The Boston Society of Film Critics Honors Nomadland

Posted on December 13, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Like all things this year, 2020’s Awards Season is a bit strange. Because the Academy foolishly decided to extend the Oscar-eligibility window to February, several groups sold out and moved their annual awards back as well. The National Board of Review, for instance, won’t be giving out their awards until February or something stupid like that.

Fortunately, some groups — like the Boston Society of Film Critics — are continuing to honor the best of 2020 at the end of 2020. I love these groups because they’re reminding us that these awards are supposed to be about the movies and not about influencing the Academy. I mean — seriously, the best films of 2020 should be films that came out in 2020, not films that came out in 2020 and the first two months of 2021.

On that note, earlier today, the Boston Society of Film Critics announced their picks for the best of 2020.

And here they are:

Best Picture
Nomadland
Runners Up: First Cow

Best Foreign Language Film
La Llorona
Runner Up – The Painted Bird

Best Director
Chloé Zhao – Nomadland
Runner Up: Kelly Reichardt – First Cow

Best Ensemble
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Runner Up: Minari

Best Actor
Anthony Hopkins – The Father
Runner Up: Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal

Best Actress
Sidney Flanigan – Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Runner Up: Julia Garner – The Assistant

Best Supporting Actor
Paul Raci – Sound of Metal
Runner Up: Brian Dennehy – Driveways

Best Supporting Actress
Youn Yuh-jung – Minari
Runner Up: Amanda Seyfried – Mank

Best Screenplay
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things
Runner Up: First Cow

Best New Filmmaker
Florian Zeller – The Father
Runner Up: Autumn de Wilde – Emma.

Best Documentary
Collective
Runner Up: The Painter & The Thief

Best Animated Feature
The Wolf House
Runner Up: Wolfwalkers

Best Cinematography
Nomadland
Runner Up: Lover’s Rock

Best Editing
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things
Runner Up: Nomadland

Best Score
Minari
Runner Up: Mank

The Boston Society of Film Critics Names Little Women As The Best of 2019!

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Boston Society of Film Critics today named their picks for the best of 2019 and they did not pick Parasite or The Irishman for best picture. Nor did the pick Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, 1917, or Knives Out. Instead, the BSFC picked Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, which has — so far — been flying a bit under the awards season radar.

Will this provide a boost to Little Women’s chances or will this be an outlier? We’ll find out soon enough! For now, here are the winners:

Best Picture: LITTLE WOMEN
Runner-up: PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE

Best Director: Bong Joon Ho, PARASITE
Runner-up: Greta Gerwig, LITTLE WOMEN

Best Actor: Adam Sandler, UNCUT GEMS
Runner-up: Joaquin Phoenix, JOKER

Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan (LITTLE WOMEN)
Runners up: TIE – Elisabeth Moss (HER SMELL) and Mary Kay Place (DIANE)

Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD)
Runner up: Joe Pesci (THE IRISHMAN)

Best Supporting Actress LAURA DERN (MARRIAGE STORY)
Runner up: Florence Pugh for (LITTLE WOMEN)

Best Ensemble Cast: LITTLE WOMEN
Runners-up: ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD and PARASITE

Best Screenplay: ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
Runners-up: MARRIAGE STORY and LITTLE WOMEN

Best Cinematography: PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
Runner up: ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

Best Editing: THE IRISHMAN
Runner-up: UNCUT GEMS

Best Original Score: LITTLE WOMEN
Runner-up: THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO

Best Foreign Language Film: PARASITE
Runner-up: PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE

Best Animated Film: I LOST MY BODY
Runner up: TOY STORY 4

Best Documentary: HONEYLAND
Runners-up: APOLLO 11 and HAIL, SATAN?

Best New Filmmaker: Joe Talbot for THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO
Runner up: Mati Diop for ATLANTICS

The Boston Society Of Film Critics Honors If Beale Street Could Talk and Lynne Ramsay!

Posted on December 16, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Earlier today, the Boston Society of Film Critics announced their picks for the best of 2018. Along with selecting If Beale Street Could Talk as best picture, they also gave best director to You Were Never Really Here‘s Lynne Ramsay.

Best Film: If Beale Street Could Talk
Runner-up: Shoplifters

Best Director: Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here)
Runner-up: Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite)

Best Actor: John C. Reilly (Stan & Ollie)
Runner-up: Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)

Best Actress: Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Runner-up: Sakura Ando (Shoplifters)

Best Supporting Actor: Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Runners-up (tie): Brian Tyree Henry (If Beale Street Could Talk) and Steven Yeun (Burning)

Best Supporting Actress: Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Runner-up: J. Smith-Cameron (Nancy)

Best Ensemble: Shoplifters
Runner-up: The Favourite

Best Screenplay: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Runner-up: Tamara Jenkins (Private Life)

Best Documentary: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Runner-up: Three Identical Strangers

Best Animated Film: Isle of Dogs
Runner-up: Ralph Breaks the Internet

Best Foreign Language Film: Shoplifters
Runner-up: Cold War

Best New Filmmaker: Bo Burnham (Eighth Grade)
Runner-up: Ari Aster (Hereditary)

Best Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón (ROMA)
Runner-up: Lukasz Zal (Cold War)

Best Editing: Tom Cross (First Man)
Runner-up: Bob Murawski and Orson Welles (The Other Side of the Wind)

Best Original Score: Nicholas Britell (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Runner-up: Justin Hurwitz (First Man) and Jonny Greenwood (You Were Never Really Here)

The Boston Society of Film Critics Discover Phantom Thread

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For a film that didn’t even have a definite title for most the year, Phantom Thread is starting to look like a strong Oscar dark horse. Yesterday, the Boston Society of Film Critics selected it as the best film of the year!

Here’s a full list of the Boston winners:

Best Film
PHANTOM THREAD
Runner-up: The Shape of Water

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, PHANTOM THREAD
Runner-up: Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER

Best Actor
Daniel Kaluuya, GET OUT
Runner up: Timothée Chalamet, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

Best Actress
Sally Hawkins, THE SHAPE OF WATER
Runner up: Vicky Krieps, PHANTOM THREAD

Best Supporting Actor
Willem Dafoe, THE FLORIDA PROJECT
Runner up: Sam Rockwell, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Best Supporting Actress
Laurie Metcalf, LADY BIRD
Runner-up: Allison Janney, I, TONYA

Best Ensemble
THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED)
Runner-up: BPM

Best Screenplay
LADY BIRD
Runner up: GET OUT

Best Foreign Language Film
THE SQUARE
Runner-up: BPM

Best Documentary
DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME
Runner up: FACES PLACES

Best Animated Film
COCO
Runner up: LOVING VINCENT

Best New Filmmaker
Jordan Peele (GET OUT)

Best Cinematography
DUNKIRK
Runner-up: BLADE RUNNER 2049

Best Original Score
PHANTOM THREAD
Runners-up: DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME and THE SHAPE OF WATER

Best Editing
A GHOST STORY
Runner up: I, TONYA

The Boston Society of Film Critics Announce Their Picks For The Best of 2016!

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Boston Society of Film Critics also announced their picks for the best of 2016 today!

Who did Boston pick?

Moonl…oh wait, sorry. No, Boston picked La La Land!

Here are the winners and the runner-ups at Boston!

Best Picture: LA LA LAND
Runner-up: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Best Actor: Casey Affleck, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Runner-up: Joel Edgerton, LOVING

Best Actress: Isabelle Huppert, ELLE and THINGS TO COME
Runner-up: Natalie Portman, JACKIE

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, MOONLIGHT
Runner-up: Michael Shannon, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

Best Supporting Actress: Lily Gladstone, CERTAIN WOMEN
Runner-up: Michelle Williams, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Best Director: Damien Chazelle, LA LA LAND
Runner-up: Kenneth Lonergan, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Best Screenplay: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Runner-up: PATERSON

Best Cinematography: THE HANDMAIDEN
Runner-up: MOONLIGHT

Best Score: JACKIE
Runner-up: LA LA LAND

Best Documentary: O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA
Runner-up: CAMERAPERSON

Best Foreign-Language Film: THE HANDMAIDEN
Runner-up: THINGS TO COME

Best Animated Film: TOWER
Runner-up:

Best Film Editing: LA LA LAND
Runner-up: HACKSAW RIDGE and CAMERAPERSON

Best New Filmmaker: Robert Eggers, THE WITCH
Runner-up: Kirsten Johnson, CAMERAPERSON

Best Ensemble Cast: MOONLIGHT
Runner-up: CERTAIN WOMEN

The Boston Society Of Film Critics Honors Spotlight!

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

With three major groups of critics scheduled to announce their picks for the best of 2015, today is a big day for those of us who love Awards Season. First off, here are the picks of the Boston Society of Film Critics! While the awards are nicely spread around, it’s not surprising that the Boston Society of Film Critics picked a Boston film for best picture.

Best Picture – Spotlight (runner-up: Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Actor – Paul Dano, Love & Mercy and Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant (TIE)

Best Actress – Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years (runner-up: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn)

Best Supporting Actor – Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies (runner-up: Sylvester Stallone, Creed)

Best Supporting Actress – Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria (runner-up: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina, The Danish Girl, Burnt, Testament of Youth)

Best Director – Todd Haynes for Carol (runner-up: Tom McCarthy for Spotlight)

Best Screenplay – Spotlight (runner-up: Carol)

Best Cinematography – Carol (runner-up: The Revenant)

Best Editing – Mad Max: Fury Road (runner-up: Spotlight)

Best Documentary – Amy (runner-up: The Look of Silence)

Best Foreign-Language Film (awarded in memory of Jay Carr) –The Look of Silence (runner-up: White God)

Best Animated Film – Anomalisa and Inside Out (TIE) (runner-up: Shaun the Sheep Movie)

Best Film Editing (awarded in memory of Karen Schmeer) – Mad Max: Fury Road (runner-up: Spotlight)

Best New Filmmaker (awarded in memory of David Brudnoy) – Marielle Heller for The Diary of a Teenage Girl (runner-up: Alex Garland for Ex Machina)

Best Ensemble Cast – Spotlight (runner-up: The Big Short)

Best Original Score – Love & Mercy (runner-up: Creed)

The Boston Society of Film Critics Have Spoken!

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Earlier today the Boston Society of Film Critics (not to be confused with Boston Online Film Critics) announced their picks for the best of 2014! Among the winners: Boyhood, Richard Linklater, Marion Cotillard (who is suddenly starting to look like she might be the new front-runner for best actress), and J.K. Simmons (who is probably about as much a sure thing as anyone or anything could be this year).

The winners are listed below!

(h/t to awardswatch.)

Best Picture
Winner: BOYHOOD
Runner up: BIRDMAN

Best Director
Winner: Richard Linklater, BOYHOOD
Runner up: Clint Eastwood, AMERICAN SNIPER

Best Actor
Winner: Michael Keaton, BIRDMAN
Runner up: Timothy Spall, MR. TURNER

Best Actress
Winner: Marion Cotillard, THE IMMIGRANT and TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT
Runner up: Hilary Swank, THE HOMESMAN

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: J.K. Simmons, WHIPLASH
Runner up: Edward Norton, BIRDMAN

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Emma Stone, BIRDMAN
Runner up: Laura Dern, WILD

Best Screenplay
Winner: Armando Bo, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolas Giabone and Alejandro G. Iñárritu, BIRDMAN and Richard Linklater, BOYHOOD (tie)
Runner up: MR. TURNER

Best Cinematography
Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki, BIRDMAN
Runner up: Dick Pope, MR. TURNER

Best Film Editing
Winner: Sandra Adair, BOYHOOD
Runner up: Joel Cox and Gary Roach, AMERICAN SNIPER

Best Animated Film
Winner: The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Runner-up: The LEGO Movie

Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT
Runner up:

Best Documentary
Winner: Citizenfour
Runner up: Jodorowsky’s Dune

Best Ensemble Cast
Winner: BOYHOOD
Runner up: BIRDMAN

Best Use of Music in Film
Winner: INHERENT VICE
Runner up: WHIPLASH

Best New Filmmaker
Winner: Dan Gilroy, NIGHTCRAWLER
Runner up: Gillian Robespierre, OBVIOUS CHILD

12 Years A Slave Wins In Boston

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Boston Society Of Film Critics voted earlier today and 12 Years A Slave — which, so far, has been underperforming with the critics’ groups — swept the awards. The Wolf of Wall Street came in second for most of the major awards.

BEST PICTURE
“12 Years a Slave”
Runner-up: “The Wolf of Wall Street”

BEST DIRECTOR
Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”)
Runner-up: Martin Scorsese (“The Wolf of Wall Street”)

BEST ACTOR
Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”)
Runner-up: Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Wolf of Wall Street”)

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”)
Runner-up: Judi Dench (“Philomena”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
James Gandolfini (“Enough Said”)
Runner-ups:
Barkhad Abdi (“Capt. Phillips”) and Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”) tie for second.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
June Squibb (“Nebraska”)
Runner-up:
Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”)

BEST SCREENPLAY
Nicole Holofcener (“Enough Said”)
Runner-up:
“The Wolf of Wall Street”

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Wadjda”
Runner-up: “Blue Is the Warmest Color”

BEST DOCUMENTARY
“The Act of Killing,” Josh Oppenheimer
Runner-ups:
“Blackfish,” “Leviathan,” “At Berkeley,” “Crash Reel,” “20 Feet from Stardom ”

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“The Wind Rises,” Hayao Miyazaki
Runner-up:
“Frozen”

BEST NEW FILMMAKER
Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”)
Runner-up: Josh Oppenheimer (“Act of Killing”)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki (“Gravity”)
Runner-up:
Phillippe Le Sourd (“The Grandmaster”)

BEST EDITING
Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill (“Rush”)
Runner-up: Thelma Schoonmaker (“The Wolf of Wall Street”)

BEST USE OF MUSIC IN A FILM
“Inside Llewyn Davis”
Runner-up: “Nebraska”

Boston Demands To Be Heard

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The Los Angeles film critics weren’t the only ones to vote on their favorites of 2011 today. The Boston Society of Film Critics voted today as well. Now, as I’ve stated quite a few times on this site, I’m a Southern girl and I have a feeling that if I ever went up to Boston, everyone up there would ignore the fact that I’m an Irish Catholic and would probably just make fun of my accent. Eventually, the conversation would turn to politics and I would let slip the fact that not only am I not a Democrat but I didn’t even vote for Barack Obama in 2008. A big fight would follow and I imagine we wouldn’t even get around to talking about our favorite movies…

Sorry, I lost my train of thought there. Anyway, the BSFC voted and here’s what they came up with:

Best Picture: “The Artist”

Runners-up: “Hugo” and “Margaret”

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”

Runner-up: Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”

Best Actor: Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”

Runners-up: George Clooney, “The Descendants” and Michael Fassbender, “Shame”

Best Actress: Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn”

Runner-up: Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”

Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks, “Drive”

Runner-up: Max Von Sydow, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids”

Runner-up: Jeannie Berlin, “Margaret”

Best Screenplay: Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin, “Moneyball”

Runner-up: Kenneth Lonergan, “Margaret”

(If I was writing for AwardsDaily.com, I guess this is where I would say, NO MOVIE HAD A BETTER SCREENPLAY THAN THE SOCIAL NETWORK)

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “The Tree of Life”

Runner-up: Robert Richardson, “Hugo”

Best Documentary: “Project Nim”

Runner-up: “Bill Cunningham New York”

Best Foreign-Language Film: “Incendies”

Runners-up: “A Separation” and “Poetry”

Best Animated Film: “Rango”

Best Film Editing: Christian Marclay, “The Clock”

Runner-up: Thelma Schoonmaker, “Hugo”

Best New Filmmaker: Sean Durkin, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”

Runner-up: J.C. Chandor, “Margin Call”

Best Ensemble Cast: “Carnage”

Runner-up: “Margaret”

Best Use of Music in a Film: (tie) “Drive” and “The Artist”

Runner-up: “The Descendants”

Special Commendations:

Ben Fowlie, Sara Archambault and Sean Flynn of DocYard

The Museum of Fine Arts for “The Clock”

The Brattle Film Foundation

Best Rediscoveries:

“The Shooting” at the Harvard Film Achive

“The Makota Sisters” at the Museum of Fine Arts

“Deep End” at the HFA

“Days and Nights in the Forest” at the HFA

“Children of Hiroshima” at the HFA

Obviously, the Boston Film Critics were big fans of Kenneth Lonergan’s film Margaret. Margaret was actually filmed in 2007 but, because of various lawsuits between Longergan and the film’s producers, it was not actually released until September of this year. Unfortunately, it only played down here for about a week and I didn’t get a chance to see it but hopefully, I will in the future. If nothing else, I want to see it so I can have something other than politics to talk about if I ever go up to Boston.

Who the Hell Are These People?

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Lisa Marie Bowman

With the Golden Globe nominations set to be announced on Tuesday, I figured now would be a good time to recap which films and performances have already been honored by the various critics groups.

One thing that I discovered as I researched this is that there are a lot of critics groups out there! I don’t know who half these people are and most of them probably won’t have any bearing at all on who is actually nominated come Oscar time. But since I’m a lover of trivia and lists, there you go.

The following films and performances were honored by either The National Board of Review, the D.C. Film Critics, the Boston Society of Film Critics, The New York Film Critics Online,The Los Angeles Film Critics, The Indiana Film Journalists, The Southeastern Film Critics, The New York Film Critics Circle, or the San Francisco Film Critics.

Best Picture:

The Social Network (All. That’s right, it’s a clean sweep for an above average film.)

Best Director:

Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan (S.F)

Olivier Assayas for Carlos (LAFC)

David Fincher for The Social Network (BSFC, DC, NBR, NYFCC, NYFCO, SEFC, S.F.)

Christopher Nolan for Inception (IFJ)

Best Actor:

Jesse Eisenberg (BSFC, NBR)

Colin Firth for The King’s Speech (DC, LAFC, NYFCC, SEFC, S.F.)

James Franco for 127 Hours (IFJ, NYFCO)

Best Actress: