1997 Endy Awards

These are the 1997 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. Boogie Nights
2. Jackie Brown
3. Lost Highway
4. Taste of Cherry
5. Too Many Ways To Be No. 1

Best Director:

1. Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights
2. Quentin Tarantino, Jackie Brown
3. David Lynch, Lost Highway
4. Abbas Kiarostami, Taste of Cherry
5. Wai Ka-fai, Too Many Ways To Be No. 1

Honestly I'm afraid to go back and rewatch Boogie Nights. It's been years since I've seen it, a film that defined the youthful exuberance and openness of the early stages of cinephilia for me in my younger days. I'd hate to go back and find it to be less than the thrill I got walking into the theatre right at the start of that opening tracking shot. Lynch will win Best Director in 2001 for Mulholland Dr., Kiarostami will be nominated again in 2010 and 2012. Wai will win for co-directing Running on Karma in 2003. This is Tarantino's first nomination for directing, he will have been nominated for Original Screenplay in 2009.

Best Actor:

1. Leslie Cheung, Happy Together
2. Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Happy Together
3. Thomas Jay Ryan, Henry Fool
4. Leonardo DiCaprio, Titanic
5. Wang Hongwei, Xiao Wu

Best Actress:

1. Joey Lauren Adams, Chasing Amy
2. Jodie Foster, Contact
3. Pam Grier, Jackie Brown
4. Patricia Arquette, Lost Highway
5. Kate Winslet, Titanic

I'm arguing back and forth on whether this should go to Cheung or Leung, they're both so good. Giving it to Cheung knowing that both will have more chances at the Endy as we move backward in time. Leung will be nominated another four times between 1997 and 2004, winning in 2000 for In the Mood for Love.

Supporting Actor:

1. John C. Reilly, Boogie Nights
2. Chris Tucker, The Fifth Element
3. Robert DeNiro, Jackie Brown
4. Robert Forster, Jackie Brown
5. Russell Crowe, LA Confidential

Supporting Actress:

1. Julianne Moore, Boogie Nights
2. Minnie Driver, Grosse Pointe Blank
3. Parker Posey, Henry Fool
4. Bridget Fonda, Jackie Brown
5. Sarah Polley, The Sweet Hereafter

You could fill out two or three supporting actor categories with the cast of Boogie Nights, Jackie Brown and LA Confidential. 1997 was a great year for ensembles. Moore just missed a nomination for The Big Lebowski in 1998, so this might be a bit of a make-up award for her.

Original Screenplay:

1. Paul Thomas Anderson, Boogie Nights
2. David Lynch & Barry Gifford, Lost Highway
3. Abbas Kiarostami, Taste of Cherry
4. Matt Chow, Szeto Kam-yuen & Wai Ka-fai, Too Many Ways To Be No. 1
5. Jia Zhangke, Xiao Wu

Adapted Screenplay:

1. James Schamus, The Ice Storm
2. Quentin Tarantino, Jackie Brown
3. Brina Helgeland & Curtis Hanson, LA Confidential
4. Atom Egoyan, The Sweet Hereafter
5. George Toles, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs

As is often the case, adapted screenplay, outside of the winner, is a wasteland. There's probably another 5-10 original screenplays deserving of nomination.

Non-English Language Film:

1. Fireworks (Takeshi Kitano)
2. Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai)
3. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami)
4. Too Many Ways To Be No. 1 (Wai Ka-fai)
5. Xiao Wu (Jia Zhangke)

Hard to imagine two films more different in style than the Kiarostami and Wai films.

Documentary Film:

1. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (Errol Morris)

Morris picks up his first (but surely not the last) Endy with the only doc I've seen from this year.

Animated Film:

1. End of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki)
2. Evangelion: Death and Rebirth (Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki & Masayuki)
3. Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon)
4. Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki)

Unseen Film:

1. Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
2. Destiny (Youssef Chahine)
3. Made in Hong Kong (Fruit Chan)
4. The Mirror (Jafar Panahi)
5. Same Old Song (Alain Resnais)

Film Editing:

1. Boogie Nights
2. Happy Together
3. Kundun
4. Lost Highway
5. Too Many Ways to Be No. 1

Cinematography:

1. Boogie Nights
2. Happy Together
3. The River
4. Titanic
5. Too Many Ways to Be No. 1

Really tempted to give the award to Too Many Ways... just because of the upside-down fight sequence. But this has to go to Titanic.

Art Direction:

1. Boogie Nights
2. The Fifth Element
3. Starship Troopers
4. Titanic
5. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs

Costume Design:

1. Boogie Nights
2. The Fifth Element
3. The Ice Storm
4. Starship Troopers
5. Titanic

Don Cheadle's King Tut outfit.

Make-up:

1. Boogie Nights
2. The Fifth Element
3. Kundun
4. Men in Black
5. Titanic

Not only because of Milla Jovovich's hair. Other stuff too.

Original Score:

1. Kundun
2. LA Confidential
3. Princess Mononoke
4. Starship Troopers
5. Titanic

Score, not song. The song is terrible, the score is good.

Adapted Score:

1. Boogie Nights
2. Grosse Pointe Blank
3. Happy Together
4. The Ice Storm
5. Jackie Brown

The Delfonics in an upset!

Sound:

1. Boogie Nights
2. Lost Highway
3. The River
4. Starship Troopers
5. Xiao Wu

The sound design in Jia Zhangke's debut is extraordinary, the noises and chaos of the rapidly modernizing city intruding on and dominating every aspect of the young pickpocket's life.

Sound Editing:

1. Face/Off
2. The Lost Word: Jurassic Park
3. Men in Black
4. Starship Troopers
5. Titanic

Visual Effects:

1. Lifeline
2. Men in Black
3. Starship Troopers
4. Titanic
5. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs