Seventh Annual Cosmique Movie Awards

Honoring films released in the 2006 calendar year

As always, the Cosmo Awards have some parallels with the other major film awards, but with our own special twist.

The Departed, for example, did very well with 12 nominations, the most of any film this year (though far short of the record 27 nominations set by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King several years ago). But the second-most nominated film was Shortbus, John Cameron Mitchell's sexy and poignant unrated film that was completely ignored at all of the other awards shows. Shortbus did so well (including nominations for Best Film, Best Drama, Best Ensemble, and two major acting nominations among its 10 nominations) that it scored enough on our complicated formula to achieve a Best Director nomination for Mitchell, who already holds a Best Acting Cosmo for his starring role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. 

In addition to Shortbus and The Departed, other Best Film nominees include Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen, and another surprise: V is for Vendetta.

Jennifer Hudson, reflecting a typical voter confusion for how to categorize her role, received both Lead and Supporting nominations for her work in Dreamgirls. Will that confusion hurt her, as it may have hurt Richard Gere for his duel Chicago nominations? Will voters decide to give her the Supporting award as they did for both Ellen Degeneress (Finding Nemo) and Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation) when they were in a similar position? If voters choose to give her the Leading award, it would certainly be a surprising upset for Helen Mirren, a previous Cosmo Supporting Actress winner for Gosford Park who has walked away with every other award for The Queen.

Check out the nominees by category and, coming soon, by title.

Key dates for this year's Cosmo season:

• Friday, April 13th - Final Cosmo ballots are due by midnight.

• TBD - Cosmo Awards Ceremony

Resources for Voters

• The Movie Times: 2006 Box Office - chronological list of films that have been released theatrically in 2006