Hey there. For the past few years I have been lucky enough to be in on the voting for The Muriel Awards, an annual poll of bloggers and critics in which we honor our favorite films, performers and cinematic moments from the past year. For posterity’s sake, here’s what my ballot looked like for films released in the calendar year of 2014:
1. Blue Ruin
2. Ida
3. Boyhood
4. The Overnighters
5. We Are the Best!
6. National Gallery
7. Two Days, One Night
8. Inherent Vice
9. Force Majeure
10. Bird People
Best Lead Performance, Male
1. Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
2. Macon Blair, Blue Ruin
3. Tom Hardy, Locke
4. Joaquin Phoenix, Inherent Vice
5. Pat Healy, Cheap Thrills
Best Lead Performance, Female
1. Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
2. Agata Trzebuchowska, Ida
3. Mira Barkhammar, We are the Best!
4. Anaïs Demoustier, Bird People
5. Essie Davis, The Babadook
Best Supporting Performance, Male
1. Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
2. Edward Norton, Birdman
3. Josh Brolin, Inherent Vice
4. Fabrizio Rongione, Two Days, One Night
5. Stellan Skarsgård, Nymphomaniac: Volume 1
Best Supporting Performance, Female
1. Agata Kulesza, Ida
2. Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
3. Stacy Martin, Nymphomaniac: Volume 1
4. Qi Shu, Journey to the West
5. Tilda Swinton, Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Direction
1. Jeremy Saulnier, Blue Ruin
2. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Two Days, One Night
3. Richard Linklater, Boyhood
4. Pavel Pawlikowski, Ida
5. Lukas Moodysson, We are the Best!
Best Screenplay (original or adapted)
1. Jeremy Saulnier, Blue Ruin
2. Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice
3. Ruben Östlund, Force Majeure
4. Lukas Moodysson, Coco Moodysson, We are the Best!
5. Steven Knight, Locke
Best Cinematography
1. Ryszard Lenczewski, Łukasz Żal – Ida
2. Lauro Manda – Norte, the End of History
3. Emmanuel Lubezki – Birdman
4. Fredrik Wenzel, Force Majeure
5. Julien Hirsch, Bird People
Best Editing
1. Sandra Adair, Boyhood
2. Frederick Wiseman, National Gallery
3. Steven Hathaway, The Unknown Known
4. Julia Bloch, Blue Ruin
5. Mathilde Muyard, Bird People
Best Music (original, adapted, or compiled)
1. Birdman
2. We are the Best!
3. Inherent Vice
4. Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Documentary
1. The Overnighters
2. National Gallery
3. The Unknown Known
Best Cinematic Moment
1. Tanaquil LeClercq and Jacques d’Amboise performing the title piece on television in Afternoon of a Faun
2. “The keys are in the car”, Blue Ruin
3. “I just thought there would be more”, Boyhood
4. The look of joy on Anaïs Demoustier’s face the morning after her night flight, Bird People
5. Josh Brolin eating a chocolate covered banana, Inherent Vice
6. Agata Kulesza leaves via the window, Ida
7. The climactic chase in Nightcrawler
8. “I used to be the drummer in Marillion”, Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
9. The “avalanche” in Force Majeure
10. Donald Rumsfeld’s rictus smile, The Unknown Known
Best Cinematic Breakthrough
1. Jeremy Saulnier
2. Anaïs Demoustier
3. Richard Linklater
4. Jennifer Kent
5. Jesse Moss
Best Body of Work
1. Tilda Swinton
2. Willem Dafoe
3. Charlotte Gainsbourg
4. Edward Norton
5. Steve Coogan
Best Ensemble Performance
1. Two Days, One Night
2. Blue Ruin
3. Birdman
4. Boyhood
5. We are the Best!
10th Anniversary Award, Best Feature Film 2004
1. Vera Drake
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. My Summer of Love
4. Undertow
5. Primer
25th Anniversary Award, Best Feature Film 1989
1. Do the Right Thing
2. Santa Sangre
3. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
4. Mystery Train
5. The Killer
50th Anniversary Award, Best Feature Film 1964
1. Séance on a Wet Afternoon
2. At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
4. A Shot in the Dark
5. A Fistful of Dollars
I also contributed a few pieces of writing to the round-up of awards:
An appreciation of Blue Ruin.
My notes on Agata Kulesza, among contributions from others.
– Cole