2002 Endy Awards

These are the 2002 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best in that year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Endy Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I've seen the movie in question. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order and the winners are bolded. And the Endy goes to. . .

Best Picture:

1. Blissfully Yours
2. Golden Chicken
3. Morvern Callar
4. My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
5. Punch-Drunk Love

Best Director:

1. Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
2. Claire Denis, Friday Night
3. Andrew Lau & Alan Mak, Infernal Affiars
4. Lynne Ramsay, Morvern Callar
5. Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love

Despite another pair of terrific films this year (that makes nine he directed in the three years 2002-2004), Johnnie To does not pick up his sixth Best Director Endy this year. Instead, I'm giving it to Paul Thomas Anderson for my favorite of his films, one of the weirdest, sweetest romances of the century so far.

Best Actor:

1. Steve Coogan, 24 Hour Party People
2. Nicholas Cage, Adaptation
3. Tony Leung, Infernal Affairs
4. Andy Lau, Infernal Affairs
5. Adam Sandler, Punch-Drunk Love

Lau and Leung also gave terrific performances in comedies this year (Fat Choi Spirit and Chinese Odyssey 2002), but I'm going with their redefinitions of the cop/triad genre icons for their nominations.

Best Actress:

1. Valérie Lemercier, Friday Night
2. Sandra Ng, Golden Chicken
3. Samantha Morton, Morvern Callar
4. Sammi Cheng, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
5. Thandie Newton, The Truth About Charlie

Supporting Actor:

1. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Punch-Drunk Love
2. Lau Ching-wan, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
3. Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York
4. Tony Leung, Hero
5. Anthony Wong, Infernal Affairs

This is Daniel Day-Lewis's second Endy. He will have won in 2007 for There Will Be Blood.

Supporting Actress:

1. Isabelle Huppert, 8 Women
2. Ludivine Sagnier, 8 Women
3. Meryl Streep, Adaptation
4. Maggie Cheung, Hero
5. Emily Watson, Punch-Drunk Love 

Original Screenplay:

1. Jeffrey Lau, Chinese Odyssey 2002
2. Samson Chiu & Matt Chow, Golden Chicken
3. Wai Ka-fai, Yau Nai-hoi & Au Kin-yee, My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
4. Hong Sangsoo, On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate
5. Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love

Back-to-back wins for Wai, Yau & Au. They won in 2003 (along with Yip Tin-shing) for Running on Karma.

Adapted Screenplay:

1. David Benioff, 25th Hour
2. Charlie & Donald Kaufman, Adaptation
3. Claire Denis & Emmanuèle Bernheim, Friday Night
4. Scott Frank & Jon Cohen, Minority Report
5. Lynne Ramsay & Liana Dognini, Morvern Callar

Is there anything more Charlie Kaufman than the fact that the Academy nominated his fictional twin brother for an Oscar, but then gave the award to a Holocaust movie?

Non-English Language Film:

1. Blissfully Yours (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
2. Fat Choi Spirit (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai)
3. Golden Chicken (Samson Chiu)
4. My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai)
5. Russian Ark (Alexander Sokurov)

Documentary Film:

1. Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore)
2. Century of the Self (Adam Curtis)
3. Slow Century (Lance Bangs)
4. Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz)
5. Woody Allen: A Life in Film (Richard Schickel)

Animated Film:

1. Ice Age (Chris Wedge)
2. Mike's New Car (Pete Docter & Roger Gould)

Unseen Film:

1. Femme Fatale (Brian DePalma)
2. One Hour Photo (Mark Romanek)
3. Funny Ha Ha (Andrew Bujalski)
4. So Close (Corey Yuen)
5. The Son (The Dardenne Brothers)

Some other good stuff not nominated, films by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Lee Changdong in particular. 

Film Editing:

1. The Century of the Self
2. Infernal Affairs
3. Morvern Callar
4. My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
5. Punch-Drunk Love

Cinematography:

1. Friday Night
2. Hero
3. Morvern Callar
4. Punch-Drunk Love
5. Russian Ark

Tough to leave out Far from Heaven, the House of Flying Daggers of suburban melodramas.

Art Direction:

1. Gangs of New York
2. Hero
3. Minority Report
4. Russian Ark
5. The Two Towers

Costume Design:

1. Catch Me If You Can
2. Far from Heaven
3. Gangs of New York
4. Hero
5. Russian Ark

Make-up:

1. 28 Days Later
2. Attack of the Clones
3. Gangs of New York
4. Resident Evil
5. The Two Towers

Original Score:

1. Catch Me If You Can
2. Friday Night
3. Hero
4. My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
5. Punch-Drunk Love

Adapted Score:

1. 8 Mile
2. 8 Women
3. 24 Hour Party People
4. Morvern Callar
5. Punch-Drunk Love

"He Needs Me".

Sound:

1. Blissfully Yours
2. Morvern Callar
3. Punch-Drunk Love
4. Russian Ark
5. The Two Towers

Sound Editing:

1. Attack of the Clones
2. Minority Report
3. Resident Evil
4. Spider-Man
5. The Two Towers

Visual Effects:

1. Attack of the Clones
2. Minority Report
3. Resident Evil
4. Spider-Man
5. The Two Towers

Sure, Flying Yoda is pretty silly, but that opening chase sequence is still great.