2006 Muriel Awards

Andrew Bemis

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Cinevistaramascope

Andrew's ballot:

Best Feature-Length Film
1. Children of Men
2. The Fountain
3. The Departed
4. Inland Empire
5. Pan's Labyrinth
6. United 93
7. Shortbus
8. The Proposition
9. Superman Returns
10. Little Children

Best Lead Performance, Male
1. Hugh Jackman, The Fountain
2. Matt Damon, The Departed
3. Clive Owen, Children of Men
4. Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
5. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed

Best Lead Performance, Female
1. Laura Dern, Inland Empire
2. Rachel Weisz, The Fountain
3. Kate Winslet, Little Children
4. Ivana Baquero, Pan's Labyrinth
5. Ellen Page, Hard Candy

Best Supporting Performance, Male
1. Jack Nicholson, The Departed
2. Michael Caine, Children of Men
3. Jackie Earl Haley, Little Children
4. Robert Downey Jr., A Scanner Darkly
5. John C. Reilly, Talladega Nights

Best Supporting Performance, Female
1. Fiona Shaw, The Black Dahlia
2. Julianne Moore, Children of Men
3. Virginia Madsen, A Prairie Home Companion
4. Asia Argento, Marie-Antoinette
5. Maribel Verdu, Pan's Labyrinth

Best Direction
(I've never seen the point of differentiating from one's top 5 here; they just seem to go hand in hand.)
1. Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men
2. Darren Aronofsky, The Fountain
3. Martin Scorsese, The Departed
4. David Lynch, Inland Empire
5. Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth

Best Screenplay
1. The Departed
2. Children of Men
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. The Proposition
5. Little Children

Best Cinematic Moment
1. Long take: battle and cease-fire in immigrant camp (Children of Men)
2. The first abrupt cut from Tomas the conquistador to Tommy floating quietly through the vastness of space. (The Fountain)
3. The pale man - creepy! (Pan's Labyrinth)
4. The all-male threeway featuring one participant singing "The Star Spangled Banner" into another's bum. (Shortbus)
5. "Alright." "BLAM!" Rat. (The Departed)

Best Breakthrough Performance
1. Ivana Baquero, Pan's Labyrinth
2. Sook-Yin Lee, Shortbus
3. Debbie Doebreiner, Bubble

Best First Feature by a Director
1. Little Miss Sunshine
2. V For Vendetta
3. Slither

Best Ensemble Performance
1. The Departed
2. United 93
3. Shortbus

Best Cinematography
1. Children of Men
2. The Proposition
3. Superman Returns

Best new DVD Release
1. Dazed and Confused: Criterion Collection
2. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Ultimate Edition
3. Amarcord: Criterion Collection

1. Children of Men

Miscellaneous commentary:

Best Feature-Length Film: Children of Men - Not only for its staggering technical achievements, but for its captivating story, marvelously told, which inspires genuine hope even in the bleakest of possible futures.

Best Lead Performance, Male: Hugh Jackman, The Fountain - For being unafraid of looking silly while doing tai chi in space, and for creating as authentic a portrait of grief as I've ever seen.

Best Lead Performance, Female: Laura Dern, Inland Empire - The word "courage" is overused in describing performance, but it completely applies to Dern, who throws herself completely into David Lynch's hall of mirrors.

Best Supporting Performance, Male: Jack Nicholson, The Departed - People who complain that this is just "Jack being Jack" are boring.

Best Supporting Performance, Female: Fiona Shaw, The Black Dahlia - Probably the most entertaining performance this year. Over the top? Yes, exactly.

Best Direction: Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men - Cuaron just made a huge leap from a great up-and-coming director to one of the most important voices in cinema today.