Fanboys Anonymous

Welcome to the third annual FANBOYS FILM AWARDS! This is my attempt to counterbalance the Academy Awards bias when it comes to movies that are often ignored due to their genre.

So rather than focus on the Oscar-bait, the Fanboys Film Awards pays tribute and extends gratitude to the movies which are overlooked because they're more along the lines of science fiction, fantasy, action/adventure and so on.

The only qualification for the nominees is that they must fall somewhere into the geek culture spectrum, which means superhero films and similar genres. Everything else is not eligible for any of the categories, so you won't see Ford v Ferrari or Ad Astra on this list. That isn't what this focuses on, even though I enjoyed them.

Also, you may notice that the awards structure isn't the same as the Academy Awards. That's because I feel this is a more efficient way of doing things and an easier list to make, rather than diving into technicalities that I'm not qualified to judge. But by all means, if you want to create your own categories, go ahead in the comments!


— All possible films came out in the time frame of January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019 as far as release dates.

— This is only one person's opinion. You're encouraged to leave your choices for the nominees and winners in the comments below to keep the discussion going!

— Admittedly, I haven't even seen every film that could potentially be nominated. For instance, I skipped Men in Black: International, Alita: Battle Angel, Hellboy, Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw, The Kitchen, Angry Birds 2, Gemini Man, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Charlie's Angels, and some others. That is obviously going to put a significant bias on this, as I'm not working with a full deck of cards.

BEST PICTURE

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame / Joker (tie)

EXPLANATION = I can't pick. Joker is fundamentally a better solo film, but Endgame is built with the understanding that you've seen everything leading up to that point, and it was just magical.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Glass

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in Joker

EXPLANATION = I think even in the grand scope of all film from this year, not just the geek culture ones, he has to be at least nominated for Best Actor.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Shout out to Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans from Endgame and Tom Holland in Far From Home.

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER = Florence Pugh as Saraya "Paige" Knight in Fighting with My Family

EXPLANATION = She got Paige down super well.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Man do I wish I could give this to Linda Hamilton for Terminator.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER = Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman in Shazam!

EXPLANATION = I almost gave this to Jake Gyllenhaal for Mysterio, but the more I thought about it, Shazam wouldn't have worked as a film without Grazer's performance. He is the glue that holds it all together, and that means more.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Outside of Gyllenhaal, shout out to Will Smith for being the best Genie they could have done, as nobody could fill the shoes of Robin Williams.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER = Zoey Deutch as Madison in Zombieland: Double Tap

EXPLANATION = I loooooooooooved the character of Madison. She was the perfect level of cute, obnoxious, pathetic and lovable, and could have easily been too annoying or something if in the wrong hands.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Kyliegh Curran as Abra Stone in Doctor Sleep

BEST STORY

This is an alternative to Best Adapted/Original Screenplay where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame / Joker (tie)

EXPLANATION = Same explanation to Best Picture, but I'm leaning more toward the idea of Endgame winning this, if I had to pick. Joker is a little too much of a copy of Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy for me to give it as much credit.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Doctor Sleep

MOST FAITHFUL ADAPTATION

Which felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame

EXPLANATION = They knew exactly what people wanted and gave it to them. It took 10 years and they still didn't disappoint.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Pokémon Detective Pikachu, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (kind of), Zombieland: Double Tap

BEST VISUALS

This examines special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.

WINNER = Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Lion King (tie)

EXPLANATION = It's hard to distinguish a winner between these two. The Lion King is the best as far as animation, by far. However, the "acting" of the characters suffered from not having faces that could express things better. Godzilla is the best as far as blending live action with CGI. That Mothra stuff was beautiful.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Captain Marvel for de-aging Samuel L. Jackson. Terminator: Dark Fate for de-aging Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Avengers: Endgame was nuts. Spider-Man: Far From Home for the illusions. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker for pretty much all of it.

BEST ACTION SET PIECE

This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame (Avengers...assemble climactic battle)

EXPLANATION = COME. ON. Cap wielding Mjolnir? "On your left"? Everyone shows up. That goddamn music. He says the line! SO. MANY. GOOSEBUMPS. I legitimately don't know if I've ever felt as much pure joy and excitement while watching a movie in my life and I cried in this film, which has happened less times than I can count on one hand. Insane.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Spider-Man: Far From Home's illusions from Mysterio is my #2 pick. I also really enjoyed the action in Zombieland: Double Tap.

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN

This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.

WINNER = Avengers: Endgame

EXPLANATION = By the sheer number of characters alone.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Shazam! (particularly the rest of the family) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = Joker

EXPLANATION = This was the only one of the bunch that I downloaded some of the soundtrack from.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = It sure as hell wasn't going to be The Lion King with that Spirit song, or Aladdin with that new Jasmine song, even though both of their original films have some of the best music ever in films (A Whole New World, This Land, The Circle of Life, etc). Those two new additions killed them, though. Glass has some great tracks. Avengers: Endgame, naturally, has some great music, but it had already been established, so I don't know if that deserves as much credit. Plus, you've got to love the music from Star Wars.