AMPS 2023 - Winners

It's January 15, Martin Luther King Jr Day in the United States this year. However, in my fictional country of L World, it is the night of the first of three major film awards: the Awards for Motion Picture Services (AMPS). Over the past few weeks I've made two different posts each with a poll, the first one asking people to vote for the final Best Picture nominee, and the second asking people to vote for the Best Picture winner. For some reason the Best Picture nominee poll received a lot more votes than the Best Picture winner poll, and there was a tie going into yesterday. But the tie has been broken, so we can reveal the winner of Best Picture as well as the other 14 categories in AMPS, very much like how I did for 2020 and 2022 as well as the winners from 2000-2019. 

Anyways, we start from the technical categories and will work our way to the acting categories before the final reveal of the Best Picture winner y'all voted for!

Best Makeup

The Princess and the Page

The 3.5-hour long medieval epic may not have won the final spot in the Best Picture lineup, but there's no way that it wasn't going to win the AMPS equivalent of Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the Oscars. After all, The Princess and the Page tracks the tale of the main characters over a period of several decades from adolescence to middle age. And while director Samantha Schmidt used child actors for the earlier scenes, the majority of the film feature lead actors Ashley George and Geoffrey Hale done with the magic of makeup.

Best Visual Effects

Ginny and the Ghosts

The award honoring achievement in visual effects has traditionally gone to science fiction or action epics. However, this time around it goes to the quiet but crowd-pleasing mystery-comedy Ginny and the Ghosts for its shimmering, translucent effects on each of the Baskin sisters during their appearances. 

Best Sound Effects

Evocation

The award honoring the sound effects editing has been merged in with the Sound category at the Oscars for several years now, but the foley work has continued to be honored at the AMPS. It's another category that has traditionally gone to science fiction epics, and this time it's happened again with the award going to Evocation and its haunting battles.

Best Sound

Escapar de la Ciudad

The Best Sound category is the equivalent of the Best Sound Mixing category at the Oscars that was also called Best Sound. It rewards the overall combination of aural elements to a movie, from the sound effects to the dialogue to the music. In the early days I organized AMPS the winners of Best Sound and Best Sound Effects went to the same film, but it hasn't happened since A Journey Through Chinese History: The Grand Canal captured both in 2013. The split continues as the Spanish action film Escapar de la Ciudad took home the Best Sound award this year.

Best Art Direction

Evocation

Just as Best Sound honor the overall aural elements to a film, Best Art Direction is concerned with the visual elements, primarily with the production design, which is why the equivalent at the Oscars is now called Best Production Design. There were a lot of strong contenders, but the haunting design of the Terravian capitol helped Evocation capture the win in this category.

Best Score

Waste Land

The Best Score category is similar to the Best Original Score category at the Oscars and honors the background music written specifically for the film. In this case the award goes to Waste Land, the dark comedy satire about a community's battle with gentrification. The music's increasing off-kilter feel reflects the commercialization of the town of Lake Creek.

Best Cinematography

Evocation

The Best Cinematography category shares the same name with its counterpart at the Oscars. It rewards the photography of a picture, not only its movement but also its use of lighting, colors and lensing to convey a mood. In this case the use of the camera work to reflect Enoch's isolation and internal struggle helped Evocation capture its third win of the night. 

Best Editing

Evocation

A film is made up of numerous individual shots that is stitched together through the editing process. Strong editing work doesn't just create a coherent whole of a film, but it sends the viewers down a particular narrative. This year the award goes to Evocation, whose editing that highlights what is known and what is not known by the main character of Enoch helped create the narrative tension in spite of its three-hour runtime.

Best Screenplay

Ginny and the Ghosts

The screenplay of a film is the guidebook for which the film is made, including not only the characters' dialogue but also the directions that guide the camera work and the editing. A screenplay can be an original work or based on an existing intellectual property. The Oscars make the distinction between the two, while it is all one award in AMPS. The award this year goes to Ginny and the Ghosts, the film that tackles themes such as mental health and self-empowerment while mixing in with elements of mystery and lots of humor. 

Best Supporting Actress

Diane Pye, Ginny and the Ghosts

Now we get into the acting honors, the ones where I come up with names of fake actors so I can track their awards successes. The award for performance by an actress in a supporting role goes to one that is more than familiar to longtime AMPS followers: Diane Pye. Her performance as the sullen Elizabeth Baskin, the middle sibling among the three ghosts in the film, helped her garner her fifth AMPS Best Supporting Actress award, ones that date back to The Divination in 2015. 

Best Supporting Actor

Andy Ray, Another Class Trip

The award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role goes to another former winner in Andy Ray, who had back to back wins in the Rated R prequel films The Brotherhood of the Peach Groves and Unkept Promises back in 2005 and 2006. However, the role that won him his third AMPS acting honor dates back even further. He starred in the controversial 2001 film Class Trip as a high school student whose class field trip to a foreign country goes south as his class becomes embroiled in a revolution. Ray's Steve Nixell was captured by the rebels and forced to fight on their side. He was assumed to have been killed at the end of the film. However, in the sequel that came out 22 years later, Nixell was revealed to be alive and in hiding and his reunion with his former classmate that couldn't make the original trip was emotional and helped Andy Ray to his first win AMPS win in 17 years.

Best Actress

Tina Hsiao, Ginny and the Ghosts

The parade of former winners continues as the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role goes to Tina Hsiao, who had won Best Supporting Actress in 2017 for her performance in the coming of age Cultural Revolution film Blossoming Flower. This time she earned the leading role as Ginny Chan in Ginny and the Ghosts, and her portrayal of a young adult overcoming her social anxiety resonated with audiences, and helped her win her second AMPS title.

Best Actor

Geoffrey Hale, The Princess and the Page

The award for best performance by an actor in a leading role goes to Geoffrey Hale for his role as the titular page Huey caught in a forbidden romance with his princess in The Princess and the Page. Hale had previously won for Best Supporting Actor in 2014 for Potholes and Best Actor in 2020 for Gridiron Gridlocked, making tall four acting winners previous winners for the first time since...well...2021. What can I say? I like to reuse my actors whenever possible.

Best Director

George Wilkinson, Evocation

The director is the crew member that is most able to put his or her artistic stamp on a movie, since they are the driving force behind all of the acting and visual and aural elements that were awarded throughout the night. As such I usually name the director. In this case, the award for Best Director went to George Wilkinson, the visionary behind Evocation. This is his second win after winning for Unyielding back in 2018. He was also the director of Dangerous Inquisitions which won the Best Picture nominee vote in 2015.

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With Best Director going to Evocation, that would put its award total for the night at five, a fairly impressive number. However, Ginny and the Ghosts is right behind them at four. The only other film to win multiple awards is The Princess and the Page, which didn't even get a nomination for Best Picture. If it was up to me, Evocation would take home Best Picture honors and things would wrap up in a tiny bow. However, this is a year where I am putting the decision in the hands of whoever bothered to vote for my second movie poll, which isn't very many of you. Nevertheless the fewer the voters, the more power goes to each individual voter. Like I said, voting was very close and there was a tie as recently as yesterday. But one film did come out on top.

Best Picture

Ginny and the Ghosts

That's right, Ginny and the Ghosts pulled off the stunning upset to capture Best Picture. Well, I wouldn't say it was a complete upset as Ginny and the Ghosts had been right up there with Evocation in the number of awards, and they would both end up with five total wins. And naturally Evocation was the film that was tied with Ginny and the Ghosts going into the final day, but the final tiebreaker vote ended up going Ginny's way. Of course that meant there was a split between Best Picture and Best Director, which really didn't happen all that often but this is the second time it's happened since 2020. 

Anyways, hope y'all had fun following along with the winners. Here it is in list form. 

Best Picture: Ginny and the Ghosts

Best Director: George Wilkinson, Evocation

Best Actor: Geoffrey Hale, The Princess and the Page

Best Actress: Tina Hsiao, Ginny and the Ghosts

Best Supporting Actor: Andy Ray, Another Class Trip

Best Supporting Actress: Diane Pye, Ginny and the Ghosts

Best Screenplay: Ginny and the Ghosts

Best Editing: Evocation

Best Cinematography: Evocation

Best Score: Waste Land

Best Art Direction: Evocation

Best Sound: Escapar de la Ciudad

Best Sound Effects: Evocation

Best Visual Effects: Ginny and the Ghosts

Best Makeup: The Princess and the Page

5 wins: Evocation

5 wins: Ginny and the Ghosts

2 wins: The Princess and the Page

1 win: Another Class Trip

1 win: Escapar de la Ciudad

1 win: Waste Land

See y'all next year.