Fantaverse Society of Film Critics Awards show 2008

Welcome everyone to the 1st ever Fantaverse Society of Film Critics Awards, lets have a blast.

Don't worry if I haven't PM you with the winner you will get it before present!


Let the Show begin!

And now to present the 1st award of the night for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Keyser Soze.

Congratulation to the late Heath Ledger


Throughout the evening there will be Featurettes for each of the best picture nominees. To present the featurette for Slumdog Millionaire, JackO.

The first nominee for Best Picture and I have a history. It was early on back in the Tellride and Toronto Film Festivals when I saw a little article on Hollywood Elsewhere and also there was another on Slashfilm. They brought to my attention a little film called Slumdog Millionaire. It's a film that came from near direct to dvd status to Fantaverse award heights. In a lot of ways, this film is like us. We almost were left for nothing and now we've got something special going on. Okay, enough babble, enjoy the trailer!

Thank you JackO, and now to present the award for Best Cast, IPKI$$.

Thank you Shaan.
The primary goal of a movie is to entertain its audience. In order for this goal to be achieved successfully, the men, women, and children of the audience must forget that they are watching a movie and submit themselves completely to the movie’s characters and their stories. The execution of this suspension of disbelief is often times directly credited to and effected by the ability of the actors and actresses to realistically bring their individual characters and stories to life while forming a cohesive whole that allows the audience to access each emotion and ultimately develop an intimate relationship with each involved character. Every cast has its star and its support, but when the two become interchangeable, that’s when all performers have achieved their ultimate goal. This year’s nominees for best cast brought to life six unforgettable stories that range from the heart-felt true story of the first openly-gay politician elected to public office to the hilarious misadventures of a group of actors filming a war movie who find themselves dropped smack-dab in the center of an actual conflict. And whether they introduced us to a small town shaken by the birth of a boy with a rather unusual growth disability or showed us the struggle of a once great city and its determined residents to rise above the ever-growing threats of crime, poverty, and sheer terror led by an unlikely hero, the fact is that these six films more than did their jobs.

The nominees for the Best Cast of 2008 are:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Iron Man
Milk
Tropic Thunder

And for the first upset of the night, the winner is:

That Batman Movie, I mean The Dark Knight!

Is that a sign of things to come!?

Thanks JackO!
Two for Two for The Dark Knight just how many can it take away tonight!


fittingly now to present the best Picture Featurette for The Dark Knight, Silversurfer.

I could definitely see this becoming a trend.

p.s. You're on the clock shaan.

Thanks Shaan, glad I managed to make it, didn't wanna miss this!! Anyway,

Comic books have been around as long as the motion pictures. The two grew up together. As the first comic strips such as The Yellow Kid were making their newspaper debuts, the Lumiere brothers were filming factory workers and trains pulling into stations. Film and comics have a symbiotic relationship. However, apart from the odd cheaply made movie (such as the very poor 1936 version of Flash Gordon), the two did not merge until Superman's debut in 1978. Since then, numerous incarnations have been transferred to the big screen, including notably, Tim Burton's Batman in 1989. That turned out to be Warner Bros. top grossing movie ever at the time, and pushed comic book movies back into the big budget realm. Hollywood had realised that comic books returned big box office figures.

Now, despite Joel Schumacher's best efforts during the mid nineties to kill the franchise, Batman has always been a character which has provoked intrigue with his audience. There has got to be some pychological issues with a guy who decides to spend his nights in a bat costume, right? Well, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain". Morality, in all its ambiguous nature, played a key role in Christopher Nolan's follow up to the immensely popular Batman Begins, which, despite only drawing in $200 million at the U.S. box office, was able to drum up enough support through word-of-mouth and its DVD release to make its sequel the most anticipated movie of the year.

The Dark Knight, like its predecessor, explored the dark, gritty world of Gotham City, but took what was already a superbly crafted world, and expanded upon and matured it into what some believe could quite possibly be one of the most impressive pieces of film ever created. Taking his film a step further than just crowd pleasing superhero action, Nolan's vision of Gotham is an intriguing, stylistic and ultimately realistic world, layered up with characters who are real and a storyline that is relevant in this post-9/11 climate.

This concept really related with its audience, to the sum of more than $500m domestically, making it the most successful movie since James Cameron's Titanic. Breaking record after record, the word of mouth of Nolan's thriller ensured that the movie will go down in history. The movie was so well received it even had a chance of topping The Godfather on the IMDB top 250. One of the main reasons for its popularity was the way Nolan tackled issues that are often disregarded in comic-book movies, themes that are deemed too serious or too important to be dealt with in such a fantastical world. And the main protagonist for this terrifying theme? The Joker.

The driving force behind the sequel, Nolan saw him like the shark in Jaws, a terrifying menace to society who, “…has no character arc, no development. He just cuts through the water”. Taking influences from Frank Miller’s “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns” and Alan Moore’s “Killing Joke”, Heath Ledger created a truly iconic figure of evil. Ranking alongside the best villains of cinematic history, Ledger’s performance is stunning. Ledger actually becomes The Joker, rather than just acting it. Smeared in white paint, which deteriorates throughout the movie at the same rate as the City of Gotham around him, he portrayed a truly menacing and psychotic figure. It's such a shame we will never be offered the opportunity to see just how much further he could have taken the character.

However, the movie didn't rely solely on Ledger's 'tour de force'. An impeccable supporting cast, some brilliant cinematography from Wally Phister, and a Jonah. Nolan/David Goyer script so dense and elaborate, Christopher Nolan's marvelous direction was so well supported and enabled The Dark Knight to exceed even the most hopeful of fan's expectations.

We may never see another comic book adaptation like it (well, unless Watchmen equals its graphic novel stature), as these movies don't come around often. Nolan has just signed on to develop a second sequel, and no doubt it will have a good chance at topping this masterpiece, at least in monetary terms. But it will have to do one hell of a job to match its quality, and if it does we are in for a treat. The Academy may not have recognised the genius of this movie, but you can guarantee its audience has. The Dark Knight is going down in history, and for once it actually deserves its accolades.

Thanks for that Epic Surfer

And now to present the award for Breakthrough Performance, Transformers2.

... Obviously T-Bone wasn't very impressed with the winner and has run off with the card. Either that or he's having his wicked way with one of the awards dancers backstage.

The anticipation is killing me!!!
You could cut the tension with a knife!!!

and so on.

I would like to start off by saying thank you to everyone at the fantaverse you guys are the shit and this award show and everything that everyone does is amazing and i love all of you...

Anyway here are the nominations for Breakthrough Performance..

Dev Patel as the game show hopeful in Slumdog Millionare

James Franco as the loveable pot dealer in Pineapple Express

Evan Rachel Wood as the distraught daughter of a former wrestling superstar in The Wrestler

Lina Leandersan in the vampire extravangaza that is Let The Right One In

Taraji P.Henson as the woman named Queenie in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

and the winner is...............................................................

James Franco,Pineapple Express

Wall-E is the story about a 700-year old robot who has spent nearly his whole life alone, doing what he was designed to do: clean up the heavily-polluted Earth. In the process, he has developed a personality and has become extremely curious with the world around him, leading him to collect various items from the enormous trash pile that Earth has become. He also befriends a cockroach that is thought to be the only other living on Earth. One day while Wall-E is doing his job, he discovers a little red dot that becomes a giant spaceship. When the spaceship lands, another robot named Eve arrives and Wall-E is immediately interested in this strange, new being. It takes awhile but Eve soon gets to know what Wall-E's world is like. Everything is fine until Wall-E shows Eve a plant held in an old boot. Though strange to Wall-E, Eve needs the plant to help the human race (now living in space) survive and return to Earth. She immediately into hypersleep while Wall-E is around to protect her, not understanding what has happened. The ship then returns to take Eve but now Wall-E, in love with Eve, tags along to go to space with her, not realizing that he has come for more than just the love of another robot.

The story, a combination of post-apocalyptic science fiction and romantic comedy, is unique because the film is not driven by its dialogue. Instead, it is driven by the actions on-screen and the voices of the characters created mostly by the film's sound designer, Ben Burtt. Though there is some dialogue, it usually takes a backseat to the on-screen actions of the robotic characters. The film itself was the best-reviewed film of 2008, the sixth highest grossing film of 2008, the winner of many film awards and critics' lists and is one of the best received films of all-time among voters of the Internet Movie Database. The appeal of the film mainly stems from the ability to appeal to everyone. The characters and comedy for the children, the romance for the couples and adults and the science fiction for teenagers. Another appeal was the incredible likeability of its main character. Wall-E may be a robot but he has human tendencies and his hunger for love is something that we as humans can relate to. He is also a very cute character and is loveable among children.

And here is the theatrical trailer for Wall-E:

sorry it took me so long my dad called me while i was in the middle of typing so thats why it took so long.

Thanks for those touching remarks Trans, and congrats to James Franco


And that Featurette for WALL•E was presented by Buscemi, whose love for WALL•E caused to just get stuck in

and now to present the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, A_Roode.

Awesome. So glad to see James Franco win here. He defined the term "breakout role" in Pineapple Express. He was the first name that came to mind when I thought about that category. I think I actually wrote the term "breakthrough performance" in my Pineapple Express review. Great to see the win.

Time for the celebratory bong rips!!!

The following award is sponsored by Wychwood's Hobgoblin Ale (which your presenter may or may not be drinking as he attempts to type this):

Five women and five performances:

An emotionally unstable lover who inspires, destroys and captivates.
A stripper, a redeemer, a second chance and a sage who wasn't shy about letting us know that the 90's sucked.
A foster mother who taught us that love supercedes race and age.
An aide who provides steadiness, structure, stability and an emotional core for her employer.
A naive, malleable young nun who carelessly sets off a chain of events that will have a lasting effect on all who are involved.

Five women who lifted the films they were a part of and their names are:

Penelope Cruz: Vicki Cristina Barcelona
Marissa Tomei: The Wrestler
Taraji P. Henson: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Gwyneth Paltrow: Iron Man
Amy Adams: Doubt

And the winner is...

Marisa Tomei: The Wrestler

(apparently Maggie Gyllenhall tried to take the award, but Tomei choke slammed her and hit her with a chair. Congratulations Ms Tomei!)

That's the hottest award I've seen yet!