Welcome to the Season 29 Golden Reel Awards ceremony! Tonight we have exactly half of the season's films represented in the nominations, led by Murder Mysteries with 9 nominations. This ties the film for the third most nominations in LRF history. The Dogs of Winter and Five Boroughs aren't too far behind Murder Mysteries though, with 7 nominations a piece.
AND NOW FOR THE AWARDS....
Murder Mysteries came into the ceremony with the highest number of nominations and leaps onto the leaderboard winning the first trophy of the night. This is the 5th Best Production Design trophy for writer John Malone. The evening it over quickly for The Omen and Jack Ryder's The ComeBack. Moon Knight still had five chances for GRA gold, while the night is still young for Murder Mysteries.
Jack Brown has his first Best Soundtrack GRA to add to his mantle after winning his first awards last season. The Crow: Midnight Garden still has two more categories left on the ceremony - Best Actress and Best Adaptation. Just two nominations was a surprise for The Champ and now it is already down to just one chance to win - Best Actor.
Moon Knight came into the evening with six nominations and now wins its first trophy in its third chance. This is the 19th time the award has gone to a comic book based film. This is also surprisingly the first time writer Mark Newton has won the award despite six previous nominations. His co-writer, Jimmy Ellis, has only won this trophy once (for Luke Cage: Power Man), despite his seven previous nominations. The evening is now over for Starman, striking out in its two nominations.
The Dogs of Winter wins in its first chance out of its seven total nominations. This marks the 8th Best Ensemble Cast trophy for a film penned by writer Chad Taylor, giving him more awards in the category than any other writer. The Dogs of Winter, Five Boroughs and Murder Mysteries still have plenty of chances to take home some more awards this evening, but time is slowly running out on Spider-Man: Requiem with just two more nominations left.
Five categories down and we now have a fifth different film winning tonight. The night is over for Mimsley and Me, which failed to win in its only category tonight. Writer Jimmy Ellis now has four Best Starring Couple trophies to his name while co-writer John Malone three of his own. They shared the awards back in Season 21 when their project Pontiac won this award.
Five Boroughs is now the first film tonight to win multiple awards tonight and now Adam Sandler now has his first individual GRA trophy, after two previous Best Ensemble Cast wins. He beats out previous nominees Starr and Downey Jr. Th evening is through for The Tomb of Dracula, which failed to win in either of its categories.
This is the 9th Best Adaptation GRA trophy for writer John Malone. This is more than double the writer with the second most Best Adaptation wins, APJ, who has four. Murder Mysteries has finally won its second award of the night after coming in with nine nominations. All of the films nominated in this category still have a chance to win at least one more trophy, and they all already have won at least one trophy.
It's looking like tonight's ceremony is becoming Murder Mysteries vs. Five Boroughs based on the wins so far. Five Boroughs takes the lead for the night with its 3rd trophy of the evening. John Malone is the only writer in LRF history to win Best Adaptation and Best Original Story in the same season... and this is the 4th time he's done it! Malone previously accomplished the feat in Season 6, 12 and 22. This is the 8th Best Original Story trophy and the 3rd he has shared with co-writer Jimmy Ellis. Time is running out for A German Tragedy and Under the Influence to win an award, with each film having just one more chance to win.
And Murder Mysteries quickly comes back and ties things up for the ceremony lead with three trophies. Spider-Man: Requiem and Under the Influence are both being sent home empty-handed. Mia Goth won the GRA for her LRF debut, which is always impressive, even if it is not uncommon. To date, eight actresses have now won the Best Supporting Actress GRA trophy in their respective LRF debuts. While Murder Mysteries and Five Boroughs each have won three awards tonight, no other film has more than one award.
Jared Leto finally wins his first GRA trophy in his 5th nomination - including three for Best Supporting Actor alone. This win also puts Murder Mysteries in the ceremony lead with four awards tonight. A German Tragedy finishes its night 0-for-2. The Dogs of Winter, meanwhile, despite its seven nominations only has one win so far.
Fourth time is the charm! Sadie Sink has been nominated for the Best Actress GRA for her last four performances and now has finally won the award! It is also the first award of the night for Starkweather. Six different films have now taken home awards tonight. All three of Sink's competitors were first time nominees in the Best Actress category.
Murder Mysteries takes home its 5th trophy of the ceremony, growing its lead over the three trophies awarded to Five Boroughs. This is the first solo acting award for Adam Driver, although he has a previous win in the Best Ensemble Cast category for Season 18's Lowell. While the night is over for The Champ, failing to win in its two chances, the other three nominated films in this category will face off in the final two categories of the evening.
Murder Mysteries wins trophy number six, taking a commanding lead and guaranteeing it more awards than any other Season 29 release. This is Darren Aronofsky's first GRA nomination and win. This is also the 10th Best Director GRA trophy for a film written by John Malone, extending his GRA record. Moon Knight's evening is over, winning one trophy for Most Wanted Sequel. The other three nominees here will go up against Five Boroughs for Best Picture next.
And the big award goes to Murder Mysteries, which only finishes the this season with the most GRA victories, it also ties the all-time GRA record with its 7th win. The record has been held by The Prisoner itself, also written by John Malone, since Season 3. With seven victories, it also means that Murder Mysteries won exactly half of this season's GRA trophies. Quite the impressive feat! This is a record-setting 11th Best Picture GRA win for John Malone as well, extending his lead over Chad Taylor's eight Best Picture trophies.
Congratulations to all the winners! That's a wrap on the 29th season in the world of Last Resort Films. Stay tuned for the special GRA Edition of The Numbers on May 22nd. That will be followed by Most Streamed on May 25th. After that will be the first batch of posts in a new segment series called Inside the Writers Studio, leading up to the Season 30 LRF Comic-Con on June 6th.
