2024 "An Irish Person" FILM Awards RECAP!!

2024 as a year in film is one in more conflicted on as while there were many films I loved for the most part the overall quality had the slightest step down from more recent years. Also as I’m ending this year out I just want to say the online engagement with film gets uglier and while I manage to avoid most of it I will freely admit the consent berage of criticism and not so much adoration of film makes me question why many bother. Can’t we just talk about what we love especially when there are many great international titles worth celebrating.

This year I managed to recognise 49 films with at least one nomination. Only one film scored double digit nominations from me, many films received single nominations showing how wide spread the quality of films was this year. My top 10 goes to show how varied cinema was this year.

1. The Substance

2. All We Imagine as Light

3. Challengers

4. Flow

5. Dahomey

6. No Other Land

7. Hard Truths

8. His Three Daughters

9. I'm Still Here

10. Will & Harper

To all of you who even took time to read any of these posts I appreciate it. Goodbye to you all and I'll see you again next year to celebrate the best in film.

OUTSTANDING PICTURE:

All We Imagine as Light (Produced by Thomas Hakim & Julien Graff)

Challengers (Produced by Amy Pascal, Luca Guadagnino, Zendaya & Rachel O'Connor)

Dahomey (Produced by Mati Diop, Eve Robin & Judith Lou Lévy)

Flow (Produced by Matīss Kaža, Gints Zilbalodis, Ron Dyens & Gregory Zalcman)

The Substance (Produced by Coralie Fargeat, Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:

Mati Diop for Dahomey

Coralie Fargeat for The Substance

Luca Guadagnino for Challengers

Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light

Jane Schoenbrun for I Saw the TV Glow

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:

Colman Domingo as John "Divine G" Whitfield in "SING SING"

André Holland as Tarrell in "EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS"

Keith Kupferer as Dan Mueller in "GHOSTLIGHT"

Josh O'Connor as Patrick Zweig in "CHALLENGERS"

Justice Smith as Owen in "I SAW THE TV GLOW"

OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:

Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp in "WICKED"

Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Pansy in "HARD TRUTHS"

Kani Kusruti as Prabha in "ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT"

Saoirse Ronan as Rona in "THE OUTRUN"

Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva in "I'M STILL HERE"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Yura Borisov as Igor in "ANORA"

John Earl Jelks as La'Ron in "EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS"

Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin as himself in "SING SING"

Adam Pearson as Oswald in "A DIFFERENT MAN"

Richard Roundtree as Ben in "THELMA"

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Michele Austin as Chantelle in "HARD TRUTHS"

Joan Chen as Chungsing Wang in "DIDI"

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Joyce in "EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS"

Sophie Okonedo as Regina in "JANET PLANET"

Jurnee Smollett as Dolores in "WE GROWN NOW"

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Payal Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light

Justin Kuritzkes for Challengers

Mike Leigh for Hard Truths

Azazel Jacobs for His Three Daughters

Coralie Fargeat for The Substance

OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Screenplay by Richard Linklater & Glen Powell; Based on "Hit Man" by Skip Hollandsworth, Hit Man

Screenplay by Murilo Hauser & Heitor Lorega; Based on I'm Still Here by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, I'm Still Here

Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes; Based on The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys

Screenplay by Pedro Almodóvar; Based on What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez, The Room Next Door

Screenplay by Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar; Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin & John "Divine G" Whitfield; Based on "The Sing Sing Follies" by John H. Richardson & Breakin' the Mummy's Code by Brent Buell, Sing Sing

OUTSTANDING ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

Chicken for Linda! (Directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach)

Flow (Directed by Gints Zilbalodis)

Memoir of a Snail (Directed by Adam Elliot)

SPY x FAMILY CODE: White (Directed by Takashi Katagiri)

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Directed by Nick Park & Merlin Crossingham)

OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:

Lily Collias (Good One)

Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing)

Katy O'Brian (Love Lies Bleeding)

Maisy Stella (My Old Ass)

Brandon Wilson (Nickel Boys)

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Ranabir Das for All We Imagine as Light

Sayombhu Mukdeeprom for Challengers

Michał Dymek for The Girl with the Needle

Dinh Duy Hung for Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

Jarin Blaschke for Nosferatu

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:

Jonathan Anderson for Challengers

Jacqueline West for Dune: Part Two

Massimo Cantini Parrini for Maria

Emmanuelle Youchnowski for The Substance

Paul Tazewell for Wicked

OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY:

Dahomey (Directed by Mati Diop)

Daughters (Directed by Natalie Rae & Angela Patton)

No Other Land (Directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor)

Sugarcane (Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie)

Will & Harper (Directed by Josh Greenbaum)

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:

Ghostlight (Keith Kupferer, Dolly de Leon, Katherine May Kupferer, Tara Mallen, Hana Dworkin, Tommy Rivera-Vega, Alma Washington, H.B. Ward, Dexter Zollicoffer, Lia Cubilete, Deanna Dunagan, Francis Guinan)

Hard Truths (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber, Tuwaine Barrett, Ani Nelson, Sophia Brown, Jonathan Livingstone)

His Three Daughters (Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, Rudy Galvan, Jose Febus, Jasmine Bracey, Jay O. Sanders, Jovan Adepo)

The Piano Lesson (John David Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Danielle Deadwyler, Michael Potts, Corey Hawkins, Erykah Badu)

Sing Sing (Colman Domingo, Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin, Sean San José, Paul Raci, David "Dap" Giraudy, Patrick "Preme" Griffin, Jon-Adrian "JJ" Velazquez, Sean "Dino" Johnson)

OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:

Clément Pinteaux for All We Imagine as Light

Dávid Jancsó for The Brutalist

Marco Costa for Challengers

Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor for No Other Land

Coralie Fargeat, Jérôme Eltabet & Valentin Feron for The Substance

OUTSTANDING INTERNATIONAL FILM:

All We Imagine as Light (Directed by Payal Kapadia)

Dahomey (Directed by Mati Diop)

Flow (Directed by Gints Zilbalodis)

Green Border (Directed by Agnieszka Holland)

I'm Still Here (Directed by Walter Salles)

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:

Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener, Charmaine Fuller, Mona Turnbull, Chloe Meddings & Susan Cole for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Mike Marino, Sarah Graalman & Aaron Saucier for A Different Man

Marie Deehan for Femme

Stéphanie Guillon & Pierre-Olivier Persin for The Substance

Frances Hannon, Sarah Nuth & Laura Blount for Wicked

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE:

Cristobal Tapia de Veer for Babygirl

Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Challengers

Alberto Iglesias for The Room Next Door

Raffertie for The Substance

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:

"El Mal", Emilia Pérez (Music and Lyrics by Clément Ducol, Camille & Jacques Audiard)

"Claw Machine", I Saw the TV Glow (Music and Lyrics by Haley Dahl)

"Sick in the Head", Kneecap (Music and Lyrics by Adrian McLeod, Thomas Mackenzie Bell & Kneecap)

"Blood on White Satin", Smile 2 (Music and Lyrics by Alexis Idarose Kesselman)

"Harper and Will Go West", Will & Harper (Music and Lyrics by Sean Douglas and Kristen Wiig)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:

Willem Dafoe (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Kinds of Kindness, Nosferatu, Saturday Night)

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (The Deliverance, Exhibiting Forgiveness, Nickel Boys)

Margaret Qualley (Drive-Away Dolls, Kinds of Kindness, The Substance)

Jason Schwartzman (Between the Temples, The Last Showgirl, Megalopolis, Queer)

Tilda Swinton (The End, Problemista, The Room Next Door)

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN:

Production Design by Judy Becker; Set Decoration by Patricia Cuccia for The Brutalist

Production Design by Stefano Baisi; Set Decoration by Lorenzo De Cillis & Lisa Scoppa for Queer

Production Design by Inbal Weinberg; Set Decoration by Carlota Casado for The Room Next Door

Production Design by Stanislas Reydellet; Set Decoration by Cécilia Blom, Marion De Villechabrolle, Jacques Oursin & Pierre Strub for The Substance

Production Design by Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration by Lee Sandales for Wicked

OUTSTANDING SOUND:

John Casali, Paul Cotterell & James Harrison for Blitz

Craig Berkey, Lisa Piñero & Paul Carter for Challengers

Glenn Freemantle, Howard Bargroff & Mary H. Ellis for Civil War

Victor Fleurant & Valérie Deloof for The Substance

Simon Hayes, John Marquis, Andy Nelson & Nancy Nugent Title for Wicked

OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:

Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe & Gerd Nefzer for Dune: Part Two

Andy Williams, Eric Whipp, Dan Bethell & Andrew Jackson for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Mike Cheslik & Jerry Kurek for Hundreds of Beavers

Bryan Jones, Chevin Shafaghi, Pierre Olivier Persin & Jean Miel for The Substance

Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, Paul Corbould & David Shirk for Wicked

MOST NOMINATIONS:

10 nominations: The Substance

9 nominations: Challengers

7 nominations: All We Imagine as Light

6 nominations: Wicked

4 nominations: Dahomey, Hard Truths, Sing Sing

3 nominations: The Brutalist, Exhibiting Forgiveness, Flow, I Saw the TV Glow, I’m Still Here, The Room Next Door

2 nominations: A Different Man, Dune: Part Two, Ghostlight, His Three Daughters, No Other Land, Will & Harper

1 nomination: Anora, Babygirl, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Blitz, Chicken for Linda!, Civil War, Daughters, Didi, Emilia Pérez, Femme, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, The Girl with the Needle, Green Border, Hit Man, Hundreds of Beavers, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, Janet Planet, Kneecap, Maria, Memoir of a Snail, Nickel Boys, Nosferatu, The Outrun, The Piano Lesson, Queer, Smile 2, Sugarcane, SPY x FAMILY CODE: White, Thelma, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, We Grown Now

MOST WINS:

3 wins: The Substance

2 wins: Challengers, Hard Truths

1 win: All We Imagine as Light, The Brutalist, Civil War, Dahomey, Dune: Part Two, Exhibiting Forgiveness, Flow, His Three Daughters, I’m Still Here, Nosferatu, Sing Sing, Wicked, Will & Harper

OUTSTANDING PICTURE

All We Imagine as Light (Produced by Thomas Hakim & Julien Graff)

Challengers (Produced by Amy Pascal, Luca Guadagnino, Zendaya & Rachel O'Connor)

Dahomey (Produced by Mati Diop, Eve Robin & Judith Lou Lévy)

Flow (Produced by Matīss Kaža, Gints Zilbalodis, Ron Dyens & Gregory Zalcman)

The Substance (Produced by Coralie Fargeat, Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner)

AND THE WINNER:

THE SUBSTANCE (PRODUCED BY CORALIE FARGEAT, TIM BEVAN & ERIC FELLNER)

This is the second win and fourth nomination for Coralie Fargeat. Fargeat won my directing prize and was also nominated for writing and editing The Substance (2024). These are the first wins and second nominations for Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, they were previously nominated for producing Pride & Prejudice (2005).

With this prize The Substance wins three awards from its ten nominations. The film won for picture, director & makeup and hairstyling. It was also nominated for original screenplay, costume design, film editing, original score, production design, sound and visual effects.

When it comes to standout films from 2024 no film has stayed with me both emotionally and artistically then The Substance. I was lucky enough to first see the film when I attended a few days the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and instantly I became obsessed with the film. I have since watched the film another three times and with each viewing I became more enthralled by this captivating horror drama comedy whatever genre you want to associate the film with as it will be appropriate. I am excited for this film to continue to beloved throughout the history of cinema and am so happy for all involved and the great acclaim they have all received from this standout feature film.