Houston And San Diego Critics Announce Their 2011 Awards

With awards season in full swing, we have critics’ groups announcing awards left and right. Today, Houston and San Diego film critics give us their choices for the best films of 2011. See how they voted below:

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San Diego Film Critics Society

BEST FILM –
WINNER: THE ARTIST
DRIVE
HUGO
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
THE TREE OF LIFE

BEST DIRECTOR –
Winner: Nicolas Winding Refn, DRIVE
Martin Scorsese, HUGO
Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST
Terrence Malick, THE TREE OF LIFE
Woody Allen, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

BEST ACTRESS –
Winner: Brit Marling, ANOTHER EARTH
Elizabeth Olsen, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
Michelle Williams, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN
Tilda Swinton, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Viola Davis, THE HELP

BEST ACTOR –
Winner: Michael Shannon, TAKE SHELTER
Brad Pitt, MONEYBALL
Brendan Gleeson, THE GUARD
George Clooney, THE DESCENDANTS
Jean Dejardin, THE ARTIST

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS –
Winner: Shailene Woodley, THE DESCENDANTS
Bérénice Bejo, THE ARTIST
Carey Mulligan, SHAME
Jessica Chastain, THE HELP
Mélanie Laurent, BEGINNERS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR –
Winner: Nick Nolte, WARRIOR
Albert Brooks, DRIVE
Andy Serkis, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Christopher Plummer, BEGINNERS
Max von Sydow, EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY –
Winner: Woody Allen, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST
Mike Mills, BEGINNERS
Thomas McCarthy, WIN WIN
Will Reiser, 50/50

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY –
Winner: Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, MONEYBALL
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, THE DESCENDANTS
Hossein Amini, DRIVE
John Logan, HUGO
Steve Kloves, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM –
Winner: LE QUATTRO VOLTE
A SOMEWHAT GENTLE MAN
HAPPY HAPPY
OF GODS AND MEN
THE DOUBLE HOUR

BEST DOCUMENTARY –
Winner: PROJECT NIM
BUCK
CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
INTO THE ABYSS
PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY –
Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki, THE TREE OF LIFE
Adam Stone, TAKE SHELTER
Guillaume Schiffman, THE ARTIST
Newton Thomas Sigel, DRIVE
Robert Richardson, HUGO

BEST ANIMATED FILM –
Winner: ARTHUR CHRISTMAS
HAPPY FEET TWO
KUNG FU PANDA 2
RANGO
WINNIE THE POOH

BEST EDITING –
Winner: Oliver Bugge Coutté, BEGINNERS
Anne-Sophie Bion & Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST
Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber, & Mark Yoshikawa, THE TREE OF LIFE
Mat Newman, DRIVE
Thelma Schoonmaker, HUGO

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN –
Winner: Dante Ferretti, HUGO
Anne Seibel, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Jack Fisk, THE TREE OF LIFE
Laurence Bennett, THE ARTIST
Stuart Craig, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2

BEST SCORE –
Winner: Alexandre Desplat, HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2
Alexandre Desplat, EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE
Alexandre Desplat, THE TREE OF LIFE
Howard Shore, HUGO
Ludovic Bource, THE ARTIST

BEST ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE –
Winner: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2
CARNAGE
MARGIN CALL
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
THE HELP

BODY OF WORK FOR 2011
Winner: Jessica Chastain

KYLE COUNTS AWARD
Lee Ann Kim, San Diego Asian Film Foundation

Houston Film Critics Society

Best Picture

The Descendants, Fox Searchlight

Best Director

Nicholas Winding Refn, Drive

Best Actor

Michael Fassbender, Shame

Best Actress

Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Supporting Actor

Albert Brooks, Drive

Supporting Actress

Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Best Screenplay

Alexander Payne, Nat Foxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants

Best Cinematography

Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life

Best Song

“Life’s a Happy Song,” from The Muppets, music & lyrics by Bret McKenzie

Best Score

Ludovic Bource, The Artist

Best Foreign Film

I Saw the Devil, Magnet Releasing

Best Documentary

Project Nim, Lionsgate

Best Animated

Rango, Paramount

Worst Film of the Year

Your Highness, Universal

The Artist earns yet another best picture win (its seventh by my count) while The Descendents takes its second top prize, having also received it from the LA critics.

Surprises here include seeing Nicholas Winding Refn take Best Director from both groups for his amazing work on Drive whereas before the category seemed divided between Michel Hazanavicius, Martin Scorsese, and Terrence Malick.

San Diego critics have chosen Brit Marling as Best Actress for her performance in Another Earth, a film I have not yet seen, but it must be a pretty good performance to have beaten both Tilda Swinton AND Viola Davis. I’m glad to see that Houston recognized Swinton’s excellent performance in We Need to Talk About Kevin.

The best surprise on this list comes in San Diego’s Best Original Screenplay category where Woody Allen finally gets some recognition for his screenplay for Midnight in Paris, a film that was thought to be a big contender not only in this category, but also for others including Best Picture, but seems to have been brushed aside by more recent releases.

We don’t usually see a Worst Film category with these lists, but Houston certainly made a good choice with Your Highness, which is undoubtedly one of the worst films of the year.

Tomorrow morning are the Golden Globe nominations, so after watching the announcements (if you’re an early riser that is), be sure to come back to check out our commentary on who made it and who got snubbed.

Any last minute predictions as to what films are going to fill up those Best Picture slots? Let us know in the comments.