1915 Century Award Nominations
by popegrutch
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.
- Trilby
- The Deadly Ring
- A Fool There Was
- The Coward
- Hypocrites
- Alice in Wonderland
- Charlie Chaplin for Work
- Douglas Fairbanks for The Lamb
- Charlie Chaplin for The Champion
- William Sheer for Regeneration
- Charlie Chaplin for By the Sea
- Luke the dog for Fatty’s Faithful Fido
- Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle for Fatty’s Tintype Tangle
- The Coward
- The Italian
- Hypocrites
- Cecil B. DeMille for Golden Chance
- Alias Jimmy Valentine
- Walter Stradling for Young Romance
- Joseph H. August for The Italian
- Boris Zavelev for Daydreams
- Alvin Wyckoff for The Cheat
- Alias Jimmy Valentine
Best Visual Effects (includes animation)
- Regeneration
- Ladislaw Starevich for Lily of Belgium
- Frank Ormston Hypocrites
- Children of Eve
- After Death
- Charlie Chaplin for The Bank
- Carl Harbaugh and Raoul Walsh for Regeneration
- C. Gardner Sullivan and Thomas Ince for The Italian
- M. Mikhailov for Children of the Age
- Hector Turnbull and Jeanie MacPherson for The Cheat
- Musidora for “The Red Cryptogram”
- Kate Toncray for “The Lamb”
- Marta Golden for “Work”
- Gertrude Claire for “The Coward”
- Florense Simoni for “The Red Cryptogram”
- Wilton Lackaye for “Trilby”
- Marcel Levésque for “The Deadly Ring”
- William Sheer for “Regeneration”
- Roy Daugherty for “Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaw”
- Sessue Hayakawa for “The Cheat”
- Henry B. Walthall for “The Raven”
- Charlie Chaplin for “The Bank”
- Rockliffe Fellowes for “Regeneration”
- George Beban for “The Italian”
- Vitold Polonsky for “After Death”
- Clara Kimball Young for “Trilby”
- Anna Q. Nilsson for “Regeneration”
- Vera Kholodnaia for “Children of the Age”
- Fanny Ward for “The Cheat”
- Geraldine Farrar for “Carmen”
- Francesca Bertini for “Assunta Spina“
- Cecil B. DeMille for “The Cheat”
- Raoul Walsh for “Regeneration”
- Evgeni Bauer for “After Death”
- Maurice Tourneur for “Alias Jimmy Valentine”
- Charlie Chaplin for “The Bank”
- Regeneration
- Children of the Age
- After Death
- The Cheat
- Golden Chance
- Carmen
- The Bank
- The Deadly Ring
- Alias Jimmy Valentine
- The Italian
Wow, I’m stoked that MM:FR got so many nominations incl. best picture, direction, and editing – usually ‘genre’ films are not much appreciated at the Oscars.
But as to 1915 … in the production design category, it’s a tough call between The Cheat and the Bauers, although I would give Daydreams the edge over Children of the Age.
Not sure I would have nominated Fannie Ward for Best Actress! I love me some melodramatic acting, but her performance didn’t really work for me. It is years since I watched The Cheat, though.
I haven’t seen all your Best Picture list, but for me After Death is an outstanding work, I love it so much. So that’s my pick!
Thank you for the feedback! It’s not easy comparing across a whole year and trying to remember each performance, etc. Certain ones stand out, and other things get blurry and I have to go back and check. It’s been a full year (I think) since I saw “After Death,” but I remember I loved it at the time. Have to take another look, I suppose, before I decide. Luckily we’ve still got six weeks to the Oscars!