2016

Jackie (Director: Pablo Larraín)

Nominees: Sing Street, Personal Shopper, Arrival, Zootopia, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Nocturnal Animals, Tower, Love and Friendship, Cameraperson

Oscars Pick: Moonlight

Nominees: Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Lion, Manchester by the Sea

I was not on the same page as others in regards to this film year. Several movies people called great, I saw as good, and their good I saw as okay or flat out awful. So 2016 was at times about being disappointed to some degree or another -- and yeah, with 1 exception, my nominees differ from Oscars. Not that I disliked anything the Academy nominated (Lion being the exception) I was simply in a different groove.

Picking my best was difficult as I was torn between two: Sing Street and Jackie - an unconventional biopic, historical piece and character study that exposes the myth builder, while also extolling the need for such myths. And it manages to juggle this seeming contradiction without being contradictory. (I think many people know myths are just that, but also acknowledge that we buy into them because they can strengthen us, give us hope, give us something to believe in when times are dark).

Compelling nightmarish storytelling coupled with (IMHO) Portman's greatest performance, and an evocative score, made this one of the best movies of the year. In truth, I don't have a big review in me, and this film deserves one, which critic Guy Lodge provided with his insights posted at Variety

My Top 75 from 2016

Actors? Don Cheadle's directorial debut is often described as chaotic or messy, but I think that was the intent. I believe Don was trying to make a movie as music, to mirror the jazzy, free-form style of its subject. Like Jackie, Miles Ahead is not a straightforward biography and was more about capturing the spirit, the magnetism of the man. While the film isn't a masterpiece, it earns its points for Cheadle's impressive tour de force performance.

Note: While it did play theatrically, I elected to place, and award O.J.: Made in America in the miniseries category

Best Actor: Don Cheadle, Miles Ahead
Honorable Mentions:
Bridges, Pine & Foster, Hell or High Water * Shahab Hosseini, The Salesman * Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic * Ryan Gosling, La La Land * Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea * Masahiro Motoki, The Long Excuse * Joel Edgerton, Loving

Supporting Actor: Sam Neill, Hunt For the Wilderpeople

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Jackie (pictured top)
Honorable Mentions: 

Elina Vaska, Mellow Mud * Amy Adams, Arrival * Paula Beer, Frantz * Sarah Paulson, Blue Jay * Narges Rashidi, Under the Shadow * Ruth Negga, Loving * Viola Davis, Fences * Adèle Haenel, The Unknown Girl * Rebecca Hall, Christine * Sandra Hüller, Toni Erdmann 

Supporting Actress: Lily Gladstone, Certain Women (pictured left)

Other Actresses I liked: Kate Beckinsale, Love and Friendship * Emma Stone, La La Land * Sally Hawkins, Maudie * Madina Nalwanga & Lupita Nyong'o, Queen of Katwe * Sabine Timoteo, The Chronicles of Melanie * Jessica Chastain, Miss Sloane, and the ladies from "In Between"

< Previous * Next >

Home

2015

Ex Machina (Director: Alex Garland)

Nominees: Inside Out, Sicario, Room, Mustang, Mr. Holmes, Faults, Steve Jobs, Spotlight, Listen to Me Marlon, 45 Years, Our Little Sister

Oscars Pick: Spotlight

Nominees: Bridge of Spies, Room, The Big Short, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, Brooklyn

Ex Machina tells the story of a programmer who is invited by his employer to administer the Turing test to an android with artificial intelligence (wiki). 

While it came out early in the film season (April) and had some stiff competition, Ex Machina held fast to the top spot to the very end. It works even though the subject (the question of whether singularity/sentience can be had in a machine) has been explored countless times in books, TV, and film (Heck, when I first saw the previews I thought it was riffing on the Outer Limits episode “Valerie 23”). 

One word best describes the film for me, “seduction”. Just as the A.I. beguiles the protagonist, so to am I beguiled, seduced by the ideas -the science and philosophy and psychology- presented here. There are a lot of talking heads in the flick, but what they discuss is enthralling. And underneath it all is an ever-building tension... the promise of violence to come... with twists and turns to keep you off balance.

At the heart of the piece is a cast of fully committed (and convincing) actors: Oscar Isaac is intimidating as Nathan (our mad scientist.) Domhnall Gleeson (who was in just about everything in 2015) contrasts Nathan's severe and dominant personality nicely, as his Caleb is rather sensitive and awkward. And in between them is Alicia Vikander (who was in just about everything else in 2015). She has these graceful robotic movements, but also brings a human vulnerability to the role - you can't help but be drawn to and identify with, Caleb's need to protect her. And with a second viewing, it's clear she knows she can use this to her advantage. Next to Metropolis' Maria, Alicia's doe-eyed Ava might be science fictions greatest Femme Fatale.

In addition, the film features an intelligent script, thoughtful set design (I like the stark contrasts between the lush exteriors and cold, hard interiors), good looking SFX (done on a low budget), an eerie score and sharp cinematography and direction - its Alex Garland’s finest effort IMHO.

Very, VERY close to Machina was Pixar's amazing Inside Out (click title to see short review). Denis Villeneuve's intense and thought-provoking Sicario, with its ever-present sense of dread (which is accentuated by the score.) And Room a moving drama elevated by top-notch performances (and yes, I liked the 2nd half as much as the first, for what it said about the characters and how they dealt with the aftermath of their captivity.)

Fury Road? Eh, it was okay, but I wasn't as thrilled with it as others were. While it started off fine, after a while I became sick to death of explosions and car chases and weirdo mutants.

Other films I liked: Ixcanul, Dheepan, Brooklyn, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Cemetery of Splendour, Theeb, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, X+Y, Land of Mine, Ant-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, People, Places, Things, Son of Saul, Black Mass, The Big Short, Victoria, Anomalisa and Slow West

Best Actor: Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs (also Slow West)
Honorable Mentions:
Ian McKellen, Mr. Holmes * Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Dheepan * Vincent Lindon, The Measure of a Man * Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant * Oscar Isaacs, Ex Machina * Leland Orser, Faults * Jacob Tremblay, Room * Tom Courtenay, 45 Years * Tom Hardy, Legend * Rolf Lassgård, A Man Called Ove

Best Actress: Brie Larson, Room
Honorable Mentions: 

Kirin Kiki, Sweat Bean * Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years * Emily Blunt, Sicario * Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road * Kate Winslet & Judy Davis, The Dressmaker * Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Faults * Rinko Kikuchi, Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter * Güneş Nezihe Şensoy, Doğa Zeynep Doğuşlu, Elit Işcan, Tuğba Sunguroğlu and Ilayda Akdoğan, Mustang * +

Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro, Sicario

Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina

+ I ran out of room for my actresses, but I also liked the leads in Our Little Sister (Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho & Suzu Hirose)



< Previous * Next >

Home

The Felix: My Oscars before there were Oscars - 1913 to 1917

1913-14

Cabiria  (April 1914 – Director: Giovanni Pastrone)

Nominees: Traffic in Souls (Nov 1913), Twilight of a Woman's Soul (Nov 1913), The Student of Prague (Aug 1913), Ingeborg Holm (Oct 1913), Sangue Bleu (July 1914), Germinal (Oct 1913)

Set during the second Punic War (aka the Hannibal war of 218-201 BC) Cabiria might have too many characters and too many plot-lines to keep track of, and too many intertitles trying to explain it all. But it’s also a dizzying epic, with resplendent costumes, sets, and props so huge they caught the eye and inspired directors like C.B. DeMille and D.W. Griffith. (Martin Scorsese stated that director Giovanni Pastrone invented the historical epic).

The sprawling adventure is thankfully anchored by the young Cabiria and the first cinematic appearance of the strongman Maciste - who helps rescue the girl from being sacrificed to the God Moloch, by order of a cruel Carthaginian king.

This ambitious undertaking moves at a good clip and never gets tiresome. In total - Cabiria is an entertaining and important piece of film history and innovation. I didn't see a feature to match it this season.

That's not to say my nominees were slouches - Germinal could be Albert Capellani's crowning achievement (I've not seen Les Misérables), and as the reviewer at Silents, Please! notes, Nino Oxilia's Sangue Bleu is lifted by a solid lead performance, and eye catching composition, lighting, mise en scène, and costume design.

Acting? This blogger pens a spot-on write-up of S1, while singing the praises of my top female performer... ithankyou.com. Nielsen also won the prize for her screwball antics in Engelein (Little Angel). As an Asta fan, I'm thrilled to make her my first 'best actress'.

Best Actor: René Navarre, Fantômas
Honorable Mentions:
Henry Krauss, Germinal
Henry B. Walthall, Judith of Bethulia

Best Actress: Asta Nielsen, S1 and Engelein
Honorable Mentions:
Sylvie, Germinal
Hilda Borgström, Ingeborg Holm
Francesca Bertini, Sangue Bleu
Bessie Eyton, The Spoilers
Nina Chernova, Twilight of a Woman’s Soul

1914-15

The Italian (Jan 1915 – Director: Reginald Barker)

Nominees: The Bargain (Dec 1914), The Captive (April 1915), Hypocrites (Jan 1915)

Birth of a Nation (Feb 1915) is brilliant for its cinematic achievements and awful for its content  - and I’m not speaking of a director chronicling an evil, but advocating it. There’s a difference between a movie that focuses its lens on a racist, and Birth, which in its second half comes off like KKK propaganda... which made me sick to my stomach. Despite its technical importance, I can't in all good conscience name it as my Best Picture.

I elected instead to go with The Italian. It too had its unfortunate stereotypes, but it at least respected its central figure and showed sympathy for the plight of the immigrant.  The movie tells of a Gondolier named Beppo who comes to America to make something of himself so that he can marry his sweetheart. The film touches on themes and plot points that will become staples in future immigrant tales. There’s all manner of hardships, injustice, and corruption. But there’s also some warmth, and a little kindness (as when a stranger helps Annette when she first steps off the boat and can’t find her intended.)

The story centers on a terrible loss, and a plan of revenge (an idea that will be explored in Victor Sjöström’s A Man There Was). It offers no easy solution, no pat moral conclusion. Life is hard and unfair and we can only hope this couple's love can endure.

Reginald Barker and his cinematographer Joseph H August make this an exceptional looking picture - compositionally impressive and featuring a close-up shot that is one for the ages: It zeroes in on Beppo after he is robbed. The camera shakes around him as tears flow and anger builds. It’s a knockout shot.

Actor George Beban does a lot of the heavy lifting and shows himself as adept at comedy (the bit with the flowers cracked me up) as he is with tragedy. His heartbreak was shatteringly real and honest.  And while there are a few iffy bits (the medical absolutes seem far-fetched and contrived for one). Overall it’s an important and moving film.

One of my nominations (The Bargain) was also from Director Barker and Producer William Ince and acted as the feature film debut of William S. Hart. The others, an underrated picture from CB DeMille, that's boosted by the efforts of my top actress, and my first feature nomination from a woman director, Lois Weber.

Also of note: Max Sennett released the first full-length comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance (Dec 1914)

Best Actor: George Beban, The Italian
Honorable Mentions:
Sessue Hayakawa, The Typhoon
Henry B. Walthall, The Avenging Conscience

Best Actress: Blanche Sweet, The Captive
Honorable Mentions:
Marie Dressler, Tillie’s Punctured Romance
Beatriz Michelena, Salomy Jane

1915-16

The Cheat (Dec 1915 – Director: Cecil B. DeMille)

Nominees: Hell's Hinges (March 1916), Les Vampires (Nov 1915), After Death (Dec 1915), Il fuoco (April 1916)

Louis Feuillade's 7-hour serial Les Vampires is considered by many, the cream of the crop for this season. And while thrilling and humorous, like most serials the repetition can get to be a chore. The knotty tale centers on a secret criminal society and is boosted by the star-making performance by Musidora as Irma Vep. However, the camera work is rather static and lingers on scenes a bit too long. It’s a goodie but one that can test the endurance, even when viewed over the course of 4 days.

Other nominees include Yevgeni Bauer's After Death . A psychological melodrama about a man obsessed with a woman who killed herself over him. It features virtuoso camera work, especially in a 3-minute party scene where Bauer utilizes pans and zooms that were not common for the era. I was also taken with W.S. Hart's moralistic and explosive Hell's Hinges, which is considered one of the great westerns of the silent era. It's noteworthy for its sincere acting and assertive direction.

And above those C.B. DeMille's The Cheat,  which concerns a woman who embezzles $10,000 and in desperation, turns to a Burmese ivory trader who will replace the stolen money, if she agrees to sleep with him. The suave Sessue Hayakawa is a standout as the trader. He lights up the screen with his reserved, yet menacing performance and acts as a welcome counter to the exaggerated gestures seen in the other actors. While DeMille's best known for his full-blown spectacles, I was hooked by this more intimate, urgent melodrama, And I was impressed by the costumes, Alvin Wyckoff's photography, the edits and lighting (all notably represented in a sequence filmed in silhouette, through a shoji screen, which is suddenly marked with blood. And this is just one of several brilliant shots found in this feature). Yes, it can be lurid and flamboyant, but it held my attention to the end.

Best Actor: Sessue Hayakawa, The Cheat
Honorable Mentions:
William S. Hart, Hell's Hinges * Douglas Fairbanks, The Half-Breed & The Good Bad Man * Tyrone Power Sr., Where Are My Children?

Best Actress: Musidora, Les vampires
Honorable Mentions:
Viola Dana, Children of Eve * Francesca Bertini, Assunta Spina * Anna Q. Nilsson, Regeneration * Pina Menichelli, Il fuoco

1916-17

A Man There Was (Jan 1917 – Director: Victor Sjöström)

Nominees: The Dying Swan (Jan 1917), Intolerance (Aug 1916), Judex (Dec 1916), Maciste the Warrior (Dec 1916)

D.W. Griffith's Intolerance was an ambitious undertaking, and an attempt to make amends after critics slammed him for the racist overtones in his film Birth of a Nation. While the production values are incredible, for me it is not as complete success dramatically as it can get too soapy (the Dear One) or broad (The Mountain Girl). Also, some tales and characters are not as interesting as others. But when it’s on, it’s thoroughly engaging and its message resonates just as soundly today as it did in 1916. The American story is the most fully realized, the one set in Babylon the most visually spectacular.  

A more intimate and raw look at man’s inhumanity to man was had in A Man There Was. This dark, gut-wrenching story was based on Henrik Ibsen's ‘Terje Vigen’ and was directed and performed by one of the early masters of Swedish cinema Victor Sjöström

It‘s about a sailor who, during times of war, attempts to sneak past British blockades in order to bring back supplies for his starving family. He is captured and sent to prison and when he returns he finds they have died. Later on, he is afforded the opportunity to avenge their deaths, but will he do so?

This thing just tore the breath from my lungs, and while it might not have the epic scale of Griffith’s classic, it still looks incredible (it was the most expensive film made in Sweden at the time), and was even more effective in relaying its message and making me feel the aching loss and desperation in its characters. Told in flashbacks, against Julius Jaenzon's beautifully filmed raging seas (with the memorable image of a half-mad Terje on its shores), it is as powerfully acted as it is directed, and the emotion feels earned, not forcefully wrung out of me as it does with Intolerance.

Best Actor: Victor Sjöstrom, A Man There Was
Honorable Mentions: Elliott Dexter, A Romance of the Redwoods 

Best Actress: Marguerite Clark, Snow White
Honorable Mentions:
Norma Talmadge, The Devil’s Needle * Mary Pickford, Pride of the Clan * Doris Kenyon, A Girl's Folly & The Ocean Waif * Vera Karalli, The Dying Swan * Florence La Badie, Woman in White

Next > 

Home

The Directors

A cataloging of those who directed Felix's Best Pictures () = nominees

Giovanni Pastrone – Cabiria (Nominees: Il fuoco, Maciste the Warrior)
Reginald Barker – The Italian (Nominees: The Bargain)
Cecil B. DeMille – The Cheat (Nominees: The Captive, The 10 Commandments)
Charlie Chaplin - The Kid (Nominees: Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, Monsieur Verdoux)

Maurice Tourneur - The Blue Bird 

D.W. Griffith - Broken Blossoms (Nominees: Intolerance) 

Robert Wiene - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Victor Sjöström - A Man There Was (Nominees: Ingeborg Holm, The Outlaw and His Wife, Ingmarssönerna, Love's Crucible, Phantom Carriage, He Who Gets Slapped, The Scarlet Letter, The Wind)

F.W. Murnau - Nosferatu (Nominees: Sunrise, City Girl, Tabu)

Abel Gance - La Roue (Nominees: J'accuse, Napoleon, Blind Venus)

Buster Keaton - Sherlock Jr. (Nominees: The Navigator, Seven Chances, Go West, The General, Steamboat Bill Jr. The Cameraman)

Erich von Stroheim - Greed (Nominees: Blind Husbands, Foolish Wives, The Wedding March)

Sergei M. Eisenstein - Battleship Potemkin (Nominees: Strike)

Fritz Lang - Metropolis (Nominees: Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, Die Nibelungen pts 1 & 2, M, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, You Only Live Once, Fury, Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, The Big Heat)

Carl Th. Dreyer - The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet (Nominees: The Parson's Widow, Vampyr, Day of Wrath) 

Dziga Vertov - Man With a Movie Camera

Robert Siodmak - People on Sunday (Nominees: The Killers)

Edgar G. Ulmer - People on Sunday

Howard Hawks - Scarface, Bringing Up Baby (Nominees: His Girl Friday, Ball of Fire, Red River, Rio Bravo)

Erle C. Kenton - Island of Lost Souls

Jean Vigo - L’Atalante

Alfred Hitchcock - The 39 Steps, Vertigo (Nominees: The Lodger, Sabotage, The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, Foreign Correspondent, Shadow of a Doubt, Lifeboat, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, The Wrong Man, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie)

George Stevens - Swing Time (Nominees: A Place In The Sun, Shane, The More The Merrier, Talk of the Town)

David Hand - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Nominees: Bambi)

John Ford - Grapes of Wrath, The Searchers (Nominees: 3 Bad Men, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, The Quiet Man)

Orson Welles - Citizen Kane (Nominees: The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil, The Trial, Chimes at Midnight, The Other Side of the Wind)

Kenji Mizoguchi - The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Nominees: The Water Magician, Sisters of the Gion, Flame of My Love, Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff, A Story from Chikamatsu, Street of Shame)

Robert Bresson - Diary of a Country Priest (Nominees: Au Hasard Balthazar)

Michael Curtiz - Casablanca (Nominees: Captain Blood)
William A. Wellman - The Ox-Bow Incident (Nominees: Public Enemy)
Laurence Olivier - Henry V
Marcel Carné - Children of Paradise (Nominees: Port of Shadows)

William Wyler - The Best Years of Our Lives (Nominees: Roman Holiday, Dodsworth, The Good Fairy, Little Foxes)
Michael Powell - Black Narcissus (Nominees: A Matter of Life and Death, The Red Shoes)
Vittorio De Sica - Bicycle Thieves (Nominees: Umberto D, Shoeshine, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis)
Carol Reed - The Third Man (Nominees: Odd Man Out)

Nicholas Ray - In a Lonely Place (Nominees: Johnny Guitar)
Elia Kazan – On The Waterfront (Nominees: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Face in the Crowd, Wild River, America, America)
Akira Kurosawa - Ikiru (Nominees: Stray Dog, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, High and Low, Red Beard, Dersu Uzala, Kagemusha, Ran)
Yasujirō Ozu - Tokyo Story (Nominees: A Story of Floating Weeds, Late Spring, Floating Weeds, The Only Son)

Satyajit Ray - Pather Panchali (Nominees: Aparajito, Apur Sansar, The Music Room, Devi, Kanchenjungha, The Big City, Charulata, Days and Nights in the Forest, Jana Aranya)
Ingmar Bergman - The Seventh Seal (Nominees: Smiles of a Summer Night, Wild Strawberries, The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, Persona, Fanny and Alexander)
Alain Resnais - Hiroshima Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad (Nominees: Muriel, The War Is Over, Providence, Mon Oncle d’Amérique, Love Unto Death)
Billy Wilder - The Apartment (Nominees: Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole. Witness For the Prosecution. Some Like it Hot)

Masaki Kobayashi - Harakiri (Nominees: The Human Condition, Samurai Rebellion, The Inheritance)
Federico Fellini - 8½ (Nominees: I Vitelloni, La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, Amarcord, The Ship Sails On, Orchestral Rehersal)
Grigori Kozintsev - Hamlet (Nominees: King Lear, The New Babylon)
Seijun Suzuki - The Story of a Prostitute

Luis Buñuel - L'Age d'Or, Belle de Jour (Nominees: Él, Viridiana, Young and Damned, Wuthering Heights, Nazarin, The Young One, Simon of the Desert, The Exterminating Angel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire)
Sergio Leone - Once Upon a Time in the West (Nominees: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in America)
Costa-Gavras - Z (Nominees: The Confession)
Bob Rafelson - Five Easy Pieces

Robert Altman - McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Nominees: The Player, Short Cuts)
Bernardo Bertolucci - Last Tango in Paris (Nominees: The Conformist, The Last Emperor)
François Truffaut - Day For Night (Nominees: The 400 Blows)
Roman Polanski - Chinatown (Nominees: Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby)

Steven Spielberg - Schindler’s List (Nominees: Jaws, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, War of the Worlds)
Carlos Saura - Cria Cuervos (Nominees: Cousin Angelica, Elisa My Love, Deprisa, Deprisa, Ana and the Wolves)
Woody Allen - Annie Hall (Nominees: Crimes and Misdemeanors, Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days, Midnight in Paris, Hanna and Her Sisters, Love and Death, Blue Jasmine)
Terrence Malick - Days of Heaven (Nominees: Badlands, Thin Red Line)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder - The Marriage of Maria Braun (Nominations: Veronika Voss, Lola, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Chinese Roulette, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Fear of Fear)

Robert Redford - Ordinary People (Nominees: Quiz Show)
Wolfgang Petersen - Das Boot
Werner Herzog - Fitzcarraldo (Nominees: Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Every Man For Himself, and God Against All, Stroszek, Grizzly Man)

Chris Marker - Sans Soleil (Nominees: The Last Bolshevik, Remembrance of Things to Come)
Terry Gilliam - Brazil (Nominees: Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
Neil Jordan - Mona Lisa (Nominees: The Crying Game)
Miloš Forman - Amadeus: Directors Cut (Nominees: One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest)

Wim Wenders - Wings of Desire (Nominees: Paris, Texas)
Isao Takahata - Graves of the Fireflies (Nominees: Only Yesterday)
Michael Verhoeven - The Nasty Girl
Zhang Yimou - Raise the Red Lantern (Nominees: Ju Dou, Hero)

Clint Eastwood – Unforgiven (Nominees: Million Dollar Baby, In A Perfect World, High Plains Drifter, Outlaw Josey Wales, Letters From Iwo Jima, Gran Torino)
Krzysztof Kieslowski - Three Colors: Red (Nominees: The Double Life of Veronique, 3 Colors: Blue, 3 Colors: White)
Hirokazu Kore-eda - Maborosi (Nominees: Still Walking, Nobody Knows, Our Little Sister)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf – A Moment of Innocence (Nominees: The Silence, Gabbeh, Marriage of the Blessed, The President)

Hayao Miyazaki - Princess Mononoke (Nominees: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Porko Roso)
Alex Proyas - Dark City
Paul Thomas Anderson - Magnolia (Nominees: Hard Eight, There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza)
Edward Yang - Yi Yi

Wes Anderson – The Royal Tenenbaums (Nominees: Rushmore, Fantastic Mr. Fox. Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Moonrise Kingdom)
Pedro Almodóvar – Talk to Her (Nominees: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Flowers of my Secret, Broken Embraces, All About My Mother, Volver, Pain & Glory)
Sofia Coppola – Lost in Translation (Nominees: The Bling Ring)
Michel Gondry – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Cristi Puiu – The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Guillermo del Toro - Pan’s Labyrinth (Nominees: The Devil's Backbone)
John Carney - Once (Nominees: Sing Street)
Charlie Kaufman – Synecdoche, New York

Jason Reitman - Up in the Air (Nominees: Juno)
Debra Granik - Winter’s Bone (Nominees: Leave No Trace)
Martin Scorsese – Hugo 3D (Nominees: The Last Waltz, Taxi Driver, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Age of Innocence, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, The Last Temptation of Christ, The Aviator, The Departed, The Irishman)
Christian Petzold - Barbara (Nominees: Yella, Phoenix, Transit, Afire)

Andrei Tarkovsky - Andrei Rublev (Nominees: Ivan's Childhood, Solaris, Mirror, Stalker, Nostalghia)
Theo Angelopoulos - The Travelling Players (Nominees: Eternity and a Day, Landscape in the Mist)
Yermek Shinarbayev - Revenge
Craig Gillespie - I, Tonya

Alexander Payne - Nebraska (Nominees: About Schmidt, Sideways)
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Birdman (Nominees: Babel, Amores Perros)
Alex Garland - Ex Machina
Pablo Larraín - Jackie (Nominees: Spencer)

Barry Jenkins - If Beale Street Could Talk
Bong Joon-ho - Parasite (Nominees: Memories of Murder, The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer)

Florian Zeller - The Father 

Jane Campion - The Power of the Dog (Nominees: The Piano)

Todd Field - TÁR
Yorgos Lanthimos - Poor Things (Nominees: The Favourite)


Top Nominated Directors Without a Win...

Mikio Naruse: 7 titles - The Sound of the Mountain, Lightning, Scattered Clouds, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Mother, Wife! Be Like a Rose! Yearning
Joel Coen: 6 titles - Fargo, Miller’s Crossing, Blood Simple, O’ Brother Where Art Thou, True Grit, A Serious Man

Ernst Lubitsch: 6 titles - The Oyster Princess, The Doll, Trouble in Paradise, Ninotchka, Shop Around the Corner, To Be or Not to Be

David Lean: 5 titles - Doctor Zhivago, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Brief Encounter, Lawrence of Arabia

Stanley Kubrick: 5 titles - Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, 2001 a Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon, The Shining

Other greats whose films never won a Felix include? Wong Kar Wai, Ang Lee, Hal Ashby, Mrinal Sen, Sidney Lumet, František Vláčil, Jean Luc Godard

Home