gARTh's 2006 Movie Awards

WINNERS: 2006

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Film:
Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno)

Director:
Martin Scorsese - The Departed

Actor:
Forrest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland

Actress:
Helen Mirren - The Queen

Supporting Actor:
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond

Supporting Actress:
Rinko Kikuchi - Babel

Adapted Screenplay:
William Monahan - The Departed

Original Screenplay:
Rian Johnson - Brick

Editing:
The Departed

Cinematography:
Children of Men

Stuntwork:
Casino Royale

Art Direction:
Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno)

Costume Design:
Marie Antoinette

Make-Up:
Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno)

Visual Effects:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Sound Mixing:
Letters from Iwo Jima

Music - Original Score:
David Julyan - The Prestige

Music - Original Song:
Jack Black, Kyle Gass and Dave Grohl - "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)" - Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny

Music - Use of Previously Recorded Song; Feature:
Dropkick Murphys - "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" - The Departed

Music - Use of Previously Recorded Song; Trailer:
Sufjan Stevens - "Chicago" - Little Miss Sunshine

Animated Feature Film:
Over the Hedge

Documentary Feature Film:
An Inconvenient Truth

Foreign Language Film:
Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno) - Mexico

Animated Performance:
Steve Buscemi - Monster House

Villainous Performance:
Mads Mikkelsen - Casino Royale

Comedic Performance:
Sacha Baron Cohen - Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Cameo / Bit-Part Performance:
Tim Robbins - Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny

Breakthrough Performance:
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls

Breakthrough Filmmaker:
Rian Johnson - Brick

Cast:
The Departed

Scene:
Azumi - Azumi (Aya Ueto) storms Kato's (Naoto Takenaka) compound.

Quote:
V for Vendetta - "Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you... and you may call me V."

Tagline:
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby - "The story of a man who could only count to #1."

Poster Art: (select link to view)
V for Vendetta (One Sheet 2)

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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.

Factotum - Directed by Bent Hamer. Written by Bent Hamer and Jim Stark. Based on the novel by Charles Bukowski.

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Special Achievement Award:

Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond and The Departed)

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

Leonardo DiCaprio had already established himself as a bonafide actor, creating celebrated and memorable performances in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Basketball Diaries, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator and Gangs of New York, but it wasn't until 2006 that he was able to pull off (arguably) his two best career performances to date... both in the same year. This feat is not unprecedented, De Niro made both Heat and Casino in 1995, Pacino both Glengarry Glen Ross and Scent of a Woman in 1992,  Gary Oldman both Leon: The Professional and Immortal Beloved in 1994, Meryl Streep both The Hours and Adaptation. in 2002, and the list goes on and on. There are many, however, that wouldn't normally place DiCaprio, aged 32 in 2006, on a list with those actors. But his performances in both Blood Diamond and The Departed were two of the most noteworthy of the year. He was praised for his authentic South African Afrikaner accent in Blood Diamond, known to be a difficult accent to pull off, and his performance in The Departed was show-stealing (considering he was acting opposite Jack Nicholson and Martin Sheen for most of the film, and considering the diverse and accomplished ensemble cast of the film, that's saying something), and is in my opinion his best to date.