1996 Endy Awards

These are the 1996 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. Big Night
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. Goodbye South, Goodbye
4. Irma Vep
5. Trainspotting

Best Director:

1. Peter Chan, Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. Anthony Minghella, The English Patient
3. Hou Hsiao-hsien, Goodbye South, Goodbye
4. Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep
5. Danny Boyle, Trainspotting

Like with Boogie Nights in 1997 and Pulp Fiction in 1994, the exuberance of Trainspotting defines for me a stage of cinephilia, when I first began to really believe in the joy of making cinema. The Assayas and Hou films are more refined expressions of that same drive, while the Chan and Minghella are sublime examples of more traditional romantic forms. 

Best Actor:

1. Stanley Tucci, Big Night
2. Ralph Fiennes, The English Patient
3. Philip Baker Hall, Hard Eight
4. Ewan MacGregor, Trainspotting
5. Christopher Guest, Waiting for Guffman

Fiennes will eventually win in 2014 for The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Best Actress:

1. Gina Gershon, Bound
2. Maggie Cheung, Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. Frances McDormand, Fargo
4. Lili Taylor, I Shot Andy Warhol
5. Maggie Cheung, Irma Vep

Disaster as Maggie Cheung becomes the first actor to be nominated twice in the same category in one year, only to split the vote and allow Frances McDormand to sneak away with the Endy.

Supporting Actor:

1. Tony Shaloub, Big Night
2. Owen Wilson, Bottle Rocket
3. Steve Buscemi, Fargo
4. Vince Vaughn, Swingers
5. Robert Carlyle, Trainspotting

Supporting Actress:

1. Natalie Portman, Beautiful Girls
2. Jennifer Tilly, Bound
3. Juliette Binoche, The English Patient
4. Elizabeth Peña, Lone Star
5. Sylvia Sidney, Mars Attacks!

Binoche will win Best Actress in 2007 (Flight of the Red Balloon) and 2010 (Certified Copy).

Original Screenplay:

1. Stanley Tucci & Joseph Troppiano, Big Night
2. Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson, Bottle Rocket
3. Ivy Ho, Comrades, Almost a Love Story
4. Olivier Assayas, Irma Vep
5. Kevin Williamson, Scream

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Anthony Minghella, The English Patient
2. Jonathan Gems, Mars Attacks!
3. David Koepp & Robert Towne, Mission: Impossible
4. Laura Jones, Portrait of a Lady
5. John Hodge, Trainspotting

Non-English Language Film:

1. La Comédie-Française (Frederick Wiseman)
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story (Peter Chan)
3. The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (Hong Sangsoo)
4. Goodbye South, Goodbye (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
5. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas)

Documentary Film:

1. La Comédie-Française (Frederick Wiseman)
2. Get on the Bus (Spike Lee)
3. Hype! (Doug Pray)
4. The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera (Adam Simon)
5. When We Were Kings (Leon Gast)

The is the second year to feature a film about Samuel Fuller in the Best Documentary category, after 2013's A Fuller Life.

Animated Film:

1. Beavis & Butthead Do America (Mike Judge)
2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale & Kirk Wise)

Unseen Film:

1. God of Cookery (Stephen Chow & Li Lik-chi)
2. A Moment of Innocence (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
3. The Pillow Book (Peter Greenaway)
4. La Promesse (The Dardennes)
5. A Summer's Tale (Eric Rohmer)

Also receiving votes: Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier), Crash (David Cronenberg), Evita (Alan Parker), Forbidden City Cop (Stephen Chow), Kansas City (Robert Altman), Escape from LA (John Carpenter), and Gabbeh (Mohsen Makhmalbaf).

Film Editing:

1. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. The English Patient
3. Irma Vep
4. Romeo + Juliet
5. Trainspotting

Cinematography:

1. Bound
2. The English Patient
3. Goodbye South, Goodbye
4. Irma Vep
5. Romeo + Juliet

Art Direction:

1. The English Patient
2. Hamlet
3. Portrait of a Lady
4. Romeo + Juliet
5. Trainspotting

Costume Design:

1. Irma Vep
2. Kingpin
3. Mars Attacks!
4. Romeo + Juliet
5. Trainspotting

Claire Danes with wings.

Make-up:

1. The English Patient
2. From Dusk til Dawn
3. Kingpin
4. Mars Attacks!
5. Romeo + Juliet

Farrelly grotesquerie at its best.

Original Score:

1. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
2. The English Patient
3. Goodbye South, Goodbye
4. Irma Vep
5. That Thing You Do!

Adapted Score:

1. Basquiat
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. Romeo + Juliet
4. Swingers
5. Trainspotting

Very tough category this year. Swingers rode a wave of swing dance/Rat Pack revivalism, so that's obviously out. Tough to pass over the New Wave/Punk hits and The Cardigans, but I have to go with the Teresa Teng tribute that is Comrades.

Sound:

1. Big Night
2. Comrades, Almost a Love Story
3. The English Patient
4. Irma Vep
5. Trainspotting

The sound of scrambling eggs.

Sound Editing:

1. The Frighteners
2. Independence Day
3. Mission: Impossible
4. The Rock
5. Twister

Visual Effects:

1. The Frighteners
2. From Dusk til Dawn
3. Independence Day
4. Trainspotting
5. Twister