NSFC Loves France, Olivia Williams, The Social Network
Saturday, January 8, 2011 at 6:00PM The National Society of Film Critics, founded in the 1960s, remains one of the most prestigious critics groups. Though they follow numerous critics groups to their "best!" declarations each year, they don't usually take orders so well. You can always count on a surprise or two though there's still no denying The Social Network.
Olivia Williams takes her first prize for The Ghost Writer
Picture The Social Network (runner up: Carlos and Winter's Bone)
Director David Fincher for The Social Network (ru: Olivier Assayas for Carlos and Roman Polanski for The Ghost Writer)
Actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno in Vincere (ru: Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right and Lesley Manville in Another Year)
Actor Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network (ru tie: Colin Firth in The King's Speech and Edgar Ramirez in Carlos)
Supporting Actress Olivia Williams in The Ghost Writer (ru: Amy Adams in The Fighter and tied for third: Melissa Leo in The Fighter and Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom)
Supporting Actor Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech (ru: Christian Bale in The Fighter and Jeremy Renner in The Town)
The actress categories are especially interesting for the names and the order. As you may remember, I'm fond of Olivia Williams in The Ghost Writer (though I have too many candidates for Best Supporting Actress and I'm still debating who I shall proclaim "best!") No sign of Natalie & Hailee at NSFC though they've been hogging the conversation this week. Lesley Manville sure could've used this win though for a late push. As discussed on the podcast, that 5th spot in Best Actress is still very volatile.
Screenplay Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network (ru: David Seidler for The King's Speech and Roman Polanski & Robert Harris for The Ghost Writer)
Cinematography Roger Deakins for True Grit (ru: Matthew Libatique for Black Swan and Harris Savides for Somewhere)
NonFiction Inside Job (ru: Exit Through the Gift Shop and Last Train Home)
Foreign Language Film Carlos (ru: A Prophet and White Material)
Film Heritage Awards 1. The Film Foundation (20th Anniversary) 2. "Chaplin at Keystone" Flicker Alley, "Elia Kazan Collection" (Fox) 4. Upstream rediscovered 1927 film directed by John Ford (National Film Preservation Board) 5. On the Bowery (Milestone) and 6. Word is Out (Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and distributed by Milestone)
I'm a francophile myself but found it surprising that all three of their favorite foreign films winner Carlos, Oscar nominee A Prophet (pictured left) and Claire Denis' White Material are Gallic. Crazy! What about Mother? I Am Love? Vincere (since they loved Giovanna)? Dogtooth?
NSFC, Olivia Williams, Oscars (10), critics awards
Reader Comments (14)
OLIVIA WILLIAMS: Finally!
Nathaniel did you see dogtooth?
What did you think about it?
unfortuantely i never got to see dogtooth :( i did try. but i kept being thwarted.
I'm so pleased to see Giovanna Mezzogiorno in their picks. Her near-complete omission from the awards discussion has baffled me.
Kurtis i'm guessing it's the sheer length of time it's taken that movie to get around. I mean it feels like it's at least two years old by now.
I'm very pleased about their choices in the actresses field: Mezzogiorno was in my Best Actress Line-up last year (in Italy VINCERE opened in 2009) and Williams is my winner as Supporting Actress this year.
Besides it's good when critics selected what they really cherish, instead of trying to anticipate Academy Nominees...
so glad Olivia Williams FINALLY got some richly deserved recognition for THE GHOST WRITER. still crossing my fingers for a BAFTA nomination...
It's funny because I always thought they were this cool group with classy/risky choices but today I just saw "Breaking Away" on DVD, which won best picture back in 1979, and boy they were SO wrong about that one!!! I mean, over "All That Jazz", "Apocalypse Now" and "Manhattan" year??!!!
I'm ecstatic to see Olivia Williams in here. I really hope she's able to muscle her way into the line-up, and I honestly think she still has a shot considering how up in the air Supporting Actress seems to be right now.
Great pick w/Williams. Also wish Pierce Brosnan had gotten some Supporting Actor recognition for "Ghost Writer."
Giovanna Mezzogiornio is very worthy but SO RANDOM! Was that really released this year? I totally saw it at NYFF in 2009. And I understand that Carlos is technically a foreign film since it's a French production, but seriously, the movie was probably 80% in English...I would've loved to have seen I Am Love get some recognition there.
I’m relieved to see Natalie Portman not steamrolling her way through the major critics awards (Boston excepted), as I feared she would. I can at least take solace in not thinking I’m in such a tiny minority of people who refused to climb on the OMG BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR bandwagon.
Count me in the "FINALLY!" Olivia Williams camp. Watching "Ghostwriter" last year, I thought for sure her performance would receive more recognition. Would love it if Williams, Ramirez, and Assayas receive some noms from the Academy in a couple weeks.
Olivia deserves more recognition, she gave a wonderful performance and is such an asset to every film as she can be witty and charming in all their publicity. Give her a Bafta