Best of 2019

The scene of the year
Film:
Joker
Mid90s
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Rolling Thunder Review
Booksmart
Last year: Vice, Cold War
Foreign-Language Film:
Parasite
Last year: The Square
Documentary:
Rolling Thunder Review
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love; Knock Down the House; Apollo 11
Male Lead:
Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)
Sunny Suljic (Mid 90s)
Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell)
Taron Egerton as Reggie Dwight/Elton John in Rocketman; Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood; Michael B. Jordan (Just Mercy)
Last year: Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody
Female Lead:
Elizabeth Debicki (Virginia, Vita & Virginia)
Beanie Feldstein (Molly, Booksmart)
Gemma Arterton (Vita, Vita & Virginia)
Last year: Joanna Kulig – Cold War
Male Support:
Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin in Joker
Al Pacino – The Irishman
Olan Prenatt as Fuckshit in Mid90s; Lucas Hedges as Ian in Mid90s; Stephen Merchant as Deertz in Jojo Rabbit; Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood; Na-Kel Smith as Ray in Mid90s
Last year: Terry Notary (The Square)
Female Support:
Kaitlyn Dever as Amy in Booksmart
Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Laura Rose in Motherless Brooklyn; Scarlett Johansson as Rosie in Jojo Rabbit
Last year: Amy Adams(Vice)
Director:
Todd Phillips (Joker)
Jonah Hill (Mid 90s)
Last year: Adam McKay (Vice)
Writer:
Todd Phillips & Scott Silver – Joker
Jonah Hill (Mid 90s)
Taika Waititi – Jo Jo Rabbit
Last year: Adam McKay (Vice)
Editing:
tbc
Last year: Vice
Cinematography:
Roger Deakins – 1917
Last year: Lukasz Zal (Cold War)
Film Music:
Rolling Thunder Review
Last year: Bohemian Rhapsody / Cold War
Single/Song:
Lately – Celeste
Last year: I Want You (Sam Reid & Claudia Jolly – The Girl from the North Country)
Album:
Ghosteen – Nick Cave
Kiwanuka – Michael Kiwanuka; Western Stars – Bruce Springsteen
Last year: The Girl from the North Country (London cast)
Gig:
Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets (Roundhouse)
Kamasi Washington (Brixton Academy)
Patti Smith (Westminster Central Hall)
The Midnight Special – Abbey Road anniversary (Jazz Cafe)
Abdullah Ibrahim (Cadogan Hall)
Proms: Jonny Greenwood (Albert Hall)
Last year: David Byrne – Hammersmith Odeon
Play:
A Taste of Honey (Trafalgar Studios)
Last year: Girl from the North Country [2nd viewing]
Art Exhibition:
Van Gogh in Britain (Tate B)
Preraphaelite Sisters (NPG)
Tate St Ives
Last year: Picasso: 1932 (Tate Modern)
Book:
A Woman of No Importance – Sonia Purnell
The Order of the Day – Eric Vuillard
The Cut-out Girl – Bart Van Es
The Quiet American, To Have & Have Not, The Catcher in the Rye, The Drowning Pool
Last year: The Leithen Stories – John Buchan
TV:
After Life (Netflix)
The Boys (Amazon), The Crown – S3 (Amazon)
Last year: Mrs Wilson
Podcast:
13 Minutes to the Moon
The Tip-Off
Sport:
England beating the All-Blacks at the Rugby World Cup, Japan
Dance:
The Red Shoes (Sadlers Wells)
Event:
150th anniversary of Girton College (including event at Trinity, Dublin)
50th anniversary of Moon Landing/Apollo 11
Mythos: The Gods – Stephen Fry
Dearly departed:
- Emily Hartridge (who I made Oh Shit I’m 30! with)
- Judith Kerr (with whom I was on Woman’s Hour)
- Leon Kossoff
- D.A. Pennebaker
- Clive James
- Jonathan Miller (who I walk with in Aldeburgh while he was having a cheeky fag)
- Albert Finney
- Gordon Banks (his Esso medal hangs on my wall along with his 1970 World Cup team mates)
- Peter Fonda
- Ginger Baker
- Doris Day
- Dr John
- Mark Hollis (who I have a vague memory of meeting briefly at Solus, my first job)
- Agnès Varda
- Mary Warnock (Mistress of Girton in my era)
- Jeremy Hardy (he contributed to my Omagh project at Channel 4)
- Terry O’Neill

Performance of the year
I will chime in with mine early in the New Year. Kiwanuka for sure the album of the year.
Look forward to seeing your choices
I enjoyed Kiwanuka, especially Solid Ground – it’s all pretty retro
Surprised you didn’t have The Irishman in there?
It is – for Supporting Male
I agree with so much here!
Happy New Year
Regards Thom
Wishing you all the best for 2020, Thom. Have you got any contenders for Single of the year? I may have to delete that category as I’m not sure what a Single even is these days.
[…] Michael Kiwanuka – You Ain’t The Problem [contender for LP of the year] […]
Albums:
Swindle: ‘No More Normal’
Michael Kiwanuka: ‘Kiwanuka’
Angel Bat Dawid: ‘The Oracle’
Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble: ‘Where Future Unfolds’
Sir Was: ‘Holding on to a Dream’
Joe Armon-Jones: ‘Turn To Clear View’
Re-release: ‘Mogadisco: Dancing Mogadishu’ (Analog Africa)
Single:
Celeste: ‘Father’s Son’
Michael Kiwanuka: ‘You Ain’t the Problem’
Marvin Gaye: :My Last Chance (Salaam Remi Remix)
Concert: Nubya Garcia in House of Fraser Basement, Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Everything I want from live jazz.
Film: ‘Bait’, ‘Amazing Grace’
Exhibition: Piranesi at The Madrid Central Library
Country Visited: The Lebanon
Sport: Simultaneously watching an epic Federer / Djokovic Wimbledon final on Russian TV without commentary and following the Cricket World Cup Final as they both came to a finale at the same moment (while in a Kyrgyz hotel room). England beating the All Blacks in the RWC semi.
Happy Day: (1) Rome in early June, visiting various landmarks to design a Treasure Hunt. (2) A tough walk in the Cotswolds with my daughters.
A formidable list! Working my way through the music
I forgot the books and probably a couple of other albums. Can I edit my comment?
Probably simplest to add a bit below or repost the whole thing below revised
[…] Best of 2019 and links to earlier Bests Of […]