The New York Film Critics Circle went about handing out their awards for the Best of 2011 this morning despite only having seen David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo less than 24 hours ago and having not seen Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as Warner Bros. refused to screen it early to meet the ridiculous early announcement date the NYFCC set this year in an attempt to be first.
That said, I don’t put much stock in these awards as it’s clearly evident the intent was to be first, gain attention as a result and hope their picks would be influential throughout the duration of the 2011 awards season. So be it, and I’ll list the winners, which were announced today via the org’s Twitter feed and I’ve added The Artist to my “Oscar Overture” as the first film to gain recognition from a critical organization and/or high profile award show, but I personally can’t respect it.
With my opinion out of the way, The Artist took home not only Best Picture, but also a Best Director nod for Michel Hazanavicius. Some may also be surprised to see Brad Pitt named Best Actor for Moneyball and The Tree of Life considering many see The Artist actor Jean Dujardin as an Oscar front-runner along with George Clooney for The Descendants.
Moneyball actually garnered two awards, one for Pitt and another for the screenplay written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin whereas The Tree of Life also took two awards, the second for Emmanuel Lubezki for Best Cinematography.
Meryl Streep was named Best Actress for The Iron Lady with Albert Brooks (Drive) and Jessica Chastain (Tree of Life, The Help and Take Shelter) named in the Supporting categories.
I have included the full list of winners directly below, and like I said above, the poster for The Artist is already positioned under the NYFCC logo in my “Oscar Overture” section, which lists several of the precursor awards leading up to the Oscars.
Next we have the National Board of Review who will announce their winner on Thursday, December 1. So buckle up, it doesn’t slow down from this point on.
Best Picture
- The Artist
Best Cinematography
- Emmanuel Lubezki (The Tree of Life)
Best Screenplay
- Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin (Moneyball)
Best Director
- Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
Best Foreign Language Film
- A Separation
Best Actor
- Brad Pitt (Moneyball and The Tree of Life)
Best Supporting Actor
- Albert Brooks (Drive)
Best Actress
- Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Best Supporting Actress
- Jessica Chastain (Tree of Life, The Help and Take Shelter)
Best Nonfiction Film
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams (directed by Werner Herzog)
Best First Feature
- J.C. Chandor for Margin Call
