The Films of 2024. The 25th annual FiLM BiTCH Awards
PICTURE | ACTING - you are here | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES
AND THE NOMINEES ARE...
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Best Actress
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Marianne Jean-Baptiste |
Nicole Kidman "Romy" BABYGIRL |
Mikey Madison "Ani" ANORA |
Demi Moore
"Elisabeth Sparkles" THE SUBSTANCE |
Fernanda Torres
"Eunice Paiva" I'M STILL HERE |
| Burrowing deep into Pansy's pain, she evokes complex reactions from uncomfortable laughter -- who hurt you Pansy? - to protective sympathy. | Navigating the free-fall space between a powerful CEO's blindspots, repressed needs, and reckless impulsives, she's truly inspired. Her best and most daring big screen work since The Paperboy | Her live-wire electricity supercharges this dramedy about a stripper who thinks she's found her pot of gold. Bonus points for the subversive sex-positivity; Madison gets that Ani loves her work. |
Perfect casting, sure, but that's only the springboard potential. She's sensational and fully committed to her auteur's vision as a lonely and fading celebrity who is losing her grip.
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Beautifully expressive work as a sudden widow, finding enormous reserves of strength and defiant smiles as she holds her family together after the fascist government kills her husband. |
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Finalist: Reinata Reinsve is riveting as the complicated narcissist / concerned mother "Elizabeth" in Armand. The brilliance is the way that Reinsve suggests that she's as in love with her chaos agent power as she is unravelling due to her son's alleged behavior; Danielle Deadwyler gives operatic feeling to "Berneice" in The Piano Lesson Semi-Finalists: Danielle Deadwyler gives operatic feeling to "Berneice" in The Piano Lesson, Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande give perfect duet as the iconic duo "Elphaba & Galinda" from Wicked; Margaret Qualley finds inspiration in the conceptually narrow role of "Sue" in The Substance and really goes for it "It's me, Sue!"; Tilda Swinton is funny and frazzled as art widow "Elizabeth" in Problemista; and Zoe Saldana attacks "Rita" with conflicted passions and physicality as the obvious MVP of Emilia Pérez |
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Best Actor
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| Adrien Brody "Laszlo Toth" THE BRUTALIST |
Keiran Culkin "Benji" A REAL PAIN |
Ralph Fiennes "Cardinal Lawrence" CONCLAVE |
Glenn Powell |
Sebastian Stan |
| He renders Laszlo both helplessly small (survival mode) and superhumanly specific (creator's ego). The result is a complex portrayal of a traumatized man, that expands to fill a sprawling epic and shrinks to haunt its every corner. | He's layered and exciting as the maddening primary focus of this rich dramedy. Beneath the extroverted showboating, wit, and moodswings, he's always illuminating deep pain, complex family history and mental health struggles. | One of the greatest of screen actors is doing crazy heavy lifting here, elevating every theme and confict (conscience, ego, faith, and legacy) into high stakes drama within the confines of a calm competent quiet character. | A skilled levelling up performance, cleverly showing us how Gary finds himself through playing others. All while never forgetting the key deliverables for this star vehicle: comic, dramatic, silly, sexy. | Just marvelous in a high concept role. Edward's surface is transformed but there's nothing to be done about that rotten interior. Bonus points for that weird passivity he finds just between the interior / exterior as the man spins out of control |
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Finalists: Sebastian Stan is shockingly adept at fine-tuned modulation as future autocrat "Donald Trump" in The Apprentice. In each and every scene he seems to have lasered off one more thin layer of humanity until we reach the monster we know today. Stan had such an impressive year that he'd hold two of the above five slots if we allowed for that but in this regard we have the same rules as the Oscars, only allowing one performance by an actor in a given category; Colman Domingo is moving as incarcerated "Divine G" in Sing Sing. That parole sequence breaks you in two; And Daniel Craig reminds us of his range and fascinating instincts (pre-Bond) as "Lee" in Queer. Semi Finalists: Contrary to bizarre mainstream awards body belief, Hugh Grant's delicious evil turn as pedantic "Mr Reed" in Heretic is nowhere near the first time he's been awards-worthy in his long career. But it's nice that people finally noticed his gift; Timothée Chalamet does mimicry and singing well as the impenetrable maddening unknowable genius "Bob Dylan" in A Complete Unknown; Keith Kupferer withholds and breaks beautifully as a grieving man named "Dan" opened up by an unexpected artistic detour in Ghostlight; Finally Ryan Gosling gives another impeccable romantic/comic masterclass in pure Movie Star acting in The Fall Guy. Like Cary Grant and other mega stars before him, he'll never get credit for his skill until he's old or dead or until he dulls the charisma for simple biopic mimicry or somesuch; those that make it look easy always have to wait! |
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Michele Austin |
Joan Chen |
Jamie Lee Curtis "Annette" THE LAST SHOWGIRL |
Trine Dyrholm |
Juliette Lewis "Cutthroat Bill" THE THICKET |
| Hard Truths wouldn't have worked at all without the soft cushion landing of her beautifully judged work. She sells you on the almost religious patience, sibling loyalty, and an others-focused interior that has kept Chantelle chained to her unfathomably angry sister. | Chen proves an ideal scene partner for her exasperating screen son, painting a charismatic portrait of an exhausted, frequently annoyed, but ultimately loving mother who really wishes for her son's happineess. The platonic ideal of a Best Supporting Actress. | Curtis, never one to fear going too big (bless), is a marvel again as this loud former showgirl and loyal friend. Annette is most definitely surviving, not thriving, but Curtis understands that hardship doesn't dim every light. | Denmark's greatest actress is chilling here. She expertly modulating the film's initially slow reveal that Dagmar's "humanity" is purely transactional whenever she can make it so. She's even frightening in defeat. | Her best film performance in decades as a dim outlaw who kidnaps a young girl. Bonus points for the tiny emotional fissures that crack open (as noticeable as Bill's scars) when this sociopath is surprised or curious about someone or something. |
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Finalists: Sunjita Rajwar is unsettling as policewoman "Geeta Sharma" in Santosh with predatory eyes and moral rot, but I only had room for two terrifying characters (Dyrholm and Lewis) in the shortlist above; Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is all warmth and radiance and ethereal memory as "Nana" in Nickel Boys. I wanted much more of her in the film. Semi-Finalists: Monica Barbaro nails her scenes (and sings like the angels) as Dylan's one-time lover "Joan Baez" in A Complete Unknown, Lesley Manville goes unrecognizably mad in the jungle in a high camp memorable turn as "Doctor Cotter" in Queer, Dolly DeLeon is so particular and funny as super Jew convert"Judith Gottlieb" in Between the Temples; Dolly Deleon (AGAIN - this woman's range!!!) also grounds Ghostlight's potentially sentimental ideas about the power of art to heal us with clear eyed reality;and Leonie Benesch is quietly best in show in frenzied-observation mood as "Marianne Gebhardt" in September 5 PLEASE NOTE: We also have a "limited role" category for actors with two scenes or less... |
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Best Supporting Actor
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| Yura Borisov "Igor" ANORA |
Edward Norton "Pete Seeger" A COMPLETE UNKNOWN |
Guy Pearce "Harrison Lee Van Buren" THE BRUTALIST |
Jeremy Strong "Roy Cohn" THE APPRENTICE |
Denzel Washington "Macrinus" GLADIATOR II |
| Sneakily brilliant work. Borisov's "Igor" is so quiet that you barely notice that you've come around to his POV when you're thinking about Ani (as he clearly is). The trajectory of the film and especially its ending are only that potent due to the quality of this lynchpin turn. | Norton perpetually reshapes himself to each role's demands. How is a man this gifted at playing psychopaths, narcissists, and terrible husbands, so utterly authentic and non-actorly as a warm kind-hearted inclusive folk singer? He's magic. | What a gift to see an enduring actor without quite a signature role, deliver with such a rich challenge. Pearce is high society charming and ultimately contemptable as this wealthy patron of the arts who believes his money also entitles him to the artist. | "Attack Attack Attack" is the advice and Strong absorbs it fully as an actor. This snake in the urban ungle temps Trump's dumb Eve with the Big Apple who is eager to bite. Strong is genuinely terrifying as one of American history's most evil and destructive forces. | It takes Big Star Mojo to give real entertainment value to a sequel this clunky / redundant. He understands the assignment and camps it up gloriously without ever dulling the sense of genuine human danger that this self-serving politician portends. |
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Finalists: Adam Pearson's charm offensive as "Oswald" gives A Different Man a delicious upheaval in its second half, and Jim Rash is hilarious as flamboyant director "Lance Vespertine" in Fly Me to the Moon - the least appreciated genuine scene stealer of 2024. Semi Finalists: Cory Michael Smith projects insufferable ego and assholery so damn well as "Chevy Chase" in Saturday Night; Jason Schwartman really goes for it as Lee's oversexed buddy "Joe Guidry" in Queer; Richard Roundtree is a wonderful foil to Thelma as her longtime acquaintance "Ben". That she deems him 'fussy' is an exaggerated disconnect in their friendship that neither actor comments on within their scenes together, which somehow makes their chemistry yet funnier; and Javier Bardem and Austin Butler both deliver the entertainment as almost comically devout "Stilgar" and the ultimate evil nepo baby "Feyd Rautha" in Dune Part Two PLEASE NOTE: We also have a "limited role" category for actors with two scenes or less... |
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