2018 Mofo Film Awards

Best VFX - 3 out of 5. I did nominate Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Mortal Engines, the former because what else would I nominate it for and the latter because screw it something like Infinity War doesn't need my help. Now I guess I have to see Christopher Robin.

Best Music - 1 out of 5. Picks that didn't make it include Suspiria, Isle of Dogs, You Were Never Really Here, and Halloween, though in retrospect I could've swapped out the last one. A solid category through and through.

Breakout Performance - 4 out of 5. The exception being Helena Howard from Madeline's Madeline, a film I liked but not enough to campaign for (has anyone else seen it?). If you like weird indies then by all means check it out, especially for Howard's unhinged performance that really does run (and provoke) the entire emotional spectrum. I guess I can tolerate Alex Wolff getting the nomination instead, though.

Best Cinematography - 3 out of 5. One of multiple categories in which I nominated Climax, which I managed to see last year and which I believe is only hitting wide U.S. release this month so I guess that's another movie that virtually nobody else has seen? The other loser is Suspiria, though I guess that kind of deliberately flat cinematography isn't too special next to The Fisheyerite or Eyenihilation.

Best Cast - 3 out of 5. I also had Sorry to Bother You, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Paddington 2 (surprised the latter had no nominations). The ones that got in are acceptable, I guess.

Mixed Bag - 1 out of 5. Another category I invented and surprise surprise, most of my picks didn't make it. How did you all decide on your picks anyway? My main criteria was that it had to have a but the kind that's equal parts good and bad instead of just boringly mediocre. This does raise an interesting question - one of my picks (which would be a 2.5 movie) is a finalist, but I like at least three of the movies on the list even more so would I be more justified in picking them or should I stick to the one that I feel the most "mixed" about? On a similar note, I also picked actual Best Movie nominees Hereditary and The Favourite but I don't think that means I have to pick them for Best Picture. (The other two were The Predator and Halloween).

Funniest Scene - 2 out of 5. Maybe the hardest category to pick because when I think funny movies I think of ones that are consistently funny without necessarily having standout moments. This is definitely borne out by the fact that I didn't think of the other three nominees as being particularly funny (if they were funny at all). As for which of my picks didn't make it, I picked "Buster in the saloon" from Buster Scruggs, the biker fight from Mandy, and the mid-credits scene from Paddington 2.

Memorable Scene - 2 out of 5. I had the lighthouse scene on my list but swapped it out for the opening dance number from Climax, so...yeah. Can't argue with that or the bear scene. I also had the final ritual from Suspiria and the rescue from You Were Never Really Here on my list.

Most Underrated - 1 out of 5. Considering how rarely my picks make this category, maybe I just like bad films. Then again, First Reformed already got a bunch of noms including Best Picture so I guess that'll do. Then again, this category is built for something like Sorry to Bother You or Suspiria or Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Can't argue with picks like Overlord and Unsane and Upgrade, though - they all deserve some sort of recognition.

Most Overrated - 4 out of 5. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Black Panther managed to crack this list, but the fact that it beat out a far more deserving title like Deadpool 2 (my fifth pick) really adds insult to injury. And yes, Solo deserves to be here - the only argument for why it shouldn't is that not quite enough people liked it for it to be overrated.

Biggest Disappointment - 2 out of 5. Measuring disappointment is always hard because there's always the question of whether or not you can count films that you originally looked forward to but had bad reviews/word-of-mouth so you had low expectations before you watched it or if it's just well-received films that didn't live up to your own expectations or just great concepts for movies that were simply executed poorly regardless of expectations. My other three picks were Ralph Breaks the Internet (which thankfully is not up for Best Animated), Sicario: Day of the Soldado (which I'm not sure how much I can count because the fact that Sicario never seemed like it needed a sequel would automatically render any sequel a disappointment by default), and Bohemian Rhapsody because f*ck if for making me feel bad about watching a movie about Queen.

Biggest Surprise - 3 out of 5. A Quiet Place was closer to overrated/disappointment for me while Upgrade, as good as it was, wasn't that big of a surprise compared to the lightning-bolt of Sorry to Bother You or the holy-crap-Noé-made-something-tolerable piece that is Climax.

Best Foreign Language Film - 3 out of 5. As you can probably guess, one of the other ones I picked was Climax, but there was also Let the Corpses Tan (who else saw that?). I really want to see Burning but it doesn't come out here until April i.e. after this thing closes. I've seen The Guilty but think it is merely okay.

Best Documentary - 3 out of 5. The losers were Distant Sky (very much a long shot since it was a Nick Cave concert film that played theatres for one night only and hasn't seem home release yet) and Shirkers (which I thought might've stood a better chance). As far as I can tell, the other two haven't had a release here and so I haven't had a chance to see them.

Best Animated - 4 out of 5. The exception is The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl!, which I obviously recommend. I thought Teen Titans Go! was generally meh with a few inspired moments, but I'll definitely take it over Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Best Screenplay - 3 out of 5. Buster Scruggs and Beale Street were my also-rans. Can't say I argue with the other two.

Best Supporting Actress - 3 out of 5. I also nominated Claire Foy for First Man and Thomasin McKenzie for Leave No Trace. Wasn't overly fussed about Stone but am pleased that Debicki merited a nod.

Best Supporting Actor - 1 out of 5. Not gonna lie, my picks for this got unconventional - I had Michael B. Jordan for Black Panther, Dolph Lundgren for Creed II, Tim Blake Nelson for Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Hugh Grant for Paddington 2. The field as is may have some solid performers in the mix but it can't help but look a little boring next to that. Also I am once again annoyed that I won't get to see Burning in time.

Best Actress - 3 out of 5. My other picks included Elsie Fisher and Helena Howard, but they were better suited for Breakout Performance anyway. Can't really argue the ones that made it, though.

Best Actor - 3 out of 5. Honourable mentions go to Nic Cage for Mandy (dat bathroom scene) and Willem Dafoe for At Eternity's Gate (you know how much he sacrificed?). Not much to say about the others.

Best Director - 0 out of 5. Wow. Just to be clear, my picks for this category were Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Boots Riley, Debra Granik, and Barry Jenkins. I guess their respective films have been acknowledged in multiple other categories, but still...anyway, as this is the only category where nothing matches my picks I won't say anything else about it.

Worst Movie - 4 out of 5. My odd one out was Eli Roth's Death Wish remake, an ugly, boring, and pointless film that was almost certainly my least favourite of the year. As for The Predator, I originally had it as a disappointment before shifting it to Mixed Bag (alongside Hereditary, for what it's worth) so to see it manage to be lumped in with movies I definitely agree to be some of the worst of the worst is at once disheartening but not too surprising.

Best Picture - 5 out of 10. I guess my other five picks got recognition enough in other categories, but even so I can't say I'm too fussed about the ones that made it instead (except perhaps Roma, which was almost one of my final picks before I swapped it out for something else that did make the list). At least there's nothing downright terrible on the list.