The 2019 Next Level Blockbuster Awards Notes

• The “Best Inspirational Picture” category was added to acknowledge spiritual related films that would most likely not be nominated in other categories.  I am not an overly religious person but with studios like Pure Flix releasing more and more films, it is a film genre I feel can no longer be ignored.

• The “Best Home Video Release” category honors past and present movies and tv shows with stellar DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K releases.

• Despite being the first Next Level Blockbuster Awards, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga both managed to take home two awards.  Cooper won for “Best Director” and Gaga won for “Best Actress”.  The pair shared the “Best Song” award.

• Speaking of Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, Cooper managed to gather four total nominations making him the most nominated person so far.  Lady Gaga and Michael B. Jordan are tied in second place with two nominations each (though Gaga holds the edge having won in both categories she was nominated in).

• With so much original content coming from streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, DC Universe, Crackle, and YouTube; the category of “Best Digital or Direct or Video Picture” seemed like a must.

• “Avengers: Infinity War” was the most nominated film this year with a total of eighteen nominations.  It went on to win four awards including the top prize.

• “Bohemian Rhapsody” won the most awards this year with a total of five awards.

• Netflix films were nominated for a total of twenty nominations.  The streaming service went on to win two awards.

• Comic book movies dominated the nominations and wins this year, unlike most other award shows.  I do not discriminate against genres and this year proved to showcase that any film can be nominated.

• Films based on Marvel comic books received a whooping forty-seven nominations and won seven of those awards.  Among the films were “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Black Panther”, “Ant-Man and the Wasp”, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”, “Venom”, and “Deadpool 2”.  DC comics only had one film based on it’s characters but still received a respectable nine nominations and won an award.