SEASON 34 GOLDEN REEL AWARDS

 

Welcome to the 34th Golden Reel Awards ceremony! Tonight we will be celebrating the best Last Resort Films released in Season 34. Of the season's 30 releases, 17 films are nominated for awards tonight. The nominees this season are led by the tragic true story Ruby Ridge with 8 nominations going into the ceremony, with period showbiz drama Starlight nipping at its heels with 7 nominations of its own.

AND NOW FOR THE AWARDS....

Three of this category's four nominees are only nominated for Best Production Design. And sure enough, one of those films - All the Fives kicks off the night with a win in its only nominated category. The night is over for Nineteen Eighty-Four - Part Two and Tears of an Angel as the two missed out on their only nominations. Superman: Doomsday, on the other hand, still has three chances at trophies tonight.

Material Girl takes home a trophy in its first of six categories tonight. It becomes the fifth music biopic to take home the award - joining the likes of Kurt & Courtney: All Apologies, Sinatra, Sam, and Songbird. Writer Diane Esposito now has her third Best Soundtrack GRA trophy - out of just five films on her resume. The night is over for DOOM after missing out in this category, but its writer Joshua Collins will still have one chance left for his first GRA trophy later this evening.

In a stacked category this season, Superman: Doomsday takes home the GRA trophy for Most Wanted Sequel. All four Superman films have been nominated in this category, but it is just the second victory in the category for the series following the first entry - Superman: The Man of Tomorrow - winning 20 seasons ago in Season 14. This is the 7th Most Wanted Sequel trophy for writer John Malone, and the 11th victory for the studio's DC Comics Universe - now tying the studio's Marvel Universe's number of wins. Every film in this category now has at least two chances left to add to their trophy shelves.

Ruby Ridge - this season's leader in nominations - wins in its first chance of the ceremony. It will still have seven more categories tonight. This is the 4th win in this category for writer Dwight Gallo and the 2nd win for co-writer Lon Charles. It will be the first Best Ensemble Cast trophy for every member of the Ruby Ridge cast. The night is not done for any of these nominated films.

Starlight came into the night with the second most nominations and has now won a trophy in its first chance. This is the first GRA victory for Jennifer Lawrence after seven previous nominations - including three prior Best Starring Couple nominations. This is the 5th GRA victory for Sydney Sweeney, but just her first win for Best Starring Couple after two previous nominations in the category. Additionally, this is the 7th Best Starring Couple award for a film written by Chad Taylor. The night is over for Mike Faist and Minami Hamabe of The Crow: Yomi - although the film has one nomination left for Best Villain. The rest of the nominees from this category will all be back later tonight in the Best Actor and Actress categories.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Flesh and Blood wins its first award of the night with Cameron Britton's win for his performance as Leatherface. It is Britton's first GRA victory after a previous nomination  for Best Ensemble Cast as part of the ensemble in Torso back in Season 12. This is the fourth recent victory in Best Villain for the studio's recent trend of rebooting classic horror franchises. This is the second Best Villain GRA trophy for a film from writer Clive Steinbeck - the previous victory came in Season 3 for Mads Mikkelsen's performance in Blood Countess. The Crow: Yomi has struck out for the night, failing to win in any of its four nominated categories. All three other nominees here will face off against Macbeth in the next category as their final chance tonight.

It seems like the genre films may have cancelled each other out allowing Macbeth to swoop in and pick up its first GRA trophy tonight. Macbeth still has three more chances - while the other three nominees here are done for the night. Surprisingly this is just the second Best Adaptation GRA for prolific writer Jimmy Ellis - although he has five wins for Best Original Story. We are now halfway through tonight's ceremony and no film has won more than one trophy (seven different films all have one win so far).

Seemingly on queue, Ruby Ridge has broken the seven-way tie by winning its second GRA trophy tonight. The writers of Ruby Ridge now have 10 Best Original Story GRA trophies between them as this is the 4th win for Dwight Gallo and the 6th win for Lon Charles. We won't see Full Custody again until the final category of the night - Best Picture - which will feature all four of these films facing off again. We'll see more from Ruby Ridge, Material Girl, and Starlight in the upcoming solo acting and directing categories.

Zoe Saldana wins her first GRA trophy after two previous nominations. It's win ensures that Exodus - the first film from writer Holden Abbott - will go home with at least one award. Tethered will go home empty-handed along with its writer Joshua Collins, who missed out on the Best Soundtrack GRA earlier in the ceremony. The other three nominees will all have one chance left: Exodus and Coriolanus for Best Actor, and Convalescence for Best Supporting Actor.

This is the third GRA victory in the young career of Toby Wallace. This Best Supporting Actor trophy will join his previous wins for Best Villain (Batgirl - Season 25) and Best Starring Couple (Five Boroughs - Season 29). The night is over now for Convalescence - winning one trophy in its two chances. Now through 10 categories, Ruby Ridge is still the only film with more than one trophy tonight - with just two, meaning there is an eight-way tie for second place.

Ruby Ridge wins its third GRA trophy! This is the second solo acting award for Hilary Swank after her previous Best Supporting Actress victory in for Season 8's Runaway. This is the third season in a row that the Best Actress trophy goes to a film written (or co-written) by Lon Charles - following Reese Witherspoon (Escape - Season 32) and Rebecca Hall (Splendour). All three films in this category will face off again for Best Director and Best Picture.

Ruby Ridge wins again! The film now has four trophies to its name. This is the second GRA victory for Eric Bana after a Best Villain GRA all the way back in Season 11. Coriolanus will go home empty-handed after previously losing out on Best Supporting Actress, while Exodus will go home with one trophy for that same category. This is just the third time in LRF history that a film has won both Best Actor and Best Actress - joining Elysian from Season 13 and Natural Selection from Season 24. Neither of those films managed to win Best Director as well, but Elysian did go on to win the 13th Best Picture GRA trophy. Ruby Ridge is nominated for both remaining categories.

Ruby Ridge wins its 5th award tonight, taking a commanding lead over the other winners tonight. This is the first time in GRA history that a film has won the trio of Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress trophies. More history was made in this category this season as it marks the first time a ceremony has featured multiple female directors and Kathryn Bigelow's victory is also the first Best Director GRA trophy to be awarded to a woman. The night is over for Macbeth winning one award (Best Adaptation) out of its 6 nominations, while the others will square off in the night's final category.

Ruby Ridge closes the night out on a four GRA trophy streak - to finish with 6 wins. It joins a tie for the second most GRA wins for a film - tying with Caesar Part III and Judas Iscariot for second place behind Murder Mysteries and The Prisoner with 7 trophies. Ruby Ridge was already the first film to ever win the trophies for Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress. Now it becomes the first film in LRF and GRA history to sweep the final four categories. This marks the 4th Best Picture trophy for writer Dwight Gallo and the 3rd for writer Lon Charles. Full Custody will go home empty-handed, while Starlight and Material both are part of the whopping eight film tie for second place tonight with a single trophy.


Congratulations to all the winners! That's a wrap on the 34th season in the world of Last Resort Films. Stay tuned for the slate of off-season content, starting with the special GRA Edition of The Numbers on December 28th.