NYFCC Loves Legos, Nuns, and Boyhood
Monday, December 1, 2014 at 11:46AM The NYFCC (New York Film Critics Circle), one half of the two crucial critics prizes for each film year (the other half being the LAFCA who announce soon) gathered this morning for prize time. Their annual game of combative rounds winnowing their choice down to one (usually) in their categories resulted in big wins for Boyhood and really important gets for two key actors.
PICTURE Boyhood
It could well be a steamroller with critics groups. Unless Selma and Birdman get scrappy
DIRECTOR Richard Linklater, Boyhood
We can safely call him locked up for his first Oscar nomination in this category after two nominations for writing
SCREENPLAY The Grand Budapest Hotel
This is the only category that Wes Anderson has ever had real luck in with awards bodies. Can Budapest find a way to slip into the Best Picture Oscar field and change that?
ACTRESS Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant & Two Days, One Night
An enormously important get for Cotillard who has found it a real struggle to connect with awards bodies since her Oscar win for what ironically is an arguably lesser performance than the ones she's been trotting out regularly lately
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
So pleased that this grounded affecting performance has garnered such praise this year. It's a real treat coming from an actress that hasn't been overused overpraised much in her career.
ACTOR Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner
Another enormous "must have" for the preliminary rounds. Spall is up against a super tight Best Actor field and every mention counts towards keeping his name out there. They really should have released this movie earlier. I struggle to understand Sony Pictures Classics preference for late December which often kills "small" films with too little too late push
SUPPORTING ACTOR J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Looks likely march to the Oscar with no problem. Which is sad for Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher) and Edward Norton (Birdman) who are both still waiting and both so worthy this year
CINEMATOGRAPHY Darius Khondji, The Immigrant
So underappreciated
ANIMATED FILM The LEGO Movie
Unsurprising and I expect all the flyover state critics prizes to go the same way. The real question as precursor season heats up is which littler film gets some mentions.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Ida
If Ida dominates this field in the precursors might we see it pop up in one or two additional Oscar categories? Wouldn't that be neat?
DOCUMENTARY Citizenfour
A possible steamroller for the non-fiction prizes
FIRST FEATURE Jennifer Kent, The Babadook
Don't miss our interview with this hot new talent. I told her we were wondering about her future and she said "I'm wondering about my future, too!"
Reader Comments (63)
Very excited about the Cotillard win. So deserving. Over the next little while, we usually find out how the voting in the acting categories broke down. I'm curious to see whether Anne Dorval's fantastic work in "Mommy" was part of the conversation. She and Cotillard are both so Oscar-worthy this year.
Also something I've been thinking about lately. I expect Michael Fassbender to be a terrific Macbeth. But - as great an actress as she is - i sense possible problems with Cotillard as his lady. If this were a French language "Macbeth", I'd say she'd be perfection. But are they planning on implementing Scottish burrs (a la the Orson Welles' version)? If so Cotillard might find it tricky layering a Scots accent on top of her French one. Many otherwise brilliant actresses have been tripped up by accent problems. Ever encountered Stanwyck's Irish one in "Union Pacific"? Yipes. And -even more pertinently - Ingrid Bergman tried to filter a Cockney accent ("Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde") and an Irish one ("Under Capricorn") through her natural Swedish one - and the results weren't pretty.
But, who knows? Maybe this "Macbeth" will go with plain old marvelous actorly English and Cotillard's slight French accent will just serve to make Lady Macbeth even more intriguing.
Or maybe she's an even greater actress than I think (and I think she's incredible) and the lady will take on that whole Scottish/French challenge ,sailing through it with flying colors. If anyone can perform an acting miracle, she can.
Hayden - I agreed. Marion belongs to the club of the bravest!
Where Nicole and Tilda are. But come on, Meryl next year is going to be a rock star at the age of 65! Not even Bette Davis could do that: And that is bravery also my friend.
But when you compare the filmography of them all, Nicole it's really a standout. She has worked with everybody doing everything every year. And the big difference between her and Meryl is that Nicole chooses the project depending on the director. And the director is the master and she knows that. Meryl goes after the character and sometimes the film its not that great.
@Hayden W., that is a great point.
Cotillard's sublime filmography speaks for itself, regardless of the awards attention. She and Tilda, interestingly enough, have a similar trajectory in that they are both avante-garde, auteur-minded actresses who somehow ended up winning Oscars for one of their very few "mainstream" roles (although I'm not dismissing their performances because both were sublime and Michael Clayton is quite a good film that holds up remarkably well). Tilda's snub for We Need to Talk About Kevin and Marion's for Rust and Bone were two snubs that hurt the most from the past few years, because as a fan you still want your favorites to be recognized for their outstanding work and for others to discover them.
But yes, both of them + Kidman + Moore are in a class of their own. I think Carey Mulligan, Mia Wasikowska, and (maybe) Keira Knightley are younger stars who are following similar paths. I think Blanchett is much more daring and risky than Adams and Streep, however (Heaven, Little Fish, The Good German, Hanna, etc., etc., are all flawed, but very interesting films), but she has been exceedingly well acknowledged by the Academy.
Marion - go get the Oscar! Fingers crossed:)
I'm stoked for Marion winning Best Actress as I thought she was great in The Immigrant. She deserves to get a nomination instead of Hilary Swank or Jennifer Aniston.
@ Hayden W, really well said. None-the-less, I'm really glad to watch the incredible Marion Cotillard winning for both her awe-inspiring performances in Two Days, One Night and The Immigrant this year. Personally, I’m rooting for both but since only one can make the cut so that she avoids split voting with herself, I’d give a slight edge to her phenomenal turn in Two Days, One Night. Marion Cotillard’s performance as Sandra in the latest Dardennes Brothers masterpiece is the kind of performance that needs to be seen to be truly believed. There’s really no way to overhype her work there. The whole theatre was in tears throughout the screening I saw for Two Days, One Night. You rarely get to watch such a towering performance from an actor / actress in your entire life. With her unmatched work in this film, you feel like she’s pushing acting to a whole another level. She makes you feel the deepest and most complex emotions for a woman who has to fight against depression and the possibility of losing her job at the same time. Acting doesn’t get any better. Yes, a foreign-language drama of social realism by the Dardennes Brothers probably isn't the voters' cup of tea, but they really have to honor a tremendous performance in such an important film, let alone from an exceptional actress who has putting out consistently brilliant performances the last seven (!) years after her much deserved win for her legendary performance in La Vie En Rose. She has to score her second win this year and if not for that at least a ridiculously overdue second Oscar nomination.
Excellent story developing with The Babadook. After being burned by so many 2013 Sundance titles from last year, I have not seen such grass-roots critical support (not to mention William Friedkin calling it one of the scariest films ever made) for such a small film. And a horror film at that?!?!? Bully for Jennifer Kent and Essie Davis.
Now, Julianne Moore is without a NYFCC win. Yes, she didn't even win for Far From Heaven when it won more than Boyhood did today. I cannot really say Still Alice (what is up with the way Sony Pictures Classics is handing this film?) was going to go over well here, sight unseen, but I really love this rally around Cotillard for two great performances. Nick Davis got his wish. I'm still behind on Dardenne Bros films, but I think Cotillard's Ewa was one of my favorite performances of the year. But TWC kicked it to eOne for home video and isn't even doing a FYC campaign. IFC better be spreading the wealth with that Boyhood campaign to work for Cotillard. 2D1N has a shot at foreign film, and I think her presence certain helps her and the film's presence can help her move forward at a possible fifth spot.
LAFCA for Best Actress is going to be a must-see. Will they have another tie, will they go for a 2014 actress performance deep-cut, or simply shake things up by doing another different pick like with a Gugu Mbatha Raw. What if they have Julianne win for **only** Maps to the Stars?!?? That's probably impossible, but those LAFCA folks are crafty.
Best Actor was always a toss-up and Spall isn't surprising with this group who appreciate Leigh and his performers. Many of the NYFCC members were in Cannes when he won there. LAFCA, again, could go a completely different direction.
Khondji Khondji Khondji Khondji!!!!!!
Glad Anderson won for Screenplay even though it is such a predictable pick for him. I like that Boyhood did not sweep and get an award I feel it's so consigned to this season (even though the direction, acting, and editing is much stronger for me).
Ida's the only disappointment. I have fallen out of favor with it. Godard winning here would be pushing it, but I hope Force Majeure takes over winning critics for foreign film.
"The beautiful thing about this point in Cotillard's career is that who cares if she ever gets another Oscar nomination?... People act like putting this impressive filmography together is a means to the end of being acknowledged by the AMPAS again, and that's so not the point. I think it's better to be an outlier who makes interesting choices (Kidman, Cotillard, Tilda, Julianne)"
I just felt the above needs to be read multiple times.
I would almost prefer it if Cotillard doesn't get nominated this year - that way we have two more performances for the ages untarnished by Ampass.
I'd be disappointed if the NYFCC stopped posting the two runner-ups in each category. It's been part of their history for such a long time and quite telling about smaller films that garnered critical support. One more reason I've come to expect and appreciate the more surprising choices from the LAFCA.
zig - I don't think they posted them last year, I think Lou Lumenick spilled the beans because he was angry about the choices. He tweeted this year that there would be serious repercussions for doing so, so he wouldn't reveal the runners up.
Kris Tapley had some information on Twitter, but he's not a member, so take it with a grain of salt. He said his sources told him that Julianne and Gugu were in the running for actress, Oyelowo, Redmayne and Molina were in the running for actor, Norton was in the running for supporting, and Selma and Inherent Vice were in the running for picture.
@Hayden: I want to give you five dollars for that comment.
yeah, I'm getting a bit bored of Amy Adams, I like her and all but I'm getting bored.
The Comment Du Jour that comes from Hayden in this entry is A+.
Marion rules. That is all.