1999
8MM
(1999)
Andrew Kevin Walker
2 wins & 1 nomination.
Private investigator Tom Welles is hired by the recently widowed Mrs. Christian who has found a startling pornographic film in her late husband's possessions. In the film a teenage girl is apparently killed and Welles is pretty sure it's a genuine snuff film. He takes the case, first going through records of runaways finally identifying the girl and learning that she may have run off to California. There he enters the seedy underworld of pornography with the help of Max California, a porn store clerk. His principal clue is the masked man who killed the girl as he has a unique tattoo on his hand. He soon finds the culprits but there is little satisfaction in resolving the mystery.
Audition
(1999)
Ryû Murakami (novel), Daisuke Tengan (screenplay)
4 wins & 2 nominations.
In Tokyo, Shigeharu Aoyama is a widower that grieves the loss of his wife and raises his son Shigehiko Aoyama alone. Seven years later, the teenage Shigehiko asks why his middle-aged father does not remarry and Shigeharu meets his friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa, who is a film producer, and tells his intention. However, Shigeharu has difficulties to approach to available women to date and Yasuhisa decide to organize a sham audition for casting the lead actress for the fake movie. They receive several portfolios of candidates and Shigeharu becomes obsessed by the gorgeous Asami Yamazaki. Despite the advice of the experienced Yasuhisa, Shigeharu calls Asami to date and he falls for her. But who is the mysterious Asami?
Bringing Out the Dead
(1999)
Joe Connelly (novel), Paul Schrader (screenplay)
2 wins & 4 nominations.
Haunted by the patients he failed to save, an extremely burned-out Manhattan ambulance paramedic fights to maintain his sanity over three fraught and turbulent nights.
Fight Club
(1999)
Chuck Palahniuk (novel), Jim Uhls (screenplay)
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 8 wins & 27 nominations.
A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
(1999)
Jim Jarmusch
1 win & 7 nominations.
An African American mafia hit man who models himself after the samurai of old finds himself targeted for death by the mob.
House on Haunted Hill
(1999)
Robb White (story), Dick Beebe (screenplay)
1 win & 2 nominations.
A millionaire offers a group of diverse people $1,000,000 to spend the night in a haunted house with a horrifying past.
Human Traffic
(1999)
Justin Kerrigan
9 wins & 7 nominations.
The Cardiff club scene in the 90's: five best friends deal with their relationships and their personal demons during a weekend. Jip calls himself a sexual paranoid, afraid he's impotent. Lulu, Jip's mate, doesn't find much to fancy in men. Nina hates her job at a fast food joint, and her man, Koop, who dreams of being a great hip-hop d.j., is prone to fits of un-provoked jealousy. The fifth is Moff, whose family is down on his behavior. Starting Friday afternoon, with preparations for clubbing, we follow the five from Ecstacy-induced fun through a booze-laden come-down early Saturday morning followed by the weekend's aftermath. It's breakthrough time for at least three of them.
Magnolia
(1999)
Paul Thomas Anderson
Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 28 wins & 48 nominations.
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
Office Space
(1999)
Mike Judge (Milton animated shorts), Mike Judge (screenplay)
2 nominations.
Three company workers who hate their jobs decide to rebel against their greedy boss.
Ride with the Devil
(1999)
Daniel Woodrell, James Schamus
1 win
Jake Roedel and Jack Bull Chiles are friends in Missouri when the Civil War starts. Women and Blacks have few rights. Jack Bull's dad is killed by Union soldiers, so the young men join the Bushwhackers, irregulars loyal to the South. One is a Black man, Daniel Holt, beholden to the man who bought his freedom. They skirmish then spend long hours hiding. Sue Lee, a young widow, brings them food. She and Jack Bull become lovers, and when he's grievously wounded, Jake escorts her south to a safe farm. The Bushwhackers, led by men set on revenge, make a raid into Kansas. At nineteen, Jake is ill at ease with war. As his friends die one after another, he must decide where honor lies.
Ring 2
(1999)
Hiroshi Takahashi (screenplay), Kôji Suzuki (novel)
1 nomination.
In this sequel to Ringu (1998), Mai Takano is trying to learn more about the death of her boyfriend, Ryuji. She soon hears stories about a videotape haunted by the spirit of a girl named Sadako, who died many years earlier. Supposedly, anyone watching the tape will die of fright exactly one week later. After some investigating, she learns that Ryuji's son, Youichi, is developing the same psychic powers that Sadako had when she was alive. Mai must now find some way to keep Yuuichi and herself from becoming Sadako's next victims.
Rogue Trader
(1999)
James Dearden, Nick Leeson (autobiography), Edward Whitley (book)
N/A
Ambitious, wide-boy Nick Leeson is determined to rise in the world and be more than a simple bank clerk. When his employers, Barings Bank, offer him the opportunity to go to Jakarta to sort out a problem that nobody else wants, he seizes the opportunity with both hands. In Jakarta he meets and marries Lisa and together they go to Singapore when the bank offers him the job of setting up their future options trading operation. To save money the bank allows Nick to operate both the floor trading and the back office facilities and force him to employ cheap, unskilled staff. His first year of trading is a big success and he makes large profits for the bank even though he has illegally broken trading rules and secretly covered up losses. Given more freedom, even more money and continuing unchecked, Nick starts to make losses and again attempts to trade out of them but this time he comes unstuck as his illegal trading generates even bigger losses. After the death of his unborn child Nick completely loses control and gambles without restraint with other people's money leading inevitably to a complete financial meltdown and the bankruptcy of the bank.
Sleepy Hollow
(1999)
Washington Irving (story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"), Kevin Yagher (screen story), Andrew Kevin Walker (screen story), Andrew Kevin Walker (screenplay)
Won 1 Oscar. Another 23 wins & 39 nominations.
The curse of the headless horseman is the legacy of the small town of Sleepy Hollow. Spearheaded by the eager Constable Ichabod Crane and his new world ways into the quagmire of secrets and murder, secrets once laid to rest, best forgotten and now reawakened, and he too, holding a dark secret of a past once gone.
Stigmata
(1999)
Tom Lazarus, Rick Ramage
6 nominations
A priest from the Vatican is sent to Sao Paulo, Brazil to investigate the appearance of the face of the Virgin Mary on the side of a building. While there he hears of a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding tears in a small town outside of the city. Meanwhile, a young woman in the U.S. begins to show signs of stigmata, the wounds of Christ. The priest from the Vatican links up with her and cares for her as she is increasingly afflicted by the stigmata. Her ranting and raving finally begins to make sense to the priest who starts to question what his religion has stood for for the last 1900 years.
Summer of Sam
(1999)
Spike Lee, Victor Colicchio (screenplay), Michael Imperioli (screenplay), Spike Lee (screenplay)
4 nominations.
Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American Northeast Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.
The Blair Witch Project
(1999)
Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez
17 wins & 21 nominations.
Three film students travel to Maryland to make a student film about a local urban legend... The Blair Witch. The three went into the woods on a two day hike to find the Blair Witch, and never came back. One year later, the students film and video was found in the woods. The footage was compiled and made into a movie. The Blair Witch Project.
The Bone Collector
(1999)
Jeffery Deaver (book), Jeremy Iacone (screenplay)
3 nominations.
A quadriplegic ex-homicide detective and his female partner try to track down a serial killer who is terrorizing New York City.
The Hurricane
(1999)
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter (book), Sam Chaiton (book), Terry Swinton (book), Armyan Bernstein (screenplay), Dan Gordon (screenplay)
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 7 wins & 17 nominations.
This film tells the story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, an African-American man who rose above his troubled youth to become a top contender for the middle-weight boxing title. However, his dreams are shattered when he is accused of a triple murder, and is convicted to three natural-life terms. Despite becoming a cause celebre and his dogged efforts to prove his innocence through his autobiography, the years of fruitless efforts have left him discouraged. This changes when an African-American boy and his Canadian mentors read his book and are convinced of his innocence enough to work for his exoneration. However, what Hurricane and his friends learn is that this fight puts them against a racist establishment that profited from this travesty and have no intention of seeing it reversed.
The Insider
(1999)
Marie Brenner, Eric Roth, Michael Mann
Nominated for 7 Oscars. 23 wins & 58 nominations total
Balls-out 60 Minutes (1968) Producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) sniffs a story when a former research biologist for Brown & Williamson, Jeff Wigand (Russell Crowe), won't talk to him. When the company leans hard on Wigand to honor a confidentiality agreement, he gets his back up. Trusting Bergman, and despite a crumbling marriage, he goes on camera for a Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) interview and risks arrest for contempt of court. Westinghouse is negotiating to buy CBS, so CBS attorneys advise CBS News to shelve the interview and avoid a lawsuit. 60 Minutes (1968) and CBS News bosses cave, Wigand is hung out to dry, Bergman is compromised, and the CEOs of Big Tobacco may get away with perjury. Will the truth come out?
The Matrix
(1999)
Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Won 4 Oscars. Another 33 wins & 42 nominations.
Thomas A. Anderson is a man living two lives. By day he is an average computer programmer and by night a hacker known as Neo. Neo has always questioned his reality, but the truth is far beyond his imagination. Neo finds himself targeted by the police when he is contacted by Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker branded a terrorist by the government. Morpheus awakens Neo to the real world, a ravaged wasteland where most of humanity have been captured by a race of machines that live off of the humans' body heat and electrochemical energy and who imprison their minds within an artificial reality known as the Matrix. As a rebel against the machines, Neo must return to the Matrix and confront the agents: super-powerful computer programs devoted to snuffing out Neo and the entire human rebellion.