2006 Diva Cup Awards: Best Actress

And the nominees are...

Penelope Cruz, Volver

Cruz came out of nowhere with the alternatively sweet, funny and emotionally charged performance that holds nothing back.

Key Scene: Discovering What Her Daughter Did

Dame Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal

No one does intimidating as well as Dame Judi, but her performance as Barbara Covett goes beyond intimidating and becomes scary in a way I've only seen in one other brilliant performance: Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction

Key Scene: "You're not young anymore"

Dame Helen Mirren, The Queen

Dame Helen somehow manages to humanize an icy queen without using cheap sympathy tricks and remaining as stoic as possible...flat out incredible.

Key Scene: Receiving the Little Girl's Flowers

Gretchen Mol, The Notorious Bettie Page

Mol is having the time of her life with this role and it shows in her performance. She lets us understand a person that most people dismiss as a porn star and does it ever so beautifully.

Key Scene: Any of the Bondage Clips...they're all a delight

Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada

Streep takes a one-note character and turns her into a human being. Sure she's a perfectionist, monster bitch and a diva in the extreme, but there's something that drove her to be that way and Streep brilliantly conveys that.

Key Scene: The "Throwing the Coats on Andrea's Desk" Montage

If Only There Were Six: Naomi Watts, The Painted Veil: not quite 21 Grams, but she is emotionally compelling and utterly believable

Rest of the Top 10: Kate Winslet, Little Children: a desperate housewife who is truly desperate and she delivers yet another brilliant performance...Annette Bening, Running With Scissors: she's a diva, but it's in her quieter moments that she nearly steals the film...Natalie Portman, V For Vendetta: went through hell for this role and it was all worth it because this performance is fantastic...Sook-Yin Lee, Shortbus: the emotional center of the film

BRONZE
Gretchen Mol, The Notorious Bettie Page
SILVER
Dame Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
GOLD
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada

2006 Diva Cup Awards: Best Original Screenplay

And the nominees are...

Pedro Almodóvar, Volver

The women in Volver always feel like a real family and, dead husbands aside, the constant warmth is a refreshing feeling. Too bad so many people won't see this because it's in a foreign language...it's a knockout.

Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine

Another real family, but this time, one of the most hilariously dysfunctional ever put on screen. Arndt does a fine job turning this cliché plot into something fresh and exciting.

Nicole Holofcener, Friends With Money

The relationships between the women and their men never feel artificial. We may have seen this a hundred times before, but Holofcener adds levity and wit to make it something fresh.

John Cameron Mitchell, Shortbus

It could have been a glorified porn film, but Mitchell uses sex in ways I've never seen before and creates warm, inviting characters for us to get involved in that goes way beyond porn. Bonus points for that beautiful monologue that The Mayor gives towards the beginning.

Peter Morgan, The Queen

Morgan gets inside the head of Queen Elizabeth and makes us understand why she does the things she does (all without sneaking too much sympathy in there).

Runners Up: Michel Gondry, The Science of Sleep...Russell Gerwitz, Inside Man...Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson

BRONZE
Pedro Almodóvar, Volver
SILVER
John Cameron Mitchell, Shortbus
GOLD
Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine

2006 Diva Cup Awards: Best Ensemble

And the nominees are...

The Departed

{Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Vera Farmiga, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin}

Little Miss Sunshine
{Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Abigail Breslin, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin}

Shortbus
{Sook-Yin Lee, PJ DeBoy, Lindsay Beamish, Paul Dawson, Peter Stickles, Jay Brannan, Alan Mandell}

Thank You For Smoking
{Aaron Eckhart, David Koechner, Maria Bello, Rob Lowe, Cameron Bright, William H. Macy, Robert Duvall, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott}

Volver
{Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo, Chus Lampreave}

Runners-Up: Friends With Money...Over the Hedge...Dreamgirls

BRONZE
Volver
SILVER
The Departed
GOLD
Little Miss Sunshine