Day: January 6, 2013

BAM Award Winners: Worst Picture

Posted on by bernardovillela

I’ll try and make my commentary on these films brief but there are several noteworthy selections that deserve some preface.

Firstly, I slam the Razzies on an annual basis because they never pick anything low budget. Birdemic became infamous due to its cheesy nature, it was “snubbed” conversely Alice in Wonderland was reviled by many critics but due to the fact that it was nominated for a handful of technical Oscars it was left out. Now I do have some widely seen films down below but my mandate is not to find and slam the worst of the worst. I try and seek out that which I will like and comment on what I find to be the worst. Mind you I do not choose some of the more popular titles for shock effect either. I literally fell asleep during the Pirates film “honored” below and liked others in the series.

As I said in my Overrated category there are people who participated in, and in some cases made, the films below that I really like and it pains me to have to include them on this list. However, I find it hilarious that Charlie Sheen is in one of them. He’d call that winning even if I don’t.

Anyway, just a few more caveats, yes, here, like in other categories, Made for TV Movies are not expressly forbidden so a few will be of that nature and a few will be direct-to-video I believe. I knock them because I didn’t like them, though, not because of the distribution path. Straight-to-video and Made for TV have earned nominees in positive categories also.

In 2002 I skipped the Award, I believe I brought it back the next year and in reconstructing ’03 (lost records) I added a “winner.”

My 2006 film was one I saw at a film festival that doesn’t have a one-sheet up anywhere. I have included a YouTube clip of the opening.

2012 Award Discontinued. This post will remain for archival. Please check 2012 winners post, which is linked here for the reasoning.

2011 The Darkest Hour

2010 Paranormal Activity 2

2009 Orphan

2008 The Happening

2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

2006 The Babysitter

2005 Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life

2004 Pixel Perfect

Pixel Perfect (2004, Disney Channel)

2003 George of the Jungle 2

2002 Not Awarded

2001 Believe

2000 Stigmata

Stigmata (2000, MGM)

1999 Durango Kids

1998 The Secret Kingdom

1997 Bad Day on the Block (aka Under Pressure)

1996 Fever Lake

BAM Award Winners: Young Actors

Posted on by bernardovillela

From 1996–2009 I had been satisfied with having but one category in which to honor the talented youths on film. This was one of the only places to honor them alongside their counterparts who are of age. In 2011, and perhaps more so in 2012, the nominating process became more difficult than ever as the talent pool seemed to be, if not the deepest ever, then one of them. Suddenly, I realized that I would have been eliminating people based on the size of their role and not on the quality of their performance. People like Janina Fautz in The White Ribbon and Billy Unger in You Again would be shutout of the nominating process. One of the benefits of creating your own awards is the ability to improvise.

Looking at the films and performances I’d seen I was able to create two new categories: I was able to make unisex categories for lead and supporting performances and one for ensemble work by youths, which seemed equally overdue. The goal in the 2011 awards was parity, meaning male and female lead and supporting categories and ensemble. This was achieved.

These categories have always been of great importance to me, not just because I was 15 when I started picking these awards but because youth performers are and have been greatly overlooked and under-appreciated and deserve some recognition. Especially when you consider that the Academy used to have a Juvenile Award and stopped awarding it.

UPDATE 2012: To venture even further away from negative connotations, I have decided to rename this post to remove the ‘child actor’ moniker, which to some can be seen as a slight. It’s a symbolic and semantical gesture, but no less significant for that. The group of categories and individual category names will be adjusted as necessary in the 2012 awards. Previous year will retain the same verbiage, but this post and future winners will not.

UPDATE 2013: To give each of the Youth Categories their due and for browsing convenience this post will act as a jump station to the new posts created for each of five youth categories, plus an additional post for the 1996-2009 winners.

Best Youth Ensemble

Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Leading Role

Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Leading Role

Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Supporting Role

Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Supporting Role

Best Performance by a Child Actor 1996-2010