Introduction

As those who are my friends on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter know, in December I am gearing up for my annual film awards (The BAM Awards), and that only partially explains my recent reposting of all past winners.

Since these are picks made by one person, the nominating process is even more important. Aside from the the past years, the full slate of nominees from all years past was not public knowledge.

This is because the first time I did them, in 1996, I created them by myself, for myself. At the time, I knew a lot less about how these decisions are made, campaigning, the year-end barrage of contenders and the like, such that the releasing of the Academy Award nominees was more frustrating than it could be otherwise. Rather than just bemoan it I decided to create an award slate based on what I had seen.

Back then I was ticket-stub pack rat, at the time it was the only way I had to track anything. So I created the list, picked winners and printed it out. The fact that I stuck with hard copies and no back-up created issues later. However, it was just for me at the time.

I called them the BAM Awards because I needed a name. I suppose I came up with Bernardo Academy of Movies because I was being reactionary to The Academy. How one man by himself can be an Academy I didn’t fully consider. I thought it was kind of a silly name, even at the time, so eventually it just became the BAM Awards.

Slowly, the awards widened: soon I emailed a select group of friends (that created eventual storage issues), a few years ago when I was on the Site That Must Not Be Named I decided to really take it public. I didn’t think about it ahead of time, it just occurred to me roundabout late November of ’09 that I could.

The publication was an exciting and unnerving process, regardless of how many or how few people would actually care to see them. While there are a two categories (which I now and again consider ending, and have skipped on occasion) which are negative, it is a positive emotion that brings me to these announcements. I want to at the end of the year share what I thought and why, and all winner announcements come with some explanation, and I do belabor them and struggle with them.

So it is heartening that last year, for the first time, the actual honorees, be they nominees or winners, on occasion acknowledged it. Now that may seem like a self-aggrandizing statement, but what I liked was knowing the news reached them, and other people, and they were pleased to hear it. The design of these awards are to cement what performances, works and films most affected me, I make no bones about that, and sharing that felt like a gamble, but it’s been rewarding for that and many other reason.

Of course, if you see a film missing from any year you may inquire, and there is room for intelligent discourse, but the above statements are true: trolling or disrespectful comments aimed at those chosen won’t be tolerated. Your own awards are just a blog post away.

I apologize for even needing to insert that statement but I did have cause to make similar points last year. Anyway, with how much I enjoyed last year’s and how much I’m looking forward to this year’s awards, I thought it’d be a good idea to put all I have out there in a “reverse” countdown, a count -up if you will.

So here goes…

2002

-This year features some revisionist history I was able to successfully reverse. There are two categories with only three nominations, which in revision mode I filled out to 5. I was able to trim it back to three, thus making it back to what it was 10 years ago.

-In another revisionist note, this was the first year where I started splitting the screenplay award in the year where I wrote them. I did when I revised the past awards create both categories from 1996-2001. This was the first time I did it live.

-Lagaan was the first film that was nominated for Best Picture only.

-In one of the quirks of the BAM system, Hugh Mitchell who had small roles in both Harry Potter and Nicholas Nickleby, earned two nominations, and one win, for being in both casts.

-Harry Potter is Lucciesque anew setting a new nomination record, Star Wars takes the most trophies.

-This was another year that illustrated that I needed not only equality in categories, but also a top 10 or more list because there are many great films this year not in Best Picture.

-Comedic performances are prominent once again.

-Nicholas Nickleby is another multiple actors in same category film.

Winners are in BOLD and pictured.

Best Picture

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Equilibrium
Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones
Lagaan
La Pianiste

Best Actress

Isabelle Huppert La Pianiste
Fairuza Balk Deuces Wild
Amanda Bynes Big Fat Liar
Jodie Foster Panic Room
Emma Watson Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Best Actor

Benoît Magimel La Pianiste
Mike Myers Austin Powers in Goldmember
Christian Bale Equilibrium
Kieran Culkin Igby Goes Down
Hugh Grant About a Boy

Best Supporting Actress

Rachel Griffiths The Rookie
Toni Collette About a Boy
Beyoncé Knowles Austin Powers in Goldmember
Maggie Smith Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Lucy Tulugarjuk Atanarjuat

Best Supporting Actor

Haley Joel Osment The Edges of the Lord
Rupert Grint Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Jamie Bell Nicholas Nickleby
Christopher Plummer Nicholas Nickleby
Ewan McGregor Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

Best Director

George Lucas Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Kurt Wimmer Equilibrium
John Lee Hancock The Rookie
Burr Steers Igby Goes Down
Chris Columbus Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Best Original Screenplay

George Lucas and Jonathan Hales Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Steven Kloves, J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Michael Heneke, Elfried Jelinek La Pianiste
Robert Rodriguez Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
Kurt Wimmer Equilibrium

Best Adapted Screenplay

JK Rowling and Steven Kloves Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Michael Heneka and Elired Jelniek La Pianiste
Nick Hornby, Peter Hedges, Chris and Paul Weitz About a Boy
Philip K. Dick, Scott Frank and John Cohen Minority Report
Charles Dickens and Douglas McGrath Nicholas Nickleby

Best Cinematography

Roger Pratt Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Norman Cohn Atanarjuat
Walter Carvalho Abril Despedaçado
Janusz Kaminski Minority Report
David Tattersall Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones

The following two (2) categories intentionally only have three (3) nominees.

Best Score

John Williams Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Ennio Morricone The Legend of 1900
George Clinton Austin Powers in Goldmember

Best Visual Effects

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

Best Performance by a Child Actor

Haley Joel Osment The Edges of the Lord
Nicholas Hoult About A Boy
Rupert Grint Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Daniel Radcliffe Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Amanda Bynes Big Fat Liar

Most Overrated Film

Road to Perdition
Spider-Man
XXX
Insomnia
Abril Despedaçado

Worst Film

Spider-Man
Insomnia
Get a Clue
40 Days and 40 Nights
The Santa Clause 2

Most Underrated Film

Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams
The Legend of 1900
Igby Goes Down

Best Cast

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Kenneth Branaugh, Richard Harris and John Cleese Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Frankie Muniz, Amanda Bynes, Paul Giamatti, Amanda Detmer and Donald Fasion Big Fat Liar
Kieran Culkin, Susan Sarandon, Claire Danes, Ryan Phillippe, and Jeff Goldblum Igby Goes Down
Charlie Hunnam, Jamie Bell, Christopher Plummer, Nathan Lane, Alan Cumming, Jim Broadbent, Edward Fox, Hugh Mitchell, Stella Gonot, and Romola Garai in Nicholas Nickleby
Mike Myers, Beyoncé Knowles, Michael York, Mindy Sterling, Seth green, Verne Troyer, and Fred Savage Austin Powers in Goldmember

Nominations

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 12
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones 9
La Pianiste 5
Austin Powers in Goldmember 5
Equilibrium 4
Igby Goes Down 4
About a Boy 4
Nicholas Nickleby 4
Big Fat Liar 3
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams 3
Abril Despedaçado 2
The Legend of 1900 2
Minority Report 2
The Rookie 2
Atanarjuat 2
The Edges of the Lord 2
Lagaan 1
Panic Room 1
Deuces Wild 1