Creating an Underground Awards Show with the Nick Movie Awards

If you were on Twitter the day that the 2019 Oscar nominations were announced, you may have noticed a little viral excitement about an alternate set of awards called the Elsie’s.

16 year old actress Elsie Fisher, who’s probably best known for her starring role in the 2018 film Eighth Grade, took to Twitter to declare that, “I’ve decided to start my own film awards because sometimes other ones suck, so here are the nominations for the first annual Elsie Awards.”

I’ve decided to start my own film awards because sometimes other ones suck, so here are the nominations for the first annual Elsie Awards
— . (@ElsieKFisher) January 14, 2020

And from there she proceeded to announce her nominations for the typical categories like Best Actress and Best Director, as well as innovations like Best Horror Feature, Best Young Performer, and Best Independent Feature.

Her nominations referenced films with impeccable cool cred–like The Lighthouse, The Farewell, Hustlers, and Us–and sought to implicitly critique the lack of diversity among the actual Oscar nominations.

I think I first saw the thread when comedian Patton Oswalt tweeted about it, but there were a bunch of articles posted about it within the day on sites like Teen Vogue and Indiewire praising Fisher for her good taste, inclusivity, and plucky ingenuity for taking matters into her hands.

However, to a select handful of people, this whole idea of the Elsie’s sounded strangely familiar.

See, there’s another individually produced, underground movie awards ceremony that’s been around for nearly 30 years now, and that’s the Nick Movie Awards.

Established in 1992 by Nick Ivankovic, the Nick Movie Awards began as a way for Nick to honor his favorite films and performances each year. In the years since, the Nick Movie Awards have grown from a literal bedroom project to an annual event that has included parties, trivia, viewer’s choice categories, online voting, and even its own signature menu items.

Nick grew up in Schererville, Indiana, and attended Butler University as an Accounting major. He’s been a finance professional for 20 years and is currently based in Los Angeles, California.

I asked him to join the show this week to talk through the history of the NMAs (as they’re affectionately known) and to give a more in-depth glimpse into his nominations for the 2019 movie year.

(You can stream our chat via the embed here, on Anchor, or pretty much anywhere else you source your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and Google Podcasts.)

SHOW NOTES

Here’s Entertainment Weekly‘s predictions for who would win at the 64th annual Academy Awards.

Here’s the list of actual winners for the 64th annual Academy Awards.

Here’s the original trailer for Batman Returns.

Here’s the original trailer for The Age of Innocence.

The Age of Innocence was honored at the 66th annual Academy Awards in 1994 with five nominations (Best Costume Design, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Art Direction).

Here’s the original trailer for Pulp Fiction.

Here’s a recipe for fruit pizza.

The New York Times: Mel Gibson Pleads No Contest to D.U.I. and Gets Probation (August 18, 2006)

Here’s the trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Little Women.

Here’s the trailer for Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life.

Here’s the trailer for The Thin Red Line.

Here’s the trailer for Judy.

Here’s the trailer for Just Mercy.

Here’s the trailer for The Irishman.

Here’s the trailer for Mean Girls.

Here’s the trailer for Inside Out.

Andy Goldsworthy is an English artist who makes site-specific pieces that are often ephemeral and made with sticks, stones, leaves, and flower petals. There are two wonderful documentaries about his work, Rivers and Tides and Leaning into the Wind.