The 2025 Annual Friendly Film Fan Awards

The Friendly Film Fan Names the Victors in 9th Annual Race!

​Hello, all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! Hopefully you’ve all had a  chance to catch up with our Friendly Film Fan Awards nominees over the past couple of days, and what a fun ride it’s been getting to do all of this smack in the middle of Oscar season, demonstrating to the Academy that no matter how much they ignore Challengers or under-nominated Dune: Part Two, some of us still watch everything we nominate for awards at the end of the year. With the Oscars just two days away and the bulk of our awards coverage pivoting to that over the rest of the weekend, it’s time to unveil the winners for the 9th Annual Friendly Film Fan Awards! Winners will be marked in bold alongside their fellow nominees in each category and paired with a brief description of how we chose each one. Let’s get started!

​Best Sound Design:

• Blitz
• Civil War – WINNER
• Dahomey
• Dune: Part Two
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

 
Before most people see a movie, they hear it. The opening studio logo music, or the audio design playing over those same logos as they flash across the screen to let you know the film you’re watching means business. Think of Mad Max: Fury Road, Edge of Tomorrow, or a surprising amount of action comedies that begin in the same fashion. Some movies’ sounds, though, stick with you long after the credits have rolled. The visceral whiz of a sniper shot, the cacophony of an explosion, the cracks of gunfire during a raid in a major city. Civil War doesn’t just show you what kind of movie it is, it lets you hear what kind of world it inhabits, and every tension-filled sequence in it uses sound to its maximum potential.

​Best Visual Effects:

• Alien: Romulus
• Better Man
• Civil War
• Dune: Part Two – WINNER
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

 
While there were some more realistic VFX on display this year, nothing served up visual spectacle on the big screen quite like Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. From the sandworms to the spice harvesters to any number of created environments, no film produced a better blend of CG and practical effects to immerse the viewer into its world than this one. It doesn’t just intrigue or surprise its audience; it demands their awe. It may be an obvious choice, especially in a category often full of obvious choices, but who says it isn’t also the right one?

​Best Screenplay:

• Sean Baker, Anora
• Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers
• Aaron Schimberg, A Different Man – WINNER
• Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow
• Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence Maclin, & John “Divine G.” Whitfield, Sing Sing

 
This category we struggled with for a good long while. We loved the back-and-forth banter in Anora, the layered jabs at other characters in Challengers, the raw humanity of Sing Sing, and the nuanced dysphoria in the dialogue of I Saw the TV Glow. One film, though, managed to combine all of these elements while staying entirely true to its tightrope of tone, and that’s Aaron Schimberg’s masterful dark comedy A Different Man. Not only does this film contain some of the most layered and thoughtful dialogue of the year, it’s also quite funny in a lot of unexpected places where almost any other film would fall completely apart. We absolutely adored its insightful commentary on self-image, insecurity, and obsession, and can’t wait to see what Aaron Schimberg puts his pen to next.

​Best Score:

• Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist
• Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Challengers – WINNER
• Hans Zimmer, Dune: Part Two
• Robin Carolin, Nosferatu
• Kris Bowers, The Wild Robot

 
The opening sirens of The Brutalist and the strings section of Nosferatu’s scoring band may go far harder than they need to, but no movie score quite defined the year in movies or the film it came from like that of Challengers, which comes to us from Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, their finest work since The Social Network. Borrowing a lot from some particular tracks of that latter film, Reznor & Ross have not only brough electronic scoring to a whole new level in film, but might have resurrected the idea of techno music in movie soundtracks single-handedly. Between this and the release of Charlie XCX’s Brat album, clubs all over the place have plenty of new material to work with, but this particular film score is where it all came back.

​Best Character Design:

• Jacqueline West & Makeup Team, Dune: Part Two
• Jenny Beavan & Makeup Team, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Janty Yates & David Crossman & Makeup Team, Gladiator II
• Emmanuelle Youchnovski & Makeup Team, The Substance – WINNER
• Paul Tazewell & Makeup Team, Wicked

 
Costume Design is one thing, but combining it with Makeup & Hairstyling to create fully realized characters through looks alone is another thing entirely. If both elements aren’t working together in perfect harmony, the visual look of a movie can fall apart rather quickly. Luckily, the team behind The Substance was not only able to create some truly grotesque body horror imagery, but also able to style that horror appropriately for every minute it appeared on screen. Even when the body horror wasn’t rearing its ugly head, the costuming and styling of the film lent so much weight both to the characters in the film and the message it so clearly wants to send.

​Best Production Design:

• Judy Becker, The Brutalist
• Patrice Vermette, Dune: Part Two
• Arthur Max, Gladiator II – WINNER
• Craig Lathrop, Nosferatu
• Nathan Crowley, Wicked

 
Don’t get us wrong, the physical sets in Wicked – including those Tulip fields – were indeed astoundifying, and the design of the sietches in Dune: Part Two looked great, but neither of them truly held a candle for us against the building of an entire Roman colosseum in which to stage epic combat sequences. Beyond that, however, every other piece of each set in Gladiator II lends to that design’s impact, especially when juxtaposed against the practical sets of palaces, stables, and the Roman streets themselves. Even if there were other films we enjoyed more on the whole, there was no created world which felt more fully immersive than that of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel.

​Best Film Editing:

• Marco Costa, Challengers
• Nick Emerson, Conclave
• Joe Walker, Dune: Part Two – WINNER
• Hansjörg Weißbrich, September 5
• Rik Chaubet, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

 
Another egregious snub by the Academy in favor of an over-nominated musical and another over-nominated musical, Dune: Part Two might well be the most perfectly edited film of the year, masterfully paced and beautifully cut. Not a single moment goes by without feeling fully realized, and not one scene or character included in the adaptation feels short-changed as a result of the film’s storytelling. They say that performances are made on set, but the movie is made in the edit bay, and if we had our way, Joe Walker would have walked away with a second Oscar by Sunday’s end.

​Best Cinematography:

• Lol Crawley, The Brutalist
• Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Challengers
• Greig Fraser, Dune: Part Two
• Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
• Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu – WINNER

 
It was yet another days-long struggle in this category as we went back and forth between three different candidates, all of whom would have been worthy winners, but in the end, despite the novelty of Nickel Boys’ approach to its storytelling and the grandiosity and scope of The Brutalist, we couldn’t help but fall head over heels with the cinematography of Robert Eggers’ adaptation of Nosferatu. Cinematography is more than just how a shot is framed or how a camera moves; it’s also lighting design and color grading, which lenses to use and when, light and shadow. Jarin Blaschke demonstrates with Nosferatu that not only does he know these tricks of the trade, he’s better at using them than most DPs will ever become, and his collaborations with Eggers should become entire courses in film classes across the globe. We can’t wait to hear what project he attaches himself to next.

​Best Stunt Ensemble:

• Dune: Part Two
• The Fall Guy
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Kill – WINNER
• Monkey Man

 
It would have been easy to give the Best Stunts award to the movie that celebrates stunt work, and in some fashion, it would deserve that win; after all, The Fall Guy does feature some incredible stunt work, but for our money, there was no more visceral or thrilling stunt work than in India’s action sensation, Kill. Sure, it’s mostly hand-to-hand fight choreography along the narrow corridors of a passenger train, but it can be difficult to keep upping that sense of danger once you’ve pulled out the move of narrowing the field of view; even Bullet Train’s characters didn’t stay on the train the entire time. Kill not only manages this task with one of the wildest title card drops of 2024, but consistently and constantly continues to innovate on the moment in which it finds itself by introducing some of the most bone-crunching stunts found outside of a John Wick film.

​Best Acting Ensemble:

• Anora
• Conclave – WINNER
• Dune: Part Two
• Nosferatu
• Sing Sing

 
Anora’s ensemble made us laugh, Sing Sing’s made us cry, Dune: Part Two’s held us in awe, and Nosferatu’s took us to places we didn’t even know they were capable of taking us. But Conclave gave us the messy, Mean-Girls-in-the-Vatican-esque gossip show we never knew we needed, and they delivered in spades as a collective. Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, Carlos Diehz, and Lucian Msamati all turn in some of the best work of their careers in a collection of scenes designed specifically for each one of them to have a moment to shine. In any hands but Edward Berger’s, Conclave could have turned into a self-important slog, a needless lecture on the meaning of faith and its importance to the world, but with him at the helm, and this ensemble waiting in the wings, it turned out to be one of the best times audiences had at the movies all year. 

​Best Supporting Actress:

• Joan Chen, Didi
• Carrie Coon, His Three Daughters
• Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Nickel Boys
• Ariana Grande-Butera, Wicked
• Margaret Qualley, The Substance – WINNER

 
Margaret Qualley is far from a breakthrough performer, with appearances in Tarantino, Shane Black, Claire Denis, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Ethan Coen films, but The Substance takes her to a whole other level. Her sheer confidence and magnetism is the driving force of the film’s second act, her hubris the impetus for beginning its third. This may not be a breakthrough per se, but it is a star-making performance, the kind that’s sure to catapult a steadily rising actress to superstardom in just a few short years, and it’s high time we gave her her flowers not only for all the work she’s already done, but for the mega-star that was born in front of our very eyes as we “pumped it up.” 

​Best Supporting Actor:

• Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing – WINNER
• Josh O’Connor, Challengers
• Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
• Adam Pearson, A Different Man

 
Sometimes supporting performances are instantaneous star-makers; other times they’re discoveries that yield something deeper and more meaningful than just fame or notoriety – they introduce us to souls bursting with talent and ready to show us a deeper side of ourselves; that’s Clarence Maclin, the greatest gift Sing Sing has to offer its viewers. Maclin imbues the film with the humanity it so desperately clings to, refusing to let its cast become caricatures and likewise denying its audience the opportunity to think about its cast in that way. He is the anchor on which the most crucial elements of the film sit, and he’s more than up to the task of holding the script’s weight in his own lap. For these reasons and more, he is our choice for Best Supporting Actor.

​Best Actress:

• Lily-Rose Depp, Nosferatu
• Willa Fitzgerald, Strange Darling
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths – WINNER
• Mikey Madison, Anora
• Demi Moore, The Substance

 
How does one understand the people around oneself who are so angry, so thorny, so unhappy with everything that they make everyone around them miserable? Perhaps we’re not meant to understand, and there is no answer to this question, yet we cannot say that they are any less human than us; that’s the thesis at the heart of Mike Leigh’s deceptively cutting Hard Truths, and it’s that sort of person that Marianne Jean-Baptiste brings so vividly to life in a performance one truly has to see to believe. Jean-Baptiste shouldn’t just be nominated for an Oscar this year, she should be winning it. Fortunately, there’s something better for her at the Friendly Film Fan Awards: our undying support and respect for her work, and the love of two brand-new superfans.

​Best Actor:

• Adrien Brody, The Brutalist – WINNER
• Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
• Nicholas Hoult, Juror #2
• Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight
• Sebastian Stan, A Different Man

 
Saying that someone has won an award before has never made sense to us as a reason not to award them again, and one area in which we feel the Academy will agree with us is in the fact that there was no better performance this year than that of Adrien Brody in The Brutalist. (Yes, we know about the A.I. accent modification – we also know that so little of it was used so as to be relatively ineffective when paired against the performance as a whole, so let’s be normal about that.) His best turn in film since 2002’s The Pianist under a director no one’s ever heard of or should ever speak the name of again, Brody fully embodies the character of László Tóth, and brings a sense of real identity to who Tóth is both as an artist and as a human being. It’s a performance for the ages in a film that’s sure to stand the test of time, and we’re delighted to award him our pick for Best Actor.

​Best Director:

• Brady Corbet, The Brutalist – WINNER
• Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part Two
• George Miller, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Robert Eggers, Nosferatu
• Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

 
To carry out a vision so epic, bold, and grandiose on a budget of just $10 million is an insane feat, so it’s no wonder that Brady Corbet is our selection for Best Director for his work on The Brutalist. To pull the performances out of his actors that he did, to keep the whole thing at the scale it was, and to shoot it in a way that not only honors its architectural roots but also understands the purpose of those roots, Corbet might be the next great American epic auteur. In much the same way some other winners on this list didn’t breakthrough but became stars based off their work last year, Brady Corbet is sure to become a household name, and we’ll be anxiously awaiting his next project.

​Best Picture:

• Anora
• The Brutalist – WINNER
• Challengers
• A Different Man
• Dune: Part Two
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• I Saw the TV Glow
• Nosferatu
• Sing Sing
• The Substance

 
If you were privy to our Top 10 Films of 2024, you likely knew where this was going, but did you know this was actually the most difficult award apart from Cinematography to choose? Sometimes our Best Picture winners are more optimistic, more uplifting, more indicative of the hope humanity can have for itself with the right ingredients, but in times such as these, it’s worth remembering that the American dream – for too many people – has always been a lie, and that the promise of a better life in coming here for many immigrants is not only broken soon after arrival, but twisted to become a promise of nightmares as exploitation and usefulness to capital overtakes their lives, rendering them mere cogs in a money-crunching machine rather than human beings from whom we must seek to better understand humanity itself. Beyond merely being a portrait of an artist struggling against the forces that want to cheapen and rush his work until it turns into something else entirely, the thesis of the immigrant is the most powerful element The Brutalist has to offer, and in case anyone was wondering, yes, its ending is not only distinctly representative of that journey, but of the anti-Zionist’s struggle as well. For all these reasons and more, The Brutalist is our pick for Best Picture of the Year. 

And those are our winners for the 9th Annual Friendly Film Fan Awards! Do you agree with our picks? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan