2013 Calvin Awards: Intro
By David Mumpower
February 18, 2013
The year in cinema was ultimately satisfying albeit odd. There was no 800-pound gorilla that dominated the landscape unless we count The Avengers, which tore up the box office. It was not, however, an end-of-year awards contender. While Argo has emerged as the Academy Awards Best Picture favorite, there has been no runaway favorite.
2012 featured roughly 20 movies that could be accurately described as brilliant. Because of the depth of quality titles, our voting was much tighter than in recent years. No single feature film dominated the landscape as has been the norm in voting for The Calvins. Instead, we eventually settled upon a handful of movies and performances we believe should be championed. Specifically, 10 different films have emerged victorious in our 13 movie-based categories, a historic number of diverse category winners. This speaks to the depth of quality titles just as it indicates that no one movie blew our minds as has happened in past years.
In short, discard any expectations you may have about predictable results. I founded this site in 2001 and personally recruited most of the staff contributors yet several category outcomes this year shocked me. There were a couple of other interesting trends. Despite our staff’s adoration of Pixar and Joss Whedon, Brave, Wes Anderson, The Avengers and The Cabin in the Woods managed only two wins between them. In short, previous favorites fared no better than virtual unknowns...or luminaries such as Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino.
We lauded a nine-year-old in a move presumably intended to make every other third grader in the world feel very bad about their life achievements to date. The Best Videogame category was not won by a Halo or Final Fantasy title despite both franchises providing a 2012 release. And a category that had never featured a repeat champion in seven previous years went against the grain with this vote.
The 2013 Calvins are upon us, and the results represent our staff’s historic diversity of opinion regarding the year in film.
Be sure to check back daily as we reveal new categories each day this week, culminating in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay on Friday.
2013 Calvin Awards
Calvins Intro
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Best Videogame
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture
See our 2013 Awards
See our 2012 Awards
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See our 2002 Awards
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