Overview of 4th Annual Chino Choice Awards

With me releasing the Nominees AND Winners of the Chino Choice Awards (hopefully next week), there's gonna be quite a few surprises. I just need to watch like 5 more movies (No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Away From Her, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Michael Clayton) to really see my winners. Hopefully, I'll be done by next week and can announce my winners for the 4th Annual Chino Choice Awards.

I was wrong about 2007 I must admit. It was actually a very good year for film. In my opinion, just as strong as 2006. I've loved so much movies and awarded so many 5 stars to deserving films. This past year we were given the wonderful life of troubled performer Edith Piaf ("La Vie en Rose"), a throat slitting barber from Fleet Street ("Sweeney Todd"), a controversial Beatles musical ("Across the Universe), a pregnant high school student ("Juno"), Bob Dyan being "portrayed" by a woman ("I'm Not There"), and a Live Disney Princess ("Enchanted"), just to name a few. Even if any of these titles boom as my Best Picture of the Year, they'll have a lot to beat from past years before this.

To start of the "overview", I've just got to say the artistic area of last years movies are tremendous. Much better then 2006, by far. We got truly amazing cinematography ("Into the Wild", "Across the Universe", "The Assassination of Jesse James"), costumes beyond beauty (Hairspray", "Atonement", "La Vie en Rose") and Art Direction with so much LIFE ("Sweeney Todd", "300"). 2007's artistic side was amazing. Great work.

When it comes to performance wise, performances in 2007 went beyond great. Clear newcomers like Joe Anderson in "Across the Universe", Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" and Saorise Ronan in "Atonement" really caught my attention with their unique, touching and amazing performances in their respective films. And movies as a whole, captivated. But what will the new Best Picture be following? A long line of my favorites, a long line of pure movie magic.

2004

In 2004, when I first awarded the Chino Choice Awards, One particular film really caught me visually and acting wise. This movie was "The Aviator". This film, about the life of Hollywood Producer and Aviation Mogul Howard Hughes, was perfectly shot (direction by Scorsese) and wonderfully acted. The movie ended receiving 8 Chino Choice Awards, the most in my award-giving history. It got: Best Picture, Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett), Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Ensemble Cast, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design and Best Film Editing. To round of the year, Hilary Swank won Best Actress for her work as Boxer Maggie in "Million Dollar Baby" and Clive Owen as his sex-pot addict in "Closer" got Best Supporting Actor.

2005

With a controversial gay cowboy flick ("Brokeback Mountain") versing a racist LA flick ("Crash") at the Oscars, 2005 became one of the most controversial years in Oscar and in cinema. But to me, the two hardly deserved to be on top. With amazing Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line" and the Jane Austen novel "Pride and Prejudice" on screen, 2005 gave us a delightful "romantic" theme to it. Joe Wright's "Pride and Prejudice" however, had the edge and ended up snagging my Best Picture award. Along with that, it won: Best Actress (Kiera Knightly), Best Director (Joe Wright), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography. "Walk the Line" took home the Best Actor prize ofor Joaquin Phoenix. As for the supporting roles, Jake Gyllenhaal for his controversial Jack Twist in "Brokeback Mountain", and, Rachel Weisz as the stubborn wife of "The Constant Gardner".

2006

When this year came around, I saw one of the strongest performances given in a single year and I was amazed with the many different types of wonderful and truly deserving movies that came out. My awarding became messy and the Best Picture, "The Departed", though nominated for 9 Chino Choice Awards won only half. It only won 5: Best Picture, Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Ensemble Cast, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Facing some very tough competition (Leo DiCaprio for "The Departed" and "Blood Diamond", co-star James McAvoy), Forest Whitaker ended winning the Best Actor award for his portrayal as the evil Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland". Also playing royalty, Helen Mirren won Best Actress for her performance as Queen Elizabeth in "The Queen". Eddie Murphy entertained and sparkled as Best Supporting Actor for "Dreamgirls" and Cate Blanchett, winning for a 2nd year this decade, won Best Supporting Actress for her seductive teacher in "Notes on a Scandal".

So this 2007 Chino Choice Awards, who will it be? Who will the nominees be? Will it be a comedy? A musical? A biopic? Just wait and see...

COMING SOON.