Today we have a trifecta of critics’ groups announcing their awards with a lot more surprises than we’ve seen thus far. The Boston Society of Film Critics, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and The New York Film Critics Online (not to be confused with The New York Film Critics Circle) all voted earlier today. Check out the results below:
Boston Society of Film Critics
Best Picture – The Artist
Best Actor – Brad Pitt for Moneyball
Best Actress – Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn
Best Supporting Actor – Albert Brooks for Drive
Best Supporting Actress – Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids
Best Director – Martin Scorsese for Hugo
Best Screenplay – Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin for Moneyball
Best Cinematography – Emmanuel Lubezki for The Tree of Life
Best Documentary – Project Nim
Best Foreign-Language Film – Incendies
Best Animated Film – Rango
Best Film Editing (awarded in memory of Karen Schmeer) – Christian Marclay for The Clock
Best New Filmmaker (awarded in memory of David Brudnoy) – Sean Durkin for Martha Marcy May Marlene
Best Ensemble Cast – Carnage
Best Use of Music in a Film – Tie: Drive and The Artist
Los Angeles Film Critics Association
BEST PICTURE, Winner: “The Descendants.” Runner-Up: “The Tree of Life.”
BEST DIRECTOR, Winner: Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life.” Runner-Up: Martin Scorsese, “Hugo.”
BEST ACTOR, Winner: Michael Fassbender, “A Dangerous Method,” “Jane Eyre,” “Shame,” “X-Men: First Class.” Runner-Up: Michael Shannon, “Take Shelter.”
BEST ACTRESS, Winner: Yun Jung-hee, “Poetry.” Runner-Up: Kirsten Dunst, “Melancholia.”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, Winner: Jessica Chastain, “Coriolanus,” “The Debt,” “The Help,” “Take Shelter,” “Texas Killing Fields,” “Tree of Life” Runner-Up: Janet McTeer, “Albert Nobbs.”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, Winner: Christopher Plummer, “Beginners.”Runner-Up: Patton Oswalt, “Young Adult.”
BEST SCREENPLAY, Winner: Asghar Farhadi, “A Separation.”
BEST MUSIC/SCORE: Winner: The Chemical Brothers, “Hanna.” Runner-Up: Cliff Martinez, “Drive.”
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Winner: Dante Ferretti, “Hugo.” Runner-Up: Maria Djurkovic, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY, Winner: Emmanuel Lubezki, “The Tree of Life.”
BEST DOCUMENTARY/NONFICTION, Winner: “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”
BEST ANIMATION, Winner: “Rango.”
New York Film Critics Online
BEST PICTURE: THE ARTIST
BEST DIRECTOR – MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS for The Artist
BEST ACTOR: BEST ACTOR – MICHAEL SHANNON for Take Shelter (runners-up: MICHAEL FASSBENDER for Shame and GARY OLDMAN for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)
BEST ACTRESS – MERYL STREEP for “The Iron Lady”
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST – BRIDESMAIDS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – ALBERT BROOKS for Drive
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: MELISSA MCCARTHY – Bridesmaids
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER: JESSICA CHASTAIN – The Tree of Life, The Help, The Debt, Take Shelter, Texas Killing Fields, Coriolanus
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – EMMANUEL LUBEZKI for The Tree of Life
BEST SCREENPLAY – ALEXANDER PAYNE, NAT FAXON, JIM RASH for The Descendants. Runner-Up: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, “The Descendants.”
BEST USE OF MUSIC – LUDOVIC BOURCE for The Artist
BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR – JOE CORNISH for Attack the Block
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM – A SEPARATION
BEST DOCUMENTARY – CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE – THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN
Once again we’re seeing a lot of love for the critical darling The Artist, which adds two more Best Picture victories to its win column, while The Descendants takes its first top prize. What ended up being most interesting about these awards today was the major differences in winners in several categories such as Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay,
For Director, Boston went with Martin Scorsese, while Los Angeles went with Terrence Malick (receiving his first recognition) and New York with Michel Hazanavicius. While Malick was thought of as a contender early on, he seems to have taken a back seat to Scorsese and Hazanavicius, who have been the favorites thus far.
There was also a diverse selection of Actors and Actresses chosen that included Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Michael Sheen, Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, and Yun Jung-hee. It’s interesting to note that Fassbender was the runner up for the award that Sheen won and vice versa. Seeing George Clooney‘s name absent from all three lists is rather surprising as well given that he’s the current frontrunner.
In screenplays, Moneyball and The Descendants, the two frontrunners in the Adapted Screenplay category, take another victory while A Separation wins its first. It should be noted that none of these groups split up their screenplay category into Original and Adapted, so both were combined. I’m finding it very surprising that Woody Allen has not scored a single victory for his screenplay to the wonderful Midnight in Paris so far. Hopefully that will begin to change soon.
Rango continues its domination of the Animated Feature category though The Adventures of Tintin did finally manage to squeeze out a win with the New York critics. It’s looking more and more like Rango is going to take the Oscar for it next year unless things begin to turn around quick for Tintin.
The biggest surprise of this batch of awards came in the Supporting Actress category where Melissa McCarthy took two wins. Granted I did not like Bridesmaids as much as everyone else seemed to, and even though McCarthy was the best part of the film, there were certainly much better performances to give the award to including Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, and Janet McTeer, and even though I haven’t seen it yet, I have a feeling Vanessa Redgrave is going to knock it out of the park in Coriolanus, especially given the role she is playing.
We’re now merely four days away from the Golden Globe nominations. For Best Drama, I think we’re likely to see the usual suspects (Hugo, Moneyball, The Descendants). However, Best Comedy or Musical is anyone’s guess. Given the nominees for last year, it seems genre is no longer a hindrance to being nominated in the category… unless Red, Alice in Wonderland, and The Tourist were musicals or comedies and were just really good at hiding it.
If I had to guess though, I would say that Midnight in Paris and Bridesmaids are almost certain, with The Muppets being a strong possibility given its glowing reviews. The Artist is kind of up in the air here. Rope of Silicon currently has it predicted as a comedy, but the trailer seems very dramatic with touches of comedy. Sure would be nice to see the movie to know for sure. Either way, I have no doubt we’ll see it nominated in one of the categories.
What do you guys think has a good chance of being nominated? What would you like to see nominated? Let us know in the comments.