2000

Best Picture: 

Almost Famous
George Washington
Memento
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Traffic

The BMA goes to:  Almost Famous

The Brandon Academy Award for Best Picture:

Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brockovich
Gladiator
Traffic

And the BAA goes to:  Traffic

Best Actor:

Christian Bale--American Psycho
Patrick Fugit--Almost Famous
Tom Hanks--Cast Away
Jared Leto--Requiem for a Dream
Guy Pearce--Memento

The BMA goes to:  Tom Hanks for Cast Away

Javier Bardem--Before the Night Falls
Russell Crowe--Gladiator
Tom Hanks--Cast Away
Ed Harris--Pollock
Geoffrey Rush--Quills

The BAA goes to:     Tom Hanks for Cast Away

Best Actress:

Ellen Burstyn--Requiem for a Dream
Jennifer Connelly--Requiem for a Dream
Kate Hudson--Almost Famous
Natalie Portman--Where the Heart Is
Julia Roberts--Erin Brockovich

And the BMA goes to:  Kate Hudson for Almost Famous.  However, this is a great category with five great performances. 

Joan Allen--The Contender
Juliette Binoche--Chocolat
Ellen Burstyn--Requiem for a Dream
Laura Linney--You Can Count on Me
Julia Roberts--Erin Brockovich

And the BAA goes to:  Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich, even though I do love Ellen Burstyn's performance. 

Best Supporting Actor:

Billy Crudup--Almost Famous
Benicio Del Toro--Traffic
Michael Douglass--Traffic
Albert Finney--Erin Brockovich
Phillip Seymour Hoffman--Almost Famous

And the BMA goes to:  Benicio Del Toro from Traffic

Jeff Bridges--The Contender
Willem DaFoe--Shadow of the Vampire
Benicio Del Toro--Traffic
Albert Finney--Erin Brockovich
Joaquin Phoenix--Gladiator

And the BAA goes to: Benicio Del Toro from Traffic, one of the few times the Academy and I intersect in our praise

Best Supporting Actress:

Erika Christensen--Traffic
Zooey Deschanel--Almost Famous
Diane Lane--The Perfect Storm
Frances McDormand--Almost Famous
Catherine Zeta-Jones--Traffic

And the BMA goes to:   Frances McDormand for Almost Famous

Judi Dench--Chocolat
Marcia Gay Harden--Pollock
Kate Hudson--Almost Famous
Frances McDormand--Almost Famous
Julie Walters--Billy Elliott

The BAA goes to:  Frances McDormand from Almost Famous

Best Ensemble: 

Almost Famous
George Washington
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Traffic
The Virgin Suicides

The BMA goes to: Traffic.  

Best Poster:

Almost Famous
Before Night Falls
Space Cowboys
Wonderland
You Can Count on Me

The BMA goes to:  Almost Famous

Brandon A. Nowalk Award for Creativity: 

First, a little something about this award.  Since I encourage creativity and innovation in movies, rather than the same old comedies or horror movies, I decided (at Ryan's suggestion) to include a special award for movies that are fresh, unique, weird, but mostly creative.  Movies that aren't limited by convention.  What better way to start off than a movie whose narrative structure suits its plot perfectly, so that at the end, the audience understands not only the plot resolution, but so much more than they were expecting.  The storyline going forward was in black and white, while the storyline going backward was in color, a stylistic device that works so well that when they converge, it's practically seamless.  I know I didn't notice the first time I watched that it had switched from b/w to color without me noticing.  Clearly, Memento is the perfect choice to kick off this special award. 

For a quick recap, for the Oscars, I supported Traffic for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Benicio Del Toro.  Cast Away followed with Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Erin Brockovich with Best Actress for Julia Roberts, and Almost Famous with Best Supporting Actress for Frances McDormand.  The BMAs actually line up pretty well, with Best Actor for Hanks, Supporting Actor for Del Toro, and Supporting Actress for McDormand.  However, I also gave Almost Famous the remaining two BMAs, Best Picture and Best Actress to Kate Hudson. 

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