Century Film Project

The nominations for the “real” Academy Awards were announced earlier today, and once again I’ve seen none of the movies up for consideration, and have only heard of about half of them. This is a recurring theme, and there’s no reason for me to be bitter about it. I just don’t go to the movies very much, and when I do, I usually don’t enjoy it much.

But…for those who are interested in my opinions of the movies of one hundred years ago, this is also the day that I announce my nominations for the Century Awards. I did a pretty good job of watching available movies from 1915 over the past year, although of course it’s not possible to see everything and I may have missed some obvious ones. I may be making some last minute additions in the next weeks, depending on how the Inter-Library Loan gods treat me.

This year, I’m sticking with the categories and rules I established last year with no significant changes. That means that “shorts” and “features” are competing in the same categories, as are “adapted” and “original” screenplays, and there are no special categories for “documentaries” or “animated” movies. In terms of movie length, I could have changed the rules this year, in light of the much higher rate of feature film production in 1915, but with Charlie Chaplin vaulting to super-stardom on the basis of two-reel releases this year, it only seemed right to let him compete with the longer movies. I think most of the “shorts” I nominated are his, though there’s probably an exception or two. I’ve never really understood the distinction between “original” (nothing is original in Hollywood) and “adapted” screenplays, and I’m too lazy to care, so there’s just one category there. As far as docs and animated, it comes down to the fact that I didn’t see enough of either to justify a separate category. The only 1915 animated movie I’ve seen is Ladislaw Starevich’s “Lily of Belgium,” so I guess it wins by default. I saw both “Over the Top” and “Mabel and Fatty Viewing the San Francisco Exposition,” both of which are sort of documentaries and sort of not, but that’s not enough to be called a representative sample of nonfiction film in 1915. (Between the two of them, “Over the Top” would win, if anyone’s interested). I still see no reason to separate “foreign language” from English-language silent films, and, yes, I’m keeping “Best Stunts.”

As I said last year, the rules to the Academy Awards say that there can be “up to five” nominees for each category except Best Picture, which gets “up to ten.” If you want to weigh in on the choices I’ve made, cast your “vote” by commenting, and explain why you think your chosen film should win. I’m still the final arbiter (it’s my blog), but I’ll certainly take well-thought-out arguments into account. If I sneak any new nominees in, it will mean exceeding the maximums, but I figure I can break my own rules when I need to.

Finally, before anyone asks, “where’s ‘The Birth of a Nation,’” the answer to that is here.

Best Makeup/Hairstyling

1. The Deadly Ring
2. A Woman
3. A Fool There Was
4. Trilby
5. A Night in the Show

Best Costume Design

1. Trilby
2. The Deadly Ring
3. A Fool There Was
4. The Coward
5. Hypocrites
6. Alice in Wonderland

Best Production Design

1. Young Romance
2. Daydreams
3. Evgeni Bauer for Children of the Age
4. The Cheat
5. Alias Jimmy Valentine

Best Stunts

1. Charlie Chaplin for Work
2. Douglas Fairbanks for The Lamb
3. Charlie Chaplin for The Champion
4. William Sheer for Regeneration
5. Charlie Chaplin for By the Sea
6. Luke the dog for Fatty’s Faithful Fido
7. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle for Fatty’s Tintype Tangle

Best Film Editing

1. The Coward
2. The Italian
3. Hypocrites
4. Cecil B. DeMille for Golden Chance
5. Alias Jimmy Valentine

Best Cinematography

1. Walter Stradling for Young Romance
2. Joseph H. August for The Italian
3. Boris Zavelev for Daydreams
4. Alvin Wyckoff for The Cheat
5. Alias Jimmy Valentine

Best Visual Effects (includes animation)

1. Regeneration
2. Ladislaw Starevich for Lily of Belgium
3. Frank Ormston Hypocrites
4. Children of Eve
5. After Death

Best Screenplay

1. Charlie Chaplin for The Bank
2. Carl Harbaugh and Raoul Walsh for Regeneration
3. C. Gardner Sullivan and Thomas Ince for The Italian
4. M. Mikhailov for Children of the Age
5. Hector Turnbull and Jeanie MacPherson for The Cheat

Best Supporting Actress

1. Musidora for “The Red Cryptogram”
2. Kate Toncray for “The Lamb”
3. Marta Golden for “Work”
4. Gertrude Claire for “The Coward”
5. Florense Simoni for “The Red Cryptogram”

Best Supporting Actor

1. Wilton Lackaye for “Trilby”
2. Marcel Levésque for “The Deadly Ring”
3. William Sheer for “Regeneration”
4. Roy Daugherty for “Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaw”
5. Sessue Hayakawa for “The Cheat”

Best Leading Actor

1. Henry B. Walthall for “The Raven”
2. Charlie Chaplin for “The Bank”
3. Rockliffe Fellowes for “Regeneration”
4. George Beban for “The Italian”
5. Vitold Polonsky for “After Death”

Best Leading Actress

1. Clara Kimball Young for “Trilby”
2. Anna Q. Nilsson for “Regeneration”
3. Vera Kholodnaia for “Children of the Age”
4. Fanny Ward for “The Cheat”
5. Geraldine Farrar for “Carmen”
6. Francesca Bertini for “Assunta Spina“

Best Director

1. Cecil B. DeMille for “The Cheat”
2. Raoul Walsh for “Regeneration”
3. Evgeni Bauer for “After Death”
4. Maurice Tourneur for “Alias Jimmy Valentine”
5. Charlie Chaplin for “The Bank”

Best Picture

1. Regeneration
2. Children of the Age
3. After Death
4. The Cheat
5. Golden Chance
6. Carmen
7. The Bank
8. The Deadly Ring
9. Alias Jimmy Valentine
10. The Italian