Okay, after watching every single movie this weekend, and seeing what the judges thought last night (which you'll see a lot more of once the article goes up), here's who SHOULD have won some of the categories we awarded for, and a few I just made up... in my humble opinion, of course. One more time, these are NOT THE NS AWARDS CHOICES, just my opinion after watching them all. Also, disclaimer, I missed the Field Productions movie getting changed for the NS awards (and I'm choked because I'm told I shouldn't have missed it, apparently it was really good).
Best Am Performance: This is actually pretty hard to give out because it's not all that
easy to determine who qualifies as an "Am", but sticking to the ones that were nominated
last night...
Winner: Josh Stack
Runner Up: Henrik Harlaut
This one was actually pretty much a toss up, because Henrik absolutely slayed it in Turbo;
I just favor switch pow landings and lines over park stuff. Tanner was SO hyped on Henrik, and yeah, he destroyed it. For my money Henrik fully outskiied Tom in every movie they were both in.
Best Trick Am: Henrik Harlaut, Switch 3, Turbo. Henrik got a bigger audience response for
his switch 12 in the BC, his last shot in Slamina, but the sw3 was maybe the most stylish park
trick done by anyone, "Pro" or "Am". Worth nothing though that if Stack HAD skiied away from
his 5, it probably would have been the best trick done by anyone ever... absolutely huge.
Best Film Am:
Runner Up: Stept, Road to Nowhere: there was some really, really rad urban in here and
a good soundtrack. The thing about 4bi9 was, Henrik killed it, Tom killed it, but it
lagged in the middle. The footy of Tom in Stept was comparable and the whole movie
was pretty consistently good. Alex delivered.
Winner: Voleurz - Outdoor Education. Really, really good. Doesn't take itself seriously at all, ton of fun to watch, leaves a smile on your face and the riding in every category was ridiculous. The skating was particularly absurd. Mostly though it just comes down to the fact that Voleurz made a completely enjoyable movie to watch. When it comes out for free online and you download it, I'm sure you'll agree.
Best Trick Pro: I'm going to have to give it to the entire last shot in Head for the Hills. by Meatheads People were out of their seats. Cosco's double flip in Rage was a runner up for sure.
Best shot pro: Dana Flahr, The Massive. There wasn't any "trick"ing involved in Dana's contribution to the Massive, but I remember someone saying right after we got out of the theatre, "Dana Flahr is the only real man on the face of the Earth". I can't really describe, you pretty much just have to see it for yourself. Absurd.
Best Performance, Pro: Charley Ager, Journal.
Runner Up: Tanner Rainville, Turbo.
Pollard, Pep and Andy killed it just like they always do, but the king of switch pow landings this year was undoubtedly Charley.You really can't ever fault a judging panel for giving an award like this to T-hall (he pretty much has a lock on it for the next 5 years), so their choice came as no surprise. But Charley had everyone talking on thursday night and even if Journal WASN'T unbelievably ridiculously incredibly good overall (and it was), I would still tell you to pick it up just to watch his stuff. It's
like he doesn't know how to land forward.
Tron owned the first 5 minutes or so of Turbo and did basically everything it
is possible to do on a pair of skis so well that the theatre was full of the sound of
people yelling the whole time. Consequently, I'm honestly not even sure I heard the song
for his part. Enough said.
Best sleeper movie: Broadcast, Mystic Land Productions. I actually went into the theatre not knowing what Broadcast WAS, I didn't see Beaver Tale last year and I hadn't heard anything. And then who should come on the screen but your hero and mine, Doug Bishop. The movie was hilarious, there were a bunch of good parts, including Chris Turpin who fucking destroyed, skiing switch everywhere... best switch lines of the year in any movie... and JF's hammer seg was filthy. Buy this, it has huge re-watch value and it's just good shit.
Best Soundtrack, Pro: Turbo, Level 1 Productions.
Runner up: Hunting Yeti, Nimbus independent.
Coming into last night I was pretty sure Hunting Yeti was going to take it, because the way they effectively used classic stuff (and it's not easy to do that) really suited the mood of the film. But everyone really did well this year (PBP had some great stuff in Reasons too) and after seeing Turbo, there's just no way I can't give this one to Berman. Sigur Ros in the Alaska segment... so good.
Best Cinematography, Pro: Reasons, Poor Boyz Productions
Runner Up: Turbo, Level 1.
PBP killed it this year. I don't know that a description of the cinematography even has a point, but Douglas had some of the best helmet cam footy in any movie ever made, Andreas and Jon's follow cam / paragliding stuff, as well as the heli stuff, has to be watched. Berman, of course, did what he always does with urban, as well or better than ever before... see below.
Best part, Pro: Alaska, The Massive
Runner Up: Ahmet / Will, Turbo
Honourable Mentions: LOTS. The closing segment of Meatheads' "Head for the Hills"; the last part in Journal (along with the first segment, the second segment and the entire rest of the movie), Chris Turpin's opener in Broadcast, the opening segment in Reasons, the Pemberton segment in Massive... ski movies delivered the banger segments this year like no other. But the AK in Massive was at least as good as last year and was met with gaping mouths, and Ahmet and Will's turbo seg was the best urban segment ever filmed bar none. Buy Turbo.
Movie of the Year: Turbo
Runner Up: Reasons
2nd Runner Up: Journal
Coin toss... more like winner A and winner B. Actually my top 3 was the same as the judges', just in a different order (check out the article coming out tonight or tomorrow) I was SURE Johnny would win when I got to the awards and it did. And Johnny deserved it. Reasons was Better than 1242. Read that again. Too many good segments to list. But for me it was Turbo... just the vibe I got off of it, the soundtrack, everything. Best thing Berman has ever done bar none. I was telling people afterwards that probably the best moment in the theatre this weekend was one shot early in Turbo when Rainville dropped into this chute and skiied off screen, and it was like, "Ok I'm next." The whole movie was like that, just making you want to ski so badly, and that's the best quality a ski movie can have. Journal, meanwhile, was the best thing Jeffy has ever done by far, I said afterwards that it was like you didn't even know what to do with yourself. The first 3 shots of the movie were fully legitimate closing shots and they just kept coming, like you didn't have time to finish saying "Holy fuck what just happened" before you'd have to start saying it all over again. 3 major companies, outdoing everything they've done in the past. Tanner Hall said a couple of times this weekend how pumped he is to be a skier right now, and after seeing the movie this weekend, it really wasn't possible to feel any other way.
I think the bottom line is, you're all going to go fucking BROKE on ski movies this year and you'll be loving it. Whatever you do, pick up a copy of those top 3. I know I forgot a bunch of stuff. I'm actually going to go through every movie in more detail in this thread later on when I have time. If you were here, post what you thought.
