'Manchester', 'Moonlight' and 'La La Land' Lead Early Critics Awards

It has begun. Awards season is "officially" underway after what has been a busy seven days of early -- and I mean ridiculously, unnecessarily early -- precursor citations. The main takeaway: In a studio year as lack-lustre as 2016 was, it looks like critically acclaimed indies will be leading the race, namely Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea and Damien Chazelle's La La Land, while some sneak-peek twitter reactions to Scorsese's recently screened Silence paint it as a major last-minute lurker that could crash the party.

The National Board of Review got the ball rolling last Tuesday, handing Manchester four prizes including Best Film, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. Moonlight trailed with a pair of wins for Jenkins' direction and Naomie Harris' incredible performance.

The New York Film Critics Circle followed up two days after with three prizes apiece for both Manchester and Moonlight, but at the eleventh hour voted in favour of La La Land as Best Film (not an unprecedented move for that group).

That same day, La La Land went on to dominate the Critics Choice nominations with 12. Again, Moonlight had a prominent showing with 10, Manchester with 7 (Full list of nominees will appear at the end of the post with some quick takes).

The LA Film Critics Association rounded out the week by naming Moonlight the best of the year just this afternoon. The film also won Best Director, Supporting Actor and Cinematography. La La Land only earned a single prize from the west coast crew (for music), but was runner-up in five other categories, making it the most represented title in the group's day of announcements. Hmmm... were they afraid giving it multiple wins would smack of homerim?

Critics Season Opens, While Films They Honour Do Not

December is officially here, so the critics have begun unloading their year-end superlatives. But since those of us in the real world still have 26 days before the end of the year, some of the biggest honorees are still an unseen mystery to us. Todd Haynes' Carol was undoubtedly the biggest love-affair for the New York Critics Film Circle, who handed it four prizes including Best Film, but I'll be lucky if it opens anywhere near me before the month is out.

The National Board of Review, while naming Mad Max: Fury Road their best of the year, threw far more support in terms of number of prizes behind films like The Martian (Best Director, Actor and Adapted Screenplay) and The Hateful Eight (Best Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay). The latter won't even begin limited engagements until Christmas!

But I was not completely starved for entertainment. Rocky spinoff Creed opened during the American Thanksgiving weeekend, and I found it rather enjoyable. Writer-director Ryan Coogler showed much promise in his 2013 debut Fruitvale Station, as did star Michal B. Jordan, and both continue to prove their genuine talent in this crackerjack boxing flick.

'Boyhood' wins big with New York Film Critics

Richard Linklater's Boyhood came away with three prizes from the New York Film Critics Circle this afternoon (Picture, Director, and Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette), launching what I can only hope will be a successful campaign to Oscar glory... in SOME category at least! I still have a hard time seeing this winning the Academy's top honour (appeal may not be broad enough), but its artistic relevance might push it to a win in Screenplay or even Director -- could you imagine a Picture/Director split for a THIRD consecutive year?!? Crazy, but not out of the question. At any rate, I would consider it a triumph to see it collect even one trophy at season's end, and this impressive showing with the New York crowd is a good start.

NY Critcs surprise with American Hustle

Even in a year as strong as this one, the New York Film Critics Circle managed to make a Best Picture selection that has many pundits baffled: David O. Russell's American Hustle, whose reviews from recent press screenings have been mixed. Obviously, we won't be in a position to assess the NYFCC's decision in until we get to see the film itself in a little less than a month, but it certainly wasn't what many people expected to see triumph here. It also won for Screenplay and Supporting Actress Jennifer Lawrence.

Picking up big acting wins were Robert Redford of All Is Lost (a movie that continues to piss me off in its coy reluctance to open wide), and Cate Blanchett of Blue Jasmine (this just might be the first of a long list of awards leading up to an eventual Oscar win). Dallas Buyers Club's Jared Leto nabbed Supporting Actor while Steve McQueen took Best Director for 12 Years a Slave.

One final note, I'm super thrilled to see Sarah Polley claim the prize for Best Non-Fiction Film for her brilliant Stories We Tell, and hope it translates into an Oscar nod.

Full list of winners below:

New York Film Critics weigh in

New York is the first key critics group to announce awards for the 2012 film year, and the big winners were Steven Spielberg's Lincoln and Kathryn Bigelow's late-breaking Zero Dark Thirty. Each took home three honours from the NYC crowd.

The big loser has to be Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. After inducing critical orgasms at all the fall festivals, the mesmerizing character study got shut out, along with more mainstream Oscar hopefuls Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi, and Les Miserables, although they aren't as dependent on the boost of critics awards as The Master is.

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, Magic Mike and Bernie
Best Screenplay: Tony Kushner, Lincoln
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Animated Feature: Frankenweenie
Best Documentary: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon, The Central Park Five
Best Cinematography: Greig Fraser, Zero Dark Thirty
Best First Feature: David France, How to Survive a Plague

New York Film Critics crown 'The Artist'

In a rather attention-grabbing move, the New York Film Critics Circle had decided some time back to preempt the National Board of Review this year and be the first major critics group out of the gate with their year-end awards. Although you can hardly call them "year-end", seeings as they're coming to us a full month before the year ends, and well before most audiences have even had a chance to see their pick for Best Picture and Director; Michael Hazanavicius' silent film homage The Artist. I have no comment. How could I? I haven't even seen it yet!

I'll only briefly comment on how silly I think it is for them to do this so soon. What's the rush? Seriously.

I do dig the support for Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, which won awards for Brad Pitt's & Jessica Chastain's performances (coupled with their performances in Moneyball & The Help/Take Shelter respectively) and for Emmanual Lubezki's cinematography.

All winners after the cut.

Eye on NYFCC

The New York Film Critics Circle's announcement of their year's best is imminent. Will The Social Network continue its critical steamroll over the competition?
UPDATE: Yes. Yes it will.

Best Picture: The Social Network

Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Best Actress: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

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

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Best Screenplay: The Kids Are All Right

Best Cinematography: Black Swan

Best Animated Film: The Illusionist

Best Documentary: Inside Job

Best Foreign Film: Carlos

Best First Feature: Animal Kingdom

Gotta say, I dig the love for The Kids Are All Right, which before now had been tragically overlooked by NBR and LAFCA. The Best Screenplay win is particularly satisfying. Aaron Sorkin shouldn't win EVERYTHING.