Here Are The New York Film Critics’ Circle Winners!

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oscar season is upon us! December is the time of month when critics across the nation attempt to influence the Oscar race by announcing their picks for the best of 2014!

Up first, the New York Film Critics’ Circle! They announced their picks earlier today and, while no one is surprised to see Boyhood take best picture, a lot of observers (including me) were surprised for the awards for Timothy Spall and Marion Cotillard. Spall, of course, had been an early contender for his performance in Mr. Turner but, as of late, he had been overshadowed by Michael Keaton and others. As for Cotillard, she was on hardly anyone’s radar. It’ll be interesting to see if her win here is a fluke or if it’s the start of a successful nomination campaign.

Here are the winners!

BEST PICTURE
“Boyhood”

BEST DIRECTOR
Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”

BEST ACTOR
Timothy Spall, “Mr. Turner”

BEST ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard, “The Immigrant” and “Two Days, One Night”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”

BEST SCREENPLAY
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Darius Khondji, “The Immigrant”

BEST ANIMATED FILM
“The Lego Movie”

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Ida” (Poland)

BEST NON-FICTION FEATURE
“CitizenFour”

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Jennifer Kent, “The Babadook”

SPECIAL AWARD
Adrienne Mancia

The NYFCC Honors American Hustle

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oscar season has begun! This afternoon, The New York Films Critics Circle announced their picks for the best of 2013. Fortunately, I had the office to myself so I was able to follow along online. Here are the winners and a few random thoughts:

BEST PICTURE
“American Hustle”

(This is something of a surprise, no? Most award watchers were expecting 12 Years a Slave to pretty much sweep all of the critics’ awards. It will be interesting to see if American Hustle does with the other critic groups but, for now, it seems like American Hustle has taken a major step forward to scoring a best picture nomination.)

BEST DIRECTOR
Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”

(This was much more expected.)

BEST ACTOR
Robert Redford, “All Is Lost”

(Ditto. I recently saw All Is Lost. It’s interesting to note that Redford has only a few more lines than Jean Dujardin in The Artist.)

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”

(Deserved and expected.)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers’ Club”

(I haven’t seen this one yet but I hope to soon.)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence, “American Hustle”

(I was kind of surprised how angry some people on twitter got over Lawrence’s victory. However, from my own personal experience, being intelligent, talented, and pretty really brings out the haters..)

BEST SCREENPLAY
“American Hustle”

(A lot of people on twitter were upset over this. I haven’t seen American Hustle yet so I can’t judge.)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Bruno Delbonnel, “Inside Llewyn Davis”

(This was the award that managed to tick off thousands of Gravity fans. Don’t get me wrong — I liked Gravity. But some of the pro-Gravity people actually make the pro-Avatar people look calm and collected.)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
“The Wind Rises”

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Blue is the Warmest Color”

(I agree.)

BEST NON-FICTION FEATURE
“Stories We Tell”

(I agree.)

BEST FIRST FEATURE
“Fruitvale Station”

(And, for a third time, I agree.)

One final note — unlike the Academy, in which a simple majority determines the winner, the NYFCC awards were determined by consensus and, as a result, several of the categories apparently required multiple ballots before a winner was agreed upon. As such, some of the winners listed above are definitely compromise picks.

Myself, I still have to see a lot of the potential Oscar nominees — including 12 Years A Slave, American Hustle, and Dallas Buyers Club. However, for now, my favorite film of 2013 remains Upstream Color.

The New York Film Critics Circle Has Spoken

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, the New York Film Critics Circle weighed in on the Oscar race. The NYFCC is one of the oldest and most respected of the professional critic organizations. As far as the state of the Oscar race is concerned, the NYFCC actually wields some influence. In other words, the NYFCC help to build the bandwagon that all the other little toadsuckers will eventually jump on.

Here are the winners:

Best Picture: Zero Dark Thirty

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Best Actress: Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

Best Supporting Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Bernie and Magic Mike

Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field, Lincoln

Best Screenplay: Tony Kushner for Lincoln

Best Cinematography: Greg Fraiser, Zero Dark Thirty

Best Foreign Language Film: Amour

Best Animated Film: Frankenweenie

Best Documentary: The Central Park Five

On a personal note, I apologize for the delay in getting these results posted to the site. However, last night, I was pretty busy teaching my very first dance class. Yay me!

The New York Toadsuckers Have Spoken

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I mentioned in my last post, the New York Film Critics Circle voted on and announced their picks for the best films of the year today. Looking over the winners, all I can say is — YAWN!

Best Film:
The Social Network

Best Director:
David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Screenplay:
The Kids Are All Right

Best Actress:
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Best Actor:
Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

Best Supporting Actress:
Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actor:
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

Best Cinematography:
Black Swan

Best Animated Film:
The Illusionist

Best Non-fiction Film:
Inside Job

Best Foreign Language Film:
Carlos

Best First Feature:
Animal Kingdom

Over on Awardsdaily.com, the response to the New York Critics was: “NO ONE wrote a better screenplay than Aaron Sorkin this year.”

(And yes, they specifically put that statement in bold print with NO ONE capitalized, just to make sure that the point came through.)

Really? NO ONE? It’s time to admit the truth — The Social Network has gone from being a movie to being a cult. Apparently, even suggesting that any other movie might deserve an honor or two this year is an act of heresy. Sorry, New York Film Critics. Prepare yourself to be eaten by lions while the Sorkinites watch and cheer.

That said, the screenplay for The Kids Are All Right had all the depth of a sitcom. And Mark Ruffalo’s supporting performance was good but nothing that couldn’t have been done by just about any other scruffy actor in Hollywood. And while Annette Bening did a good job with her role, this is the year of Natalie Portman in Black Swan, Noomi Rapace in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank, and Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. This was a year in which so many actresses gave unique, unexpected performances in roles that redefined the stereotypical cinematic female lead. Annette Bening was good but so many were great.

It’s also interesting to note that The Illusionist (which I haven’t seen and know very little about) was named best animated feature as opposed to the presumed favorite, Toy Story 3. Just a few months ago, the general assumption seemed to be that Toy Story 3 would easily pick up a best picture nod but it seems like that storyline’s been forgotten in all the hype surrounding The Social Network.