SEASON 36 GOLDEN REEL AWARDS

 

Welcome to the 36th Annual Golden Reel Awards!

Tonight, we celebrate the best films and talents Last Resort Films had to offer in its 36th season - and this year’s ballot arrives with a clearly defined group at the top.

The Chain and Gray lead all films with 10 nominations apiece, followed closely by Fletch, Pirouette and The Song of Roland with seven each. Together, those five films account for 41 of tonight’s 56 nominations, giving them plenty of opportunities to take control of the night.

Four of those five also make up the Best Picture field. Fletch is the notable exception, putting together one of the season’s strongest overall nomination totals despite missing the final four for the top prize.

The writers’ race is similarly concentrated. Jimmy Ellis leads everyone with 16 nominations spread across Pirouette, The Song of Roland and Luke Cage: The Purple Man. Roy Horne follows with 13 between Gray and Assassin’s Creed: Eternal, while Diane Esposito earned all 10 of her nominations from The Chain.

Beyond the leaders, Assassin’s Creed: Eternal enters with three nominations, while 1995, Boba Fett and Luke Cage: The Purple Man each have two. Six more films have a single opportunity to leave tonight with a Golden Reel.

There is one unusual wrinkle to this year’s field. Several Season 36 releases were not submitted for consideration in the categories requiring writer submissions, leaving several films eligible only in the categories where consideration is automatic. That definitely helped shape the ballot.

Now the voters get the final word.

AND NOW FOR THE AWARDS....

Fletch gets the 36th Golden Reel Awards started by taking Best Production Design, converting the first of its seven nominations into a victory.

The win also adds another chapter to one of LRF’s longest-running rivalries. Films penned by Chad Taylor have now captured Best Production Design seven times, pulling him even with longtime rival and frequent collaborator John Malone for the most wins in the category.

Fletch was the only one of this year’s five most-nominated films to miss the Best Picture field, which also guarantees we won’t see the Production Design winner eventually take the night’s top prize. That happened just last season with Eidolon and as recently as Season 29 with Murder Mysteries.

Gray, meanwhile, comes up short in the first opportunity for either of this season’s two nomination leaders.

One award down, and Fletch is first on the board.

The Chain converts its first opportunity of the night, taking Best Soundtrack and putting one of this season’s two 10-nomination leaders on the board.

At this point, Diane Esposito may as well have a reserved seat in this category. This marks the third time in the last five seasons that one of her music biopics built around a strong female lead has captured Best Soundtrack, continuing a formula that GRA voters clearly respond to.

More remarkably, an Esposito-penned film has now won Best Soundtrack in four of the past six seasons. Few categories in recent GRA history have been dominated so consistently by one writer’s projects.

Fletch is denied the chance to start the night 2-for-2, while Gray falls short for a second consecutive category. Two awards in, and our two nomination leaders have now split their first appearances: The Chain is 1-for-1, while Gray is 0-for-2.

Assassin's Creed: Eternal gets on the board with Most Wanted Sequel, turning the first of its three nominations into a win.

It’s also a surprisingly rare victory for its genre. Assassin's Creed: Eternal becomes just the third video game adaptation in GRA history to win Most Wanted Sequel - and the first to do so since Season 11.

For a franchise built around constantly jumping between different eras, that leaves plenty of possibilities for where LRF could take Assassin's Creed next. More importantly, voters apparently want to see exactly where that is.

Three awards in, and we now have three different winning films.

The Chain becomes the first repeat winner of the night, adding Best Ensemble Cast to its earlier Best Soundtrack victory.

It’s a pair of firsts as well. This is Diane Esposito’s first career victory in Best Ensemble Cast, and The Chain becomes the first music biopic in GRA history to win the category.

That distinction feels particularly fitting for a Fleetwood Mac story. Rather than succeeding solely on the strength of one central performance, The Chain had to sell the personalities, relationships and constantly shifting tensions of an entire band - and voters clearly felt the cast pulled it off.

Assassin's Creed: Eternal misses the chance to follow its Most Wanted Sequel victory with another trophy, while Fletch falls to 1-for-3. The Song of Roland also comes up short in its first opportunity of the evening.

Four awards in, and The Chain is the first film to reach two wins.

Gray finally gets on the board, with Timothée Chalamet and Jared Leto taking Best Starring Couple and giving one of the season’s two nomination leaders its first victory of the night.

For Chalamet, the third time proves to be the charm. He was previously nominated in the category for The Betrothed in Season 22 and Punch Buggy in Season 33, but had never taken home the trophy. Leto gets there on his second attempt after previously being nominated for Murder Mysteries in Season 29.

The result also closes the book on Assassin’s Creed: Eternal. It finishes the night with one win from three nominations, taking Most Wanted Sequel but falling short in Ensemble Cast and Starring Couple.

The other three films represented here aren’t going anywhere. The Chain, Gray and Pirouette will continue running into one another throughout the major categories still to come - and Gray has now officially joined The Chain in the winner’s circle.

The Song of Roland gets its first win of the night, with Javier Bardem taking Best Villain.

Surprisingly, this is also Bardem’s first Golden Reel victory. Despite his long career, his only previous GRA nomination came as part of the Best Ensemble Cast field for Season 29’s Spider-Man: Requiem. His second career nomination finally brings him his first trophy.

The result is considerably less cheerful for this season’s comic book slate. The Hulk 3, Lobo and Luke Cage: The Purple Man all had their remaining hopes riding on Best Villain, and all three come up short. With this result, every comic book film nominated at the 36th GRAs will leave the ceremony without a win.

Six awards in, and The Song of Roland becomes the fourth different film to get on the board.

Gray adds its second trophy of the night, taking Best Adaptation and giving writer Roy Horne his third career victory in the category.

The win also marks a first for LRF history. Gray becomes the first film to take home a writing award after beginning life as a studio development package rather than as a project originally brought in by its eventual writer.

At the other end of the spectrum, Donkey Kong Country’s night ends almost as soon as it began. Its lone nomination was its lone opportunity, sending APJ home empty-handed after a one-swing strikeout.

Gray now has wins in both Best Starring Couple and Best Adaptation, putting one of the season’s two nomination leaders firmly into the developing race.

Pirouette gets on the board, taking Best Original Story and giving the longtime writing duo of Jimmy Ellis and John Malone another shared Golden Reel.

Ellis and Malone have now won Best Original Story three times from 10 nominations together in the category, adding another trophy to one of LRF’s most established writing partnerships.

The result ends the night for both 1995 and Echoes of Red, which leave without a win after each had one remaining opportunity here.

The Chain misses a chance to become the first film to reach three victories, while Pirouette joins the growing group on the board. With plenty of major categories still ahead, both films remain very much alive in the race to take home the most golden statues of merit.

Christina Hendricks makes one hell of a return to LRF, taking Best Supporting Actress for Fletch in her first studio appearance since Season 17.

It’s the sixth Golden Reel of Hendricks’ career, but remarkably her first in Best Supporting Actress. The new trophy joins two Best Actress wins from Seasons 7 and 15, Best Starring Couple victories in Seasons 7 and 14, and a Best Ensemble Cast win in Season 14. Nineteen seasons away apparently did very little to cool off the voters.

The result is another disappointment for Emma Mackey, who leaves the ceremony empty-handed after earning Best Supporting Actress nominations in consecutive seasons. Her earlier Best Starring Couple nomination for Assassin’s Creed: Eternal also came up short tonight.

Fletch, meanwhile, picks up its second victory and suddenly finds itself tied with The Chain and Gray for the most wins of the evening as the ceremony moves deeper into the acting categories.

Johnny Depp finally has a Golden Reel.

After three previous Best Actor nominations stretching all the way back to LRF’s inaugural season, plus another nomination for Best Starring Couple, Depp breaks through with his first career victory in Best Supporting Actor for Pirouette.

He was also the only nominee in this year’s category who entered the night without a GRA trophy already to his name, making the result feel like a long-overdue addition to one of LRF’s most decorated acting résumés.

Pirouette now has its second win of the ceremony, joining Fletch, The Chain and Gray in what has become a tightly packed race at the top.

Sydney Sweeney makes Golden Reel history.

With her victory for The Chain, Sweeney becomes the first three-time Best Actress winner in GRA history. Her previous victories came all the way back in Seasons 19 and 23 for Poison Ivy and Poison Ivy: Mind Games, making this her first win in the category outside of that franchise.

The victory also gets Diane Esposito over the hump with one of her recent female-led music biopics. Taylor Swift earned a nomination as Joni Mitchell in Season 32’s Songbird, while Chloë Grace Moretz followed as Madonna in Season 34’s Material Girl, but neither took home Best Actress. This time, Sweeney finishes the job.

Heartbeat sees its lone nomination disappear without a win, while Gray and Pirouette come up short here but remain alive in the major categories still ahead.

The Chain, meanwhile, now has another major trophy to add to its growing total.

Timothée Chalamet adds another trophy to Gray’s night, taking Best Actor and earning the first individual Golden Reel victory of his career.

Chalamet already had a Best Ensemble Cast win for Season 25’s Tinseltown and picked up Best Starring Couple alongside Jared Leto earlier tonight, but this is the first GRA he can call entirely his own. His previous Best Actor nomination came for Season 31’s Hideaway - notably another Roy Horne-written film directed by Luca Guadagnino. That combination comes through for him on the second try.

The loss brings Fletch’s night to an end. After entering with seven nominations despite missing Best Picture, it leaves with two trophies - Best Production Design and Christina Hendricks’ Best Supporting Actress win.

And with only Best Director and Best Picture remaining, Gray and The Chain are now tied with three wins apiece. Pirouette remains close behind with two, while The Song of Roland still has two chances to change the shape of the final standings.

Brady Corbet gets his Golden Reel on the second try, taking Best Director for The Song of Roland in just his second directorial effort for LRF.

Corbet was previously nominated for Season 33’s Splendour, but came up short in this category even as Splendour went on to win Best Picture. Three seasons later, the order has been reversed: this time Corbet already has the directing trophy in hand before finding out whether his film can follow.

His victory also completes a remarkable split across the major individual awards. Christina Hendricks won Supporting Actress for Fletch, Johnny Depp took Supporting Actor for Pirouette, Sydney Sweeney won Actress for The Chain, Timothée Chalamet captured Actor for Gray, and now Corbet wins Director for The Song of Roland. Five major talent awards, five different films.

That leaves the ceremony remarkably balanced heading into its final award. The Chain and Gray lead with three wins apiece, while Pirouette and The Song of Roland each have two.

And fittingly, those are the exact four films about to meet one final time.

Gray closes the 36th Golden Reel Awards with the biggest prize of the night, taking Best Picture and giving writer Roy Horne his second career victory in the category.

Horne’s first Best Picture win came all the way back in Season 16 with Excalibur. Seven more Best Picture nominations followed without another victory before Gray finally ends the drought twenty seasons later.

The win also breaks what had been an incredibly tight race. Gray finishes the ceremony with four trophies, adding Best Picture to its wins for Best Starring Couple, Best Adaptation and Best Actor. The Chain finishes just behind with three, while Fletch, Pirouette and The Song of Roland each take home two.

For a season that entered the night with The Chain and Gray tied at 10 nominations apiece, it seems appropriate that the difference at the finish line is only one trophy.

But Gray gets the one that matters most.

Congratulations to all the winners! That's a wrap on the 36th 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 September 3rd.