The 2011 Hollmann Awards: Part One

Hello, and welcome to the First Chapter of the Hollmann Awards. I'm Dame Judi Dench, your guide through our Spaceship Earth, and your Mistress of Ceremonies for the first half. As a previous nominee for the Hollmann Awards, I know firsthand what an effect they have on one's career: it was the last film award I was ever nominated for. In 2006. So long ago. So long....

But let's get on with it? The 2011 Hollmann Awards in 2012!

The Longlists: Narrowing the Field

It's long been a tradition to do a Longlist, the kind BAFTA does, with the semi-finalists in each category. Having yet to catch up with the other 2011 releases, I have decided -- not through impatience, but through honesty -- to keep the eligible films to those I saw during the year. I had ample time to see a lot of films, and not everything can be seen. Besides, these are the Hollmann Awards, which means two things. First, it means that they do not represent all of 2011 cinema, but my own cinematic year. Second, it means I can basically make up the rules as I go along.


With the notable exception of Best Picture (for I've already revealed the unranked Top Ten) and Best Original Song (for choices were few), the categories are narrowed down to fifteen contenders. Interestingly, the most difficult categories to pare down were Director and Supporting Actor. Doesn't Chris O'Dowd's contribution to Bridesmaids warrant recognition? How could I ignore the greatness of Steven Spielberg, especially since War Horse made it to my Top 25? Wasn't Wyatt McCallum fantastic in The Myth of the American Sleepover? I could always make up a new rule, but if you're not going to kill your darlings, you may as well not do your own awards. And for heaven's sake, who wants that?!?

You will also see actors who are currently being campaigned for supporting in the leading categories. This is because I feel that their roles are large enough to warrant a category change. Peppy Miller and Alice Dainard are more than just the love interests who help their guy make it through to the end. They have their own fully-developed arcs. The movie just couldn't exist without them.


Eighteen categories. It's a lot of text, but I always like the conversations these can spark. Shall we?

And Now the End Is Near: Best of 2011

Yes, friends, it's the annual year-end Top 25 Films Countdown. These lists are always fluid, always changing. When I look back at last year's Fifteen Honorable Mentions and the Ten Best, I find myself second-guessing the placements of The Runaways and The American (should be higher), Piranha 3D and The Kids Are All Right (should be lower), but I still feel confident that the titles themselves are right. Maybe I would now switch out For Colored Girls and Never Let Me Go for The Runaways and Get Low. But then I remember certain moments of each film and think, "Hm. Maybe not."

I've still got so much to see, so much that could still qualify for the Hollmann Awards (dare I limit it to movies I actually saw in 2011?). Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Win Win, Rango, Melancholia, Meek's Cutoff, Warrior, Pariah, Jane Eyre, Captain America, The Housemaid, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Margin Call, Coriolanus, A Better Life...these are the films I still need to see. It just didn't happen for me.

In all, I saw 82 films this year, a pretty good number I think, though nowhere near the hundred-plus that more energetic writers manage to pull off. If I waited until I saw the fourteen listed, of course, I would have 95, which is still close, but....

Ach. What of it? There are still only 25 slots, meaning that I had to cruelly, painfully cast off 57 other flicks. Ok, maybe only 51, since there are seven films that I found to be just terrible (Another Earth, Bride Flight, Cat Run, The Descendants, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Jack & Jill, In Time, The Robber). Suffice to say, I did have to whittle down, justify positioning, try to remember which ones I enjoyed, which ones fell short. I tried to keep movies I wouldn't watch again, movies I only liked but didn't love, movies that I barely remember, off the list entirely. I tried my best. I'm sure that by next year, I'll have decided that The Big Year really did deserve a mention in my Top Ten. Doubtful, even though I know I'll buy it, but perceptions and opinions change with time.

Enough of that bullshit. You want to see the list. Ladies and gentlemen, the ranked list of the fifteen semi-finalists; or, 25-11 of the Top 25.