Awards: The Results of the Listology Awards 2004: Final Report

Best Direction

Winner: Michel Gondry

The director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the clear winner of the listology award for direction. All in all, he has got 14 out of the 25 votes (and he isn't even nominated for the Oscar in this category!!!) Place two goes to two people: Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) (which is rather surprising) and Taylor Hackford for his biopic. Both got 2 votes. 7 other directors have got 1 single vote. These are: Quentin Tarantino for Kill Bill: Vol.2, Alexander Payne for his comedy Sideways, Martin Scorsese for his epic The Aviator, Mike Nichols for his film Closer, Michael Mann for Collateral, Brad Bird with his Incredibles and (last but not least) Zach Braff with his debut Garden State. The losers are Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall), Andrew Adamson (Shrek 2), Alejandro Amenábar (The Sea Inside), Fatih Akin (Against The Wall), Bill Condon (Kinsey), Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow), Marc Forster (Finding Neverland), Terry George (Hotel Rwanda), Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11), Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 2), Wolfgang Petersen (Troy), Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries), M. Night Shyamalan (The Village)and even master Spielberg with The Terminal.

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: Natalie Portman

Another surprise: Natalie Portman has won this award for her supporting role in Zach Braff's Garden State . She finally got 5 votes (out of 15), beating Virginia Madsen (nominated for Sideways/ 4 votes), film diva Meryl Streep (The Manchurian Candidate/ 2 votes) and Oscar favourite Cate Blanchett (The Aviator/ 2 votes). 1 vote went to each Daryl Hannah (Kill Bill: Vol. 2) and Kirsten Dunst (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). (0 votes for Julie Christie (Finding Neverland), Laura Dern (We Don't Live Here Anymore), Cloris Leachman (Spanglish), Laura Linney (Kinsey), Gena Rowlands (The Notebook) and Sharron Warren (Ray).)

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: Morgan Freeman

In this category the results were closer to each other. Eventually it was Morgan Freeman who made the race (for his part in Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby). He got 4 out of 17 given votes, slightly more than Paul Bettany (for Dogville) with 3 votes. David Carradine (Kill Bill: Vol.2) and Tom Wilkinson (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) both got 2 votes and Thomas Haden Church (Sideways), Alan Alda (The Aviator), Peter Sarsgaard (Garden State) and Elijah Wood (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Surprisingly Jamie Foxx and Clive Owen got no votes for their Oscar-nominated parts in Michael Mann’s Collateral respectively in Mike Nichols’ Closer. It is less surprising that Andy Garcia (Ocean’s Twelve), James Garner (The Notebook), Dustin Hoffman (Finding Neverland), Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2), Gary Oldman (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), William Hurt (The Village), Peter O’Toole (Troy) and Ulrich Matthes (Downfall) were the other big losers in this poll. So, let us hope that Morgan Freeman will get his well-deserved Oscar statuette this year, finally.

Best Leading Actress

Winner: Kate Winslet

Here again we’ve got a clear winner: Kate Winslet for her role in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . With 6 out of 13 votes (nearly half of them!) she has deserved this honour, and beaten out Julie Delpy (Before Sunset/ 2 votes), Imelda Staunton with her 2 votes for her part in Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake, Audrey Tautou (A Very Long Engagement/ 1 vote), Ziyi Zhang (House of Flying Daggers/ 1 vote) and Hilary Swank, you surprisingly also got just 1 single vote for her part in Million Dollar Baby. Apart from these, Winslet has won against herself (Finding Neverland), Kim Basinger (The Door in the Floor), Annette Bening (Being Julia), Scarlett Johansson (A Love Song for Bobby Long), Ashley Judd (De-Lovely), Nicole Kidman (Birth), Laura Linney (P.S.), Catalena Sandina Moreno (Maria Full of Grace), Julia Roberts (Closer), Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill: Vol. 2) and Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), who all got 0 votes.

Best Leading Actor

Winner: Jim Carrey

One of this year’s most interesting Oscar categories has here been clearly decided for Jim Carrey, who is not even nominated at the Academy Awards for his performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind He’s got 6 out of the 18 given votes. The two Oscar favourites Jamie Foxx (Ray/ 2 votes) and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator/ 1 vote) had no chance against Carrey and Don Cheadle, who (rather surprisingly) got 4 of your votes for his part in Hotel Rwanda. Paul Giamatti (Sideways) was given two votes, and Kevin Bacon (The Woodsman) as well as Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby) and even Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland) have to be satisfied with 1 vote. Javier Bardem (The Sea Inside), Bruno Ganz (Downfall), Jeff Bridges (The Door in the Floor), Tom Cruise (Collateral), Zach Braff (Garden State), Tom Hanks (The Terminal), Ulrich Matthes (The Ninth Day), Liam Neeson (Kinsey), Kevin Kline (De-Lovely), Kevin Spacey (Beyond the Sea), Jude Law (Alfie) and Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man 2) have got together 0 votes.

Best Foreign Language Film

Winner: Oldboy

Who would have thought this? South Corean film Oldboy winner in this category? I'd rather have considered it as an outsider, and now it has won with 3 out of 12 given votes. Nevertheless it was very close. Runners-up (with each 2 votes) were the German film Downfall (Der Untergang), the Chinese movie House of Flying Daggers (Shi mian mai fu). Not even Almodóvar had with his Bad Education (La Mala Educación/ Spain/ 2 votes) (I would have predicted as winner) against the old boy. 1 point went The Motorcycle Diaries (Brazil/ Los Diarios de Motocicleta), 2046 (China) and Against the Wall (Germany/ Gegen die Wand). Losers here are (with 0 votes) The Sea Inside (Spain/ Mar Adentro), The Chorus (France/ Les Choristes) and the other French film A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles) by Amélie- director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Best Drama

Winner: Before Sunset

I think this is really a surprise. At the beginning, one’d rather have thought about Scorsese’s The Aviator of Marc Forster’s Finding Neverland as the winners of this poll. It was indeed interesting till the last minute, because Before Sunset got this award with 3 out of 15 votes, beating the two mentioned favourites (The Aviator got 2 votes and Finding Neverland none!). Other second places are Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, von Trier’s Dogville starring Nicole Kidman and Lauren Bacall, Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol.2 and even Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. One vote went to each Hotel Rwanda and Collateral. Losers with no votes were here Birth, Closer (!), Kinsey, Troy and The Sea Inside.

Comedy

Winner: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This year’s biggest winner is Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which gets here once more an award. Neglected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in many categories (Best Actor, Best Direction, Best Picture, …), it wins in this category with 4 out of 13 votes. Runners-Up are Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Sideways and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (with each 2 votes). One vote went to Shrek 2, Shaun of the Dead and Garden State. None of you thought about Being Julia, Beyond the Sea, De-Lovely, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, The Incredibles, Dodgeball, Garden State, Shark Tale or Ray as the best comedy of 2004.

Now, after such a long time of work and voting, you have to make a comment... please. (no matter if you've voted or not).

THANKS VERY, VERY MUCH FOR YOUR INTEREST IN THESE POLLS.
WHAT WOULD YOU THINK OF A POLL "HONOURING" THE WORST FILMS OF 2004? IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, THEN PLEASE LET ME KNOW ABOUT POTENTIAL CANDIDATES IN YOUR COMMENTS BELOW.
I ALSO THANK FOR ANY NEW CATEGORIES (Cameo, Fight, Kiss, ...) FOR THE AWARDS 2005.

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