The 1st Annual Henry Oscars

This award show is soooo much better. At least it'll be more fun for me. You might be bored out of your mind.

The most presitigous trophy to win.

Salutations,

The 97th Academy Awards are on Sunday. And so, I wanted to present a new gimmick to this stupid newsletter. Behold, The Henry Oscars. Or Hank Oscars. Honestly, whichever you prefer.

In this post, I will pick the movies I think SHOULD be at the Oscars. So you won’t be seeing much of the actual nominees like Anora, A Complete Unknown, Wicked or the devil’s pick for Best Picture, Emilia Perez (I still shudder to think about that dumpster fire of a film).

The winners will receive these wonderful trophies pictured above in the mail. I think it’s the highest honor they will receive this awards season. Alright, enough of this.

Drumroll please.

Welcome to The 1st Annual Henry Oscars.

Winners in bold. Total wins¹ and nominations² are down in the footnotes.

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Best Supporting Actress

• Aubrey Plaza, Megalopolis

• Michele Austin, Hard Truths

• Rebecca Ferguson, Dune: Part Two

• Renate Reinsve, A Different Man

• Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Nickel Boys

I’ll talk later about who I would’ve preferred to put in at Best Supporting Actress. But I’m not gonna cry over spilled milk because Aubrey Plaza finally gets the trophy she deserves. Plenty of the talk around Plaza’s performance is about how she “aced the assignment” in trying to act as insane as Megalopolis. While I can certainly get behind that assertion, I feel it’s a tinge of disrespect to the movie and her performance. To me, Francis Ford Coppola’s act of gonzo cinema is partially about appearance. It’s creating the appearance of a better world, the appearance of being crazy and half-baked. Plaza, whose character moves between lovers, needs to show the importance of keeping up her appearance, even if it does mean she seems wild and hilarious most of the time.

For the other acting awards, I will briefly mention some of the other nominees. Michele Austin, like her co-star Marianne Jean-Baptiste, portrays the deadly and oppressive silence that can weigh on a person. Even though her character and her character’s daughters seem happier, they still don’t always tell each other the truth and hide the unhappier aspects of their lives. Rebecca Ferguson again crushes it in the Dune films (she would’ve been nominated in 2021 as well). Renate Reinsve, who would’ve won in 2021 for The Worst Person in the World, proves she’s one of the most adventurous and exciting performers this decade with the extremely weird film A Different Man. Then Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, though in very brief moments, identifies a well of pain and trauma that wants to rip your heart out as she stares directly into the camera. She makes the wonderful experiment of Nickel Boys transcend to another dimension.

Best Animated Feature Film

• Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

• Flow

• The Wild Robot

• Memoir of a Snail

• Robot Dreams

I’m quite glad that we don’t have to have a Pixar or Disney movie in this category. It proves how animation can be so much more than the giant tentpole animation studios. Take Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow, a delightful movie featuring no dialogue and beautifully animated animals traveling together. There’s so much experimentation with narrative and animation in this film that I was convinced it would win.

But you need to expect the unexpected with The Henry Oscars. Like last year’s award show, I will be selecting a venerable animation master as my winner. And that’ll go to Nick Park and Aardman Animations for their wonderful film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. These guys haven’t lost their charm or their sense of storytelling, with a pleasant story that features some insightful social commentary on the increasing use of artificial intelligence in our world. Wallace and Gromit should be on the Mount Rushmore of animation, and this award should certify that fact.

Best Original Screenplay

• Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow

• Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist

• Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Evil Does Not Exist

• Aaron Schimberg, A Different Man

• Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers

While Justin Kuritzkes crafted possibly the most proficient and thrilling script among the nominees in Challengers, the other four nominees delve into personal experiences and anxieties to a level that feels fresh and engaging. Aaron Schimberg, born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, focuses on facial disfigurement and personality in A Different Man, while Ryusuke Hamaguchi expands his fears of climate change and capitalism, and Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold uses The Brutalist to visualize their own experience with art, power and control.

But Jane Schoenbrun, writer and director of the masterful I Saw the TV Glow, blends their experience as a trans woman and a devoted fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to make one of the most original (see what I did there?) and thought-provoking stories in the cinema. Schoenbrun astutely identifies the connection of one’s taste in shows and movies as an extension of the soul. This can help one understand or, even more sinisterly, obfuscate one's own feelings and identities. The film doesn’t follow the Save the Cat beat sheet, but it doesn’t need to hit those beats because I Saw the TV Glow stands on its own.

Best Adapted Screenplay

• RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys

• Richard Linklater and Glen Powell, Hit Man

• Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, Dune: Part Two

• Bertrand Bonello, The Beast

• Vera Drew, The People’s Joker

I was very tempted to award Linklater and Powell for their secretly dark parable about how Americans embrace their sexy psychopath. But it would be a massive disservice to RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, who achieved possibly one of the greatest acts of adaption in the history of the medium. Shifting Colson Whitehead’s novel from the third person into as first person as one can possibly get. I’ll explain it further in Best Cinematography down below. A common thread among these nominees is how successfully they adapt written work onto the silver screen. Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts changed key details and levels of characters’ import to solidify cinematic themes of colonialism and messiahs in Dune: Part Two. Meanwhile, Vera Drew, basing her experience as a trans woman through the lens of Batman characters, creates an intimate and hilarious experience in The People’s Joker, a radical act in the age of comic book blockbusters.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• A Different Man

• Nosferatu

• Sasquatch Sunset

• The Substance

• I Saw the TV Glow

I’m not sure if there’s going to be much debate on this category. A movie with incredible face prosthetics, A Different Man similarly thrives once Sebastian Stan’s character transformation of his appearance. Stan’s beautiful and clean-shaven face becomes its own unsettling presence, only enriching the experience.

Best Production Design

• Dune: Part Two

• The Brutalist

• I Saw the TV Glow

• The Beast

• Trap

One criticism lofted at both of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies, only heightened by the release of the sequel, is how oppressively beige and brutalist all the architecture and sets are. The accusation is that for all of the spectacle and big action, the movie looked bland. But these oppressive set designs are the point. They show how these so-called saviors like Paul aren’t much different from the original oppressors. It may look ugly, but it points to the larger theme of the movie. I find it to be brilliant.

Best Costume Design

• Dune: Part Two

• The Beast

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Nosferatu

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

The costumes were elegant and restrictive in the first Villeneuve Dune film. But Part Two deepens the costumes’ relationship to the overall themes of the franchise. Throughout the nearly three hour film, Florence Pugh’s character, Princess Irulan, has costumes that go from simple and peaceful to violent and restrictive, portraying how the ruling class in the Dune universe will do nothing really differently than before in the name of “liberation.” Especially since Paul marries Princess Irulan at the end of Part Two. It’s some amazing visual storytelling.

Best International Feature Film

• Chime (Japan)

• Dahomey (Senegal)

• The Beast (France)

• Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Romania)

• All We Imagine as Light (India)

If there is a hidden theme in my picks for my favorite films of the year, it would be how effective some of the horror films were at getting under my skin. I will discuss Jane Schoenbrun soon, but this award highlights a horror master who perfectly encapsulates societal horror. Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has two of my horror films, Cure and Pulse. His 45-minute Chime can easily be included in that category as you can feel a general malaise of death and psychosis can be applied to not just the cook but the world in general. It has to be my top international pick.

Best Supporting Actor

• Jack Haven, I Saw the TV Glow

• Guy Pearce, The Brutalist

• Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Josh O’Connor, Challengers

• Adam Pearson, A Different Man

Jack Haven (credited as Brigette Lundy-Paine) is responsible for sending I Saw the TV Glow to another level for me. I’ve heard plenty of talk about for a performance like theirs to work, there has to be a level of paranoia and dread rooted in them. Haven succeeds tenfold and creates a blueprint for re-examining and understanding not just Owen but maybe even ourselves. You’ll see in some of the bigger categories down below, but Haven’s performance was immediately a lock for Best Supporting Actor when I saw it. There was nothing like it for me in 2024.

At least for the other nominees, Guy Pearce in The Brutalist that has rightfully gotten its flowers, even if it won’t take home the golden trophy on Sunday. I would also like to shout out Joe Alwyn, whose performance just didn’t make the cut for The Henry Oscars. The power of his performance is so sneaky. Speaking of villains, Chris Hemsworth’s version of Dementus simply did not get enough praise back when Furiosa came out. To depict a badass villain decline over time was so fascinating to me, and Hemsworth was perfectly up to the task. And finally, Josh O’Connor and Adam Pearson make me lose it in vastly different ways. I’ll let you decide what that means.

Best Visual Effects

• Dune: Part Two

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

• Alien: Romulus

• Gladiator II

I mean, come on. What else was going to win? Dune won the award in 2021 and of course they’re going to win this year. Clear no-brainer.

Best Editing

• Nickel Boys

• Dune: Part Two

• The Brutalist

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World

There is no film that uses cuts so impactfully. When I first saw Elwood’s (Ethan Herisse) face, my jaw nearly dropped. I know that’s hyperbolic, but it solidified to me that Nickel Boys was going to be a cinematic experience I would never forget. So many times when the film decides to cut away or shift perspective, there’s always a power to it. I said something similar to this in my initial Letterboxd review, but when the film cuts to Daveed Diggs looking at a computer, I was ready to bawl.

Best Documentary Feature

• Dahomey

• REFORM!

• Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus

• The Truth vs. Alex Jones

• Jim Henson Idea Man

If you have any idea what any of these documentaries are, then you might know that I wasn’t able to catch all of the big nominees and the big documentaries that are the talk of the town. That being said, Mati Diop’s Dahomey, which depicts 26 royal treasures being returned to the African nation of Benin from Paris, is a true masterwork. Watching a cultural discourse happen in real time is something to truly behold. Plus, you can’t be the nice runtime of 68 minutes.

Best Cinematography

• Nickel Boys

• Evil Does Not Exist

• Dune: Part Two

• I Saw the TV Glow

• The Brutalist

Nickel Boys’ main cinematic conceit makes it a clear and obvious winner for Best Cinematography. Trying to shoot an entire movie in first person sounds quite challenging, and there are plenty of lesser films that have attempted it. Think of the shitty action movie Hardcore Henry (good name at least) as an example. But Ross and cinematographer Jomo Fray make the whole enterprise feel effortless and yet weighted with decades of oppression on top of it. Even in a country that has brutalized Black people over centuries, Nickel Boys finds a profound freedom in shooting in first person. Cinematography is where viewers can understand cinematic language. So it’s truly a magnificent feat that the film basically creates its own visual dialogue. Unbelievable film.

Best Sound

• Dune: Part Two

• The Brutalist

• I Saw the TV Glow

• Hundreds of Beavers

• Nosferatu

Like visual effects, this is a no-brainer. The sound of the weapons and the sound of the fights and battles are so unbelievably immersive. It’s once again a no-brainer. I also want to shout Hundreds of Beavers for its wonderfully goofy sounds from a classic Looney Toons cartoon. It’s a great movie and people should watch it!

Best Score

• Evil Does Not Exist

• The Brutalist

• Dune: Part Two

• Challengers

• The End

Eiko Ishibashi’s score was fundamental to Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, especially since the original short film idea was going to be accompanied by her music. Ishibashi uses the violin and cello to conjure feelings of beauty that hide the horrifying aspects of living in a time where forces are gleefully looking to destroy the environment. There is no score that deepens the meaning of a film more this year than Ishibashi’s work.

Best Actor

• Glen Powell, Hit Man

• Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow

• Josh Hartnett, Trap

• Timothée Chalamet, Dune: Part Two

• Aaron Pierre, Rebel Ridge

I’m a little shocked Adrien Brody didn’t make the cut for his work in The Brutalist, but I found better performances in the films that didn’t get as much love for their performances. Namely, Glen Powell. While Timothée Chalamet has been getting all the buzz for A Complete Unknown, he already has a better performance from 2024 (Dune: Part Two, where Chalamet has to balance being a prophet and tyrant) and there’s already a certifiable grade A movie star that had his moment from the past year. Powell’s performance in Richard Linklater’s Hit Man deepens the text, morphing the romcom noir into a dark soliloquy about how one can lie to oneself in an increasingly violent America. Plus, Powell has some of the most unbelievable charm that makes the romance between him and Adria Arjona the most compelling on-screen relationship in 2024.

A couple of other notes on the other three nominees. Justice Smith, who I only really knew from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, floored me in I Saw the TV Glow. He tapped into a well of denial and shame that paved the way for dread and eventually empowerment. Some of his line readings hit me like a freight train. Josh Hartnett, coming off his great supporting role in Oppenheimer, is as devilish as a father/serial killer, while Aaron Pierre is cunning and calculating, exactly what Rebel Ridge — an action, revenge film — needs to subvert expectations.

Best Director

• Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow

• Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

• RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys

• Richard Linklater, Hit Man

• Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part Two

Schoenbrun has already fascinated me and left my jaw dropped in their previous films like We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and A Self-Induced Hallucination. A mixture of David Lynch and David Cronenberg, Schoenbrun relies on these two filmmakers that I love to form something wholly new and brilliant. I Saw the TV Glow feels like a level up for Schoenbrun, who perfectly understands how to use the horror genre to form as personal a story as you can find. They use a mixture of unsettling liminal spaces and hazy dread to pinpoint what it’s like to be trans in America in the 21st century. But not only that, Schoenbryn knows what it means to be a consumer and watcher under capitalism. The film opens up a conversation to see what it means to connect yourself to a television show and what it means when you grow up and re-evaluate your connection to said show. Schoenbrun imbues I Saw the TV Glow with little definitive answers, using the mood to not just creep you out but let you decide for yourself whether or not the movie is empowering or bleak. That comes down to how Schoenbrun creates the look and feel of the movie, so there is no question that they must take home Best Director.

Best Actress

• Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths

• Adria Arjona, Hit Man

• Léa Seydoux, The Beast

• Ilinca Manolache, Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World

• Zendaya, Challengers

For most of the year, I truly believed Zendaya would be at the top of this category. I really did. Her presence in the steamy tennis romance Challengers was undeniable and an impressive feat coming off of Dune: Part Two. However, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who first became a star with Mike Leigh in Secrets and Lies, reunited with the British legend to deliver a performance I still think about this day. Her surly and tortured performance as Pansy equally delighted and haunted me. She could go from having a hilarious and mean-spirited exchange with a cashier or dentist to breaking down about the oppressiveness of the world. It’s just a titanic and walloping act from Jean-Baptiste, and she deserves the Oscar.

I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t hand a trophy to Adria Arjona, who was one of the most excellent femme fatales this century. Unfortunately, she’s just in the film way too much to be considered supporting, so I have to put her in here. I also want to shoutout some of the best international performances— Léa Seydoux in The Beast and Ilinca Manolache in Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World. Seydoux has to do triple duty, performing as three separate characters, while Manolache pretends to be Andrew Tate and acts like a depressed production assistant. Truly brilliant work from two great European actresses.

Best Picture

• I Saw the TV Glow

• The Brutalist

• Nickel Boys

• Hit Man

• Chime

• Dune: Part Two

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Evil Does Not Exist

• The Beast

• A Different Man

If you read my 50 Best Films of 2024, you shouldn’t be too surprised with the nominees. If you haven’t, shame on you! I Saw the TV Glow, along with Schoenbrun’s previous film We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, will remain with me for as long as I live. Both films are what I think horror can be and how they can relay one’s own life experience. And above all else, I Saw the TV Glow is what cinema can be. Not just for the personal experience but how it can empathically relate to our own viewing habits and our relationship to culture. There’s truly nothing like it in the cinema. Thus, it has to take Best Picture³ for me.

1. Movies with multiple wins:

1. I Saw the TV Glow: 4

2. Dune: Part Two: 4

3. Nickel Boys: 3

2. Movies with multiple nominations:

1. Dune: Part Two: 12

2. I Saw the TV Glow: 9

3. The Brutalist: 9

4. Nickel Boys: 6

5. The Beast: 6

6. A Different Man: 5

7. Hit Man: 5

8. Evil Does Not Exist: 4

9. Challengers: 4

10. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: 4

11. Nosferatu: 3

12. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World: 3

13. Hard Truths: 2

14. Trap: 2

15. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: 2

16. Chime: 2

17. Dahomey: 2

3. If you want to read more about the other nominees, read the 50 Best Films of 2024 post. I really just want you to click the link. Page views will fill the void…probably…maybe.