About Us

The Cosmique Movie Awards were founded in 2001 by a group of friends in San Francisco in reaction to the Academy Awards. At a 2001 Academy Awards party, ballots were handed out for attendees to vote on their favorite movies, performances, performers, characters, and movie scenes of all time. As this was the inaugural year for the awards, we decided that a fair amount of catching up was needed, so all of the awards were for Lifetime Achievements, and the nominations were open to films of all time rather than those released that calendar year. Subsequent years have focused on films released the previous calendar year (with the exception of a few Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame awards each year).

We’ve suggested that the Cosmo Awards blend the gravitas of the Oscars with the irreverence of the MTV Movie Awards … with a twist. It’s an awards show where serious films like Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Apocalypse Now, and The Godfather get inducted into the Best Films of All Time Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame alongside fun, campy, quirky films like All About Eve, Auntie Mame, Harold and Maude, and The Women. And the very first inductee was The Wizard of Oz.

So what is the twist?

Usually a squeeze of lemon with our Cosmos, for our taste, but lime will do in a pinch.

Seriously, though, the twist is a certain sensibility and aesthetic the creators and voters bring to the process. Many of the creators are gay, though certainly not all of us. And while we take our films seriously, that’s filtered through a campy, rose-colored lens.

Voting Membership and Our Ethos

Voting was initially restricted to members of the Cosmique Krewe of Colour, a private local Mardi Gras krewe, as well as other hand-selected individuals by invitation only. Over the years, membership restrictions were gradually relaxed, and voting is now open to anyone interested who can appreciate our aesthetic.

Members of the Cosmo Academy come from all walks of life, but share a certain sensibility. Historically, most of the members (but not all) live in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are disproportionately (but by no means exclusively) gay, lesbian, or bisexual. They tend to be liberal, politically speaking, though U.S. politics plays no official role in the actual awards. They take their films seriously, but not too seriously. They are primarily (though not completely) disassociated with the film industry, except as fans.

Members are not expected to see all of the potential or actual nominees, though many make a point of doing so. The Cosmos operate under the philosophy that what we choose to honor is as much about what draws us to the cinemas – or pop into the DVD player, or watch on streaming – as it is about what we liked that we saw.

Award Categories

Each year, the Cosmique Movie Academy’s Board of Governors selects the categories that will be used that year. This may include creating new categories or, in rare instances, retiring others. Each year, another film, actor, and actress is inducted into the Hall of Fame. In some years, additional lifetime achievement categories may also be offered from time to time, usually as a special one-time-only award. But most of the awards are dedicated to films and performances from the previous calendar year. Voting is done in two rounds: an initial round in which voters may nominate up to five films or performances in each category, and a final round where the voters choose winners from the top five nominees in each category.

Participation

If you’re interested in the awards, we encourage you to register on the site, rate and review movies, and cast your votes during the awards season. Please note that we retain the right to ban members and invalidate any votes that we feel are intended to be disruptive to the site and the awards, including people attempting to spam the site and those trying to game the awards.

About the Website

This website was created with WordPress, and all of WordPress’ Privacy Policies and Public Code apply to the site.

The Cosmique Movie Awards operates as a hobby. Although ads may be placed on the site to help defray expenses, the cost of maintaining the site has always exceeded the revenue generated by those ads.

Content on the blog and of the awards themselves are original, and we retain all copyrights to original content. Supplemental content may be provided by third party sites like The Movie Database under terms permitted through TMDb API and licensing requirements.
The Cosmique Movie Awards logo was commissioned of and designed by Tom Ellsworth.