The 2nd Annual Film Fun Awards were presented on Friday, February 24 during a live ceremony at The Open Space in Los Angeles.

The ceremony began with a highlight reel of previous Best Picture winners. Friends and family of Film Fun were then brought to the stage to present each award and accept a rose on behalf of the winner.

Introduction video:
I wanna show you something

Early in the evening, the technical categories spread the wealth between movies. Deadpool glowed up with Best Box Office and Best Brilliance, while The Purge: Election Year nabbed Best Leadup to a Movie, Bad Moms stole Most Purge-Like and Best Script, and Sully’s 96 minutes received a mention for Best Runtime.

In the category of Birds, the seagull from The Shallows flew off with the win, while The Strand Theater from Old Forge, New York humbly accepted its first-ever rose for Best Theater.

In the supporting acting categories, Hayden Szeto made a surprise winner for his role as Hailee Steinfeld’s love interest in The Edge of Seventeen, while Bonnie Aarons hitched an expected (and well-deserved) ride to the stage for her haunting portrayal of The Nun in The Conjuring 2.

With sixteen nominations to its name, La La Land danced away with just two early awards: one for Best Oscar, defeating frontrunners Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight, and another for Best Movie Not from 2015, outstripping canon classics Notorious and Bringing Up Baby. Michael Moore won his second Film Fun Award in the category of Best Movie No One Has an Opinion About for Where to Invade Next, following a win for Capitalism: A Love Story in 2010.

Meanwhile, Fences out-snotted Captain America: Civil War for the Worst Talking prize.

An “In Memoriam” segment then paid tribute to some of 2016’s most notable box office fallen, including triple-nominee Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Independence Day: Resurgence, sequel to the first-ever Best Box Office winner.

Next, Our Academy made good on their last chance to award the late Gary Marshall, whose starry-eyed holiday film Mothers Day took home the rose for Best Visuals. It was an emotional moment for all. The category of Best Sounds followed, giving the original musical La La Land a third win for the evening.

The atmosphere heading into the big categories was tense, with the crowd divided over the evening’s top contenders. First the attention fell to Best Script, where La La Land and Sully once again squared off, but in a shocking turn it was Bad Moms that puked up the win. Things only settled down when Tom Hanks (Sully) landed safely in the arms of the Best Actor prize, marking his first nomination since The Polar Express and first-ever win at the Film Fun awards.

The audience turned to a video introduction for Best Director, which was delivered remotely by co-founder Keaton Ventura’s mom, Bridget Flower. With a splashy neck scarf perhaps betraying her allegiance, Bridget accepted the award on behalf of director Damien Chazelle, the dreamer behind La La Land.

Dasha Nekrassova finally took the stage to deliver the most important award of the evening, Best Actress, paying emotional tribute by reciting a list of names of previous winners. When “Emma Stone” was eventually called for La La Land, what could the crowd do but feel fate whispering in the wings?

Mike and Keaton reappeared for the final award of the evening—not to play a trick, but to sing a song.

The final rose, of course, went to La La Land. After many months of waiting, we let out our breath, and began to hum. And the rest is history.

For a full transcript of the event, please click here.

 

We’ll see you at the movies.