AFT Awards: Best Limited Performance

This is the sixteenth category of the 1st Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order by film title. Winners will be announced in late February.

Some actors make an impact with just a scene or two and precious little screen time. This category is for those performances like that of Mark Wahlberg in “The Departed” last year, which in my opinion does not amount to a large enough role to merit an Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category. If I had thought Ruby Dee was remotely good or memorable in “American Gangster”, this is where I would recognize her. Marisa Tomei straddles the line for “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”, but I think she belongs in the Best Supporting Actress category.

Runners-up:
PAUL SCHNEIDER, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES
ANDY GRIFFITH, WAITRESS
PAUL RUDD, WALK HARD
JONAH HILL, WALK HARD

The nominees:
EMILY BLUNT, DAN IN REAL LIFE
The harried, frantic assistant gets a shot here at playing the surprisingly beautiful and charming girl with whom Dan is unwittingly set up. She has but one major scene but she makes the most of it. In her few minutes on screen, she lights it up as the most fascinating and impressive member of the (large) ensemble cast.

J.K. SIMMONS, FIRST SNOW
The character actor is given a wonderful role here as the fortune teller who predicts Guy Pearce’s inevitable death. He seems like a hack, yet there is something undeniable about the look of horror and fear he gets when he first sees Pearce’s future. Simmons injects this minor yet important character with all he has got.

TINA BENKO, PUCCINI FOR BEGINNERS
People often dread bringing their significant other to meet their friends – and in this case, Allegra is right to be afraid. Benko, as the immutable Nell, never gives Philip a chance and immediately begins ripping him to shreds. It is a nice treat to see the vulnerable, devoted girlfriend from “Brotherhood” really show some stones and refuse to back down.

JULIANNE NICHOLSON, PUCCINI FOR BEGINNERS
She appears at the very beginning as the strong, overbearing girlfriend of the neurotic Allegra. Nicholson, whose talent has recently been wasted on the likes of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, shines through in just a few brief scenes here and makes her frustrating character sympathetic. Coming off of last year’s “Flannel Pajamas”, she does not share a scene with Justin Kirk, but her performance is just as strong.

JOHN CARROLL LYNCH, ZODIAC
Lynch is hardly in “Zodiac” but he easily gives it its single best moment as a suspect believed to be the Zodiac killer. Lynch is best known for his comic work on “The Drew Carey Show” and as the stamp-making, doting husband in “Fargo”, but it is chilling delivery of one line that makes it here: “I’m not the Zodiac, and if I was, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.” For a film that is not sure of where it wants to go, Lynch certainly keeps the mystery alive spectacularly in this scene.