Best by Genre

Scope of the 2004 Cosmique Movie Award Categories

The genre categories allow Cosmo voters to express their range of interests, and recognize a diversity of films that would not otherwise be acknowledged. Some genres may seem overly specific (like Best Historical), but are intended to recognize an important cinematic niche. Others may seem to be too broad, like Best Mystery/Suspense/Horror/Thriller, to the point where the nominees may seem to have little relation to one another.

This year, the Cosmique Movie Academy's Board of Governors has elected to create two new genre categories and split an important existing one into two.

Best Action/Adventure Film of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the 2004 film deemed by Cosmo voters to have the been the best in the action/adventure genre.

Comments: Naturally, films may be eligible for nomination in more than one genre. Some will be more of the espionage or crime-fighting variety, perhaps with even a mystery or suspense angle, while others will lean more towards the supernatural or science fiction.

Ideas for Nominees: Alien vs. Predator; Blade Trinity; The Bourne Supremacy; Cellular; The Day After Tomorrow; Hero; The Incredibles; National Treasure; Spider-Man 2; Team America: World Police; and Van Helsing

 

Best Animated Film of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the 2004 animated film deemed by Cosmo voters to have the been the best of the year.

Comments: The Oscars introduced a Best Animated Film category a few years ago, and if it's good enough for the Oscars, it's good enough for us. We considered allowing films with significant CGI characters (like Scooby-Doo or Garfield), but in the end went with the will of the voters and limited it to completely or predominately animated films. This includes both films painted by hand the old fashioned way as well as those rendered digitally. Remember, however, that the films must have had a theatrical release in 2004, however limited. Films released straight to video are not eligible. The Board of Governors may decide once nomination ballots are returned to have fewer than five nominees in this category.

Ideas for Nominees: Clifford's Really Big Movie; Home on the Range; The Incredibles; It's a Digital World; The Polar Express; Shark Tale; Shrek 2; The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie; and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie

Best Comedic Film of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the 2004 film deemed by Cosmo voters to have the been the best in the comedy genre.

Comments: In previous years, the Cosmos followed the lead of the Golden Globes and lumped musicals under this genre. But this year, further examination revealed that there are a lot of films released in the U.S. this year that we would consider to be musicals (even if the Oscars consider some of them ineligible). For that reason, we chose this year to split out the musicals and allow this category to honor comedies. (Of course, a comedic musical could be considered for both, just as a dramatic musical could also be considered for Best Drama.) Sometimes it can be difficult to determine whether a film is intending to be a comedy or a drama. A film could be considered as a comedy even if it also had dramatic elements, while a dramatic film can have comedic moments. Voters will have to decide for themselves whether the film is primarily a comedy or a drama, and a split could allow a film to be nominated in both categories (as Igby Goes Down, Big Fish, and Lost in Translation can attest). Films may be eligible for nomination in more than one genre.

Ideas for Nominees: Being Julia; Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason; A Dirty Shame; Eating Out; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Eurotrip; Garden State; Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle; I Heart Huckabee's; The Incredibles; Intermission; The Ladykillers; The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; Love Me If You Dare; Mean Girls; Saved!; Sideways; The Stepford Wives; and Touch of Pink

 

Best Documentary of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the 2004 film deemed by Cosmo voters to have the been the best in the documentary genre.

Comments: The Board of Governors considered dropping this category, but the explosion of big box office documentaries this year has cemented the genre's appearance at the Cosmos. This category includes any theatrically-released film that would normally be consider reality-based, which explains how Jackass: The Movie was nominated a few years ago. The Board of Governors may decide once nomination ballots are returned to have fewer than five nominees in this category.

Ideas for Nominees: Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer; America's Heart and Soul; Broadway: The Golden Age; Celsius 41.11: The Temperature at Which the Brain... Begins to Die; Fahrenheit 9/11; Faster; Games People Play: New York; Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry; Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst; The Hunting of the President; In the Face of Evil: Reagan's War in Word and Deed; Metallica: Some Kind of Monster; Outfoxed; Paper Clips; Still, We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie; Super Size Me; and Uncovered: The War on Iraq

 

Best Dramatic Film of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the 2004 film deemed by Cosmo voters to have the been the best in the dramatic films genre.

Comments: Any film with sufficient dramatic appeal is eligible in this category. Many films will have both comedic and dramatic elements; voters will have to decide whether the film is primarily a comedy or a drama (though it is conceivable to be nominated in both).

Ideas for Nominees: Alexander; Alfie; The Aviator; Beyond the Sea; Birth; The Clearing; Closer; The Day After Tomorrow; De-Lovely; The Door in the Floor; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Finding Neverland; Garden State; A Home at the End of the World; Hotel Rwanda; Kinsey; A Love Song for Bobby Long; Mean Creek; Million Dollar Baby; The Phantom of the Opera; Ray; The Sea Inside; Spanglish; Troy; Vera Drake; and The Woodsman

 

Best Historical Film of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the 2004 film deemed by Cosmo voters to have best covered a historical person, event, or era.

Comments: Voters will need to decide for themselves how expansive or narrow they wish to define this category. It clearly includes the film representation of a specific historic event, including biopics of historic people, even if some liberties are taken with historical accuracy for plot reasons. ("Best" does not necessarily need to mean "Most Historically Accurate," though for some voters that may be a consideration.) For some voters, the category may also include fictional characters set against the backdrop of a historical event (such as Gone With the Wind). It might also include historical figures set in a completely fictional setting (such as a previous winner, Gosford Park, which included the appearance of the historic actor Ivor Novello in an otherwise fictional plot). And finally, for some voters it could include completely fictional characters involved in completely fictional events, so long as those characters are set in a recognizable historic setting where the time and place plays an important role in the film (such as another previous winner, Far From Heaven).

Ideas for Nominees: The Alamo; Alexander; The Aviator; Beyond the Sea; De-Lovely; Finding Neverland; Good Bye Lenin!; Kinsey; The Motorcycle Diaries; Ned Kelly; The Passion of the Christ; Ray; Troy; and Vanity Fair

 

Best Musical Film of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the movie musical deemed by Cosmo voters to have best released theatrically in 2004.

Comments: Musicals are significant to Cosmo voters. Every Best Film winner in the history of the Cosmique Movie Awards has either been a drama or a movie musical (the latter being The Wizard of Oz and Chicago). In previous years, we have followed the lead of the Golden Globes and have lumped musicals in with comedies. But this year we felt that there were enough musicals to stand on their own. Note that while the Oscars would deem many of these to be ineligible, because it only includes musicals where most of the songs were originally composed for the screen, not the stage or other media. But here we follow the looser interpretation followed by the Golden Globes.

Ideas for Nominees: Almelund; Art Thief Musical!; Beyond the Sea; Big in Germany; De-Lovely; Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights; Disney's Teacher's Pet; Gayosity; Grandpa's Place; Greendale; Home on the Range; It's a Digital World; Lightning in a Bottle; Open House; The Phantom of the Opera; Pretty Dead Girl; Ray; Shrek 2; Team America: World Police; Temptation; The Singing Biologist; and West Hollywood Story

Best Mystery, Suspense, Horror, or Thriller Film of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the 2004 film deemed by Cosmo voters to have the been the best in the mystery, suspense, horror, and/or thriller genres.

Comments: This category has the greatest breadth of any of the genre categories. Its nominees must fall into at least one of the genres, but need not fall into all four to quality. As a result, this category can yield a diverse array of nominees, from slasher films to high-brow whodunnits.

Ideas for Nominees: Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid; Blade: Trinity; The Bourne Supremacy; Dawn of the Dead; Exorcist: The Beginning; The Forgotten; The Grudge; HellBent; The Ladykillers; The Manchurian Candidate; Mean Creek; Shawn of the Dead; Testosterone; The Village; and Wicker Park

 

Best Queer Film of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the LGBT-themed film deemed by Cosmo voters to have the been the best released in theaters in 2004.

Comments: This is a new genre this year, one which we will test and evaluate for future inclusion. It's open to any film with important lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered characters and/or themes. Note that voters will have to decide for themselves what constitutes "significant" (and potentially even "queer").

Ideas for Nominees: The 24th Day; Adored: Diary of a Porn Star; Alexander; Bad Education; Bear Cub; Connie and Carla; De-Lovely; A Dirty Shame; The Dreamers; Eating Out; HellBent; A Home at the End of the World; Jailbait; Latter Days; Noah's Arc; The Raspberry Reich; Saved!; Stage Beauty; The Stepford Wives; Straight-Jacket; Sugar; Testosterone; Touch of Pink; and Twist

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Film of 2004

Summary: Awarded to the 2004 film deemed by Cosmo voters to have the been the best in the science fiction or fantasy genres.

Comments: This category is open to any sort of legitimate "speculative fiction," though the nominees typically focus on films involving magic or futuristic technology.

Ideas for Nominees: 13 Going on 30; Alien vs. Predator; Blade: Trinity; The Butterfly Effect; Catwoman; The Chronicles of Riddick; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; Hellboy; I, Robot; The Incredibles; Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events; The Polar Express; Shrek 2; Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow; The Stepford Wives; Thunderbirds; and Van Helsing

Additional Categories

Lifetime Achievement

Best Overall

Best Performances