The Hawaii Film Critics Society released its list of nominations for their year’s end, Best of 2019 List today. Leading the nominees are Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” with twelve nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Leonardo Di Caprio), Best Supporting Actor (Brad Pitt) and Best Original Screenplay (Tarantino).
In the running is Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” with ten nominations, including Best Picture and acting nods for its leads, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” received nine nominations, including Best Picture, while Sam Mende’s “1917” is up for eight awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Other titles up for multiple awards include “Joker” (seven nominations, including Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix), “Parasite” (six nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay) and “Avengers Endgame” (six nominations, including Best Visual Effects).
New categories were added this year: Best Comic Book Film, Best Sound and the Best Sci-Fi/Horror category was split in two to accommodate more titles. As always, the HFCS selections tend to skewer a wide variety of tastes, as “Frozen II” (three nominations, including Best Animated Film), “Ford V Ferrari” (three nominations, including Best Sound), “Rocketman” (three nominations, including Best Song) and “Booksmart” (three nominations, including Best First Film) are all recognized. So is “Jojo Rabbit” (four nominations, including Scarlett Johansson for Best Supporting Actress) and “Us” (four nominations, including Lupita Nyong’o for Best Actress).
This year, the Best Hawaiian Film nominees were festival favorites that garnered strong word of mouth: from the Big Island, “Stoke,” the comedy/drama by Phillips Payson and Zoe Eisenberg, “August at Akiko’s,” the meditative drama from Christopher Makoto Yogi and “The Islands,” the Chiefess Kapiolani historical drama from Timothy A Chey. Representing Oahu is “Mauka to Makai,” a day in the life drama from Alika Maikau and Jonah Okano, and “Ho’omau,” the visually striking historical action drama from Kenji Doughty. Past winners in this category include the Alexander Bocchieri/Stacey Hayashi WWII drama “Go For Broke” (Oahu) and Brian Kohne’s 1971-set murder mystery,“Kuleana” (Maui).
At the other end of the spectrum, “Cats” will get to “compete” with other Worst Film of 2019 nominees “Rambo: Last Blood,” “Glass,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “Men in Black: International.”
The Hawaii Film Critics Society, which was founded in 2015 and recently added their newest member (West Hawaii Today film critic Gary Cogill), will vote on the established nominees next week and release their final tally on Monday, January 13th.
BEST PICTURE:
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Parasite
1917
The Irishman
Marriage Story
BEST DIRECTOR:
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Sam Mendes, 1917
Bong Joon Ho, Parasite
Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
BEST ACTOR:
Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Robert DeNiro, The Irishman
Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes
BEST ACTRESS:
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Lupita Nyong’o, Us
Awkwafina, The Farewell
Saorise Ronan, Little Women
Charlize Theron, Bombshell
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Al Pacino, The Irishman
Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers
Margot Robbie, Bombshell
Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit
Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Marriage Story
Dolemite is My Name
Parasite
Us
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Dark Waters
A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood
Joker
BEST ART DIRECTION:
1917
Joker
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
The Irishman
Parasite
BEST COSTUME DESIGN:
Jojo Rabbit
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Little Women
The Irishman
Rocketman
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
1917
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
A Hidden Life
Joker
Parasite
BEST EDITING:
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
1917
The Irishman
Marriage Story
Ford V Ferrari
BEST ANIMATED FILM:
Toy Story 4
Frozen II
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Abominable
The Secret Lives of Pets 2
BEST DOCUMENTARY:
American Factory
Apollo 11
Once Child Nation
Honeyland
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
BEST MAKE-UP:
Joker
Rocketman
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
The Irishman
Judy
BEST SOUND:
1917
Ford V Ferrari
Avengers Endgame
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
John Wick: Chapter 3
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
1917
Joker
Marriage Story
Jojo Rabbit
Us
BEST SONG:
“I’m Gonna Love Me Again,” Rocketman
“Into the Unknown,” Frozen II
“Spirit,” The Lion King
“Speechless,” Aladdin
“Stand Up,” Harriet
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Alita: Battle Angel
Avengers Endgame
1917
Ad Astra
BEST STUNT WORK:
Avengers Endgame
1917
John Wick Chapter 3
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Ford V Ferrari
BEST NEW FILMMAKER:
Melinda Matsoukas, Queen and Slim
Chinonye Chukwu, Clemency
Olivia Wilde, Booksmart
Robert D. Krzykowski, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then Bigfoot
Tyler Nilsson and Michael Schwartz, The Peanut Butter Falcon
BEST FIRST FILM:
Melina Mansoukas, Queen & Slim
Lorene Scafaria, Hustlers
Olivia Wilde, Booksmart
Tom Harper, Wild Rose
Stephen Merchant, Fighting with My Family
BEST OVERLOOKED FILM:
Long Shot
Motherless Brooklyn
Wild Rose
Booksmart
The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then Bigfoot
BEST VOCAL/MOTION CAPTURE PERFORMANCE:
Jenny Slate, The Secret Lives of Pets 2
Kristen Bell, Frozen II
Josh Brolin, Avengers Endgame
Chloe Bennet, Abominable
Mark Hamill, Child’s Play
BEST HORROR FILM:
Us
It: Chapter Two
Pet Sematary
Ready or Not
Midsommar
BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE:
Avengers Endgame
Shazam!
Joker
Captain Marvel
Spider-Man: Far from Home
BEST SCI-FI FILM:
Alita: Battle Angel
Ad Astra
Terminator: Dark Fate
Avengers: Endgame
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Parasite (South Korea)
Pain & Glory (Spain)
Portrait of A Lady on Fire (France)
Atlantics (Senegal/France/ Belgium)
Non-Fiction (France)
BEST HAWAIIAN FILM:
Stoke, dir. Zoe Eisenberg and Phillips Payson (Big Island)
Mauka to Makai, dir. Alika Maikau and Jonah Okano (Oahu)
Ho’omau, dir. Kenji Doughty (Oahu)
August at Akiko’s, dir. Christopher Makoto Yogi (Big Island)
The Islands, dir. Timothy A. Chey (Big Island)
WORST FILM OF 2019:
Cats
Rambo: Last Blood
Men in Black: International
Charlie’s Angels
Glass