the cinemabyizzy oscars (2024) (2025)

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Hi everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful festive period if you celebrate.

This year has been transformative for me in so many ways, down to the little steps I’ve made to the bounds and leaps I’ve been lucky enough to embark on. I’ve learnt a lot about myself as a person in 2024, especially how much I love being a writer and sharing my thoughts and ramblings to an audience.

Thanks for reading cinemabyizzy!

I had to take a small step-back from writing however due to miscellaneous school rubbish, yet, in that time, a few particularly exciting things happened. For one, I have been given the opportunity to participate in a screenwriting course with a film-maker in January. I have already started digging my hands into various screenplays and doing research, and I would love (when the time comes) to write about that learning experience. I’m extremely thankful and excited!

For the other, I began my application process for university to study journalism, which was so daunting at the time. I’ve had my eye on one university specifically for a while and I needed to submit a portfolio of work for it, which, of course, I submitted a few things I had written on here. And… I got the offer. For every person who has been interested, even only a little bit, in what I’ve written, I can not express my thanks enough. Every notification I get makes me want to keep writing, and I’ve achieved a dream because of it.

So, to honour the awful and amazing found in 2024, here is my own rule-bending, more-biased version of The Oscars. Pretend I’m Conan O'Brien, just with the unfortunate UK distribution system.

The Oscar for ‘I Should Have Seen This Sooner’ goes to… Gremlins (1984)

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Gremlins is just ridiculous. And that is why I love it so much.

The practical effects are excellent and make this film. The sequence where the mother is in the kitchen and killing the gremlins and that black goo is going everywhere and she’s murdering one in the microwave - pure fun. I’m so glad this was made in the 80s and not now because I can just totally imagine how much CGI would be used now to try and accomplish this, and be totally ineffective.

Also, I am obsessed with Gizmo. I would take care of him CORRECTLY.

The Oscar for ‘Favourite Documentary’ goes to… Louis Theroux: The Night in Question (2019)

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Louis Theroux is one of my journalist heroes, so, naturally, one of his documentaries has to win.

Louis Theroux: The Night in Question is a fascinating documentary about a man accused of sexual assault on a college campus, following the man who has been accused. While this unfortunately but understandingly lacks the victim’s perspective, Theroux talks to his friends, classmates and victims of similar accusations and crimes to try and figure out if this man claiming innocence was truly innocent. And it is very clear he is not by the end of the documentary.

I found this really quite fascinating due to this idea that certain people believe that sexual assault accusations can ruin a man’s life. We can tell from various prolific people in the film and music industries and even in politics, that this is far from true. Emerald Fennell, director of Saltburn (2023), said in an interview with Little White Lies (which is a fantastic read) that ‘our society has made assault and being accused of assault equivalent, which is fucking absurd’, which this documentary dissects that.

The Oscar for ‘Best Recommendation From a Friend’ goes to… Rushmore (1999)

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Whilst this definitely wasn’t the best film I’ve seen this year (and I have my gripes with Wes Anderson, which I would love to expand on eventually), I have to give this film this category due to the person who told me about this film being an exact carbon copy of the Max Fischer, played by Jason Schwartzman. The theatricality of that character directly mimics this person who made me aware of this movie and I knew at once why this wasn’t just his favourite Anderson, but also his favourite film of all time. I enjoyed the viewing experience because I could see why he loved it.

I read an interesting article in the Little White Lies Promising Young Woman issue titled A Take-down Of Movies About Nice Guys Who Pester Women, about how the romance genre plays into certain stalkerish behaviour and trying to pass it off as romantic. This was mentioned under the ‘harassing women in the workplace’ section, which I was glad to see. With every Anderson film I see, I always have one glaring issue that tampers with my experience, and this was it for this film.

The Oscar for ‘Best Recommendation From a Family Member’ goes to… Interstellar (2014)

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Now, 2024 was the year I really fell in love with Christopher Nolan’s work. I saw this for the first time in Imax, which was perfection. This movie just seriously blows my mind. How did Nolan think to direct it? How did Nolan think to write it? I need his genius.

A movie about a father and a daughter is always gonna get me I fear.

The Oscar for ‘Not The Best But I’m Having Fun’ goes to… Wicked (2024)

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Ok. I know I rated this high in my review but hear me out.

I love this film because of what the musical means me, not necessarily because of all of the choices made. The more I watch the more the backlighting and lack of colour gets on my nerves, and I can pick out so many continuity errors it is getting annoying. I watched Trin Lovell’s video on the film before my third viewing a couple of days ago and she talked about how she believed that Jon Chu was the main issue with the film and I hate to agree that she is kind of right.

It is a great musical adaptation; that is objectively true. I am being very nit-picky with my critiques, yet there are certain things which could have elevated the film to an even greater standard.

The Oscar for ‘Usually Not My Thing, But’ goes to… The Iron Claw (2023)

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Never, ever, ever would I expect a film about wrestling to hit me this hard but here we are.

I did the classic thing of liking an actor in a film and going in blind, and then eventually left the cinema in tears. This film has the effect where a simple word could send your heart racing, wondering what else could possibly go wrong. It is a really powerful and sincere piece of work, exploring the power of brotherhood and the consequences of toxic masculinity and the patriarchy on men.

This is an excellent Zac Efron performance and I’m still so surprised he didn’t win anything huge for it.

The Oscar for ‘This Is Absolutely My Thing And I Loved It’ goes to… Spice World (1997)

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I love pop music. I love girl groups. I love stupid British cinema. I love cameos. I have a fat crush on Sporty Spice. Honestly, every girl group needs to follow the A Hard Day’s Night (1964) formula; I loved this so much.

The Oscar for ‘Worst Cinema Experience Of The Year’ goes to… Back to Black (2024)

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Unfortunately, 2024 was the year I learnt I had to be strategic if I wanted a good, unbothered viewing at a cinema. Sadly, it is kind of normal now that someone is going to be sat on their phone the whole time or not being conscious of the volume of their voice.

As much as I have expressed my burning hatred for this film, this screening definitely took the cake for my worst experience; people’s alarms going off several times, not turning off flash notifications, the girl to my left’s boyfriend not knowing how to shut up during the quiet moments and the woman to my right thinking she is Amy herself and blessing us all with an impromptu Back to Black performance.

It was constant, and all I can do is laugh about it now.

The Oscar for ‘Favourite Male Actor Performance’ goes to… Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice (2024)

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I think Jeremy Strong’s performance in The Apprentice genuinely altered my brain chemistry. If he isn’t given an Oscar nomination, I will personally march to the academy myself and start a riot.

This film is about journey, and I think the beauty of it is how in the beginning Strong plays a domineering, destructive Roy Cohn, which eventually turns into a frail, powerless being as he is diagnosed with Aids and Trump, who he previously mentored becomes a business tyrant. Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong compliment each other very well, and I truly believe that Strong was the perfect person for his role.

On another note, I recently learned that Jeremy Strong is deemed an ‘intense actor’ because of his role preparation, which… I can see that for him.

The Oscar for ‘Favourite Female Actor Performance’ goes to… Demi Moore for The Substance (2024)

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Again, the perfect person for this role. She made me laugh, she made cry, she made me want to throw up. She was perfect.

The scene I think about all the time is the scene where she is getting ready to go out on a date and is unhappy with her appearance. She changes something and takes it off. She changes something and takes it off. Throughout this repetition, she is progressively getting angrier and angrier, and it is a depiction of womanhood which I didn’t realise was so universal.

Every time I get an update that she is nominated or won something for this performance, I get a rush of serotonin. She was excellent.

The Oscar for ‘Favourite Watch Of The Year’ goes to… Aftersun (2022)

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Very predictable answer from me. I just truly adore this film.

In my initial review, I mentioned how my friend described the film to me as ‘everything and more’, and he was so correct. I could talk about how beautifully this film was crafted for hours; the alternating perspectives, the textural choices with the use of different cameras, that one establishing shot of the two of them being separated by a wall, the Under Pressure scene and so on.

Just such a lovely film.

And that is all! Have some honourable mentions, just for fun:

  • D.E.B.S (2004)

  • Sabrina (1954)

  • Perfect Blue (1997)

  • A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

  • The Favourite (2018)

  • Blink Twice (2024)

  • But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)

  • Amy (2015)

  • How to Have Sex (2023)

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Thanks for reading cinemabyizzy!

the cinemabyizzy oscars (2024) (2025)

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