UPDATE: In their awards season coverage, Awards Daily incorrectly reported that the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards would be announced on the same day as The National Board of Review (the 5th). LAFCA’s awards will actually be announced on the 9th. This information has been corrected for this article.
Earlier today, The New York Film Critics Circle officially kicked off awards season by announcing their annual honors for 2012 which resulted in the following:
- Best Film: Zero Dark Thirty
- Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
- Best Actress: Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea
- Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
- Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field, Lincoln
- Best Supporting Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Bernie and Magic Mike
- Best Screenplay: Tony Kushner, Lincoln
- Best Cinematography: Greig Fraser, Zero Dark Thirty
- Best Foreign Language Film: Michael Haneke, Amour
- Best First Film: David France, How To Survive a Plague
- Best Nonfiction Film: Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon, The Central Park Five
- Best Animated Film: Frankenweenie
Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s drama about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, is off to a pretty good start for a film that most people haven’t even seen yet. The film also scored wins for Best Director (Bigelow) and Best Cinematography (Greig Fraser).
The wins for Lincoln weren’t exactly unexpected. Daniel Day-Lewis was pretty much a lock to take Best Actor (something that will more than likely be repeated at the Oscars) and Sally Field was a strong contender for Supporting Actress. Tony Kushner’s win was a little surprising given the strong competition in the screenplay category, but also because the screenplay was not one of Lincoln‘s stronger elements.
The biggest shocks out of this batch came with the announcements of Rachel Weisz as Best Actress for her performance in The Deep Blue Sea, a film that hasn’t really been on anyone’s radar for awards season, and Matthew McConaughey as Best Supporting Actor for Bernie and Magic Mike. While I have yet to see either of the films McConaughey won for, I’m finding it hard to believe that his performance in either film could be better than that of Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln or Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master, so I’ll definitely be checking them out soon.
All in all, Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln tied with three wins apiece. Is this the start of a run for Bigelow’s latest film? I think Les Miserables, Argo, and Lincoln may have something to say about that as we continue into awards season.
Next up will be The National Board of Review, who will be announcing their awards in two days, followed by The Los Angeles Film Critics Association on the 9th, so we’ll soon see if a pattern begins to emerge.
(Source: Awards Daily)
