Nominations are now OPEN!

Nominations for the 2014 Cosmisque Movie Awards are now open!

You can vote in one of two ways:

• Download the MS Word ballot and email it back by the deadline; or
• Fill out your ballot with our online form by the deadline

Ballots are due by Friday, February 13, 2015 at midnight.

Feel free to use these downloadable resources for help:

• List of eligible 2014 films in PDF or Excel
• Our list of Nomination Ideas, including an explanation of every award and potential nominees getting "buzz" this year.

More questions? Read more about who we are, and check out our Nomination FAQ below.

Cosmo Nomination FAQ

Am I eligible to vote?

Would you like to vote? That’s the biggest criteria. Originally, voting was limited to members of the Cosmique Krewe of Colour and selected additional individuals by invitation only. We have now opened up voting to others who feel like-minded. If you feel you fit with our vibe, we welcome your participation.

Although it has never happened, we reserve the right to discard ballots that we believe are attempting to sabotage the integrity of the awards, such as an agent trying to get their client’s fans to pack the nomination process. Although voters are not required to fill in every nomination slot for every award, ballots that only vote for a single film and nominate it for every award are likely to be regarded with suspicion.

For the Best Films Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame, can I nominate any film?

There are no restrictions on genre, nationality, language, or era for your nominations. The only restrictions are:

• The film cannot be already in the Hall of Fame; and
• The film cannot be eligible in the regular categories for the current or future awards years – that is, films released in 2014 or 2015. 

In other words, if the film theoretically could have been nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award this year, it is not yet eligible for the Cosmo Hall of Fame. Any film released in or before 2013 that is not already in the Hall of Fame can be nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame.

For the Lifetime Achievements, why can’t I nominate a previous winner?

Think of the Lifetime Achievement categories as a Hall of Fame. Once a film or a performer has been inducted into the Hall of Fame, they are already in the Hall of Fame it and there’s no reason to nominate them again.

Can I vote for the same nominee five times for the same award?

No. Passion counts, but we don’t want it to count too much. In the first year, we allowed that and had some unusual nominations as a result. Your five nominees must be for different films or performances. Duplicate votes for the same nominee for a single award will be ignored, and only one of the nominations will count. However, if you wish to give one of your nominees more weight, you may use the optional Power Vote for one of your nominees per award.

What is the Power Vote?

During the nomination round, voters have the option of giving a Power Vote to one of their nominees to give it extra weight. The Power Vote has the effect of nominating a particular film or performance twice for the same award. This allows voters to express their passion for a particular nominee while still recognizing other worthy films and performances.

Can I use the Power Vote for a sixth nominee?

No, the Power Vote may optionally be used to give extra weight to one of your five nominees per award, but it cannot be used for a film that is not already one of your five nominees. The Power Vote is intended to reward passion for a particular film while reigning in the madness that could occur if voters could use all five slots for the same nominee. Nominees with a Power Vote count double, as if the voter had nominated it twice.

Can I use the Power Vote more than once?

A Power Vote may only be used once per award. If you attempt to use it more than once in the same award, we will either ask for clarification or ignore the Power Votes entirely, at our discretion. The Power Vote is completely optional and you are not required to use it if you would like all of your nominations to have equal weight for a particular award.

It’s so overwhelming! What if I can’t think of enough nominees? 

Don’t worry, that’s okay. Just fill out as much of the nomination ballot as you want. You don’t need to come up with five nominations in every category if you don’t choose to. You can leave some categories partially unfilled or even completely blank if you choose.

One strategy to help you think of nominations is to begin by going through lists of eligible films and flagging the ones you’ve seen. You can consider downloading our list of Eligible 2014 Films:

• PDF – A simple two-page list of every eligible 2014 film; or
• Excel – A list of eligible films in Excel that allows you to rate or mark off films you’ve seen for easy reference

We’ve also provided a list of Buzzworthy 2014 Films, an annotated list of the awards that provide definitions of each award’s scope with ideas of potential nominees receiving considerable buzz.

What if there’s a film I want to nominate that isn’t on your list of eligible films?

It’s possible that the film you want to nominate isn’t eligible either because it isn’t a 2014 film. But it’s also possible that we messed up. We create our list by beginning with films that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences declare are eligible for Oscar consideration, and then we supplement with additional films that may have been in film festivals before being released on DVD, but not meet the Academy’s stricter criteria for the Oscars.

If there’s a film you think should be eligible, feel free to email the suggestion to us or post a comment here and we’ll review the suggestion.

What if I liked an actor in more than one film?

Like the Golden Globes, but unlike the Academy Awards, an actor or actress may receive multiple nominations for the same award. This has happened a handful of times in Cosmo history: Nicole Kidman received Best Actress nominations for both Moulin Rouge and The Others the same year, while Ian McKellen received Supporting Actor nominations the same year for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and X2: X-Men United.

Can an actor be nominated for an animated film?

Yes, voice-over work for animated films counts as an eligible performance for the Oscars, and if it’s good enough for the Oscars, it’s good enough for us. Ellen Degeneres was nominated for several Cosmos for her work in Finding Nemo, winning Best Supporting Actress.

How do I decide whether a particular role should be in the Leading or Supporting categories?

Use your own judgment. Not every film has both a Lead Actor and a Lead Actress. And sometimes it’s ambiguous. Cosmo voters have sometimes disagreed, resulting in a split decision that can allow an actor to receive nominations for both leading and supporting awards for the same performance (like Ellen DeGeneres in Finding Nemo, Scarlett Jorhansson in Lost in Translation, and Richard Gere in Chicago). Nothing in the rules prevents you for nominating them for both leading and supporting awards if you aren’t sure how other voters may be leaning.

Why can’t I nominate in the Best Director category?

The Best Director nominations are chosen by an algorithmic formula rather than direct nominations. This began as an accident. The first year we did nominations for films of a specific year, we overlooked the Best Director category on the nomination ballot. Rather than completely ignoring it, we chose nominees based on the directors who had received nominations in other major movie awards that year. This proved to be fairly successful. Given that most of our voters are not involved in the movie industry and have a hard time seeing the effects of a good director on the screen (unlike other awards, even technical categories like Costume Design or Visual Effects), we decided to maintain this approach.

What is the formula used to determine Best Director nominees?

We won’t disclose the exact formula, but we will explain the general basis. Directors receive points for each nomination and win they receive at other film awards: the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Directors Guild of America, BAFTAs, Critics’ Choice Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, and SF Film Critics Association, among others. Directors also receive points for the Cosmo nominations their film receives, with categories weighted differently depending on their importance (Best Picture nominations count more than nominations for Best Male Heroic Character, for example). This allows for some fan favorites to be nominated alongside directors with considerable critical and peer acclaim. Occasionally, a fan favorite may get nominated even if he or she hasn’t received directing nods from any of the other major awards, like Bryan Singer for X2: X-Men United and Joss Whedon for Serenity. While it is theoretically possible for an acclaimed director to receive the film’s only Cosmo nomination, so far it has never happened.

What if I haven’t seen that many films? There might be other films or performances I like better than the ones I’ve seen.

We have always maintained that the Cosmo Awards are as much about what drew us to the theaters (or DVD rentals, or streaming services) as they are about what we liked that we saw. See what you want to see, vote for what you want to vote for. Reward what you enjoyed and don’t worry that you didn’t see everything.

How do I know what genre a film is eligible for?

Use your own judgment. Resources like IMDB may provide a guide, but don’t feel constrained if they don’t tag a film with a genre you’d like to nominate it in. Most films are eligible for more than one genre, and you are free to nominate it in anything that you personally think is appropriate. Sometimes it may be ambiguous whether a particularly film qualifies for a particular genre. For example, some might consider one film to be a rather dramatic comedy while others may see it as a comedic drama. You are free to nominate it in both if you wish, and some films like Big Fish and Lost In Translation have received both Best Comedic Film and Best Dramatic Film nominations.

How can I cast a nomination ballot?

You can vote in one of two ways:

• Download the MS Word nomination ballot and return it by email; or
• Vote online at CosmoMovieAwards.com. 

Nomination ballots for the 2014 Cosmique Movie Awards are due no later than February 13, 2015.

What if I change my mind after I’ve submitted my ballot?

You are free to make changes provided they’re completed before the nomination deadline of February 13, 2015. If you voted online, please resubmit that section of your ballot using the same email address. Only your most recent ballot will be processed. If you submitted an MS Word ballot, please email us at the email address on the ballot and tell us what you would like to change.