The Return of the Imaginary Cinema Awards for 2021!

Just when you thought I was gone, I return (a few months late) with my awards for the best in fantasy, horror and sci-fi movies of 2021!

Best Movie: Spider-Man: No Way Home

Runners-up: Dune, The Suicide Squad, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Encanto, Godzilla vs. Kong, Don’t Look Up, In the Earth, Nightbooks, Last Night in Soho.

Best Screenplay: The Suicide Squad (James Gunn)

Best Direction: Denis Villeneuve (Dune)

Best Actor: King Kong (Godzilla vs. Kong)

Runners-up: Tony Leung (Shang-Chi), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Alfred Molina (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Andrew Garfield (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Oscar Isaac (Dune), Idris Elba (The Suicide Squad)

Best Actress: Thomasin McKenzie (Last Night in Soho)

Runners-up: Kathryn Newton (The Map of Tiny Perfect Things), Anya Taylor-Joy (Last Night in Soho), Zendaya (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Dune) , Krysten Ritter (Nightbooks), Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad), Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Afterlife)

Best Music: In the Earth (Clint Mansell)

Runners-up: Dune (Hans Zimmer)

Best Sound: Dune, Godzilla vs. Kong

Best Visual Effects: Dune

Runners-up: Godzilla vs. Kong

Best Production Design: Dune, Last Night in Soho

Best Editing: The Suicide Squad

Best Cinematography: Dune

Best Make-up: Dune, The Suicide Squad

Best Costumes: Dune, Last Night in Soho

Best (extended) cameos: Ben Kingsley in Shang-Chi, pretty much everyone in No Way Home

Cutest Character That is Not Baby Yoda: Morris in Shang-Chi

Disappointment of the Year: Zac Snyder’s Justice League was slightly better than the Whedon version but certainly not the masterpiece some were claiming. I preferred his Army of the Dead

Guilty Pleasure: Free Guy was better than you’d expect from a gaming version of The Truman Show

Most pointless sequel: Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It certainly wasn’t terrible, but remaking the ending of the first movie was lazier than anything in that reboot a few years ago that everyone hated.

See you next year!