Saturday, November 1, 2014

''THE CLIFFIES'' 2014 - Cli Fi Movie Awards -- Winners List -- Awards Program Tagline "Can Cli Fi Movies Save the Planet?"


UPDATE: The annual Cli Fi Movie Awards has launched worldwide with the 2014 winners listed below. The list will go public with major media headlines on February 15, 2015, a week before the Oscars. But the soft rollout here now is the real thing. SPREAD THE WORD!

There are now enough cli-fi films being made that we are curating an Oscars-type award  to honor and draw attention to the top movies in the genre. By top movies, we mean “most engaging and meaningful” as cli-fi cinema.

about glitz or glamour or movie stars. They are about the very future  of our planet. Hollywood has a big role to play and indie movies, too.  

AWARD ''STATUETTE'' PHOTO:

AMONG THE FINALISTS THIS YEAR WERE: [hat tip to you know who  for partial movie summaries...and thanks!]

SNOWPIERCER 

This innovative cli fi film by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho is based on a French graphic novel; it takes place entirely on a long, long train. When an experiment to forestall global warming goes horribly wrong, it creates a modern-day Ice Age. With the Earth frozen over, the last remaining human inhabitants are congregated aboard the Snowpiercer, a perpetual-motion train that travels the global wasteland smashing through ice and snow. Stars include Chris Evans, Ed Harris, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer.

INTO THE STORM 

School buses, barns and airplanes are sent spinning into oblivion when an onslaught of tornadoes touches down. Special effects are skillfully wrought, scary and exciting. As a meteorologist in this summer of 2014 cli fi movie  put it, nothing has been quite the same since Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. “While the words “climate change” are never uttered — most likely for fear of turning off non-believers and limiting box office potential — the concept hangs over the movie like the darkest of clouds,” the USA TODAY movie critic Claudia Puig noted.

NOAH

Darren Aronofsky’s  visually mesmerizing cli fi saga based on the ancient and mythical Hebrew scriptures. Genesis was not a true story nor is this movie, but as a cli fi drama, there is a strong wake up call to viewers to pay more attention to what we are doing to the Earth. Starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins.

THE ROVER 

From Australia, director David Michôd’s crime drama features a hardened loner who pursues the men who stole his only possession, across a drought-plagued landscape 10 years after a global economic collapse. Climate changte and man-mad globarl warming are not front and center but they are in the background, if you pay attention. Starring Guy Pierce and Robert Pattinson.

YOUNG ONES

Jake Paltrow’s cli fi story about a teenage boy who sets out to protect his family is set in a future where water is hard to find. Filmed in a very dry region of South Africa. Starring Nicholas Hoult, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Shannon and Elle Fanning.


INTERSTELLAR -- (''HUMOR note'': ONLY THE FIRST THIRD OF THE MOVIE WAS NOMINATED IN THE ''CLI FI'' CATEGORY, alas)

Christopher Nolan’s mesmerizing space cowboy epic could have been a powerful cli fi movie if only it had just focused on the first third of the story, the first act, so to speak. So only the first third of the movie was nominated for the best cli fi movie of the year (2014). Can we do that? Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine.

COMMENTS?  EMAIL US AT :

  THECLIFFIES2015@GMAIL.COM

THE CLIFFIES THEME SONG FOR 2014 PRESENTATION:

"LIBERATED CARBON" -- a song written and composed by New York state musician Andy Revkin -- and a longtime friend and student of Pete Seeger -- is to be the ''theme music'' song of THE CLIFFIES -- the cli fi movie awards program -- on February 22, 2014 - [PREVIEW HERE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzZ_M4rnD48

Note: upon request, Andy kindly and generously donated the song to the movie awards event. Here is his song. Perfect music for THE CLIFFIES. Listen to it while you are reading this page!

NEWS LINK TO CLIFFIES BACKSTORY"
http://korgw101.blogspot.tw/2014/08/cliffies-will-award-climate-change.html

FINE PRINT: The Cli Fi Movie Awards are made possible by a generous grant from the Bernie Bloom Never Give Up Foundation (Avenue J, Brooklyn).
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BEST CLI FI MOVIE OF THE YEAR (winners in red below)
This category is for the cli fi movie that was the most engaging and meaningful and released in 2014.

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

BEST ACTOR IN A CLI FI MOVIE IN 2014


FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY
  • NOAH                      USA
  • INTO THE STORM    USA
  • INTERSTELLAR        USA
  • YOUNG ONES        USA-SOUTH AFRICA-IRELAND
  • ROBERT PATTINSON IN THE ROVER             AUSTRAILA
  • SNOWPIERCER    SOUTH KOREA

BEST ACTRESS IN A CLI FI MOVIE in 2014

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

  • NOAH                      USA
  • INTO THE STORM     USA
  • INTERSTELLAR        USA
  • USA/SOUTH      AFRICA/IRELAND
  • THE ROVER         AUSTRAILA
  • TILDA SWINTON IN SNOWPIERCER      SOUTH KOREA

BEST DIRECTOR OF A CLI FI MOVIE IN 2014

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

  • DARREN ARONOSKY -  NOAH    USA
  •  INTO THE STORM         USA
  • INTERSTELLAR          USA
  • YOUNG ONES           USA/SOUTH AFRICA/IRELAND
  • THE ROVER              USTRAILA
  • SNOWPIERCER                   OUTH KOREA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A CLI FI MOVIE IN 2014

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

  • NOAH                      USA
  • INTO THE STORM    USA
  • INTERSTELLAR     USA
  • YOUNG ONES      USA/SOUTH AFRICA/IRELAND
  • THE ROVER      AUSTRAILA
  • ED HARRIS  IN SNOWPIERCER    SOUTH KOREA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A CLI FI MOVIE IN 2014

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

  • NOAH                      USA
  • INTO THE STORM      USA
  • NTERSTELLAR      USA
  • ELLE FANNING in YOUNG ONES    USA-IRELAND-SOUTH AFRICA   
  • THE ROVER             AUSTRALIA 
  • SNOW PIERCER       SOUTH KOREA

BEST CLI FI MOVIE OF 2014 THAT MOST CLOSELY MIRRORED CURRENT CLIMATE SCIENCE ISSUES

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

  • NOAH                      USA
  • INTO THE STORM     USA
  • INTERSTELLAR    INTERSTELLAR USA
  • YOUNG ONES                   USA/SOUTH AFRICA/IRELAND
  • THE ROVER            AUSTRALIA 
  • SNOWPIERCER            SOUTH KOREA

BEST PR CAMPAIGN CONDUCTED BY A STUDIO MARKETING DEPARTMENT FOR A CLI FI MOVIE IN 2014

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

  • NOAH                      USA
  • INTO THE STORM     USA
  • INTERSTELLAR USA
  • YOUNG ONES      USA/SOUTH AFRICA/IRELAND
  • THE ROVER                AUSTRALIA
  • SNOWPIERCER      SOUTH KOREA

CLI FI MOVIE THAT  SPOKE MOST FORCEFULLY TO THE PUBLIC 

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

  • NOAH                      USA
  • INTO THE STORM    USA
  • INTERSTELLAR      USA
  • YOUNG ONES      USA/SOUTH AFRICA/IRELAND
  • THE ROVER     AUSTRALIA 
  • SNOWPIECER      SOUTH KOREA

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

  • NOAH  - Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel    USA
  •  INTO THE STORM       USA
  • INTERSTELLAR       USA
  • YOUNG ONES      USA/SOUTH AFRICA/IRELAND
  • THE ROVER      AUSTRALIA
  • SNOWPIERCER     SOUTH KOREA

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

FINALISTS IN THE RUNNING FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY

  • NOAH                      USA
  • INTO THE STORM      USA
  • NTERSTELLAR        USA
  • YOUNG ONES      USA/SOUTH AFRICA/IRELAND
  • THE ROVER     AUSTRALIA
  • SNOWPIERCER - Joon-ho Bong and Kelly Masterson        SOUTH KOREA-USA
BEST NEW DIRECTOR OF A CLI FI MOVIE IN 2014

FINALIST FOR A CLIFFIE IN THIS CATEGORY
  • JAKE PALTROW for  YOUNG ONES      USA/SOUTH AFRICA/IRELAND


SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL MENTION: BEST CLI-FI ANIMATED SERIES FOR CHILDREN
This category recognizes achievement in the use of animation to convey engaging climate-themed stories and information. 

  • WEATHER BOY! (觀測站少年) - director Chiu Li-wei (邱立偉) - TAIWAN
AND.... (drum roll):

*** VERY SPECIAL MENTIONS: BEST MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE 'CLI-FI' MEME AS A ''CULTURAL PRISM'' IN 2014
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THE NEW YORK TIMES, TIME MAGAZINE, THE HUFFINGTON POST, GRIST, USA TODAY, MORPHIZM, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, THE WRAP

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FINE PRINT: The Cli Fi Movie Awards are made possible by a generous grant from the Bernie Bloom Never Give Up Foundation (Avenue J, Brooklyn).

(c) 2014, 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTING ANY OF THIS MATERIAL IS STRICTLY PERMITTED!


Twitter Hashtag #clifi (hat tip to PR maven in London Lisa Devaney for the idea!)


NOTE: The Cliffies are also about taking action -- in personal, determined ways, both as individuals and as members of action groups -- to stop climate change and global warming on this Earth of ours before it's ....too late! The Cliffies are not about glitz or glamour or movie stars. They are about the very future of our planet. Hollywood has a big role to play and Indie movies too. In the end, this rolling online awards program  is a wake-up call.  [*** (''hat tip'' to UN economist Claude Nougat in Rome, Italy for the update]