FILM NEWS: JACC ANNOUNCES 8TH ANNUAL PROGIES NOMINATIONS

A scene from Goodbye to Language.

Passing on the patriarchal pictures
 
By Ed Rampell and John Esther

 

In stark contrast to this morning's predominantly reactionary Oscar nominations, the nominations for the 8^th annual Progie Awards -- recognizing 2014’s best progressive films and filmmakers -- were announced on Tuesday.

 

Rather than glorify the white, bourgeois, patriarchal system, the Progies nominations highlight features, documentaries and the artists who made and appear in them, based on their progressive political, social, cultural, ethnic, economic, gender, ecological, immigrant, pro-human rights, pro-LGBTQ rights, pro-labor, etc., content and form. The nominations and awards are given in a variety of categories named after great lefty filmmakers and films of conscience, consciousness and creativity. Up to five nominees can be selected per category -- except in case of a tie, when more than five nominees can be entered in a category.

 

Some of the themes revealed by the 2014 nominations is the ongoing rise of films by and about people of color, with the Chicano/labor union biopic Cesar Chavez, the Civil Rights movement/Martin Luther King saga Selma and the anti-racist Dear White People each receiving multiple nominations. The same is true of pro-LGBTQ films, with Pride, The Imitation Game and The Circle likewise being multi-nominated. In fact, due to ties, both the Robeson (Best Portrayal of People of Color) and Pasolini (Best Pro-LGBTQ Picture) categories each have more than five nominees.

The 2014 Karen Morley Award for best actress Progie nominations also highlight the trend of roles for courageous women, including America Ferrera as union organizer Helen Chavez in Cesar Chavez, Tessa Thompson as the black activist Samantha in Dear White People and Marion Cotillard as a working class woman fighting to keep her factory job in Two Days, One Night. And the Progies are the first to nominate this year's most overlooked performance: Tilda Swinton as a fascist bullyboy named Mason in Snowpiercer.

Jean-Luc Godard remains a perennial favorite, with his 3D Goodbye to Language nominated for the Trumbo (Best Progressive Picture) and the Gillo (Best Progressive Foreign Film). Nonfiction cinema also remains a vital force; Laura Poitras’s Edward Snowden film Citizenfour is up for the Dziga (Best Progressive Documentary) in an overflowing category featuring (due to a tie) seven nominees, including biopics about author Gore Vidal, Internet activist Aaron Swartz and actor/activist George Takei.

The Garfield Award for best actor category is dominated by depictions of actual historical figures, including David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma (BTW, MLK would have turned 86 today), Benedict Cumberbatch as computer pioneer Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, Eddie Redmayne as physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, Edgar Ramirez as South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar in The Liberator and Jeremy Renner as anti-CIA investigative reporter Gary Webb in Kill the Messenger.

The Progressive Magazine began publishing the Progie winners in 2007, when the awards premiered. Since then, the James Agee Cinema Circle, an international group of left-leaning film critics, historians and scholars, has voted for the annual Progie nominations and awards.

Robin Wright as Robin Wright in The Congress.

Here are this year's nominations:

THE TRUMBO: The Progie Award for Best Progressive Picture is named after Oscar-winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, a member of the Hollywood Ten, who was imprisoned for his beliefs and refusing to inform. Trumbo helped break the Blacklist when he received screen credit for Spartacus and Exodus in 1960.
 
Birdman;
Cesar Chavez;
The Congress;
Goodbye to Language;
The Liberator;
Pride;
Selma;
Two Days, One Night;

THE GARFIELD: The Progie Award for Best Actor in a progressive picture is named after John Garfield, who rose from the proletarian theatre to star in progressive pictures such as Gentleman's Agreement and Force of Evil, only to run afoul of the Hollywood Blacklist.
 
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game;
Harvey Keitel, The Congress;
Michael Keaton, Birdman;
David Oyelowo, Selma;
Edgar Ramirez, The Liberator;
Jeremy Renner, Kill the Messenger;
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything;
Channing Tatum, Foxcatcher;

 

KAREN MORLEY AWARD: The Progie Award for Best Actress in a film portraying women in a progressive picture is named for Karen Morley, co-star of 1932’s Scarface and 1934’s Our Daily Bread. Morley was driven out of Hollywood in the 1930s for her leftist views, but maintained her militant political activism for the rest of her life, running for New York’s Lieutenant Governor on the American Labor Party ticket in 1954. She passed away in 2003, unrepentant to the end, at the age of 93.
 
Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night;
American Ferrara, Cesar Chavez;
Julianne Moore, Still Alice;
Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer;
Tessa Thompson, Dear White People;
 
THE RENOIR: The Progie Award for Best Anti-War Film is named after the great French filmmaker Jean Renoir, who directed the 1937 anti-militarism masterpiece Grand Illusion.
 
The Imitation Game;
The Kill Team;
The Unknown Known;
Zero Motivation;
 


A scene from Norte, the End of History.

THE GILLO: The Progie Award for Best Progressive Foreign Film is named after the Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo, who lensed the classic films, The Battle of Algiers and Burn!
 
The Circle;
Goodbye to Language;
Human Capital;
The Liberator;
Norte, the End of History;
Two Days, One Night;
 
THE DZIGA: The Progie Award for Best Progressive Documentary is named after the Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov, who directed 1920s nonfiction films such as the Kino Pravda (Film Truth) series and The Man With the Movie Camera.
 
The Case Against 8;
Citizenfour;
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia;
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz;
To Be Takei;
Whitey: United States of America James J. Bulger
 

Helen Chavez (American Ferrara) in Cesar Chavez.

OUR DAILY BREAD AWARD: The Progie Award for the Most Positive and Inspiring Working Class Screen Image. 
 
Cesar Chavez;
The Liberator;
Pride;
Snowpiercer; 
Two Days, One Night; 
 
THE ROBESON: The Progie Award for the Best Portrayal of People that shatters cinema stereotypes, in light of their historically demeaning depictions onscreen. It is named after courageous performing legend, Paul Robeson, who starred in Songs of Freedom, The Proud Valley, and Native Man.
 
Big Hero 6;
Cesar Chavez;
Dear White People;
The Liberator;
Memphis;
A Most Violent Year;
Selma;
 


A scene from Nymphomaniac.

 
THE BUNUEL: The Progie Award for the Most Slyly Subversive Satirical Cinematic Film in terms of form, style and content is named after Luis Bunuel, the Spanish surrealist who directed The Andalusian Dog, Belle de Jour and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
 
Birdman;
The Congress;
Inherent Vice;
Nightcrawler;
Nymphomaniac;
Selma;
A Trip to Italy;

THE PASOLINI: The Progie Award for Best Pro-LGBTQ Rights Film is named after Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who directed The Gospel According to St. Matthew, The Decameron, and The Canterbury Tales.
 
The Circle;
The Imitation Game;
Love is Strange;
Pride;
To Be Takei;
The Way He Looks;


THE LAWSON: The Progie Award for Best Anti-Fascist Film is named after John Howard Lawson, screenwriter of Blockade, Four Sons, Action in the North Atlantic, Sahara and Counter-Attack and one of the Hollywood Ten.

A Most Wanted Man;
The Lego Movie;
Norte, the End of History;
Selma;
Snowpiercer;

 



Mason (Tilda Swinton) in Snowpiercer.

THE SERGEI: The Progie Award for Lifetime Progressive Achievement is named after Sergei Eisenstein, the Soviet director of masterpieces such as Potemkin and 10 Days That Shook the World.
 
Harry Belafonte;
Danny Glover;
Ed Harris;
Richard Linklater;
Oliver Stone;
Tilda Swinton;
Christine Vachon;

 

 

The James Agee Cinema Circle’s will announce the Progie awards February 20.