List: Best of the Decade Awards (all nominees and winners)

By JD Duran
3 years ago

This week on the InSession Film Podcast, we featured our Best of the Decade Awards for the 2010s! We had a great time celebrating the very best that the decade had to offer in terms of film. We discussed everything from best animated film, to best documentary, to the best acting performances and so much more. We may have forgone the “unique” categories that we typically do for our annual yearly awards, but we still have them listed out below (you can also hear us discuss those categories on Patreon).

For every category, we each listed our own nominations and winners. Winners are highlighted in bold.

Best Actor

Brendan:

Casey Affleck, Manchester By the Sea
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Andy Serkis, Planet of the Apes Trilogy
Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory

JD:

Casey Affleck, Manchester By the Sea
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Jessie Eisenberg, The Social Network
Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave

Best Actress

Brendan:

Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy
Elisabeth Moss, Her Smell
Kim Hye-ja, Mother
Haley Lu Richardson, Columbus

JD:

Amy Adams, Arrival
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Elisabeth Moss, Her Smell
Adèle Exarchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Color

Best Actor Supporting Role

Brendan:

Javier Bardem, Skyfall
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Harry Melling, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Jonathan Majors, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Sylvester Stallone, Creed

JD:

J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Jonathan Majors, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Michael Shannon, Midnight Special

Best Actress Supporting Role

Brendan:

Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
Bria Vinaite, The Floria Project
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Scarlett Johansson, Her

JD:

Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Ando Sakura, Shoplifters
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Scarlett Johansson, Her

Best Director

Brendan:

Robert Eggers, The Witch
Michael Haneke, Amour
Nicholas Winding Refn, Drive
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

JD:

Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Bong Joon-ho, Parasite
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Best Original Screenplay

Brendan:

Wes Anderson & Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Spike Jonze, Her
Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Abbas Kiarostami, Certified Copy
Richard Linklater, Boyhood

JD:

Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
Spike Jonze, Her
Jordan Peele, Get Out
Daveed Diggs & Rafael Casal, Blindspotting

Best Adapted Screenplay

Brendan:

Barry Jenkins & Tarell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight
Park Chan-wook & Chung Seo-kyung, The Handmaiden
Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Phyllis Nagy, Carol

JD:

Barry Jenkins & Tarell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight
Greta Gerwig, Little Women
Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises

Best Cinematography

Brendan:

Jarin Blaschke, The Witch
Elisha Christian, Columbus
Hoyte van Hoytema, Interstellar
Alfonso Cauron, Roma
John Seale, Mad Max: Fury Road

JD:

Roger Deakins Blade Runner 2049
Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis
Emmanuel Lubeski, The Tree of Life
Alfonso Cauron, Roma
Linus Sandgren, La La Land

Best Documentary

Brendan:

The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
Minding the Gap
Faces Places
Tower

JD:

The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence
Senna
Stories We Tell
Faces Places
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Best Foreign Language Film

Brendan:

The Handmaiden
Amour
Mother
Phoenix
Shoplifters

JD:

Roma
A Prophet
Parasite
White God
Blue is the Warmest Color

Best Animated Movie

Brendan:

Inside Out
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Toy Story 3
The Wind Rises
The Tale of Princess Kaguya

JD:

Inside Out
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Toy Story 3
The Wind Rises
The Red Turtle

Best Original Score

Brendan:

Nicholas Britell, If Beale Street Could Talk
Emile Mosseri, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Jo Yeong-wook, The Handmaiden
Joe Hisaishi, The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Social Network

JD:

John Powell, How to Train Your Dragon
Hans Zimmer, Interstellar
Justin Hurwitz, First Man
Michael Giacchino, Inside Out
Dan Romer & Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Use of Soundtrack Music

Brendan:

“I Get Overwhelmed” by Dark Rooms, A Ghost Story
“Please Mr. Kennedy” by Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver & Justin Timberlake, Inside Llewyn Davis
“Drive It Like You Stole It” by Sing Street, Sing Street
“The Moon Song” by Karen O, Her
“Visions of Gideon” by Sufjan Stevens, Call Me By Your Name

JD:

“Glasgow (No Place Like Home)” by Jessie Buckley, Wild Rose
“Fare Thee Well” by Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
“Drive It Like You Stole It” by Sing Street, Sing Street
“About Today” by The National & Mark Isham, Warrior
“Visions of Gideon” by Sufjan Stevens, Call Me By Your Name

Best Opening/Closing Credits Sequence or Scene

Brendan:

Blue Valentine (Closing)
The Florida Project (Opening)
Skyfall (Opening)
Call Me By Your Name (Closing)
Drive (Opening)

JD:

Leave No Trace (Closing)
Warrior (Closing)
Whiplash (Closing)
Call Me By Your Name (Closing)
Captain Phillips (Closing)

Best Overlooked Movie

Brendan:

The World’s End
Anomalisa
Rango
Love & Mercy
Wonderstruck

JD:

High Life
Columbus
Krisha
Phoenix
Meek’s Cutoff

Best Surprise Movie

Brendan:

Creed
Let Me In
Magic Mike XXL
Pete’s Dragon
Paddington 2

JD:

Trainwreck
Gleason
Warrior
Rush
Blaze

Best Surprise Actor/Actress

Brendan:

James Franco, 127 Hours
Channing Tatum, 21 Jump Street
June Squibb, Nebraska
Robert Pattinson, The Rover
Tilda Swington, Suspiria

JD:

Tahar Rahim, A Prophet
Ben Dickey, Blaze
James Franco, Spring Breakers
Lil Rel Howery, Get Out
Bria Vinaite, The Florida Project

Best Movie Discovery

Brendan:

Barry Jenkins, Director
Oscar Isaac, Actor
Ryan Coogler, Director
Michael B. Jordan, Actor
Margot Robbie, Actress

JD:

Barry Jenkins, Director
Thomasin McKenzie, Actress
Jennifer Lawrence, Actress
Damien Chazelle, Director
Denis Villenueve, Director

JD’s Individual Special Awards

Best Individual Score Track

“Time” – Hans Zimmer (Inception)
“Brothers In Arms” – Junkie XL (Mad Max: Fury Road)
“Forbidden Friendship” – John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon)
“Lost But Won” – Hans Zimmer (Rush)
“Budle of Joy” – Michael Giacchino (Inside Out)
“A Hidden Life” – James Newton Howard (A Hidden Life)
“Karen Theme” – Justin Hurwitz (First Man)
“Hope” – John Ottman (X-Men: Days of Future Past)
“Carol Theme” – Carter Burwell (Carol)
“Once I Was a Hushpuppy” – Dan Romer & Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild)

Best Directorial Debut

Bo Burnham – Eighth Grade
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Alex Garland – Ex Machina
Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird
Jordan Peele – Get Out

Best Undervalued Performance

Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant
Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Daniel Bruhl – Rush
Lily Gladstone – Certain Women
Alex Wolff – Hereditary

Best Poster

The Red Turtle
The Tree of Life
Logan
The Lobster
Moonlight

Holy Crap, I’m Still Not Sure How They Did That Award

The astounding performance by the dog Body in White God
Shooting the entire movie as one-take in Victoria
All of the insane practical stunts in Mad Max: Fury Road
Terry Notary reprising his ape character from the Apes trilogy in The Square
Ridle Soctt recasting Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer two months before the release of All the Money in the World

Brendan’s Individual Special Awards

Best Directorial Debut

Joe Talbot – The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Alex Garland – Ex Machina
Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird
Robert Eggers – The Witch

Wow, That’s It, I’m Never…

Amour – that’s it, I’m never getting old
Blue Valentine – that’s it, I’m never getting married
Drive – that’s it, I’m never getting into an elevator with Ryan Gosling
Phoenix – that’s it, I’m never betraying my future singing wife
Spring Breakers – that’s it, I’m never going on spring break
We Need to Talk About Kevin – that’s it, I’m never having kids

Well that’s it for our Best of the Decade Awards! Hopefully you all enjoyed our nominations and winners. If you agree or disagree with us, let us know in the comment section below. We would love to hear how your nominations and winners would vary from our picks above. You can also email your selections to us at insessionfilm@gmail.com or follow us on social media.

To hear our Top 10 Movies of the decade, be sure to listen to hear Episode 363!

Hear us talk about our “Unique Categories” on Patreon here!