It’s award season for movies, and you know what that means…the Saturn Award nominations are out! Woo hoo!!! (Although they don’t appear to have the nominations up on their own website…) You can have your Oscars; after all, they’re not named after a Roman god, are they? (Actually, I’ll be going into obscene depth about the Oscars at my own blog, which you should all read because it’s awesome coughcough.)
The Saturn Awards, honoring the best in SF/Fantasy movies and TV, have a few odd nominations this year. Like, the multiply-nominated The American, starring George Clooney and directed by Anton Corbijn, is not science fiction or fantasy in any way whatsoever (theories about George Clooney being so handsome/awesome he must be from another planet notwithstanding). Nor is The Fighter, though Christian Bale’s best supporting actor nomination seems to the part of the rules for any awards show this year. (I mean, he’s good, but is he that good? Arguable.)
The TV shows I can’t speak to, because I don’t watch most of them; I’m not one of those “I don’t watch TV, thus I am ipso facto a better person than you” types, I just watch political stuff and sports more than scripted programming, with the odd LOST thrown in because it was impossible to have conversations with people without having seen it. If you watch the nominated shows, feel free to toss predictions around in the comment section, but I’ll stick to what I (in a manner of speaking) know, the movies.
So, without further ado, here are my picks for all the movie categories (for the complete list of nominations, go here):
- Best Science Fiction Film: Inception
- Best Fantasy Film: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
- Best Horror/Thriller Film: The American (Black Swan was good too, but this one was terrific)
- Best Action/Adventure Film: none; write-in vote for Dabangg, starring Salman Khan
- Best Actor: George Clooney, The American (seriously, it’s not science fiction, but it’s really good)
- Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan (to take the edge off losing the Oscar to Annette Bening)
- Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hardy, Inception (WHERE’S JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, PEOPLE?)
- Best Supporting Actress: Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
- Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Hallee Stanfeld, True Grit
- Best Director: Christopher Nolan, Inception (Shouldn’t be any debate about this one, not this year.)
- Best Writing: see Best Director
- Best Music: Daft Punk, Tron: Legacy (Inception loses because Edith Piaf did all the heavy lifting.)
- Best Costume: Tron: Legacy (Although they better thank Olivia Wilde for this one.)
- Best Makeup: abstain
- Best Production Design: Inception
- Best Special Effects: Tron: Legacy
- Best International Film: I have to abstain; I only saw Monsters and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and violently hated both.
- Best Animated Film: I have to abstain, since I haven’t seen any of these.
What do you think of the nominations?
Danny Bowes is a playwright, filmmaker and blogger. He is also a contributor to nytheatre.com and Premiere.com.
