This critic ends his duties in the 2017 cinematic awards season with a second year participating in the 15th International Cinephile Society poll (getting me all the more closer to revealing my own personal top 10). For this survey focusing on films released in 2017, it was Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name celebrates multi-dimensional quality of loving at beautifully languorous pace) that won the top prize. Phantom Thread (Phantom Thread shows how love transcends tension of power dynamics) made the runner up position and actually came up on top as far as number of wins. The Best Picture winner also won in the male acting categories for Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg. Phantom Thread, however, dominated the female acting category garnering wins for supporting actress Lesley Manville and lead actress Vicky Krieps, the latter having been snubbed by the Oscars, probably only because she is not as popular as Meryl Streep.
Call Me By Your Name‘s forth win was for Adapted Screenplay. Phantom Thread won by one more category. It won the Original Screenplay competition as well as Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson. Composer and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood won for the film’s score. There were other films that won in multiple categories. The French language AIDS drama BPM won Best Ensemble and Best Film Not in the English Language. The other movie two categories was Blade Runner 2049 (Blade Runner 2049 dives thematically deeper than its predecessor), which won for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.
These are all quite satisfying wins, but a personal favorite this writer is sad to see come in as a runner-up is the incredible Dawson City: Frozen Time (Dawson City: Frozen Time presents cinema history while celebrating transformational power of time). It actually lost to two films that tied for Best Documentary, Faces Places (Visages Villages) and Ex Libris: The New York Public Library. Another personal favorite that came in second place is the moving animated film Coco. It lost to a film that admittedly this writer has not seen, The Girl Without Hands, a French film that only saw limited release in the U.S. in July. I do not believe a theater in Miami showed it.
One last film worth noting as a winner: Holy Motors (Holy Motors pays tribute to cinema while exploring its edges). Yes, it’s a 2012 film, but it marks a special prize this year in recognition of the 15th anniversary of the ICS. As their website explains, “This year, the International Cinephile Society has created a special 15th Anniversary Award for our all-time favorite best picture. All 14 prior winners competed in final-round voting.” It’s nice to see this writer’s pick indeed beat out the other very worthy 14 films, culled from previous Best Picture winners.
Finally, on a personal note, now officially done with awards season (not counting enduring the Oscars), the writer plans to reveal his top 10 movies of 2017 sometime this week.
Here is a break down of all the winners and runners up from the ICS:
PICTURE
01. Call Me by Your Name
02. Phantom Thread
03. Personal Shopper
04. BPM
05. The Lost City of Z
06. On the Beach at Night Alone
07. Lady Bird
08. A Quiet Passion
09. Good Time
10. Nocturama
11. Blade Runner 2049
DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson – Phantom Thread
runner-up: Luca Guadagnino – Call Me by Your Name
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
01. BPM
02. On the Beach at Night Alone
03. Nocturama
04. Visages Villages
05. The Death of Louis XIV
06. The Ornithologist
07. Staying Vertical
08. The Woman Who Left
09. Sieranevada
10. Raw
ACTOR
Timothée Chalamet – Call Me by Your Name
runner-up: Robert Pattinson – Good Time
ACTRESS
Vicky Krieps – Phantom Thread
runner-up: Kim Min-hee – On the Beach at Night Alone
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Michael Stuhlbarg – Call Me by Your Name
runner-up: Arnaud Valois – BPM
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lesley Manville – Phantom Thread
runner-up: Laurie Metcalf – Lady Bird
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Phantom Thread – Paul Thomas Anderson
runner-up: Get Out – Jordan Peele
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Call Me by Your Name – James Ivory
runner-up: The Lost City of Z – James Gray
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Blade Runner 2049 – Roger Deakins
runner-up: The Lost City of Z – Darius Khondji
EDITING
Good Time – Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie
runner-up: A Ghost Story – David Lowery
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Blade Runner 2049 – Dennis Gassner
runner-up: Phantom Thread – Mark Tildesley
SCORE
Phantom Thread – Jonny Greenwood
runner-up: Good Time – Daniel Lopatin as Oneohtrix Point Never
ENSEMBLE
BPM
runner-up: Lady Bird
ANIMATED FILM
The Girl Without Hands
runner-up: Coco
DOCUMENTARY
Visages Villages
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
runner-up: Dawson City: Frozen Time
15th ANNIVERSARY AWARD
Holy Motors
runner-up: Carol
BEST PICTURE NOT RELEASED IN 2017
• 24 Frames
• A Ciambra
• Bangkok Nites
• Braguino
• Claire’s Camera
• Closeness
• The Day After
• Giant
• Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc
• Lean on Pete
• Les garçons sauvages
• Let the Sun Shine In
• Lover for a Day
• Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno
• On Body and Soul
• The Rider
• Sicilian Ghost Story
• Western
• You Were Never Really Here
• Zama
