The Siskoid Awards 2019 - Technical Achievement Ceremony

As the Siskoid Awards model themselves on the Oscars, but without the politics, voting, any shred of the democracy that is daily failing us, really. It's a one-man show. But we do hold a Technical Achievement Ceremony hosted by a famous star parallel to the main event, though you probably won't see any awards go to 3D processes or other such crimes against cinema. I'm so old school!

And to host, I got someone who has been blowing up right now, and really impressed me, to the point where I might say "she can do no wrong". I'm talking about Florence Pugh, who this year alone was in Fighting with my Family, Midsommar, and Little Women, and is set to enter the MCU next year in Black Widow. I guess I booked her before her schedule filled up!

Best role-playing moment of 2019 - I asked my gaming group to weigh in on this and it would seem our BarD&D Season 1 finale wins the Golden Monkey here, a big bardic festival called Cockroachella that not only featured the main players, but two returning guests (and a few PCs besides as DM-run cameos). It was epic, with an Elder God showing up to destroy the Forgotten Realms (and in some ways, I wish it had happened, I would have had a lot of fun doing a Season 2 in a postapocalyptic world), the father of all unicorns coming in to help, and a lot of heavy metal to take the Beast down.

Top 3 stories cut from Deep Space Nine documentary - Here are my choices for best anecdotes not in What We Left Behind, but included in the DVD's deleted scenes:
3. Nog’s Sisko Encounter
2. Jake's boner (The Trouble with Onesies)
1. "That's MY anger and you can't HAVE it!!!" (The Gift of Anger)
I'm not going into it any more than that, so you'll just have to check it out for yourselves, Niners!

Best Podcast(ers) of 2019 - This year, I have to give it to the guys at Longbox Crusade - Jarrod, Jason, Delvin and Pat - who have entertained me immensely with a whole slew of programming, whether it's the Crusade itself, or their coverage of Flash Gordon and Sherlock Holmes, or their dissection of Marvel's Transformers, or my personal favorite, Action Film Face Off. It's not so much the content as it is the personal dynamics of the group and its occasional guests. No matter the topic, the Crusaders bring a comedy troupe sensibility to the proceedings and make it an overall experience that builds on itself with recurring gags. Get in on the laughs and pop culture at the Longbox Crusade!

Best Franchise Endgame in 2019 - And there were many. Game of Thrones crapped out, but I haven't even seen it yet (I temporarily stopped watching after season 3). Godzilla: Final Wars came to mind, but that's because I just saw it. It didn't actually happen in 2019, so it doesn't count. Rise of the Skywalker? Nope, sorry. It really wanted to be an Endgame-level event, but beyond the spectacle, it's wayyy too clunky and feels like it was written by committee (a committee with lots of griping fanboys on it, to boot). X-Men: Dark Phoenix? Are you trolling me? There can only be one, and Avengers: Endgame was NOT displaced by anything else. You're the king Actual Endgame (by which I mean it's your actual title, since the MCU is moving forward), enjoy your crown. Until Daniel Craig's James Bond tries to steal it from you. Speaking of which...

2019 Character most deserving of a franchise - I HAVE to give it to Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, the pretentious detective from Knives Out. Come on, Rian Johnson, you could do a bunch of these mysteries and I would pay good money to see them. Knives In. On a Knife's Edge. Under the Knife. Twist the Knife. They don't have to be knife killings, it's just my preferred nomenclature for the sequels.

Geekiest thing I did in 2019 that is inaccessible to my readers and listeners - After we saw Into the Spider-Verse, I started sharing a SPIDER-MAN OF THE DAY with my theater-going group, covering different costumes, iterations, evil doppelgangers, Venoms, Spider-Women, fan art, toys, etc., and I did it for exactly one year. That's 365 Spider-people, and I probably could have gotten to 400 if I'd tried. We are indeed "all" Spider-Man.

As I did last year, I'd like to end the ceremony with a few movie statistics, courtesy of Letterboxd. Last year, I logged 642 entries in my movie diary (610 if you don't count shorts). This year, I managed 751 (or 717 if you don't count shorts). That's either impressive or worrying depending on your point of view. It's important to beat records, right? But what if we were to give out prizes  - that's what we're here for, after all - what would they be? Well, how about who MOST STARRED in the movies I watched? The most represented actors are (drum roll please...)

Obviously, Keanu and Charlize, the objects of a current filmography watch are the top winners, and will be again next year. Similarly, a number of Japanese actors show up on the list thanks to December's deep dive into kaiju films, a number that includes Haruo Nakajima, the man in the Godzilla suit (and many others). But my enduring love of Myrna Loy and William Powell drew to me to their films, good or bad, with strong showings for Sidney Poitier, Tim "Trancers" Thomerson, Fred Astaire, Humphrey Bogart, Adam Driver, and Ingmar Berhamn alumn Gunnar Björnstrand. Speaking of which, here's what happens when you look at Directors whose work I watched a lot of:

It's Bergman for the win, as I really got into his stuff this year. Windsor McKay wouldn't be there if I'd considered all his short animation films as a single piece. You can thank Kaiju December for Ishirō Honda's worthy presence. I'm working on something Hitchcock-related, so you'd think he would have placed higher, but a lot of the watching's been commuted to 2020 - expect him to do better next year (hey, he won LAST year, so). It's interesting that Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin are head to head, but it's the former that I really discovered this year.

And there you have it, folks. Another year, another meaningless awards program. My thanks to Ms. Pugh and thank YOU for sticking with us this far. The Siskoid Awards will probably return in a year's time, because why stop now?