SEASON 31 GOLDEN REEL AWARDS

 

Welcome the 31st Golden Reel Awards ceremony! Tonight we will be celebrating the best Last Resort Films released in Season 31. Eighteen of the season's 30 films are vying for the 14 prestigious awards on the line this evening. The nominees are led by At Night All Blood is Black, with an impressive nine nominations.

AND NOW FOR THE AWARDS....

Ocean Pawn manages to come up victorious in its only nomination of the ceremony. It is the second Best Production Design award for writer Jack Ryder after previously winning in Season 6 for The Grind. Vindicators strikes out in its only nomination, while the night is not yet over for Gamera and Marvin the Martian.

This Best Soundtrack GRA becomes the first GRA trophy for writer Diane Esposito with just her second film. Despite 4 previous wins and an additional 9 previous nominations, writer Roy Horne comes up short here. In a rare instance, all nominees in this category still have nominations later in the ceremony. 

Another first time GRA winner emerges with Nic Suzuki winning the Most Wanted Sequel award for his first film, Gamera. This will wrap up the evening for Gamera, winning one award out of two nominations. The night is also complete for Marvin the Martian and Ghost Rider: Damnation, both going home empty handed after securing two nominations. Friday the 13th: Blood Ties is the only film here with additional nominations - one more for Best Villain.

Justice League War, coming into the ceremony with five nominations, manages to win in its first category. It follows up the Best Ensemble Cast win for Justice League Invasion just last season for the first half of the two-part project. They are the first sequels to win Best Ensemble Cast and the only DC Comics films to win. At Night All Blood Is Black came into the ceremony with the most nominations, but has started the night 0-for-1. 

The Beauty beats out three other more nominated films to win Best Starring Couple for Ralph Fiennes and Paul Mescal, who both surprisingly missed out in the solo acting categories. The Beauty has one more shot at gold later in the ceremony in the Best Supporting Actress category. It is the 6th film from writer Jimmy Ellis to win this award, but the first from him as a solo writer to do so.

Daniel Cudmore wins his first Golden Reel Award in his first nomination. This is the second Best Villain GRA trophy for writer Jack Brown after Nick Robinson won for Amityville three seasons ago. Meanwhile, At Night All Blood is Black has started its evening with three straight losses. The night is over for Friday the 13th: Blood Ties, winning one award out of its two nominations. All the other films in this category have at least three more nominations tonight.

In its fourth nomination, the ceremony's nominations leader, At Night All Blood is Black, finally gets its first win - and it still has five more categories to win more hardware for. This is the first Best Adaptation trophy for writer Jimmy Ellis after six previous nominations in the category. Animal Farm will be going home empty-handed as writer Meirad Tako is unable to win back-to-back writing awards. The night is far from over for the other two films as well as Scarface and Justice League War each have three more shots at gold.

Over halfway through the ceremony now and no film has more than one GRA trophy as The Diplomat wins Best Original Story. This is the third Best Original Story win for writer Lon Charles after previous wins in Season 25 and 28. Hideaway and Willamette are both still winless after multiples shots at gold while The Eye of History has missed in its first nomination but still has Best Actress left to go.

The trend continues now as after nine categories we have nine different films winning gold. Suzanna Son has her first GA trophy in just her second LRF role. The night is over for The Beauty, winning one GRA out of its two nominations. At Night All Blood is Black has only one GRA so far, but still has four chances in the final five categories. Hideaway has two more chances to try to win more than one trophy, while Scarface has three more shots to win one.

After ten categories now, ten different films have collected trophies as now Scarface wins its first GRA of the night. This is the first time in Last Resort Films' 31 season history that the number of GRA winning films has been in double-digits - the previous record was 9 films in Seasons 4, 6, 12, and 25. This is just the second Best Supporting Actor trophy awarded to a Dwight Gallo-penned film, following Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in Season 18 for Cocaine Cowboys. The House Down the Street and The Life Survey will both go home empty-handed tonight, striking it in their lone category. It is looking like things are to come down to the wire to see if any film can win more than one trophy this season.

Make it eleven different films taking home gold tonight as Kirsten Dunst wins one for The Eye of History. This is the first GRA victory for Dunst after two previous GRA nominations - Best Actress in Season 9 for Black Dublin and Best Supporting Actress for Everything Will Be Alright in Season 24. This is the first Best Actress GRA victory for a film penned by Andrew Doster as well. Ecstasy's night will end with one trophy for Best Soundtrack. The Diplomat still has two chances to win a second award, while Willamette is down to one more shot.

The streak is over! We finally have a film with more than one award for the night as Damson Idris takes home the Best Actor GRA trophy after previously missing out in Best Ensemble Cast, Best Starring Couple, and Best Villain. It is Idris' first GRA trophy, winning for his first film for the studio. The night is over for Willamette, going home empty-handed despite coming into the ceremony with four nominations.

Michael Bay has finally been awarded his first Best Director GRA after two previous nominations for Cocaine Cowboys and Justice League Invasion. Justice League War has now also become just the second film in this awards ceremony to earn more than one trophy. The night is over for Hideaway, finishing the ceremony with one trophy for Best Supporting Actress. It will come down to the final category of the night - Best Picture - to see if either Justice League War or At Night All Blood Is Black can win the night with a third GRA trophy, or if The Diplomat or Scarface can tie them with a second trophy.

At Night All Blood Is Black will wind up being the big winner of a strangely even and record breaking ceremony as 11 different films managed to take home awards tonight. It is the fifth Best Picture award for writer Jimmy Ellis, but just his second as a solo writer. By beating out Justice League War, it keeps the streak alive of no superhero film ever winning the Best Picture GRA.

Congratulations to all the winners! That's a wrap on the 31st season in the world of Last Resort Films. Stay tuned to the special GRA Edition of The Numbers on January 8th. That will be followed by Most Streamed on January 10th, Top 10 Surprises of Season 31 on January 12th, and finally a new segment, History Lesson on January 14th. After that will be the next batch of Inside the Writers Studio segments, leading up to the Season 32 LRF Comic-Con on January 23rd.