The 2021 Crammy Awards

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the second annual Crammy award ceremony. I’ll be your host, Cameron also known as The Blog Complainer. We have a lot to get through, including the new film category, so we won’t be wasting any time here and if you want to keep track of the awards and make some predictions of what might win a PDF is available below.

Downloadable Crammys 2021 Nomination List PDF.

The Crammys Television Awards

Our first award in this grand showcase is Best Supporting Actor for television. Before clicking the button below this has got to deserve a drum roll!

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Winner: Antony Starr -The Boys

This year this category’s main trend seemed to focus on actors who played evil jerks and enjoyed leaving me feeling uneasy. Antony Starr’s portrayal of Homelander easily reigns supreme for me for how easily he flips from being your best pal to a remorseless psychopath. You’re never really sure what he’ll do next and he is definitely a highlight of the first two seasons of The Boys.

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Next is the new shows from last year that I just happened to see.

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Winner: Eric Goode & Rebecca Chaiklin – Tiger King

I chose Tiger King because it was such a fascinating and enjoyable show to binge in two days. It’s a show that came out at the perfect time, where I seriously needed a good distraction from the chaos unfolding around me. So thank you Tiger King & Animal Crossing: New Horizons for making March 2020 a more enjoyable getaway.

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Now come the not so new shows that I finally got around to watching in 2020.

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Winner: Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould- Better Call Saul

After revisiting Breaking Bad, I finally decided to check out that prequel spin-off show, Better Call Saul. Damn, this show was good! So good in fact that, depending on how the final season goes, it might end up surpassing Breaking Bad. How does a prequel even do that!?!

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Now we have the shows that competed in last year’s Crammys, but this award is based on if they have improved since then.

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Tough call, especially when you take into consideration that most of last year’s nominees ended that same year.

Winner: Jon Favreau – The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian wins by a long shot because half way through season 2 it takes off in a much more interesting direction, unlike the other nominee it was up against.

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Now for the nominees for Best Supporting Actress from your favourite streaming services.

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Winner: Gillian Anderson – Sex Education

Ah yes, the show that is more of a harmless guilty pleasure for me is now, for the second year in a row, stealing one of the supporting categories. Gillian Anderson stars in this raunchy British teen comedy and she’s very enjoyable to watch, especially in the second season where she becomes more a nuisance for her awkward son and his friends.

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So now we have the best soundtrack or score on TV.

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Winner: Ludwig Goransson – The Mandalorian

I enjoy listening to The Mandalorian’s score. Perhaps it helps that it’s associated with a franchise known for some of the most iconic tracks in film, but this TV show has some pretty good original pieces of it’s own.

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Now to award the show that looks better than the rest.

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Winner: Dave Filoni – Star Wars: The Clone Wars

It’s an animated show so of course it’s going to have the advantage over any live action show. The Clone Wars has come a long way since the cheap 2008 movie and thanks to season 7, the animation has reached it’s full potential and is unbelievable! Couldn’t have asked for anything else!

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Now for the show with the Best Writing.

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Winner: Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould- Better Call Saul

I mainly picked this show because there weren’t any blunders anywhere in the season unlike the other three nominees. This season continues to close in on the Breaking Bad timeline, with certain characters settling into the roles they’ll eventually have on that show. While still being somewhat unpredictable for a prequel show, thanks to Jimmy and Kim’s changing relationship status almost every episode.

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Returning to the actor awards, here is the Best Actor on television

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Winner: Bob Odenkirk – Better Call Saul

There is some serious competition this year, but I’m giving it to Saul Goodman himself. It’s been 10 plus years since Bob Odenkirk started playing Saul in Breaking Bad and it’s great to see that in his own show he continues to make great use of his acting chops. With the show drawing towards a conclusion, tensions rise, allowing Odenkirk to still show off his comedic flair, but also allowing him to show off his dramatic side, which is great to see come out.

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The Best Actress on television was always going to be one particularly special lady, so hurry up and click the thing so I can explain myself.

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Winner: Rhea Seehorn – Better Call Saul

Rhea Seehorn is fantastic in season 5 of Better Call Saul. She’s so good in fact that she wasn’t nominated on any other major award show, but we’re not going to dwell on that. Seehorn is great at playing someone who is constantly conflicted as to who she is striving to be. An independent lawyer wanting to be taken more seriously or an accomplice in Jimmy’s sometimes life threatening criminal activities? To avoid spoilers all I will say is my favourite scene of last year is when, in order to help out Jimmy, Kim has to confront Lalo and it is legendary stuff!

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Next is the best produced single episode of 2020.

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Winner: Between the Time – Dark

Dark is the most complicated Sci-fi show I’ve ever seen. Keeping up with four or five different timelines and who’s related to who is enough to test anyone’s brain power. That’s why the penultimate episode is the most satisfying viewing experience of the year. Dark finally rewards it viewers by filling us in on all the lingering threads and unanswered questions that the show created through it’s three season run. The feeling of closure is so good, it’s as soft as hugging a super fluffy teddy with it’s own personal heater inside.

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Finally the Best Television Show of 2020.

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Winner: Better Call Saul

The only show in this selection of eight that had me fully invested from start to end, besides Tiger King, but that was for completely different reasons. Season 5 of Better Call Saul is television viewing at it’s finest and I can’t wait for the release of the final season!

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The Crammys Film Awards

To start off the film awards we need to once again look at what I think were the Best Supporting Actors of the previous year.

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Winner: Hugh Grant – The Gentlemen

Perhaps the influence behind this choice is the fact that I’m mostly familiar with Hugh Grant’s rom-com days, so I totally wasn’t prepared for this out of left field performance. The Gentlemen has a lot of great performances, but from the start of the movie I always felt Hugh Grant’s sleazy private investigator character stole the entire show. Grant gave one of the most entertaining performances of the year, and it was a great start to 2020.

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Up next is the film with the Best Soundtrack or Score.

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Winner: Lin-Manuel Miranda – Hamilton

As a fan of live productions it was a really tough call to not go against the musical. A bit cheap on my part, but I really couldn’t help myself as the songs were really catchy. Right now I’m just looking forward to the day I get to experience this show in a live theatre.

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Here is the Most Attractive Movie of last year.

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Winner: David Fincher – Mank

Mank is based on the behind the scenes drama of Citizen Kane, so no surprise that David Fincher took the visual flair of Orson Welles’ film and incorporated it into his. A great choice, as now it looks like I’m watching an actual movie from the 1940’s, especially compared to most modern black and white movies which are only in black and white because that is apparently considered more “arty” now.

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Following that is Best Screenplay.

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Winner: Charlie Kaufman – I’m Thinking of Ending Things

I chose the screenplay that makes the least amount of sense on the initial viewing, because I can! Charlie Kaufman wrote this story with the mindset that whoever’s watching it would want to analyse and try to make sense of the strange world he created. It’s also a good discussion topic to share theories with others who watched the film. For that reason it’s memorable, so that’s the reason why it won.

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Now here are the Best Supporting Actresses in film.

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Winner: Toni Collette – I’m Thinking of Ending Things

Hooray, another under the radar performance! Toni Collette’s performance and character in this movie may not be as good as her roles in Knives Out or Hereditary but that doesn’t matter because she is still fantastic. No more to be said.

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Hooray, it’s The Best Blockbuster Award.

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Winner: Leigh Whannell – The Invisible Man

It was a rough year for the big popcorn movies, due to most of them not even coming out. So The Invisible Man wins the award for not only being the least blockbustery movie out of what was nominated, but also for being way better than what was advertised.

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Now it’s the Best Animated Movie of the year award.

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Winner: Pete Docter – Soul

I didn’t see too many animated movies in 2020, so Soul really did have an advantage this time around. I guess it was all worth it though as Soul proved to be a very touching story of a man learning to appreciate the beauty of being alive and in the moment. Pixar don’t make as many great movies as they used to, but they did this time so it was really rewarding.

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Returning to the actor categories is the Best Actor in film.

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For the first time with this category it was very difficult narrowing it down to only five nominees, let alone picking just one winner.

Winner: Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal

It was a very close call, but Riz Ahmed’s performance as heavy metal drummer and recently deaf Reuben is exceptional. A character I sort of disliked, for the bad decisions he makes, but I still ended up feeling sorry for him thanks to the great writing, sound design and Ahmed’s sympathetic performance. I almost teared up watching this, it’s so sombre.

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The final acting award is Best Actress in film.

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More strong competition here and with this one I did spend a few days contemplating on a winner.

Winner: Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman

One of the more recent movies to be considered for a Crammy as I saw this and Another Round on the same weekend back in early January of this year. Carey Mulligan who plays the Promising Young Woman was definitely the main draw of this film, as a bitter woman who refuses to move on from a horrible crime that happened years ago, and who now spends all her Friday nights preying on and humiliating men at their very worst. It’s an interesting character study and Carey Mulligan gives an outstanding portrayal of this understandably messed-up woman.

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Here we are at the second last award and that’s for Best Director.

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Winner: Darius Marder – Sound of Metal

More praise for Sound of Metal. Director Darius Marder made and co-wrote a movie where you can feel exactly what’s it like for someone facing the prospect that they may never hear again. What Marder is best at, is always keeping the focus on Riz Ahmed’s Reuben. Especially whenever there is a scene featuring someone playing music, that us the audience can hear, but Reuben can’t. Yes, one of these moments that I alluded to earlier almost made me shed a tear.

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At last we have reached the final award for this year’s Crammys. So what will be the first film to ever receive a Crammy for Best Film? Click the button and find out…

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Winner: Soul!

I don’t need to say anymore as I have already shared reasons as to why it’s the best film of 2020. All you need to know is Soul won the first ever Crammy for Best Film!

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That’s the end of another year for The Crammys.  Congratulations are in order to all the winners and nominees and also to you for making it to the end of this long post. Soon I hope to start writing up some reviews for 2021’s movies, but tying up lose ends with a certain book will still be higher priority until then. I have been The Blog Complainer, signing out.