If there were any awards to be given out for singular or collective moments on the big screen in films released in North America during the calendar year of 2006, The Popcorn Reel would gladly present the following accolades to:

Best Opening Credits Presentation: "Casino Royale"   
(Runner-Up: "Thank You For Smoking")

Best End Credits Presentation: "Dreamgirls"

Best Opening Credits Song (tie):  KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See" (from "The Devil Wears Prada") and Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" (from "Casino Royale")

Best End Credits Song: "Never Gonna Break My Faith" by Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige featuring the Boys Choir of Harlem (from "Bobby")

Best Recurring Song Or Theme Music In A Film:  "Comfortably Numb" Roger Waters, Van Morrison, The Band (from "The Departed")

Best Song From Yesteryear In A Film: (tie) Stevie Wonder's "Jesus Children Of America" (in "The Pursuit Of Happyness") and The Beach Boys' "Sail On, Sailor" (in "The Departed")

Best Original Music Score:  Philip Glass, "Notes On A Scandal"

Best Trailer:  "Miami Vice"

Best Movie Poster:  "Notes On A Scandal"

Best Action Sequence In A Film:  Early on for about seven minutes in "Casino Royale"

Best Stuntwork Actually Performed By An Actor:  Tom Cruise, "Mission: Impossible III"

Best Return To The Big Screen:  Carmen Maura, "Volver"

Best Drama Masquerading As A Comedy:  "The Break-Up"

Best Exchange On Screen Between Actors:  Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett during a penultimate scene in "Notes On A Scandal"

Best Line Of Dialogue: Spoken by Daniel Craig in "Casino Royale" -- responding to a waiter's question of whether James Bond wants his Martini shaken or stirred: 
"Does it look like I give a damn?"

Best Ensemble Cast: "The Departed"
(Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Ray Winstone, Martin Sheen, Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin, Anthony Anderson)

Runners-Up: "Babel"
(Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Rinko Kikuchi, Adriana Barazza, Koji Yakusho)

and "A Prairie Home Companion"
(Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Garrison Keillor, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Kevin Kline, Maya Rudolph, Virginia Madsen, Tommy Lee Jones, Lindsay Lohan)

Best Cameo:  Bruce Willis in "Fast Food Nation" 
(Runner-Up: Vin Diesel in "The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift")

Best Re-enactment Of "Bonnie And Clyde" characters:  "Waist Deep"

Best Moment Without Dialogue:  "Babel" (scene with Rinko Kikuchi as Chieko, in a Tokyo discotheque)

Best Final Shot To End A Film:  "Babel"

Best Fade Out During A Film:  On Eddie Murphy in "Dreamgirls"

Best Moment of Suspense:  Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, unknowingly on each others' tail during "The Departed"

Best Moment of Levity: (tie)  Debbie Isitt's "Confetti" and Larry Charles' "Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America To Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan"

Best Singular Moment on Film: Jennifer Hudson as Effie White singing "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going", in "Dreamgirls"

Best Sequel:  Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky Balboa"

Best Revival Performance:  Eddie Murphy in "Dreamgirls"

Best Scenery-Chewing Performance:  Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada"

Best Director:  Martin Scorsese for "The Departed"  

Best Directing Debut:  Jason Reitman, "Thank You For Smoking"

Best Original Screenplay:  Guillermo Arriaga, "Babel" 

Best Debut Screenplay:  Russell Gewirtz, "Inside Man"

Best Documentary (after "An Inconvenient Truth"):  Stanley Nelson's "Jonestown: The Life And Death Of Peoples Temple"  
(Runners-Up: "The Bridge" and "Deliver Us From Evil")

Best Feature Length Documentary (non-theatrical):  Spike Lee's "When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts"

Best Overall Acting Performances:  Helen Mirren as "The Queen" and Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin in "The Last King Of Scotland"
(Runners Up: Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls" and Jackie Earle Haley in "Little Children"; and Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett in "Notes On A Scandal")

Best Film In A Language Other Than English:  "Letters From Iwo Jima"

Best Production Design (three-way tie):  "Children Of Men", "Curse Of The Golden Flower" and "Dreamgirls"

Best Costume Design: "Curse Of The Golden Flower" and "Dreamgirls"

Best Make-Up:  "Pan's Labyrinth"

Best Cinematography:  "The Painted Veil"

Best Film I Still Haven't Seen Yet:  Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's "The Lives Of Others"


Copyright 2006.  The Popcorn Reel.  PopcornReel.com.  All Rights Reserved.