The Underdog Awards 2015

The Underdog Awards

2015 Edition

I'm baaaccckkkk!

Sorry it took so long, but I've been busy with heavy work load and watching enough movies to make this years underdog awards as unpredictable as can be.

So let's not waste time and get down to it. Below is a re-introduction to the rules of this award show, new additions and of course the nominees that will be facing off for a chance at glory at the Second Annual Underdog Awards. 

The Underdog Awards are basically as the title suggests. A set of awards for those under appreciated movies and aspects of movies from the past year.

As you will know from the link here.

The Underdog Awards are a subjective based awards show. There are multiple categories including those given at the celebrated Academy Awards every year.

The idea of the awards is thus very simple. This year the rules change slightly though. Any film or any aspect of a film that was nominated for either an Oscar or a Golden Globe will not be up for a nomination at the Underdog Awards.

Hence no nomination for the vastly underappreciated performance by Jake Gylenhaal (Golden Globe nominee) for Nightcrawler.

At the same time a film that has parts of it appreciated but not the whole can get in e.g. Gone Girl despite being nominated for Best Leading Actor (Female), Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars and Best Director at the Globes.

So Underdog doesn't necessarily equate to the most underrated films of the year. In fact it equates to unappreciated films by these two award bodies and more, regardless of box office clout.

This still of course does not mean that these are the best films of the year, just that they deserved to be known about individually and as a whole.

Also note that the winner for each award amongst the nominees isn't the most underrated, but the best amongst the underrated nominations.

A few specific rules as well.

The eligible films for nomination are according to American wide release dates of 2014. This rule is however negated for films vying for the foreign language award.

In that section only one film can be nominated per country (although non-English is a pre-requisite) as well as language. As such a few films get into this category and others don't;

Under the Skin is a British film in English, so it doesn't compete in the foreign category. However A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is a Persian language film set in Iran, but is an American film by definition, yet it remains in the foreign category. Then other films come from different countries but in the same language, so their both eligible for nomination.

No two films from the same country can be nominated.

Another thing to note is that the foreign language films will be minimally nominated elsewhere if worthy except for Best Picture.

This also applies to the set of breakthrough awards. Where nominees of breakthrough actor or director can't be nominated for best actor or best director.

The number of nominees are also relatively higher because I feel the need to showcase as many under appreciated films I can.

Below are the final set of nominees for both the older categories from the previous year 

and newer ones; including Best Documentary, Foreign Film, Breakthrough Director, VFX, Costume Design, Production Design and...

the First Ever Underdog Hall of Fame!

Underdog Award for Best Film
Dawn of The Planet of The Apes	Gone Girl
Joe	Under The Skin
Mr. Turner	The Babadook
Nightcrawler	Frank
Blue Ruin	Snowpiercer
The Double	The Rover
Starred Up	Dear White People
Interstellar	Locke
Only Lovers Left Alive	Inherent Vice
Enemy	The Immigrant
Underdog Award for Best Director	Underdog Award for Best Cinematography
Bong Joon Ho for Snowpiercer	Seamus McGarvey for Godzilla
Mike Leigh for Mr. Turner	Daniel Landin for Under The Skin
David Michod for The Rover	Yorick Le Saux for Only Lovers Left Alive
Steven Knight for Locke	Mandy Walker for Tracks
Christopher Nolan for Interstellar	Jeremy Saulnier for Blue Ruin
Matt Reeves for Dawn of The Planet of The Apes	Jeff Cronenweth for Gone Girl
Dennis Villeneuve for Enemy	Robert Elswit for Nightcrawler
Jonathan Glazer for Under The Skin	Darius Khondji for The Immigrant
Jim Jarmusch for Only Lovers Left Alive	Erik Wilson for The Double
James Gray for The Immigrant	Natasha Braie for The Rover
Underdog Award for Best Editing	Underdog Award for Best Production Design
Mike Flanagan for Oculus	Jon Hutman for Unbroken
Matt Villa for Predestination	David Warren for The Zero Theorem
Paul Watts for Under The Skin	Ondrej Nekvasil for Snowpiercer
James Herbert for Edge of Tomorrow	David Crank for Inherent Vice
John Gilroy for Nightcrawler	Charles Wood for The Guardians of The Galaxy
Underdog Award for Best Costume Design	Underdog Award for Best VFX
Mary Zophres for Interstellar	Maleficent
Carlo Poggioli for The Zero Theorem	Godzilla
Bina Daigeler for Only Lovers Left Alive	Edge of Tomorrow
Anna Biedrzycka-Sheppard for Fury	Under The Skin
Patricia Norris for The Immigrant	Noah
Underdog Award for Best Actor In A Leading Role (Male)	Underdog Award for Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female)
Guy Pearce for The Rover	Juliete Binoche for Clouds of Sils Maria
Bill Hader for Skeleton Twins	Essie Davis for The Babadook
Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner	Hilary Swank for The Homesman
Tom Hardy for Locke	Charlotte Gainsbourg for Nymphomaniac
Chadwick Boseman for Get on Up	Marion Cotillard for The Immigrant
Brendan Gleeson for Calvary	Anne Dorval for Mommy
Tom Hardy for The Drop	Mia Wasikowska for Tracks
Andy Serkis for Dawn of The Planet of The Apes	Jessica Chastain for The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
John Lithgow for Love is Strange	Scarlett Johansson for Under The Skin
Chris Evans for Snowpiercer	Tilda Swinton for Only Lovers Left Alive
Underdog Award for Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male)	Underdog Award for Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Female)
Alfred Molina for Love Is Strange	Elizabeth Moss for Listen Up Philip
Tyler Perry for Gone Girl	Agata Kuleza for Ida
Ben Mendelsohn for Starred Up	Emily Blunt for Edge of Tomorrow
Josh Brolin for Inherent Vice	Suzanne Clement for Mommy
Michael Fassbender for Frank	Carrie Coon for Gone Girl
Nicolas Cage for Joe	Rene Russo for Nightcrawler
James Gandolfini for The Drop	Tilda Swinton for Snowpiercer
Phillip Seymour Hoffman for A Most Wanted Man	Kristen Stewart for Clouds of Sils Maria
Robert Pattinson for The Rover	Maggie Gylenhall for Frank
Toby Kebell for Dawn of The Planet of The Apes	Kristen Wiig for The Skeleton Twins
Underdog Award for Best Breakthrough Performer	Underdog Award for Best Ensemble Cast
Katherine Waterston for Inherent Vice	The Grand Budapest Hotel
Tessa Thompson for Dear White People	Gone Girl
Ellar Coltrane for Boyhood	Dear White People
Jack O'Connell for Starred Up, 71 and Unbroken	X-Men: Days of Future Past
Macon Blair for Blue Ruin	Snowpiercer
Jenny Slate for Obvious Child	Pride
Chris Pratt for The Lego Movie and The Guardians of The Galaxy	A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Ansel Elgort for Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars	Nymphomaniac
Gugu Mbatha Raw for Belle and Beyond the Lights	The Guardians of The Galaxy
Stacy Martin for Nymphomaniac	Inherent Vice
Underdog Award for Best Breakthrough Director	Underdog Awards Hall of Fame
Anna Lily Amirpour for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night	Gary Oldman
Jennifer Kent for The Babadook	Alejandro Jodorowsky
Xavier Dolan for Mommy	Sigourney Weaver
Damien Chazelle for Whiplash	Charlie Kauffman
Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler	Michael Ballhaus
Underdog Award for Best Original Screenplay	Underdog Award For Best Adapted Screenplay
Jim Jarmusch for Only Lovers Left Alive	Avi Korine and Richard Ayoade for The Double
Justin Simien for Dear White People	Gillian Robespierre for Obvious Child
Alex Ross Perry for Listen Up Philip	Kelly Masterson and Bong Joon Ho for Snowpiercer
Jennifer Kent for The Babadook	Gary Hawkins for Joe
Jeremy Saulnier for Blue Ruin	Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan for Frank
Underdog Award for Best Soundtrack	Underdog Award for Best Score
The Guardians of The Galaxy	A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
The Guest	Only Lovers Left Alive
Frank	Inherent Vice
Mommy	Under The Skin
Begin Again	Nightcrawler
Underdog Award for Best Foreign Language Film	Underdog Award for Best Documentary
The Raid: Berandal-Indonesia (Indonesian)	SuperMensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night-American (Persian)	Ivory Tower
Mommy-Canada (French)	Jodorowsky's Dune
2 Days, 1 Night-Belgium (French)	The Internets Own Boy: The True Story of Aaron Swartz
Why Don't You Play in Hell-Japan (Japanese)	The Final Member

The awards will be divided across multiple articles as was the case last year.

Also note, just because a film isn't nominated across the board doesn't mean it isn’t going to be in the top 20 best picture nominees. Starred Up is an example of films with a great script, direction and more that just didn't cut it completely but left an impact. Not that it's the best films in the 20 (sorry just one spoiler).

Also I had to do one thing I hate, move actors from one category to another like the Academy does. I pushed the likes of Kristen Wigg, Nicolas Cage and the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman to supporting because they straddled the line between the two perfectly enough to warrant it. They were great performances that just couldn't miss the cut for me. 

If there's anything else, I'll mention it in the coming posts for now enjoy!

'Nuff Said

Aneesh Raikundalia