It’s that time of year where awards start getting slung left and right, where the same names begin to crop up over and over, and bloggers get tired of the awards dance and prognostication before it’s even really begun in earnest. As is tradition over here, we try to shed light on the best of the year, and not just those popular names on cycle wash with the Silver Screen Riot Awards, recognizing perhaps not the objective best (because there is no such thing) but my personal favorites from the year. And the award goes to…

Best Director

Winner: Bong Joon-ho ‘Parasite’
Runner Up: Sam Mendes ‘1917’

No one could best Bong Joon-ho’s confident hand behind the camera in 2019, the Korean director seamlessly blending various genres and tones to create a modern cinematic masterpiece. Parasite is a startlingly cohesive and unique vision that sees Joon-ho flexing his eye for detail and the deranged, bringing us such wonderful and pointedly un-American scenes as the sub-basement flood and the deliciously devious peach set-up. Coming in second place, Mendes delivered a nifty one-take vision of the heroism of individuals in the trenches of The Great War.

Honorable Mentions: 
James Gray ‘Ad Astra’
Greta Gerwig ‘Little Women’
Peter Strickland ‘In Fabric’
Robert Eggers ‘The Lighthouse’
Trey Edward Shults ‘Waves’
Joe Talbot ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’
Gaspar Noé ‘Climax’
Alex Ross Perry ‘Her Smell’
David Robert Mitchell ‘Under the Silver Lake’
James Mangold ‘Ford v Ferrari’
Martin Scorsese ‘The Irishman’
Lulu Wang ’The Farewell’

Best Actor

Winner: Adam Sandler ‘Uncut Gems’
Runner-Up: Matthew McConaughey ’The Beach Bum’

Few A-list celebrities draw as much derision as Adam Sandler and for good reason: the man has made almost nothing but crap for most of his career. As evidenced by his work in Punch Drunk Love and The Meyerowitz Stories, Sandler can indeed act though and under the keen direction of the Safdie Brothers, he delivers the performance of the year and his career. As a punchy gambling addict, Sandler hones his natural gifts, creating a scuzzy, motormouthed whirlwind, quick with a wager, up to his eyeballs in debt and it’s a performance that crawls under your skin and refuses to go away. And though he won’t likely see any major awards attention, hats off to Matthew McConaughey’s performance as Moon Dog, the shirtless star going full id as an inebriated poet drifting from one happy accident to the next. 

Honorable Mentions:
Joaquin Phoenix ‘Joker’
Robert Pattinson ‘The Lighthouse’
Kevin Harrison Jr. ‘Waves’
Christian Bale ‘Ford v Ferrari’
Adam Driver ‘Marriage Story’
Brad Pitt ‘Ad Astra’
Daniel Kaluuya ‘Queen and Slim’
Leonardo DiCaprio ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’
Eddie Murphy ‘Dolemite is My Name’
Jamie Bell ‘Skin’
Taron Egerton ‘Rocketman’
Matt Damon ‘Ford v Ferrari’
Antonio Banderas ‘Pain and Glory’

Best Actress 

Winner: Elisabeth Moss ‘Her Smell’
Runner-Up: Lupita Nyong’o ‘Us’

Elisabeth Moss has quietly been assembling one of the most formidable acting portfolios in all of Hollywood and, though the performance and film ultimately did not break out, her work in Her Smell is the crowning achievement of her career to date. Moss plays a punk-rock star basking in the alcohol-soaked puddles of her former success, offering an electric, painful, and broken take on addiction. Lupita Nyong’o doing double duties in Jordan Peele’s Us is a close second and poses the Academy Award winner for a bright future in all genre she ever wishes to tackle. 

Honorable Mentions:
Florence Pugh ‘Midsommar’
Saoirse Ronan ‘Little Women’
Scarlet Johansson ‘Marriage Story’
Jesse Buckley ‘Wild Rose’
Jodie Turner-Smith ‘Queen and Slim’
Felicity Jones ‘The Aeronauts’
Awkwafina ‘The Farewell’
Charlize Theron ‘Bombshell’
Renée Zellweger ‘Judy’

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: Jennifer Lopez ‘Hustlers’
Runner-Up: Taylor Russell ‘Waves’

Jennifer Lopez has made many, many movies. Few of them have been good. Only a handful have ever been decent. But in 2019, she turned that around with Hustlers, an outstanding examination of strippers ripping off clients in the midst of the Great Recession. J-Lo has never been this good and her turn as a jaded stripper matriarch is straight fire. With Waves, Taylor Russell comes out of nowhere to knock socks off and I struggle to think of a better breakout role this year. She slays.

Honorable Mentions:
So-dam Park ‘Parasite’
Rebecca Ferguson ‘Doctor Sleep’
Florence Pugh ‘Little Women’
Octavia Spencer ‘Luce’
Elizabeth Moss ‘Us’
Laura Dern ‘Marriage Story’
Margot Robbie ‘Bombshell’
Scarlett Johansson ‘Jojo Rabbit’

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: Willem Dafoe ‘The Lighthouse’
Runner-Up: Shia LeBeouf ‘Honey Boy’

Hark! No one in the known Hollywood-adjacent sphere writes dialogue quite like Robert Eggers and no one could sling it quite like Willem Dafoe. In a role that he was born to play, Dafoe is a pissing, shitting, farting lighthouse keeper with a sailor’s lexicon that’s as strangely foreign as the contents of Davey Jones’ locker. Frothing at the mouth and barking like a madman, Dafoe steers The Lighthouse into unforgettable territory through his towering turn. Elsewhere, Shia LaBeouf had a hell of a comeback year and with Honey Boy, a cinematic confession of sorts, he played a version of his own father and his work was nothing short of a knock-out. 

Honorable Mentions: 
Song Kang Ho ‘Parasite’
Joe Pesci ‘The Irishman’
Brad Pitt ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’
Tom Hanks ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’
Tommy Lee Jones ‘Ad Astra’
Tracy Letts ‘Ford v Ferrari’
Sterling K. Brown ‘Waves’
Al Pacino ‘The Irishman’
Shia LeBeouf ‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’
Jonathan Majors ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ 

Best Screenplay

Winner: Parasite
Runner-Up: The Lighthouse

Robert Eggers spat the sickest dialogue of the year but in terms of a perfectly scripted story no 2019 entry could best Bong Joon-ho’s work on Parasite. This story just moves, often spinning and jumping in directions you don’t ever see coming. And then doing that again a half dozen or so times. It’s one thing to surprise an audience but to do so and remain so thematically vibrant is an almost impossible balancing act. 

Honorable Mentions:
Greener Grass
Uncut Gems
Marriage Story
Honey Boy
The Death of Dick Long
Us

Best Foreign Language Film

Winner: Parasite
Runner-Up: Monos

Parasite takes the cake again though Monos gave a James Matthew Barrie twist to Cartel child soldiers to incredible effect.

Honorable Mentions:
First Love
The Farewell
Knife + Heart
Pain and Glory
Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Best Animated Movie

Winner: Toy Story 4
Runner-Up: Missing Link

It was a decent year for animation though most of the major titles were sequels. That said, Pixar still takes the take with their fourth Toy Story movie, one which, crazy though it may seem, dismantles the long-held role of a toy as a possession and allows its characters to begin to carve out a path of their own. It also features an anthropomorphic spork who is constantly trying to kill himself. And though Missing Link is far from Laika Studio’s finest work, it remained a charming and funny under the radar stop-motion delight. There’s no denying that it’s a mighty shame that more people didn’t get out and see this.

Honorable Mentions:
Klaus
Frozen II
The Lego Movie: Part 2
Weathering With You
How to Train Your Dragon 3

Best Documentary

Winner: Honeyland 
Runner-Up: American Factory

Honeyland is an epic tale of a Macedonian beekeeper that features some of the very best cinematography of the year while American Factory perfectly juxtaposed Chinese and American work culture in a pointed and electrifying manner.

Honorable Mentions:
Apollo 11
For Sama
Homecoming
One Child Nation

Best Television Drama

Winner: Succession
Runner Up: Watchmen

I haven’t always made mention of my favorite small-screen stuff of the year and 2019 held lots of riches. Though 2019 saw Game of Thrones flicker out with a whimper, HBO still had some incredible programming on their side, delivering a just-as-good-if-not-better second season of the best show currently on television: Succession. If you’ve yet to watch the jet-black drama about a billionaire family, get on board ASAP. From the snappy slam-dunk dialogue to the incredible cast that you love to hate until you find yourself, against all odds, rooting for them, Succession is the definition of must-watch TV. Coming up behind was Damon Lindelof’s redux of Watchmen, which was a phenomenal example of how to continue a veteran story while remaining thematically consistent without cloying nostalgia. Take note Disney.

Honorable Mentions:
Chernobyl
The Handmaid’s Tale
Unbelievable
Mindhunter 

Best Television Comedy

Winner: Fleabag
Runner-Up: Russian Doll

TV comedies had a banner year in 2019 with plenty of inspired new shows nestled among the return of many greats but none could top Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s exuberantly-celebrated second (and final) season of Fleabag. Always bracingly funny, with crackling wit and a pitch-perfect cast, Fleabag managed a genuinely fascinating probe on love and faith and how the two intertwine. I’m sure you’ve heard more than enough about this show from many sources so if you haven’t popped it on yet, consider your last warning. Netflix’s Russian Doll is of a very different mold, using time travel elements to humorous effect, but it represented a bold

Honorable Mentions:
Barry
BoJack Horseman
Pen15
Veep
The Good Place 

If you haven’t yet checked out our Top Ten Films of 2019, now is certainly a good time to do so.

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