3rd Annual TeleFilmiest Awards - Nominations

Welcome! It's Emmy season, which means only one thing: it's time for the TeleFilmiest Awards. I watched a whole bunch of television this year, and it's become more clear than ever that we have reached an uncharted area of quality TV. And now, I have compiled my list of outstanding actors, actresses, directors, writers and shows for the 2014-15 TV season. I am pleased to announce them in 26 categories here.

The 3rd Annual TeleFilmiest Awards:

And the nominees are...

COMEDY ENSEMBLE:

Brooklyn Nine-Nine:

Stephanie Beatriz, Dirk Blocker, Andre Braugher, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Joel McKinnon Miller, Joe Lo Truglio, Chelsea Peretti and Andy Samberg

Orange is the New Black:

Uzo Aduba, Jason Biggs, Danielle Brooks, Michael J. Harney, Natasha Lyonne, Taryn Manning, Kate Mulgrew and Taylor Schilling

Parks and Recreation:

Aziz Ansari, Billy Eichner, Jim O'Heir, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt, Retta and Adam Scott

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt:

Tituss Burgess, Carol Kane, Ellie Kemper and Jane Krakowski

Veep:

Sufe Bradshaw, Anna Chlumsky, Gary Cole, Kevin Dunn, Tony Hale, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons and Matt Walsh

COMEDY GUEST ACTOR:

Laurence Fishburne as Pops in black-ish

Jon Hamm as Richard Wayne Gary Wayne in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Zachary Quinto as Ace in Girls

Kevin Pollak as Alvin in Mom

Martin Short as Dr. Franff in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

COMEDY GUEST ACTRESS:

Pamela Adlon as Pamela in Louie

Tina Fey as Marcia Clark in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Jenifer Lewis as Ruby in black-ish

Yael Stone as Lorna Morello in Orange Is the New Black

Lorraine Toussaint as Yvonne 'Vee' Parker in Orange Is the New Black

DRAMA GUEST ACTOR:

Christian Camargo as Michael Corrigan in House of Cards

Frank Langella as Gabriel in The Americans

Jonathan Pryce as High Sparrow in Game of Thrones

Sam Shepard as Robert Rayburn in Bloodline

Bradley Whitford as Mark/Marcy in Transparent

DRAMA GUEST ACTRESS:

Betsy Brandt as Barbara Sanderson in Masters of Sex

Kathryn Hahn as Raquel Fein in Transparent

Julianne Nicholson as Dr. Lillian DePaul in Masters of Sex

Lois Smith as Betty Turner in The Americans

Cicely Tyson as Ophelia Hartness in How to Get Away with Murder

DRAMA ENSEMBLE:

The Americans:

Noah Emmerich, Lev Gorn, Annet Mahendru, Susan Misner, Matthew Rhys, Costa Ronin, Keri Russell, Keidrich Sellati, Holly Taylor, Richard Thomas and Alison Wright

Bloodline:

Jacinda Barrett, Norbert Leo Butz, Linda Cardellini, Kyle Chandler, Jamie McShane, Ben Mendelsohn, Enrique Murciano, Sam Shepard and Sissy Spacek

Game of Thrones:

Alfie Allen, John Bradley, Dean Charles-Chapman, Gwendoline Christie, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Liam Cunningham, Stephen Dillane, Peter Dinklage, Natalie Dormer, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jerome Flynn, Aidan Gillen, Iain Glen, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Conleth Hill, Kristofer Hivju, Michiel Huisman, Michael McElhatton, Hannah Murray, Iwan Rheon, Sophie Turner, Carice van Houton, Indira Varma, Maisie Williams and Tom Wlaschiha

Mad Men:

Jay R. Ferguson, Jon Hamm, Christina Hendricks, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Elisabeth Moss, Jessica Pare, Kevin Rahm, Kiernan Shipka, John Slattery, Rich Sommer, Christopher Stanley and Aaron Staton

Transparent:

Jay Duplass, Gaby Hoffmann, Amy Landecker, Judith Light and Jeffrey Tambor

COMEDY DIRECTING:

Michael Patrick King for The Comeback ("Valerie Gets What She Really Wants")

Phil Lord & Christopher Miller for The Last Man on Earth ("Alive in Tucson")

Jodie Foster for Orange Is the New Black ("Thirsty Bird")

Beth McCarthy-Miller for Parks and Recreation ("Leslie & Ron")

Tristram Shapeero for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt ("Kimmy Goes Outside!")

COMEDY WRITING:

Michael Patrick King & Lisa Kudrow for The Comeback ("Valerie Gets What She Really Wants")

Chuck Lorre, Eddie Gorodetsky & Nick Bakay for Mom ("Three Smiles and an Unpainted Ceiling")

Jenji Kohan for Orange Is the New Black ("We Have Manners. We're Polite")

Michael Schur for Parks and Recreation ("Leslie & Ron")

Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche for Veep ("Election Night")

DRAMA DIRECTING:

Thomas Schlamme for The Americans ("Open House")

Miguel Sapochnik for Game of Thrones ("Hardhome")

David Nutter for Game of Thrones ("Mother's Mercy")

Matthew Weiner for Mad Men ("Person to Person")

Jill Soloway for Transparent ("Best New Girl")

DRAMA WRITING:

Joel Fields & Joe Weisberg for The Americans ("Stingers")

David Benioff & D.B. Weiss for Game of Thrones ("Mother's Mercy")

Damon Lindelof & Jacqueline Hoyt for The Leftovers ("Two Boats and a Helicopter")

Matthew Weiner for Mad Men ("Person to Person")

Jill Soloway for Transparent ("Pilot")

MINISERIES/MOVIE DIRECTING:

Elliott Lester for Nightingale

Lisa Cholodenko for Olive Kitteridge

Peter Kosminsky for Wolf Hall

MINISERIES/MOVIE WRITING:

Frederick Mensch for Nightingale

Jane Anderson for Olive Kitteridge

Peter Straughan for Wolf Hall

MINISERIES/MOVIE ACTOR:

Richard Jenkins as Henry Kitteridge in Olive Kitteridge

Damian Lewis as Henry VIII in Wolf Hall

David Oyelowo as Peter Snowden in Nightingale

Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall

Cory Michael Smith as Kevin Coulson in Olive Kitteridge

MINISERIES/MOVIE ACTRESS:

Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall

Queen Latifah as Bessie Smith in Bessie

Frances McDormand as Olive Kitteridge in Olive Kitteridge

Mo'Nique as Ma Rainey in Bessie

Sarah Paulson as Bette and Dot Tattler in American Horror Story: Freak Show

COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Andre Braugher as Captain Ray Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Tituss Burgess as Titus Andromedon in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Tony Hale as Gary Walsh in Veep

Taran Killiam as various characters in Saturday Night Live

Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation

COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Uzo Aduba as Suzanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren in Orange Is the New Black

Anna Chlumsky as Amy Brookheimer in Veep

Allison Janney as Bonnie Plunkett in Mom

Jane Krakowski as Jacqueline Voorhees in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Chelsea Peretti as Gina Linetti in Brooklyn Nine-Nine

MINISERIES/MOVIE:

24: Live Another Day

Bessie

Nightingale

Olive Kitteridge

Wolf Hall

VARIETY SERIES:

Comedy Bang! Bang!

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Inside Amy Schumer

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Portlandia

DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Christopher Eccleston as Matt Jamison in The Leftovers

Noah Emmerich as Stan Beeman in The Americans

Joshua Jackson as Cole Lockhart in The Affair

John Slattery as Roger Sterling in Mad Men

Jussie Smollett as Jamal Lyon in Empire

DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Carrie Coon as Nora Durst in The Leftovers

Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones

January Jones as Betty Francis in Mad Men

Kiernan Shipka as Sally Draper in Mad Men

Holly Taylor as Paige Jennings in The Americans

COMEDY LEAD ACTOR:

Anthony Anderson as Andre 'Dre' Johnson in black-ish

Fred Armisen as various characters in Portlandia

Louis C.K. as Louie in Louie

Will Forte as Phil Miller in The Last Man on Earth

Andy Samberg as Jake Peralta in Brooklyn Nine-Nine

COMEDY LEAD ACTRESS:

Anna Faris as Christy Plunkett in Mom

Ellie Kemper as Kimmy Schmidt in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in The Comeback

Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation

Tracee Ellis Ross as Dr. Rainbow Johnson in black-ish

DRAMA LEAD ACTOR:

Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men

Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates in Bates Motel

Ben Mendelsohn as Danny Rayburn in Bloodline

Matthew Rhys as Philip Jennings in The Americans

Jeffrey Tambor as Maura Pfefferman in Transparent

DRAMA LEAD ACTRESS:

Lizzy Caplan as Virginia Johnson in Masters of Sex

Viola Davis as Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder

Vera Farmiga as Norma Bates in Bates Motel

Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon in Empire

Robin Wright as Claire Underwood in House of Cards

COMEDY SERIES:

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Mom

Orange Is the New Black

Parks and Recreation

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

DRAMA SERIES:

The Americans

Empire

Game of Thrones

Mad Men

Transparent

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TOTALS:

The Americans, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt - 9

Mad Men - 8

Game of Thrones, Orange Is the New Black, Transparent - 7

Olive Kitteridge, Parks and Recreation, Wolf Hall - 6

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mom - 5

black-ish, Nightingale, Veep - 4

Bessie, Bloodline, The Comeback, Empire, The Leftovers, Masters of Sex - 3

Bates Motel, House of Cards, How to Get Away with Murder, The Last Man on Earth, Louie, Portlandia - 2

24: Live Another Day, The Affair, Comedy Bang! Bang!, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Girls, Inside Amy Schumer, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Saturday Night Live - 1

Oscars Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Narcissism)

Fox Searchlight

Another year, another overlong Oscar ceremony comes to a close. The even longer and more exhausting awards season, which feels like it's starting earlier and earlier ever year, resulted in the crowning of Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Yes, that's the full title. The showbiz satire was awarded with four Oscars at Sunday night's ceremony: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and most important of all, Best Picture. For director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, this film is an answer to what many have been feeling for a long time now about the sudden proliferation of generic superhero blockbusters in the movie industry. He has said in interviews (and in the film itself) that such popcorn movies are "cultural genocide" peddled out to masses because the industry knows we'll lap it up.

To a certain extent, Iñárritu is right in that more and more superhero movies are announced every year, with Marvel and DC now devoting huge press conferences to reveal titles of movies that won't come out for the next 5-10 years. They have become more transparently business-like, now having more in common with Apple or Microsoft announcing their latest models and release dates in a clinical manner. What goes unsaid is their belief that these types of formulaic movies will never grow tiring to the public, who will keep consuming them like a bottle of beer Friday night at the end of a long work week. They take the edge off. They're relaxing, easy to take in. These movies can be dazzling and a good escapist way to spend two hours, but they usually don't last with you. There's nothing to think about at the end so it usually escapes your mind. Ambiguity is often absent, with most characters being good or bad with hardly a shade of grey in the mix.

Those movies are about finding extraordinary in the extraordinary. Audiences, at least average moviegoers, do not want to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. This is ultimately what Boyhood is and what it represents. Filmed over the course of 12 years, Boyhood received massive critical acclaim and plenty of award attention leading up to the Oscars. It was touted as the frontrunner for several months, until Birdman's final surge took hold at the industry's guild awards. The film does not have traditionally big moments, choosing to instead celebrate the ordinary days in life where nothing feels particularly extraordinary yet ultimately say so much about a person's identity and how they become who they are. It is the ultimate coming of age story about a boy in a sleepy town in Texas who may not turn into anyone particularly special, but that doesn't make his life any less fascinating. Needless to say, the film has its fair share of detractors from the general public who whine that "nothing happened" and miss the point entirely.

For members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, who vote on the Oscars, a majority found Birdman to be the better film. Many of its ardent supporters will claim that voters saw what they saw and they simply voted for the best film in the bunch. However, it is hard to ignore certain factors that undoubtedly came in to play in Birdman's victory over Boyhood. Firstly, it's about them. The average voter in the Academy is a while male over the age of 60 who has worked in the film industry, and is probably retired. The politics that Birdman espouses, which include lamenting the influx of superhero flicks and the disappearance of great art, are exactly in line with these voters and what they think. As the old adage goes, "they don't make 'em like they used to!" Second, it's loud. The subtle brilliance of Boyhood is simply harder to explain or translate to some people, while Birdman has a discrete message that it is more than proud to shout it in your face. These two factors put together were simply an unbeatable combination, to the extent that I shouldn't have been surprised at all that they gave it Best Picture.

Over the past four years, the Oscars have had a real identity crisis. They want to award great art but they also want to include movies with more mass appeal to keep regular folk interested. They voted to expand the Best Picture lineup after The Dark Knight was not nominated in 2008, allowing more popular movies to enter the category. This has worked in some cases and not at all in others, with this year being a prime example of the latter. However, an interesting pattern has emerged since 2011. They have begun to fall in love with movies about themselves. This pattern kicked off with The Artist, a movie about a silent film star grappling with the invention of the "talkies," at which point the business would change forever. Then in 2012 it was the year of Argo, a movie in which Hollywood literally solves terrorism. They then took a break last year to reward 12 Years a Slave, probably because there weren't any Hollywood allegories in the mix. But now here we are with Birdman, a film that acts not only as a mirror to the frustrated artist working in showbiz, but a mirror that enhances their features and tells them that what they do is important. What they do matters. Don't give up on your art, man.

Awarding Birdman with Best Picture also serves as a statement. These voters are saying that they're sick of all the comic book movies and that art, real art, should be what's most important above all else. Birdman is an original film with an innovative concept, but why was it rewarded over Boyhood, whose concept is perhaps just as daring and unique? What these voters might be afraid to admit (or not conscious of to begin with) is that this movie simply gave them what they wanted. What the Academy voters wanted was for a fellow artist to come along and reassure their beliefs. Many struggling artists in the industry have similar thoughts about the aforementioned "cultural genocide" that is superhero sequels and big empty blockbusters, because they're just giving the public what they want, with no substance. No unique viewpoints, no subtlety. But ultimately, Birdman is just as much fan service as any blockbuster you'll find out there. It just has a fancier label and it's catering to a more upscale market.

Want to win an Oscar? Make a movie about Hollywood. In a world that has become so niche-oriented, with people only surrounding themselves with those who think similar to them, it is no wonder that voters like to see themselves in all their artistic glory on the big screen. These starving artists who feel increasingly isolated as the world rejects their ideas have found their representation in the form of Birdman. And yet Boyhood, the unique little indie that could, coming in with a perfect score of 100 on Metacritic and presented in an innovative package, goes home with just one award, for Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette. Is Birdman really the anti-superhero movie or is it Boyhood, with a shoestring budget and no marquee stars in sight?

There is a scene in the middle of Birdman in which Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) says a line that perfectly sums up the movie and its ultimate message:

"Listen to me. I'm trying to do something important."

It remains to be seen if Birdman will hold up over the course of time or if Boyhood will be remembered as the film that should have won Best Picture but didn't - kind of like The Social Network losing to The King's Speech or Brokeback Mountain losing to Crash. For the time being though, Birdman's victory at the Oscars is reflective of a self-obsessed world full of people yelling the same empty ideas into their own echo chambers, entirely ignorant of the real beauty existing just outside their bubble.

3rd Annual Filmiest Awards - Winners (Part 2)

Welcome to part 2 of my winners announcement for the 3rd Annual Filmiest Awards! With eight trophies already handed out in part 1, we will now get to the biggest awards of them all. Click here to read or review part 1. On with the show!

The first category to be announced tonight is Best Production Design. With film being a predominately visual medium, production design is one of the most crucial elements of the filmmaking process. Whether it be a fantasy film, a period piece or contemporary cinema, special attention to color, props, background and more are paramount to a film's success.

The nominees for Best Production Design are:

Gone Girl

Production Designer: Donald Graham Burt

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Production Designer: Adam Stockhausen

Into the Woods

Production Designer: Dennis Gassner

Only Lovers Left Alive

Production Designer: Marco Bittner Rosser

Snowpiercer

Production Designer: Ondrej Nekvasil

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And the Filmiest Award goes to:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Simply put, The Grand Budapest Hotel is dripping with production design, and no other film comes close to surpassing its beauty. The vibrant colors in landscapes, the stylish wardrobe and the intricate details of every single frame make this film stick out in a year full of darker, grittier fare, even from the blockbusters. 

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Next up we have the award for Best Costume Design. Like production design, costumes can greatly enhance the visual panache of a film. Attention to detail in costume design can help bring out the style of a particular era or create a memorable image of how a character is seen and remembered for the rest of time.

The nominees for Best Costume Design are:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Costume Designer: Milena Canonero

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1

Costume Designers: Kurt and Bart

The Immigrant

Costume Designer: Patricia Norris

Into the Woods

Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood

Only Lovers Left Alive

Costume Designer: Bina Daigeler

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And the Filmiest Award goes to:

Into the Woods

While it is easy for a fantasy film to have wacky, over-the-top costumes, Into the Woods excels in displaying distinct costumes for its fairy tale characters while not being distracting. The muted tones for characters like Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) and the Baker's Wife (Emily Blunt) along with Red Riding Hood's (Lilla Crawford) striking red coat make for memorable looks, not to mention The Witch's (Meryl Streep) fabulous wardrobe.

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And now the award for Best Cinematography. The camera work on a film is essential to telling a coherent, interesting story. Innovative cinematography can actually enhance the story being told in unspoken ways, whether through placement of the camera or movement throughout a scene. These five films innovated in new and exciting ways.

The nominees for Best Cinematography are:

Birdman

Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki

Gone Girl

Cinematographer: Jeff Cronenweth

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Cinematographer: Robert Yeoman

Ida

Cinematographers: Łukasz Żal & Ryszard Lenczewski

The Immigrant

Cinematographer: Darius Khondji

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And the Filmiest Award goes to:

Birdman

Emmanuel Lubezki wins for the second year in a row for his wildly impressive cinematography in Birdman. With the entire film made to look like one continuous shot, the level of skill on display as the camera winds through the many hallways and outdoor scenes is astounding and gives the film the necessary feeling of putting on a play and all of the madness that ensues from this.

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We have now reached the big five awards. First up is the award for Best Screenplay. Without a well-structured or original screenplay, a film can be all style and no substance. The importance of a strong screenplay cannot be overstated in a film industry so willing to sacrifice story for extended action sequences with characters the audience doesn't care about. All five screenplays nominated represent originality and cleverness in the face of a changing industry.

The nominees for Best Screenplay are:

Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Gillian Flynn for Gone Girl

Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo for Birdman

Richard Linklater for Boyhood

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And the Filmiest Award goes to:

Gillian Flynn for Gone Girl

Flynn's Gone Girl novel is one of the wittiest pieces of fiction of the past few years, so when she was tasked with adapting her own novel for the big screen, there was little worry that she wouldn't do a good job. But in many ways, she actually proved herself to be an even better screenwriter. Each scene is drenched in irony, satire, pulpiness and suspense and everything after the epic twist reveal is just pure screenwriting genius. The now famous "Cool Girl" speech is already one for the ages.

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Next up is the award for Best Lead Actor. Each of the actors nominated this year truly went the extra mile in not only portraying their characters, but inhabiting them. An ambitious loner, an eager athlete, a lonely benefactor, an embittered artist and an iconic leader. These five actors were shining examples to their peers as the best actors of the year.

The nominees for Best Lead Actor are:

Steve Carell as John Eleuthère du Pont in Foxcatcher

Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler 

Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson in Birdman

David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma

Channing Tatum as Mark Schultz in Foxcatcher

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And the Filmiest Award goes to:

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler would not be half the film it is without Gyllenhaal's total commitment in every single scene. Playing a power-hungry sociopath who has read way too many self-help books, Gyllenhaal is simply on another level compared to every other actor this year. Losing a significant amount of weight, he genuinely becomes Lou Bloom, the guy everyone knows who seems a little off but continues to rise to the top, a blood-thirsty psycho you don't want to mess with out of utter fear for your life.

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The final acting award is for Best Lead Actress. The five actresses nominated this year prove that there is still room for complicated women in leading roles in film. In a sea full of movies about men, for men and starring men, these actresses are beacons of hope. More importantly, however, they are all just great performances, carrying the weight of their films on their backs.

The nominees for Best Lead Actress are:

Marion Cotillard as Ewa Cybulska in The Immigrant

Scarlett Johansson as The Woman in Under the Skin

Rosamund Pike as Amy Elliott-Dunne in Gone Girl

Jenny Slate as Donna Stern in Obvious Child

Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed in Wild

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And the Filmiest Award goes to:

Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl

The role of Amy Elliott-Dunne was one of the most widely sought after in Hollywood. It's tough to explain exactly why without spoiling Gone Girl, but needless to say, it's a fantastic part. What makes Pike's performance so special is that she brings such a cold, detachedness to a woman frustrated by life and ready to make a change. Amy is the poster child for the perfect suburban "cool girl," and Pike's steely resolve and near psychopathic line delivery makes her pop off the screen in a surprising way. While other actresses would go completely over the top with the role, Pike's eerie calmness turned this into the most chilling and memorable performance of the year.

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The second-to-last award in this presentation is Best Director. The acting, writing, cinematography, editing, score, production design and sound design are all essential elements of filmmaking, but the director is the one who brings them all together. A poorly directed film is one that is unable to create a wholly engaging piece of art for the audience. But a smart director knows the right elements needed for the story to reach its full potential. Each of these five nominated directors can say that they've created thought-provoking pieces of art through their careful guidance.

The nominees for Best Director are:

Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel

David Fincher for Gone Girl

Jonathan Glazer for Under the Skin

Jim Jarmusch for Only Lovers Left Alive

Richard Linklater for Boyhood

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And the Filmiest Award goes to:

Richard Linklater for Boyhood

Epitomizing the necessity of auteur filmmaking, Linklater is the type of director who cannot be separated from the films he makes, and Boyhood is his masterpiece. Filming the same actors every year for 12 years and piecing them together is a monumental project that could have gone wrong at any moment, so the fact that it not only came together in the end but that it's also a great movie is a modern miracle. Beyond the concept though, the simple, naturalistic dialogue present throughout the film along with the seamless editing that makes the whole experience fly by proves the confidence Linklater had in this simple, arguably universal story. No other director could have told the story of Boyhood and yet he makes it feel like my story, your story and pretty much all of our stories.

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And now we come to the award that everyone has been waiting for: Best Picture of the Year. This award goes to the movie I believed to be the absolute best of the year while also taking into account my own personal taste. It was a fantastic year in movies, and the five I've nominated here have already become modern-day classics for me and many others. But only one can win.

The nominees for Best Picture of the Year are:

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And the Filmiest Award goes to:

BOYHOOD

OK. Time to get personal. Unlike anything I have ever seen, Boyhood is an intensely personal yet universal film. Its beauty is wrapped up in individual scenes and moments that may not seem "exciting" on the surface, but that is essentially the point. The film follows the life of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) over the course of 12 years, from the age of six to 18, in addition to his mother (Patricia Arquette), his father (Ethan Hawke) and his sister (Lorelei Linklater). The moments shown in each of those 12 years are not particularly extraordinary in the traditional sense. We never see his first kiss, his first job interview, his high school graduation. Instead, we are shown beauty in the ordinary moments of life growing up, when days seem endless. And yet, by the end of the film, a full 12 years after its beginning, there is a sense that it all flew by so fast. Too fast. Despite a near three-hour running time, it never feels too long. If anything, I wanted to see more of Mason and of his family; I longed for those moments of quiet wonder when Mason was a child, even if his home-life was far from perfect.

Some characters may feel like stock characters (the abusive drunk stepdad) seen in other family dramas, but those characters are found in real life too. There is honesty in each and every scene of Boyhood that cannot be found in a sea of Transformers and run-of-the-mill superhero movies. A movie like this is special, yet not for any of the obvious reasons that make it special. No individual scenes elevate the film beyond any other family drama, yet the construction and execution completely overwhelmed me by the film's end. No other movie in 2014 tops Boyhood in reflecting the honesty of life and growing up, and for that it is the Best Picture of the Year.

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Thank you so much for reading my award winners for the year 2014 in film. Here's to a promising and fruitful 2015!

You can now view a database of every Filmiest Award winner and nominee since 2012 by clicking here.