Winners of the 5th Annual RFP Overlooked Awards

The purpose of this article each year to recognize some of the best films and performances that were missed at the big awards. This year's crop of films is an eclectic mix of indies, foreign language films and documentaries. Many of these film flew under the radar and truly deserve reaching a wider audience.

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Winner: CATFISH
Whether Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's film isn't as non-fiction as some might like, is actually pointless to the final project. The story of the film follows photographer Nev Schulman as he develops an online relationship with Angelia Wesselman and her family. But things aren't as they seem. Whether the filmmakers knew what was up earlier than they let on is really pointless, because they saw a story and made it happen. The film on an emotional level deals with our online lives better than THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Social media has allowed us to be online stars in the comfort of our homes. Many times the anonymity allows us to be more like ourselves even when we're not being like ourselves at all. It's a remarkable and compelling film that says a lot about our modern cyber world.

Honorable Mentions
ANIMAL KINGDOM
A wonderful Australian crime drama that earned Jacki Weaver an Oscar nod for best supporting actress. It's like GOODFELLAS if it were about Ma Parker's gang.

ANOTHER YEAR
Mike Leigh is a master director who crafts his films with his actors through improv. Lesley Manville gives the overlooked female performance of the year with  great support from Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen.

CYRUS
This sly comedy features the overlooked male performance of the year from John C. Reilly as a man trying to find love with a woman who has a very close relationship with her adult son. Reilly is assisted well by Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener and Jonah Hill.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
The book phenomenon has already been brought to the screen in a captivating Swedish thriller. Noomi Rapace has become an international star thanks to her unforgettable portrayal of Lisbeth Salander.

MICMACS
It's an innocent satire of the weapons industry done by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who made the delightful AMELIE. It's if he took that film and mixed in HUDSUCKER PROXY and YOJIMBO.

MOTHER
An amazing thriller from Korea that keeps your guessing the start to finish as a dedicated mother tries to free her son from jail after he is arrested for murder.

NEVER LET ME GO
A sci-fi tale like no other, in this alternative history clones are born to provide organs for humans. We watch as their lives lead to their inevitable donations. Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield star in this touching drama.

RED RIDING TRILOGY
This epic British crime series chronicles a decade plus investigation into child murders that involves police corruption at every level. The series starts strong with a wonderful performance from Andrew Garfield and concludes with a bizarre finale that you can't forget.

THE TILLMAN STORY
Pat Tillman gave up an NFL career to enlist in the Marines after 9/11. This thought-provoking documentary tells his true story, something the U.S. Government didn't want to tell.

Best Actor
Winner: John C. Reilly - CYRUS
Reilly brings tenderness and vulnerability to this hilarious film. He never plays for laughs, which makes us laugh even harder. I will always remember him asking Marisa Tomei's character, "Are you flirting with me? I'm Shrek. What are you doing out here in the forest with Shrek."

Honorable Mentions
Andy Garcia – CITY ISLAND
Garcia leads this overlooked comedy. He plays a corrections officer who is secretly auditioning for plays and movies. The scene where he first auditions is remarkable in watching an actor in such control of his performance.

Hal Holbrook – THAT EVENING SUN
Holbrook was a revelation in INTO THE WILD. He is the spark that ignites this drama about a man whose home is sold out from under him.

Aaron Johnson – NOWHERE BOY
Johnson was also impressive in KICK-ASS in 2010, but his turn as John Lennon shows his real talent. He makes the young rock 'n roller John Lennon without making it a caricature of the icon.

Joaquin Phoenix – I’M STILL HERE
While I didn't like the end result, you have to give it to Phoenix for his dedication. He stayed in character everywhere he went for over a year. Nothing in his performance was unconvincing. Take that Borat!

Best Actress
Winner: Lesley Manville - ANOTHER YEAR
The most overlooked performance of the year in my book. As a woman who drinks to much and is just ticking off each year, she is the sad emotional core of Mike Leigh's film. Her antics make us laugh, but the more desperate she gets the less funny they seem. Remarkable work.

Honorable Mentions
Paola Mendoza — ENTRE NOS
Having also directed and co-wrote the film about an immigrant and her two children abandoned in NYC, she is a talent to watch.

Noomi Rapace – THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Rapace has created an iconic character for the ages that ranks up their with Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in ALIENS or Thelma and Louise.

Emma Stone – EASY A
She is pretty and funny. In this surprisingly smart teen comedy, Stone established herself as a movie star.

Tilda Swinton - I AM LOVE
Swinton is amazing. She learned Italian for the role and then did it with a Russian accent. As the unhappy matriarch of the rich family who has an affair with a cook, she brings out quiet sadness and rapturous joy.

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Andrew Garfield – NEVER LET ME GO or THE SOCIAL NETWORK
When it was announced that he was the new Spider-Man, many wondered why they went with this total unknown. Then his films of 2010 came out and now we know. Garfield was the emotional glue of both NEVER LET ME GO and THE SOCIAL NETWORK. As the innocent clone or the wronged friend, he brought such power and raw emotion to his performances. If I take one thing away from 2010, it will be his talent that cinema has been given.

Honorable Mentions
Niels Arestrup – A PROPHET
As the mobster leader trying to keep a grip on his empire from behind bars, Arestrup is a tour de force.

Matt Damon – TRUE GRIT
Damon's subtly humorous performance as the do-goody Texas ranger was overshadowed by Jeff Bridges' showy role and Hailee Steinfeld's starmaking turn, but it's still an integral part of the Western's success.

Tom Hardy - INCEPTION
Adding the right dose of wry humor to Christopher Nolan's mind-bending thriller, Hardy is now a star. He's also a thief, because he stole every scene in INCEPTION he was in.

Ben Mendelsohn – ANIMAL KINGDOM
As the head of a suburban crime family, Mendelsohn brings raw intensity that is frightening. He's like a dog who got the bone and won't ever let go.

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Dale Dickey - WINTER'S BONE
Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes most certainly deserved their Oscar nominations, but so did Dickey. As the enforcer of an Ozarks drug family, she is an intimidating presence, but Dickey brings a strange depth to the character that is haunting.

Honorable Mentions
Bryce Dallas Howard – HEREAFTER
Howard is so good. In what could have been a forgettable girlfriend role, she brings out sexiness, vulnerability and raw emotion.

Julianne Moore – THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Moore is always good and as a tormented woman in a relationship on the rocks, she makes big dramatic changes in the character work.

Chloe Moretz – KICK-ASS
Moretz is a real talent. Her giddy performance as a teenaged vigilante, she embodies all the satire and kick-ass attitude the role needed.

Marisa Tomei – CYRUS
Playing the mismatched love interest of John C. Reilly, she makes her character subtly neurotic and emotionally fragile, which helps sell the entire premise of this comedy.

Best Director
Winner: Banksy – EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP
Was he wasn't he at the Oscars? Is the documentary real or fake? Who cares. No matter what he made the best film of 2010. A good director shapes the film. If the doc is real, he found a profound commentary on the art world within hours of footage of street artists at work. If it was all an elaborate hoax, he devised a brilliant commentary on the art world. Either way he shaped a remarkable piece of art.

Honorable Mentions
Jacques Audiard – A PROPHET
Audiard shows a deft hand at balancing the epic tale of crime inside prison walls.

Danny Boyle –  127 HOURS
Boyle does an amazing job keeping our attention in a movie that is one character in one location for most of its running time.

Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman – CATFISH
Like Banksy, they shaped a brilliant commentary on our current world through either reality or fiction or a combination of both.

Mark Romanek – NEVER LET ME GO
Romanek's patient direction and quiet tone is what makes this sci-fi tale so unique.

Best Screenplay
Winner: Thomas Bidegain and Jacques Audiard, and Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit – A PROPHET
Like THE GODFATHER and GOODFELLAS before it, this epic crime story finds new twists on the venerable genre. The four writers bring out the impossibility of reforming prisoners in prison and the current view of Arabs in French society. The scope of the story is grand, but it keeps the viewer enraptured from start to finish with tight plotting and original compelling characters.

Honorable Mentions
Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg (based on a novel by Stieg Larsson) – THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
The plot is not what makes this thriller great. It's the richly drawn complex characters. Lisbeth Salander is an amazing iconic character, who will not be forgotten.

Alex Garland (based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro) – NEVER LET ME GO
Heart-breaking, thought-provoking sci-fi is rare. Garland does a masterful job of translating Ishiguro's somber tale to the screen without losing its subtly.

David Michôd – ANIMAL KINGDOM
Michod also directed this crime drama, but his script is what made it special. He efficiently sets up his large cast and makes us quickly care about the dangerous world his young hero is thrust into.

Eun-kyo Park & Joon-ho Bong   – MOTHER
Like GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, it's not the plot that makes this thriller great, but the characters. Revelations are doled out throughout the story, which change the landscape of the story completely, while redefining our thoughts of the various characters. American thrillers should take notes.

Best Animated Short
No prize awarded this year. (Didn’t see enough shorts this year to choose.)