The New York Film Critics have announced their winners for the best in cinema for 2012. The East Coast group that awarded Best Picture to Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist last year chose the brilliant Zero Dark Thirty directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The film won a total of three awards from the coveted group including Cinematography for Greig Fraser and Director for Bigelow. The film has put itself in a prime position for the Oscars.
In a surprising mention, Rachel Weisz won Best Actress for her portrayal in Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea. Buzz for Weisz’s performance and film had been dead for months and with her highly praised work, she has regained some momentum for an Academy Award nomination. After winning for The Constant Gardener (2005), Weisz has not been on critics’ radar. Her film performed minimally at the box office and had a very early release date. Is this mention to be taken seriously for a nomination? Let’s see if she shows up in more places for the season. She wasn’t the only surprise however; Matthew McConaughey beat out Philip Seymour Hoffman and Tommy Lee Jones to be named Best Supporting Actor for his works in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike and Richard Linklater’s Bernie. Has a spot just freed up for the character actor in this year’s Oscar race?
Besides Zero Dark Thirty, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln was also a big winner nabbing three awards for Daniel Day-Lewis in Best Actor, Sally Field in Supporting Actress, and Screenplay for Tony Kushner.
The big omissions from the awards were Ben Affleck’s Argo and Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables that failed to capture any awards. Michael Haneke’s Amour won Foreign Language Film, while The Central Park Five won Non-Fiction Film. How to Survive Your Plague won Best First Feature.
The National Board of Review will name their winners on Wednesday with the Los Angeles Film Critics announcing Friday.
Full Winners:
Best Picture – Zero Dark Thirty
Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty
Best Screenplay – Tony Kushner for Lincoln
Best Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln
Best Actress – Rachel Weisz for The Deep Blue Sea
Best Foreign Language Film – Amour
Best Animated Feature – Frankenweenie
Best Supporting Actor – Matthew McConaughey for Magic Mike and Bernie
Best Supporting Actress – Sally Field for Lincoln
Best Cinematography – Greig Fraser for Zero Dark Thirty
Best Non-Fiction Film – The Central Park Five
Best First Feature – How to Survive a Plague
Comment and discuss!
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Tags: American film directors, Argo Hooper, Artist, Ben Affleck, Cinema of the United States, Daniel Day-Lewis, Deep Blue Sea, Director for Bigelow, East Coast, Entertainment/Culture, Film, Human Interest, kathryn bigelow, Lincoln, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Haneke, Michel Hazanavicius, Movie Release, Rachel Weisz, Sally Field, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, Supporting Actress, The Constant Gardener, the Oscars, The Princeton Review Inc., Tom Hooper, Tony Kushner
13 Comments
Very, very well deserved McConaughey. On oscar night, he’ll be thinking “Take that, Seth MacFarlane, for rubbishing my acting skills on FG.”
Dan K(Quote) (Reply)
Who were the runner-ups??? Please post them!!!
Mikael(Quote) (Reply)
runner up was Jessica, for sure!
Genadijus(Quote) (Reply)
It was Lawrence.
Mark Johnson(Quote) (Reply)
Jack Black came in second in the Best Actor field, they really loved Bernie. Christopher Waltz was treated as supporting by the group, came in second in his category. Hathaway came in second as well.
It’s very interesting how they work. They vote as many as four times in order to achieve an amicable result.
GL(Quote) (Reply)
As someone once said…Alright alright alright. Also, glad to see Zero Dark Thirty is being properly appreciated…
Joey Magidson(Quote) (Reply)
I have a feeling that “Les Miserables” might turn out like “Dreamgirls,” or “Evita,” even. Huge buzz, some great supporting turns, gorgeous designs, but I have a feeling the reviews won’t be as stellar as people expect.
From the recently released clips, I think people are going to have a hard time buying a sung-through musical on screen. I don’t feel like it’s going to be the Oscar juggernaut people are saying.
(And this, from a professional musical theatre actor who would love nothing more than another hit movie musical.)
Brian(Quote) (Reply)
The thing with Les Mis though is not the over praise, but the high expectation of high amount nominations. That’s what’s truly feeding that buzz. Plus Hathaway who is still considered by many as the frontrunner in her category.
GL(Quote) (Reply)
Rachel Weisz winning was the most shocking to me!
Kiwi(Quote) (Reply)
A few thoughts:
ZDT and Lincoln now hold the top spot. What I am expecting now is for Argo to sort of die down since ZDT will grab some of that patriotic political buzz the film was riding on. Argo needs to score something big like LAFCC or some power house critic equivalent. If they miss Boston I would completely eliminate them of even scoring 5 nominations.
Les Mis is not dead. The film didn’t do well here but is expected to be huge at the BAFTAS, ditto for Ana Karenina. Sally Field’s win is not that shocking as people first reacted. NYFCC love veteran actors, method actors as a matter of a fact. The Oscar’s usually do the opposite and go for the young buzz feeding actor, in this case Anne Hathaway. However look for Globes and SAGs to really show where there race is going.
SLP needs to win Critic Choice or Globes, which I don’t see it happening. I think the biggest loser here is Jennifer Lawerence who was really the one and only person benefiting from the film’s buzz. This win probably cements Jessica Chastain’s spot as the frontrunner in her category. If the film doesn’t catch some major buzz soon I would question its position in the race as well.
The Master and Beast of the Southern Wild missed big but some have speculated that the NYFCC are known to support films that usually need supporting. Like they make it a known fact to express that in their press releases. Those films have already won tons of awards and most likely have or a thought to have secure spots in the race.
The biggest shocker here is Rachel Weisz. Her win is something people weren’t even thinking about. Some even questioned her presence at the THR roundtable. This will definitely elevate her to a nomination status. The question is who do you kick out?
GL(Quote) (Reply)
The Rachel Weisz win is just another indication of what a sucky year it was for Leading Ladies. It’s a shame. Glad you guyz are moving up Emmanuelle Riva and moving down lil Ms Wallis.
Michael Herbertson(Quote) (Reply)
Weisz was an excellent choice; all these months later, DBS is still my #3 film of the year, and I hope this will push it towards some Oscar recognition.
JamDenTel(Quote) (Reply)
Happy for Matthew, but another war movie for best picture? Didn’t Katherine win last year?
Milo(Quote) (Reply)