Fun Facts!
Picture/Director/Screenplay/Ensemble Cast: Moonlight is the second film to sweep these four major categories.
The Social Network did it in 2010.
Original Screenplay: This is the second Filmspot win for Efthymis Filippou and Giorgos Lanthimos in this category. They took home the award for
Dogtooth in 2010.
Actor: Affleck was previously nominated in this category in 2007 for
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. He lost to Daniel Day-Lewis in
There Will Be Blood.
Actress: Scarlett Johansson remains the only US-born actress to win this award, having earned the Filmspot for
Under the Skin in 2014. Amy Adams has been nominated five times in the Actress and Supporting Actress categories without a win. That stat is true of both the Filmspots and the Oscars.
Supporting Actor: Ali is not only the first African American actor to win this award but was also only the second non-white actor to even earn a nomination in this category in the past nine years. (Barkhad Abdi finished fourth in the voting in 2013 for
Captain Phillips.) Ten years ago, however, in the inaugural Filmspots, Javier Barden beat out Irfan Khan for the award.
Supporting Actress: Gladstone is the second relative unknown to take home an award in this category, joining Lupita Nyong'o, who won for
12 Years a Slave in 2013.
Ensemble Cast: The films of the Coen Brothers continue to fall short of victory in this category:
No Country for Old Men finished 3rd in 2007;
A Serious Man finished 5th in 2009; and
True Grit finished 2nd in 2010.
Non-English Language Film: The Handmaiden is the second film from South Korea to take home this award. It previously went to Bong Joon-ho's
Mother in 2010.
Documentary: The only film before
Tower to compete in both the Animated and Documentary Film categories was
Waltz with Bashir. It, too, finished third in the Documentary race (behind
Man on Wire).
Animated Film: Tower is probably the first nonfiction film to win this award, depending on how you classify
Persepolis. Though I really only bring up
Persepolis to remind you of
this.
Soundtrack: This is the second win in this category for a John Carney film.
Once won the very first Filmspot for Best Soundtrack with an impressive 54.2% of the vote.
The Darjeeling Limited finished a distant second that year.
Score: Jσhann Jσhannsson's nomination was his second in as many years. He finished fourth in this category last year for
Sicario.
Art Direction: The Handmaiden is the second film from Asia to win this award, following
The Grandmasters's win in 2013. Two other winners in this category
The Darjeeling Limited and
The Fall were set in Asia, so maybe that counts for something, too.
Cinematography: James Laxton becomes the third person to win this award for their breakthrough film, joining Daniel Landin (
Under the Skin, 2014) and Greig Fraser (
Bright Star, 2009).
Sound: The nomination for
Green Room was the second for a Jeremy Saulnier film. His
Blue Ruin was nominated for Best Debut Feature in 2014, losing to
Nightcrawler.
Editing: O.J.: Made in America is not only the first documentary to be win in this category but also the first documentary to earn a nomination here. In fact,
Man on Wire's nomination for Best Score in 2008 might be the only other time a documentary has competed in an artisan categories (Editing, Score, Cinematography, Sound).
Visual Effects: The Jungle Book is the third film to win this award for its ape-work, following
Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011 and
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 2014
Debut Feature: The win for
The Witch is the most decisive ever in this category, topping
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which won by 23% over
Let the Right One In.
Surprise: This is the second Filmspot win for a Taika Waititi film.
What We Do in the Shadows took home the Best Line award last year ("
I think of it like this... if you were going to eat a sandwich, you would just enjoy it more if you knew no one had fked it.") but lost Original Screenplay to Alex Garland's script for
Ex Machina.
Overlooked Film: This is the first Filmspot nomination and win for a Guy Maddin film. In the 2008 nominations balloting,
My Winnipeg finished 12th in the Director category and 9th in Editing.
Comedic Scene::
Toni Erdmann's win is the first in this category for a film from outside the US/UK. (Three consecutive films from the UK won the award from 2009-2011.)
Line: The Coens were previously nominated in this category in 2008 for
Burn After Reading ("
Well, what have we learned... I guess we learned not to do it again. Now, if we could only figure out what the fk it is we did."); in 2010 for
True Grit ("
I was even going to steal a kiss despite you being young, feverish, and not considerably attractive."); and possibly in 2015 for
Bridge of Spies ("
How did you lose your coat?" / "
You know, spy stuff."). This is their first win for Best Line.
pixote