TheCooksDen.com is Proud to Announce
The Winners of the Culinary Cinema Awards

Coinciding with this year's Academy Awards, TheCooksDen is proud to announce the winners of its All-Time Culinary Cinema Awards. These awards honor great movies that include food as a central component in their theme, plot or cinematography. Awards are given in nine major categories. See below for the complete list of nominees in each category, and click through to see the winners as well as a more thorough discussion of each film.

Enjoy the awards and, as always, feel free to add your own comments and suggestions.

Best On-Screen Feast

The most ambitious of food movies create for us a feast, slowly and carefully, visually and gastronomically, much as one is created in real life.

The following movies have taken the on-screen feast to new heights, leaving the audience in awe and grabbing for their cookbooks.


Nominees:

• Big Night
• Babette's Feast
• The Chinese Feast
• Pieces of April
• What's Cooking?
• The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Sexiest Food Movie

On-screen sex and food are a natural match that have been paired together throughout the history of film.

These movies have managed to satisfy two of our most basic desires as well as to provide great entertainment.


Nominees:

• Woman on Top
• Vatel
• Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos
• Like Water For Chocolate
• Tampopo

Honorable Mention:

• Tom Jones
• 9 1/2 Weeks

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Food Documentary

Most food documentaries seem to fall into one of two categories: those that tell us the grand overarching story of our food chain, and those that focus on the glory of a single simple flavor.

While this list is no exception to that rule, these films have risen to the top in those two categories.


Nominees:

• All in This Tea
• King Corn
• Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers
• Our Daily Bread
• Super Size Me
• The Future of Food

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Restaurant Industry Movie

Capturing the essence of the commercial kitchen is tricky -- how does one show the chaos, the mundane details and the range of emotion while at the same time providing a compelling story?

No easy feat, but these nominees have done it best.


Nominees:

• Eat This New York
• In the Weeds
• Spanglish
• Dinner Rush
• I Like Killing Flies
• Ratatouille

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Funniest Food Movie

From the pie-in-the-face to the banana-peel, food comedies have often relied on slapstick humor to entertain.

But a few select films manage to feature great writing, top-notch acting and, in some cases, best-of-class sight gags.


Nominees:

• Eating Raoul
• The Last Supper
• Gai Tung Aap Gong
• God of Cookery
• The Green Butchers
• Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?

Honorable Mention:

• The Dinner Game

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Most Disturbing Food Movie

Only for the strong-of-stomach, this sub-genre contrasts our most basic need with gut-wrenching images and themes. But, if you like that sort of thing, this list is loads of fun as well.


Nominees:

• 301/302
• Soylent Green
• La Grand Bouffe
• Delicatessen
• Fast Food Nation
• The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

Honorable Mention:

• Old Boy

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Leading Actor in a Food Movie

From chef to restaurateur to lowly busboy, the performances delivered by leading men in food movies are both varied and rich.

While most of these movies are entertaining in their own right, the leading male role is what elevates them to the award-worthy.


Nominees:

• Pierre Richard in A Chef in Love
• Bernard Giraudeau in A Matter of Taste
• Bob Hoskins in Felicia's Journey
• Raimu in La Femme du Boulanger
• Daniel Auteuil in Aprés Vous
• Andre Gregory in My Dinner With Andre

Honorable Mention:

• Hector Elizondo in Tortilla Soup

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Leading Actress in a Food Movie

The best food-movie leading actresses are tasked with being all things to all viewers. Smart and sexy is a given, but these women must portray culinary geniuses as well.

A handful have managed to pull it off, and do so in style.


Nominees:

• Keri Russell in Waitress
• Juliette Binoche in Chocolat
• Martina Gedeck in Mostly Martha
• Vivica Fox in Soul Food
• Toni Collette in Hotel Splendide
• Stéphane Audran in Au petit Marguery, Babette's Feast and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Honorable Mention:

• Several Actresses in Decline of the American Empire

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>

Best Food Movie

The best food movies make us crave. Whether that craving is to eat, to cook, to love or all of the above is open to interpretation.

A handful of movies manage to accomplish that goal and to entertain foodie and non-foodie audience alike. No small task, for sure, but these few would be right at home in a conventional movie awards ceremony as well as in ours.


Nominees:

• Big Night
• Chocolat
• Eat Drink Man Woman
• La Graine et Le Mulet
• Tampopo
• Babette's Feast
• Ratatouille
• The Scent of Green Papaya

Click Here to See Details and the Winner >>