the 2015 jdb awards

Happy post-Oscars day! Here are my personal award winners for 2015.

Also, a look back at 2014 when BOYHOOD won Picture & Director.

PICTURE

CAROL

nominees:

THE BIG SHORT

BROOKLYN 

IT FOLLOWS

MISTRESS AMERICA

SON OF SAUL

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

TANGERINE

TIMBUKTU

WILD TALES

DIRECTOR

Todd Haynes, CAROL

nominees:

Adam McKay, THE BIG SHORT

David Robert Mitchell, IT FOLLOWS 

Abderrahmane Sissako, TIMBUKTU 

Damián Szifron, WILD TALES

ACTOR

Jason Bateman, THE GIFT

nominees:

Abraham Attah, BEASTS OF NO NATION 

Leonardo DiCaprio, THE REVENANT

Géza Röhrig, SON OF SAUL 

Jacob Tremblay, ROOM

ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett, CAROL

nominees:

Nina Hoss, PHOENIX

Rinko Kikuchi, KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER

Bel Powley, THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL

Lily Tomlin, GRANDMA

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Michael Keaton, SPOTLIGHT 

nominees:

Christian Bale, THE BIG SHORT

Benicio Del Toro, SICARIO

Idris Elba, BEASTS OF NO NATION 

Jason Segel, THE END OF THE TOUR 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Mya Taylor, TANGERINE

nominees:

Greta Gerwig, MISTRESS AMERICA

Jennifer Jason Leigh, THE HATEFUL EIGHT

Érica Rivas, WILD TALES

Kristen Stewart, CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Damián Szifron, WILD TALES

nominees:

Olivier Assayas, CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch, TANGERINE 

Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig, MISTRESS AMERICA

Joel Edgerton, THE GIFT

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Adam McKay & Charles Randolph, THE BIG SHORT

nominees:

Emma Donoghue, ROOM

Donald Margulies, THE END OF THE TOUR

Nick Hornby, BROOKLYN 

Phyllis Nagy, CAROL 

ENSEMBLE

TANGERINE

nominees:

THE BIG SHORT 

SPOTLIGHT

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

WILD TALES

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

WILD TALES

nominees:

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

PHOENIX

SON OF SAUL

TIMBUKTU

DOCUMENTARY

AMY 

nominees:

FINDERS KEEPERS

IRIS

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Edward Lachman, CAROL

nominees:

Mike Gioulakis, IT FOLLOWS

Nic Knowland, THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

Emmanuel Lubezki, THE REVENANT

Sean Porter, KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER

FILM EDITING

Hank Corwin, THE BIG SHORT

nominees:

Pablo Barbieri & Damián Szifron, WILD TALES

Affonso Gonçalves, CAROL

Julio Perez IV, IT FOLLOWS

Margaret Sixel, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD 

FILM SCORE

Rich Vreeland, IT FOLLOWS

nominees:

Carter Burwell, CAROL

Cat's Eyes, THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

Ennio Morricone, THE HATEFUL EIGHT

Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips, MISTRESS AMERICA

SONG

"The Duke of Burgundy," Cat's Eyes from THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

nominee:

"Cold One," Jenny Lewis & Jonathan Rice from RICKI & THE FLASH

PRODUCTION DESIGN

CAROL 

nominees:

BRIDGE OF SPIES

BROOKLYN 

PHOENIX

SAINT LAURENT

COSTUME DESIGN

Sandy Powell, CAROL

nominees:

Paco Delgado, THE DANISH GIRL

Odile Dicks-Mireaux, BROOKLYN 

Janet Patterson, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

Anaïs Romand, SAINT LAURENT

MAKEUP & HAIR

GOODNIGHT MOMMY 

nominees:

CAROL

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

THE HATEFUL EIGHT

PHOENIX

SOUND

SON OF SAUL

nominees:

IT FOLLOWS 

THE REVENANT 

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

WILD TALES

SOUND EDITING

LOVE & MERCY

nominees:

THE BIG SHORT

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

SON OF SAUL

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS 

VISUAL EFFECTS

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

nominees:

EX-MACHINA

JUPITER ASCENDING

JURASSIC WORLD

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

top 10 films of 2015

Better late than never. Here are my Top 10 films of 2015. The jdbawards should be posted soon!

A look back at 2014. 



10. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Giddy, corny and nimble, J.J. Abrams' Star Wars sequel was a nostalgic trip with some familiar faces and fresh leads.




9. Son of Saul

Plunges into the life of a member of the Sonderkommando in close-ups and his ambiguous quest to save a boy. The atrocities are blurred, out-of-focus or suggested aurally in the haunting sound mixing--which leaves an emotional bruising effect. Particularly astounding is that this is Hungarian director László Nemes's first film.



8. Tangerine

Shot on iPhones, we follow the lives of Sin-De-Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodrigue) and Alexandra (an excellent and affecting Mya Taylor) on a whirlwind of a Christmas Eve in L.A. The bold hilarity is rooted in pain.


7. Brooklyn

While it's definitely a feel-good, old-fashioned, gold-tinted coming-of-age tale. John Crowley's elegantly directed gem, based upon Colm Toibin's novel, taps into a profound ache of separation.


6. Timbuktu

A bitterly witty and devastating fable of a cattle herder and his family within a small city under occupation.  



5. Wild Tales

Damián Szifron's spirited and sharp Argentinean anthology film delves into issues of class and violence in the modern world with a keen eye, personal extremities and dark comedy.

4. Mistress America

Another Manhattan Valentine from Noah Baumbach, who teamed up with star Greta Gerwig on the sublime Frances Ha. Mistress America is not as arresting artistically but it's a warmer film, almost John Hughes-ish (with a Dean & Britta synth score) following the travails of a Columbia grad and a misfit dreamer.


3. The Big Short

Not a big fan of Adam McKay's slapstick bro comedies, I was surprised and disarmed by his absurdist tale of absurd institutions in an absurd world. Risky, tacky, sardonic and biting with dashes into genre-breaking, The Big Short is an entertaining, on-the-nose and weirdly lithe indignation of American greed.



2. It Follows



The best horror film of the year and one of the year's most entrancing films overall, It Follows creates its own atmosphere in the Detroit suburbs with its lush photography (by Mike Gioulakis) and its terrorized, emphatic victims. Disasterpiece's score kills.



1. Carol

This one hit me immediately with Carter Burwell's haunting Glass-lite score, Edward Lachmann's photography and all of Todd Haynes' breathtaking details; visually, it's a masterwork. But within all the period sets and Sandy Powell's beguiling dress-ups, lie extraordinary, intimate performances by Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara playing a seemingly mismatched pair falling for one another in 50s New York.

And the best of the rest:

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Far from the Madding Crowd, Amy, Phoenix, The Gift, Spy, Room, Spotlight, Diary of a Teenage Girl, The End of the Tour, Saint Laurent, Beasts of No Nation, The Revenant, Sicario, The Duke of Burgundy, Love & Mercy, Clouds of Sils Maria, Grandma, Goodnight Mommy, The Hateful Eight, Ricki & the Flash, Something, Anything, Maps to the Stars, Inside Out, Finders Keepers, White God, Bridge of Spies,Trainwreck, I'll See You in My Dreams, Girlhood, All Things Must Pass, Bluebird, While We're Young, Mad Max: Fury Road, Ex-Machina, Unfriended, Testament of Youth, Iris, '71, We Are Still Here, Eastern Boys, The Wolfpack, Approaching the Elephant, Going Clear, The Final Girls, Dope

feelin' french: profite

This dreamy French remix by Kazy Lambist of Moi Je's "Profite" is magnifique.

Also loved the remixer's single, "Doing Yoga."

a pop of color: marni spring 2016 rtw collection

Asking for a recent-ish colorful fashion show, a friend of mine directed me to Marni's Spring 2016 collection which I love!