HAWAII FILM CRITICS SOCIETY 2019 NOMINEES LIST

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