Adventureland
Amreeka
Antichrist
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Avatar
Away We Go
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans, The
Battle for Terra
Big Fan
Black Dynamite
Blind Side, The
Box, The
Bright Star
Broken Embraces
Bronson
Brothers
Brothers Bloom, The
Brüno
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
Capitalism: A Love Story
Chéri
Christmas Carol, A
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Coco Before Chanel
Cold Souls
Coraline
Cove, The
Crazy Heart
District 9
Drag Me to Hell
Duplicity
Education, An
Every Little Step
Extract
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fighting
(500) Days of Summer
Food, Inc.
Fragments
Funny People
Gigantic
Girlfriend Experience, The
Good, the Bad, the Weird, The
Goodbye Solo
Great Buck Howard, The
Hangover, The
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Haunting in Connecticut, The
Headless Woman, The
Home
House of the Devil, The
Humpday
Hurt Locker, The
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Il Divo
I Love You, Man
I Sell the Dead
Informant!, The
Informers, The
Inglourious Basterds
International, The
In the Electric Mist
In the Loop
Invention of Lying, The
Invictus
Is Anybody There?
It Might Get Loud
It’s Complicated
Jerichow
Julia
Julie & Julia
Knowing
Last Station, The
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Life is Hot in Cracktown
Limits of Control, The
Lorna’s Silence
Lovely Bones, The
Lymelife
Maid, The
Mary and Max
Me and Orson Welles
Men Who Stare at Goats, The
Merry Gentleman, The
Messenger, The
Monsters vs Aliens
Moon
9
Nine
Observe and Report
Of Time and the City
Orphan
Paper Heart
Paranormal Activity
Passing Strange
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Perfect Getaway, A
Police, Adjective
Pontypool
Ponyo
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Princess and the Frog
Public Enemies
Road, The
Second Skin
September Issue, The
Serious Man, A
Sherlock Holmes
Single Man, A
Sin Nombre
Sita Sings the Blues
Skin
Soloist, The
Star Trek
State of Play
Stoning of Soraya M
Sugar
Summer Hours
Sunshine Cleaning
Taking Woodstock
Terminator Salvation
Tetro
Thirst
Treeless Mountain
Trick ‘r Treat
Tulpan
24 City
Two Lovers
Tyson
Under the Sea
Uninvited, The
Up
Up in the Air
Watchmen
Whatever Works
Where the Wild Things Are
White Ribbon, The
World’s Greatest Dad
You, the Living
Zombieland
So now I invite you to take a look at the nominees and let me know your thoughts. Do you generally agree with my selections or have I got it all wrong? Tell me what you think. And don’t forget to return on March 14th to see which nominees take home the NOFFscars!
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BEST PICTURE |
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Coraline |
Fantastic Mr. Fox |
The Hurt Locker |
The Informant! |
Inglourious Basterds |
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In the Loop |
Police, Adjective |
A Serious Man |
Up |
You, the Living |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, Up |
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BEST DIRECTOR |
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Roy Andersson for You, the Living |
Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker |
Pete Docter & Bob Peterson for Up |
Joel & Ethan Coen for A Serious Man |
Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Bigelow, Tarantino |
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BEST ACTOR |
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Matt Damon in The Informant! |
Colin Firth in A Single Man |
Joaquin Phoenix in Two Lovers |
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker |
Sam Rockwell in Moon |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Firth, Renner |
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BEST ACTRESS |
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Abbie Cornish in Bright Star |
Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist |
Kelly Macdonald in The Merry Gentleman |
Carey Mulligan in An Education |
Tilda Swinton on Julia |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Mulligan |
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR |
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Peter Capaldi in In the Loop |
Christian McKay in Me and Orson Welles |
Fred Melamed in A Serious Man |
Tom Noonan in The House of the Devil |
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Waltz |
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS |
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Penelope Cruz in Broken Embraces |
Mo’Nique in Precious |
Rosamund Pike in An Education |
Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds |
Mélanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Mo’Nique |
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BEST SCREENPLAY |
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The Informant! by Scott Z. Burns |
Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino |
In the Loop by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche |
A Serious Man by Joel & Ethan Coen |
Up by Pete Docter & Bob Peterson |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Inglourious Basterds, In the Loop, A Serious Man, Up (Note: The Oscars have two screenplay categories, one for original and one for adapted) |
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BEST EDITING |
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Il Divo |
The Good, the Bad, the Weird |
The Hurt Locker |
Inglourious Basterds |
Watchmen |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds |
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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY |
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Antichrist |
The Hurt Locker |
Inglourious Basterds |
Tetro |
The White Ribbon |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, The White Ribbon |
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BEST ORIGINAL SCORE |
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Coraline by Bruno Coulais |
Drag Me to Hell by Christopher Young |
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Alexandre Desplat |
The International by Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek & Tom Tykwer |
Up by Michael Giacchino |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up Other contenders: Star Trek by Michael Giacchino Listen The Hurt Locker by Marco Beltrami Listen Moon by Clint Mansell Listen The Road by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Listen Lesbian Vampire Killers by Debbie Wiseman Listen Coco Before Chanel by Alexandre Desplat Listen Chéri by Alexandre Desplat Listen A Single Man by Abel Korzeniowski Listen |
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BEST ART DIRECTION/SET DESIGN |
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Avatar |
Coraline |
Fantastic Mr. Fox |
Moon |
You, the Living |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Avatar |
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BEST SOUND |
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District 9 |
Drag Me to Hell |
The Hurt Locker |
Inglourious Basterds |
Watchmen |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds (Note: The Oscars have two sound categories, one for editing, one for mixing) |
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BEST FOREIGN FILM |
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Il Divo |
Police, Adjective |
Summer Hours |
Tulpan |
You, the Living |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: None (I’ve only seen The White Ribbon) |
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BEST DOCUMENTARY |
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Anvil! The Story of Anvil |
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed City |
Food, Inc. |
Second Skin |
Tyson |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Burma VJ, Food, Inc. |
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BEST ANIMATED FILM |
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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs |
Coraline |
Fantastic Mr. Fox |
Mary and Max |
Up |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up |
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BEST ORIGINAL SONG |
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“Dreaming” by Bruno Coulais from Coraline |
“Other Father Song” from Coraline |
“Rama’s Great” by R. Sukhdeo & Nina Paley from Sita Sings the Blues |
“The Weary Kind” by T-Bone Burnett & Ryan Bingham from Crazy Heart |
“You’ve Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger” by Beth Rowley from An Education |
| And the Noffscar goes to: ____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: “The Weary Kind” Other contenders: “Being Bad” by Bitter:Sweet from Duplicity Listen “Telling the Truth and Going Away” by Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah from The Great Buck Howard Listen “La Terre Tremblante” by Marco Beltrami and Dick Powell from In the Electric Mist Listen “Exploration” Bruno Coulais from Coraline Listen “Sirens of the Sea” by Henry Selick from Coraline Listen “Petey’s Song” by Jarvis Cocker from Fantastic Mr. Fox Listen “All is Love” by Karen O & the Kids from Where the Wild Things Are Listen “Black Dynamite Theme” from Black Dynamite Listen “Dove of Peace” by Sasha Baron Cohen from Bruno Listen “Smoke without Fire” by Duffy & Bernard Butler from An Education Listen “Ayayayay” by Pedro Piedra for The Maid Listen |
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BEST VISUAL EFFECTS |
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Avatar |
Star Trek |
Watchmen |
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And the Noffscar goes to: _____________________
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Avatar, Star Trek |
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BEST SCENE |
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Antichrist: Prologue: Sex between husband and wife juxtaposed with the tragic death of their child |
Black Dynamite: Black Dynamite and his crew figure out how The Man is shrinking the black man’s manhood through cheap malt liquor |
Brüno: Brüno as “Straight Dave” makes sweet love to his manly cage fight opponent in front of an enraged crowed of macho homophobes |
Il Divo: Horse race crosscut with motorcycle mob hit Watch abbreviated version |
Fantastic Mr. Fox: The rules of Whackbat explained Watch abbreviated version |
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The Good, the Bad, the Weird: The action scene that would have been hailed an instant classic had Spielberg directed it rather than an obscure Korean director |
The House of the Devil: Imperiled girl obliviously dances to “One Thing Leads to Another” (Note: the clip below works better in the context of the film because unbeknownst to the girl her best friend has just been murdered) |
Humpday: Two straight buddies try to will themselves to have sex with each other for a porn film |
The Hurt Locker: Team leader of an Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit frantically searches for a well hidden car bomb |
Inglourious Basterds: Once Upon a Time…in Nazi Occupied France: The Jew Hunter down on the farm |
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Inglourious Basterds: Disguised as Nazi’s, the Basterds’ cover is blown at a basement pub when confronted by real Nazi’s |
Inglourious Basterds: Revenge of the Giant Face: The Führer and company get their comeuppance at the movies |
The International: The Guggenheim shoot-out |
Police, Adjective: Dictionary discipline |
A Serious Man: A parable about the goy’s teeth |
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Tulpan: Concerned and ticked off mother camel follows her injured baby riding on a veterinarian’s motorcycle sidecar |
Up: Scenes from a Marriage: the Married Life montage |
Watchmen: Prologue: The death of the Comedian |
Watchmen: Credit sequence: The end of masked heroes |
You, the Living: Newlyweds on the Honeymoon Express sent off by a crowd of singing well wishers |
| And the Noffscar goes to: | ||||
Posted on February 28th, 2010 by Mat Viola
Filed under: NOFF Awards
Wow! That’s one film every 2.6 days! You’ve been busy. The first thing I do when I see your NOFF award nominations is update my Netflix queue. Unfortunately I can’t provide comment on whether or not I agree with your selections since I’ve only seen a few so far.
Thanks for providing this fantastic resource.
Hey Dave. You have 2 weeks to catch up before the winners are announced on March 14th! Happy viewing!
I’ve seen 11 out of your 142! I’m definitely going to see a few this week but not enough to be able to fully participate in the Noffs. You’ve sparked my interest in many films that I know little or nothing about. So…I’ll reserve my input until I see a few more. Great presentation - looks like it took a lot of work to put this all together!
Yeah, it was a lot of work. But it was also a lot of fun. Well, let’s see, you have to see 131 films in the next 2 weeks to catch up to me. That’s roughly 9 films a day. I think you can do it!
Look forward to your input when I announce the winners!
Nice piece of work!
I liked your consideration of ‘The House of the Devil’. And leaving ‘Avatar’ out of the main categories.
I disliked ‘You the Living’, but I can understand the appeal it has. You forgot the ‘Ponyo’ nice little song.
I would have nominated Paul Rudd for ‘I Love You, Man’. And the actress from ‘Lorna’s Silence’. And Paltrow deserves not only being nominated but also to win for ‘Two Lovers’.
You’ve seen like more than sixty movies than I.
Hello,
I’m not up to date, comparatively I see more old films that recent films.
Glad to see ‘Il Divo’ around here but I’m not a big fan of Soderbergh.
Need to see many of them, ‘Police Adjective’ looks great and ‘Two Lovers’ got good reviews here.
Boudu and Angel,
Thanks for dropping by! Always nice to hear from fellow fixers.
It’s too bad Two Lovers didn’t receive the recognition it deserves. A memorable romance with two magnificent central performances (Paltrow just missed the cut).
I’m a Miyazaki fan but I’m afraid I didn’t care for Ponyo. It seemed to be targeting the kiddies more than usual and I found it rather tedious and cutesy, which is probably why I overlooked the song. Anyway, here’s the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0lk-GEhYdY&feature=related
Kinda cute.
Angel - looking forward to watching One-Armed Swordsman after your recommendation. Better than A Touch of Zen, eh? We shall see : )
Mat
Hi, mat.
On the ‘movies I’ve seen and you haven’t ’side, The actress of ‘Mother’ would have a vote from me in a future fixing 2009 round, and I suspect that a few tech awards would include it, also.
‘Vincere’ is a movie that left me with mixed feelings, the way it portraits fascism (very creepy, BTW) is so powerful that makes the rest of the movie pale in comparison.
It seems both of us have IB in high regard. Still, my favorite Tarantino’s is ‘Death Proof’. I’ve seen like 5 times now.
Cheers.
Hey boudu,
Thanks for the recommendations. Vincere was on my “to see” list but I didn’t get to it. I liked Joon-ho Bong’s The Host, so I’m looking forward to Mother. Both films are in my Netflix queue. According to the IMDB both films will have a commercial release in the U.S. in 2010, so they will be eligible (in theory at least) next year - for the Oscars and the NOFFscars!
Mat