The Fiction Department Mid-Year Awards

Okay, so what was the best of the first half of this year (in my opinion, anyway)? You may have noticed that I continually update the sidebar with my current contenders, but I suppose it is time to take a snapshot.

How much of this will last until my end of the year list? Not very much, I am guessing. Last year for example, the only thing that lasted from the first half were nominations in my foreign film category (I didn't do documentary as I didn't like enough of them last year) and a couple extra nominations that one foreign film Kings and Queen got. The stuff that is coming out in the second half of the year looks very good so I'm expecting a lot of this to get shifted out. I think the one category that will stay fairly intact is documentary, and foreign film will retain at least a couple. The rest of categories could all be completely replaced. Not that this has been a bad first-half, infact I rather like it much more than last year, but it is nothing like 2004 when you had a couple A+ hit it out of the park movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Kill Bill Volume Two come out by this time.

BEST PICTURE
• Fateless
• L'Enfant
• A Prairie Home Companion
• The Proposition (winner)
• United 93

BEST DIRECTOR
• Lajos Koltai - Fateless
• Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne - L'Enfant
• Robert Altman - A Prairie Home Companion
• John Hillcoat - The Proposition (winner)
• Paul Greengrass - United 93

BEST ACTOR
• Steve Coogan - Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
• Aaron Eckhart - Thank You For Smoking
• Marcell Nagy - Fateless
• Jérémie Renier - L'Enfant
• Ray Winstone - The Proposition (winner)

BEST ACTRESS
• Maggie Cheung - Clean
• Anne Hathaway - The Devil Wears Prada
• Laia Marull - Take My Eyes
• Ellen Page - Hard Candy
• Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada (winner) ***

*** I might decide that Meryl is supporting later, but for now, I'll keep her here.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
• Rob Brydon - Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
• Danny Huston - The Proposition
• Kevin Kline - A Prairie Home Companion
• Nick Nolte - Clean (winner)
• Stanley Tucci - The Devil Wears Prada

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
• Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada
• Déborah François - L'Enfant
• Meryl Streep - A Prairie Home Companion
• Lily Tomlin - A Prairie Home Companion
• Emily Watson - The Proposition (winner)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Fateless
• A Prairie Home Companion (winner)
• Thank You For Smoking
• Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
• Duck Season
• L'Enfant
• The Proposition (winner)
• The Puffy Chair
• Take My Eyes

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
• Duck Season
• Fateless (winner)
• L'Enfant
• Take My Eyes

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
• An Inconvenient Truth (winner ****tie)
• The Road to Guantanamo
• The War Tapes (winner ****tie)
• Why We Fight
• Wordplay

**** I can't quite decide this one yet.