gARTh's 2005 Movie Awards

WINNERS: 2005

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Film:
King Kong

Director:
Ang Lee - Brokeback Mountain

Actor:
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Capote

Actress:
Felicity Huffman - Transamerica

Supporting Actor:
Mickey Rourke - Sin City

Supporting Actress:
Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener

Adapted Screenplay:
Jeffrey Caine - The Constant Gardener

Original Screenplay:
George Clooney & Grant Heslov - Good Night, and Good Luck

Editing:
Crash

Cinematography:
The New World

Stuntwork:
The Protector (Tom yum goong)

Art Direction:
King Kong

Costume Design:
Memoirs of a Geisha

Make-Up:
King Kong

Visual Effects:
King Kong

Sound Mixing:
King Kong

Music - Original Score:
John Williams - Munich

Music - Original Song:
Al Kapone & Terrence Howard - "Hustle and Flow (It Ain't Over)" - Hustle & Flow

Music - Use of Previously Recorded Song; Feature:
James Brown - "Get Up Offa That Thing" - Robots

Music - Use of Previously Recorded Song; Trailer:
The Servant - "Cells" - Sin City

Animated Feature Film:
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Documentary Feature Film:
Murderball

Foreign Language Film:
Paradise Now - Palestine

Animated Performance:
Andy Serkis - King Kong

Villainous Performance:
Ralph Fiennes - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Comedic Performance:
Steve Carell - The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Cameo / Bit-Part Performance:
Will Ferrell - Wedding Crashers

Breakthrough Performance:
Q'orianka Kilcher - The New World

Breakthrough Filmmaker:
Garth Jennings - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Cast:
Batman Begins

Scene:
Sin City - Dwight (Clive Owen) races toward The Pits with the corpse of Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) keeping him company.

Quote:
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - "Thanks for coming, please stay for the end credits. If you're wondering who the best boy is, it's somebody's nephew. Don't forget to validate your parking, and to all you good people in the Midwest, sorry we said 'fuck' so much."

Tagline:
Jarhead - "Welcome to the suck."

Poster Art: (select link to view)
Walk the Line (Teaser)

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Most Underrated Film:

Films that did not receive a wide release, were unsuccessful at the box office, were not nominated for any major awards or receive acclaim at any major film festivals, and were generally unknown to most audiences at the time of their release... but were well-liked by most critics and audiences that did happen to see them.

Everything Is Illuminated - Written and Directed by Liev Schreiber. Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.

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Special Achievement Award:

Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and Quentin Tarantino's Sin City

Prior to 2008, I didn't write long-winded reasons why the film or person(s) won, but briefly:

For the first time fans of an original source were treated to a film adaptation that respected that source to the point of recreating it almost verbatim. From the complex angles of the shots, to the dialogue, to the obvious coolness of the color schemes (and the interesting reversals of black and white in certain shots that had never been used or seen outside of an inked drawing), to the look of the actors and the make-up and costumes used to bring Frank Miller's vision to life. Rodriguez is the man (to credit) for the vision coming to life as it did, and for bringing Frank Miller on as a co-director... even going so far as cutting up his DGA card to do so... and even letting friend Quentin Tarantino direct a stand-out scene. Fans have been clammoring for Hollywood to respect the source, to bring to the screen everything they liked in the first place while keep the changes to a minimum. These comicbook properties (and this actually applies to any film adapted from another source, from a remake of a previous film to a novel adaptation) are only made into films because they gained some notoriety, and that credit goes to the fans. It only makes sense to respect the original fanbase when creating the film version. If changes are made and the integrity of the original story is lost to appease mainstream audiences, that had nothing to do with bringing the property its fame, then the filmmakers are essentially spitting in the faces of the original fanbase. Rodriguez and co. proved that it could be done, and it could be successful. Sin City didn't make Spider-Man money, but it was never meant to, it's just not that kind of story. Three years later Jon Favreau's Iron Man made the leap to the big screen, also with minimal changes, and did bring in Spider-Man money at the box office, and so with the precedent set, hopefully moving forward more filmmakers will realize that to embrace your original fanbase is the most important thing you can do. Win them over, and they'll spread the good news like wildfire across the internet and across the world.