"One night after a performance of Victoria Regina, Ruth Gordon was with Helen Hayes in her dressing room. The two of them were going to a party and stood before the mirror inspecting themselves. Almost of a size, delicate and bright-eyed, they looked utterly charming but utterly unspectacular in their chaste dinner dresses. As they were leaving, Joan Crawford joined them--sleek and lovely in a white turban, dazzling diamond ear clips, and a white ermine coat that plunged in unbroken magnificence from her chin to the floor. Leading the way, Miss Crawford's blazing, ermined presence swept from the dressing room. Miss Hayes took a final look in the mirror, sighed, shrugged, and, beckoning Ruth Gordon to follow, murmured, 'Snow White and her two dwarfs.'" — Therese Lewis
Runners Up: Garage Sale Mysteries: Searched & Seized, The Ice Follies of 1939, Love Crimes, A Paris Proposal, Scream, Sweet Carolina
Oddity of the Month: Massacre at Central High
Runner Up: Night Tide
Best Performance: Gene Hackman in Night Moves
Most Enjoyable Ham (tied): James Woods and Sean Young in The Boost
Runners Up: Joan Crawford in The Ice Follies of 1939, Tyler Hynes in Sweet Carolina, Matthew Lillard in Scream, April Telek in Garage Sale Mysteries: Searched & Seized, Sean Young in Love Crimes
Best Mise-en-scène: Johnny Corncob
Runners Up: The Astronomer's Dream, Despair, Hardcore, The Hot Spot, Night Moves, Night Tide, Spring Night Summer Night, The Touch
Best Locations: The Hot Spot (sleepy Texas towns)
Runners Up: Night Moves (various Los Angeles and Florida locations), Night Tide (Santa Monica boardwalk, Venice slum), Spring Night Summer Night (rural Ohio locations), The Touch (Gotland Island)
Best Score: Johnny Corncob (János Gyulai-Gaál)
Runners Up: Despair (Peer Raben), Night Moves (Michael Small)
Best Leading Hunk: Gene Hackman in Night Moves
Runner Up: Klaus Löwitsch in Despair
Best Supporting Hunk: David Triacca (flashback dad) in Love Crimes
Runner Up: Goffredo Unger in The War of the Planets
Assorted Pleasures:
- Outrageously trivial queer decadence in The Ice Follies of 1939
- Melty surrealistic worlds of color and shape in Johnny Corncob