Skip to main content

The Films of 2015


It's that time again.

Awards for the motion picture industry are flying fast and furious, and the Oscars are just a couple weeks away. In 1998, I began what has become an annual tradition known as The Matt Awards, to showcase what I consider to be the best in film for a particular year. The first awards honored the movies released in 1997. There was a particular reason I started the awards that year.... More on that later.

Now, here are the best in film for 2015, as selected by yours truly:


Best Picture: The Revenant
Best Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, for The Revenant
Best Actor: Tom Hanks, for Bridge of Spies
Best Actress: Lily Tomlin, for Grandma
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Keaton, for Spotlight
Best Supporting Actress: Rooney Mara, for Carol
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, for The Revenant
Best Screenplay: Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy, for Spotlight
Best Score: John Williams, for Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Animated Film: Inside Out
Best Documentary: Seymour: An Introduction
Best Visual Effects: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Foreign Film: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
Best Horror Film: It Follows


Some of you who know me well may have gasped at Tom Hanks receiving Best Actor instead of Leonardo DiCaprio. A couple of things:

1) The reason I started the Matt Awards in 1998 was because Leo had been snubbed by the Academy Awards for his role in Titanic. Not even nominated. As a long-time Leo fan, I was pissed, and so created the Matt Awards especially to give him recognition (if only in my own small way). He was my Best Actor for 1997. I have given Mr. DiCaprio more notice than the Oscars have, so this doesn't seem a huge issue.

2) I tend to be a fan of the more understated performance, which is why Hanks wins here. He truly makes acting seem effortless.

You may also have noticed that I added a new category this year -- Best Horror Film. I see a fair number of horror movies each year and, while many of them are unlikely to be contenders for Best Picture, they're good enough in their own right to deserve special notice. Hence, the new category.

Overall, this was a really solid year for movies. Lots of great films to choose from. If you see any of the selections from my 2015 Top 10 list (below), you can't go wrong:


1. The Revenant
2. Spotlight
3. Brooklyn
4. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
5. Mad Max: Fury Road
6. It Follows
7. Magic Mike XXL
8. Bridge of Spies
9. The Martian
10. Room


On to 2016!



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yesterday's Restaurants

The local newspaper has a feature from one of Champaign-Urbana's most legendary restaurateur's, John Katsinas, on what his favorite area restaurants were that have now since closed (or will soon be closing).  It's a nice little read, and has made me stop and think about the restaurants that have come and gone that have left an indelible (and edible) impression on me throughout the years. Here we go....
Post a Comment
Read more

Watching The Hours

A Twitter friend named Paula has asked for folks to submit ideas for a blog-a-thon about what we think will be the classic films of the future. In other words, what relatively recent movies (namely, from the 21st century), do we think will be considered classics in the decades to come, possibly airing on such venerable stations as Turner Classic Movies ? While a number of films come to mind for such a category, one in particular stood out from the rest, and thus is my entry for Paula's blog-a-thon.
5 comments
Read more

She's Madonna

Today we're going to talk about something very important. We're going to talk about Madonna. "Madge," as she's affectionately known around the gay scene, has been making music for over thirty years. I grew up with her songs, many of them pop classics. In recent years, it can be arguably said that her popularity has waned a bit. During the past decade, Madonna has put out seventeen singles. Of those, three have charted in the US Top 40. Ten Failed to chart at all on the Billboard Hot 100. We now have at least one possibility offered as to why Madge's chart power is waning: Ageism. At least, that's what Diplo (just, Diplo), a producer of some of the tracks off her latest album, thinks . I know it's difficult to be objective about something you've worked on -- whether you were the producer or the artist -- but, as a listener/fan, I have to say that Madonna's most recent work has simply not been that good. Still, we'll hear what ...
Post a Comment
Read more