NYFCC Winners
Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 9:19AM 
The New York Film Critics Circle takes their sweet time each year debating their "bests" and shouldn't we all? Nevertheless it's agony for awards addicts like us, the excruciating wait times that commence between 9 AM EST and continue for hours. With lunch break. If you want to have a laugh at my expense I tried to predict the winners as part of the Gurus of Gold chart this week (update: This year they wrapped up by 1:00 PM though so all is well. The only thing i got right in my predictions was Carol for Film/Director)
A bit of Oscar adjacent history: In the past 20 years of their long long history (they're octogenarians now!) they've selected 4 films that went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, 11 more that were nominated and 5 that were critical darlings and eventual Oscar players but were shut out of the big race (Leaving Las Vegas, Topsy-Turvy, Mulholland Drive, Far From Heaven, United 93). Which is a long way of saying they have refined if not quite populist taste but they're never too far afield of Oscar's wheelhouse. Do they influence the Oscars? It's tough to say. The Film Experience's position is, generally speaking, that no single critics group influence voters beyond pointing them at films... but the NYFCC and LAFCA are the ones the industry cares most about and are most likely to let in... at least to pique their interest in particular films and performances.
So here we go...
Best Film Carol
Best Director Todd Haynes, Carol
It's worth noting, as Sasha Stone did, that very few directors have ever won Best Director twice at the NYFF. The list includes Martin Scorsese and Kathryn Bigelow and now Haynes. Carol was the big winner of today's announcement taking home 4 prizes.
Best Actress Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Best Actor Michael Keaton, Spotlight
Best Supporting Actress Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria
Best Supporting Actor Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
But not in acting. That said these are wonderful choices for the prizes, going out of their way to remember Kristen Stewart's amazingly naturalistic engaging work as Binoche's personal assistant in Sils Maria. That performance has already won her a Cesar Award in France but since she's not campaigning things will probably stop here. Saoirse Ronan and Mark Rylance will surely go the distance to a nomination in Best Actress and Supporting Actor and both could well compete for the win... though we'll have to see the whole field before we really get into that.
The strangest thing is to ignore the supporting campaign (a legitimate choice to make everyone supporting in such an ensemble film) for Keaton and give him the Best Actor prize. But he gives the best performance in a film filled with good work so hurrah!
Best Screenplay Carol, adapted by Phyllis Nagy from the Patricia Highsmith novel "The Price of Salt"
Best Cinematography Carol, Edward Lachman
A thousand times yes. The whole team on Carol was doing exquisite work. That's why we asked them all why they were such geniuses. NYFCC are Todd Haynes fans (as all truly outstanding people are) and they gave Far From Heaven 5 awards in 2002.
Best First Film Son of Saul d. László Nemes
Best Animated Film Inside Out (Pixar) d. Pete Docter & Ronnie del Carmen
Best Documentary In Jackson Heights d. Frederick Wiseman
Best Foreign Language Film Timbuktu (Mauritania) d. Abderrahmane Sissako
Special Award William Becker and Janus Films
Special Award Ennio Morricone, composer
Son of Saul looks fairly unstoppable for the Foreign Film Oscar this season so the race to watch is probably the nominations themselves. And whether Son of Saul can expand into other categories... which it wants to. As previously stated in the Documentary Finalist post it's odd that the Academy's documentary branch continues to pass on Frederick Wiseman's documentaries considering that they are routinely greeted with "masterpiece" level reviews; he's never been Oscar nominated.
That's it. On a scale of 1-10 how happy did today's announcement make you?
WE'LL LET CATE BLANCHETT HAVE THE FINAL WORD SINCE CAROL WAS THE BIG WINNER...
Reader Comments (56)
Nat, did u receive the contribution yet? I sent an email last night don't know if u got it.
They went for Kristen Stewart for Supporting Actress.
Kristen Stewart for supporting actress! I'm still doubtful the Academy will follow suit, but a few more awards and she will be hard to ignore.
Congrats Kristen Stewart!!!
So far:
Best First Film - Son of Saul by László Nemes
Best Non Fiction - Timbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako
Best Supporting Actress - Kristen Stewart - Clouds of Sils Maria
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Bridge of Spies actor wins Supporting Actor.
Already bored with their choices.
will we get a major CAROL haul? they gave FAR FROM HEAVEN 5 whole awards in 2002.
I want Rampling to win Best Actress.
As much as I enjoyed Kristen Stewart, I have a hard time understanding why anyone would throw awards at her when we had Goddess Juliette Binoche giving such a magnificent, perfect Aging Diva performance in the movie. She is one of my favorite things in the movies all year. Nonetheless, I'm so glad that people aren't forgetting Clouds of Sils Maria in the awards season.
As much as I loathe all things Kristen Stewart, she was good in Clouds of Sils Maria. Ugh. The conflict!
I'm confident Kristen Stewart is irrelevant to the actual Oscar race.
What I Know For Sure --- Rampling is a case where the nomination is the reward and Brie Larson based on clips I've seen of Room could actually win. And since I like her I'm fine with her cock blocking Lawrence to a second statuette so soon.
Ronan is a very worthy Best Actress winner, but her win might also be a result of voters not being able to decide between Blanchett and Mara.
SAOIRSE. yay.
@ BVR,
They choose Ronan in 3 (THREE!) minutes.
This means that she had over 50% of the votes. FIRST BALLOT No confusion! They simply loved her.
Michael Keaton gets Best Actor-awesome. This is the year we take out Category Fraud!
Keaton...hmmm. He is very good in Spotlight, but this smells of make-up call/keep up the great work. There are worse things. There are also more interesting, arguably better performances.
TODD. HAYNES.
Best Film: CAROL <3
The real question for me regarding this season's awards race is whether or not Juliette Binoche can score a prize or two. As much as I was surprised by Stewart's beautifully realized work, it's truly the elder actress's show.
Can't complain about this list. In fact, I'm cheering about most of it, despite my lukewarm feelings about this year as a whole.
I do not get the love for Keaton in Spotlight. I found his to be the least memorable character. Tucci and Crudup should be getting the attention. They were fascinating.
Rylance aside, happy with these choices.
Team Carol all the way.
Probably around a 6 in choices.
Michael Keaton ????????
I love that Saoirse won best actress for Brooklyn. Great, flawless, seamless performance.
Looks like Carol sucked up all of Suffragette's Women's Picture Heat,looks like suffering in fur is more preferrable to suffering in a hat..
NYFCC is possibly my favorite awards body when it comes to choosing Best Actress. Their current streak of Ronan, Cotillard, Blanchett, and Weisz is such a beautiful thing to behold!
I am SO team Carol, and I haven't even seen it yet!
Why, oh why must I live in Canada!?
Citizen Kane, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cries and Whispers, Fargo, Leaving Las Vegas, Mulholland Dr., Brokeback Mountain, Social Network and now Carol.
i'm so elated. NYFCC forever!!!!
Keaton??? First of all, lead? And second, not even in my top 3 of performances in the film. How strange.
Yay Keaton and Saoirse! Haven't seen Carol.
Stewart was good, but what about Elizabeth Banks?????
Kristen Stewart did nothing remarkable in 'Clouds of Sils Maria,' and she's really a co-lead. All this acclaim is the result of her challenging the notion that she's a bad actress by holding her own against Juliette Binoche. The performance shows that she has promise, but is far from award-worthy.
Michael Keaton? He was fine in the film, but I guess this speaks to the weak quality of lead actors this year.
There are still some films I'm waiting to see, but I'm beyond excited for Ronan. 'Brooklyn' is such a lovely film. One of those rare films nowadays about good people with good intentions who are rewarded with good things. I've always admired her since 'Atonement,' thought 'Hanna' was pretty cool, but she absolutely blew me away in this film, and I would not be mad if she won the Oscar. I think she could, too, because her character is so charming and likable and relatable and all that good stuff.
On the other hand, I saw 'Spotlight' and liked it a lot, but whether we want to call Keaton supporting or lead, there's no way in hell he deserves an award for what is essentially a good performance. I think they're just upset about the 'Birdman' Oscar loss.
Totally agreed, @Mike. That's the exact sentiment I share on Kristen Stewart.
I love "Brooklyn" the way I loved "Atonement" so this just made my day. Saoirse !!!
I'd like to correct Sasha. Or would like to wonder what she means by "very few." Since it's actually not as rare to win twice at NYFCC. Haynes is number #17 on that list, which isn't too far off from Oscar's group of 18 double winners. Especially considering NYFCC started a few years after Oscar.
10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Would have loved for CAROL to have won an Actress prize (for either Blanchett or Mara) but can't can't complain with ***4*** awards
On a scale of 1 to 10 I am Carol. YASSS! So glad it won four awards. So sad Cate and Rooney missed out.
Yaaay re Carol/Haynes/Lachman/Nagy
I wonder if Blanchett would be cleaning up the Actress prizes if it wasn't for how recent her Blue Jasmine run is.
I didn't think she would ever outdo that performance... but dear lord - I think Carol will likely end up among my Top 10 performances of the decade.
Meantime, I don't see Son of Saul winning - yes, it's a Holocaust film but I can't picture half of Ampass sitting through it. I could be wrong. I'd be happy to be wrong. (Though it left me merely moved and impressed rather than moved and astonished.)
Still: Is there no candidates this year about a cranky old man discovering the meaning of life through his newfound connection with a pre-schooler?
Did they do 2nd/3rd places? PLEASE MAD MAX. PLEASE.
Oh and yay Saiorse Ronan - I preferred Bel Powley, Blanchett and Binoche myself but Ronan was transcendent in her film as well. Firstly I was just amazed at how she could be both inconspicuously mousy and breathtakingly luminously beautiful at the same time (which really fit the character). But even more impressive was the way she communicated every tiny flicker of her character's inner world to the audience while plausibly hiding it from her scene partners. It's the anti-Meryl-Streep approach to acting.
I really hope this momentum keeps going for Carol. It's past time Todd Haynes was nominated for Best Director!
On aside note, rewatched Brokeback Mountain the other day...and what a great companion piece it is with Carol. Two masterpieces
I'm just happy I called the Kristen Stewart win yesterday! Yay! Called Michael Keaton too but in supporting...the lead actor race is unusually dry this year with no clear front runner.
Can't wait to see Carol. Long live Todd Haynes!
This is obviously great for CAROL's chances at a Best Picture Oscar nomination but it will need the legendary power of TWC campaigning to make the cut. Hopefully now they'll push it harder than HATEFUL EIGHT (admittedly what will be their big money maker).
goran -- what a great description of what Saoirse is doing! love it. i almost said it aloud to her costume designer a few minutes ago when i was doing an interview ;)
derek k -- i think they'll push it hard. i have faith. i just dont wanna deal with tarantino this year. and 3 hours of tarantino. yikes.
@ goran: I'm sure I'll be rewatching both films over the next few months, but at this moment I prefer Blanchett's work in Truth to her performance in Carol.
Post-Kill Bill Tarantino hasn't been as impressive.
My favorite win is Saoirse Ronan's for "Brooklyn." I adored that film. I was hoping Emory Cohen was going to be a surprise supporting actor winner this morning but it was not meant to be.
Death Proof is the last time he made a completely satisfactory movie. And he has publicly came out against it. Which shows he has no original opinions either.
They get a 10 from me.
1) ignoring the Stallone hysteria
2) rightfully placing Keaton in the lead rather than supporting
3) Ronan over Larson - another excellent choice
4) Carol in cinematography
5) Phyllis Nagy's script
6) Kirsten Stewart (although I am still rooting for Elizabeth Banks
7) Rylance was memorable, and there were so many worrisome "career achievement" choices
8) Special award for William Becker and Janus Films - talk about an education!!!
9) TODD HAYNES
10) CAROL