by Nathaniel R
Founded in 1935 the New York Film Critics Circle remains one of the two most important film critics organizations in the country (the other being the Los Angeles Film Critics Association). They might not have the influencing power they once had when there weren't 30+ similar organizations but people still hear them out each year before the "critics named this the best" accolades start sounding like ambient noise. Last year they were heavy on Oscar frontrunners or presumed runners up in virtually every single category. Will their winners be such Oscar favorites this year. Time will tell.
It was quite a day for A24 with two of their films being the only multiple winners: Lady Bird (Best Picture and Best Actress) and The Florida Project (Best Director and Best Supporting Actor). Complete list of winners including interesting statistics follow after the jump...
Picture LADY BIRD by Greta Gerwig
Last year they honored La La Land though Moonlight won the most of their prizes. This year Lady Bird and Florida Project, both A24 films, are the only films to win more than one prize with two each. Oscar has only given Best Picture once to a film directed by a woman (Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker) but NYFCC has done it thrice now: Lady Bird (Gerwig) and The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty (both Bigelow).
Director Sean Baker for THE FLORIDA PROJECT
Last year they went Barry Jenkins for Moonlight. Their winners in this category aren't always Oscar nominated unfortunately (recent great choices that weren't include Todd Haynes for Carol and Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty) since Baker is such a surprising / smart choice given how difficult this project must have been to pull off.
Screenplay Paul Thomas Anderson for PHANTOM THREAD
Last year they went with Kenneth Lonergan for Manchester by the Sea. Incredibly this is P.T. Anderson's first prize with NYFCC since he didn't win their first film, director or screenplay prizes in the past.
Actress Saoirse Ronan for LADY BIRD
Last year Isabelle Huppert took this prize for both Elle & Things to Come. Saoirse Ronan is 23 but she already won this prize at only 21 for Brooklyn (2015). But she is not the youngest ever winner of NYFCC Best Actress. That would be Isabelle Adjani for The Story of Adele H (1975) who was 20 years old. Which other actresses have won Best Actress twice or more from NYFCC? Only true legends. They are:
4 times
Meryl Streep (1982, 1988, 2009, 2011)
3 times
Julie Christie (1965, 1997, 2007)
Sissy Spacek (1980, 1986, 2001)
Joanne Woodward (1968, 1973, 1990)
Liv Ullman (1972, 1974, 1976)
Ingrid Bergman (1945, 1956, 1978)
2 times
Saoirse Ronan (2015, 2017)
Holly Hunter (1987, 1993)
Jane Fonda (1969, 1971)
Deborah Kerr (1957, 1960)
Audrey Hepburn (1953, 1959)
Olivia de Havilland (1948, 1949)
Vivien Leigh (1939, 1951)
Greta Garbo (1935, 1937)
Actor Timothée Chalamet for CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
The youngest male winner ever for NYFCC in this category. The record was previously held by Albert Finney in Tom Jones (1963) who won when he was 27. Related post: Youngest Best Actor Nominees in Oscar History. Last year the prize went to Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea.
Supporting Actress Tiffany Haddish for GIRLS TRIP
Last year they chose Michelle Williams for multiple films. There aren't a lot of obvious patterns in their voting for this particular award. Their last three winners were Oscar nominated (Michelle Williams), Oscar ignored (Kristen Stewart), and Oscar winning (Patricia Arquette) and it tends to hop around like that but this is a fun get for Haddish, especially since they almost never go for purely comic performances in this category... (i.e. not dramedic work) the last was Joan Cusack in In & Out (1997)
Supporting Actor Willem Dafoe for THE FLORIDA PROJECT
Last year the winner was Mahershala Ali for Moonlight. Their last four winners in this category also won the Oscar. But their winners sometimes go on to become the shocking snubbee (like, oh, Albert Brooks in Drive, Dennis Quaid in Far From Heaven, or John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich)
Cinematographer Rachel Morrison for MUDBOUND
Unless I have my genders wrong on a couple of Asian DPs years ago who won this marks the first time they've ever awarded a female DP. Oscar has yet to even nominate a woman in this category. Last year's NYFCC winner was James Laxton for Moonlight. Aside from an unusual three year stretch 2006-2008 (Pan's Labyrinth, There Will Be Blood, Slumdog Millionaire), their winner almost never wins the Oscar.
Animated Film COCO by Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina
The NYFCC started their animated feature category one year before Oscar started theirs with Chicken Run (2000) as their first winner. So it's an easy line-up comparison. In the entire history of that Oscar category the Academy has agreed with the New York critics 6 of 15 times. But the film's NYFCC chose have always gone on to be Oscar-nominated except for The Lego Movie (2014).
Non-Fiction Film FACES PLACES by Agnes Varda & Jr
It's surprising but wonderful how many prizes this "light" documentary has been winning since usually awards bodies prefer super heavy documentaries for prizes. At any rate I'm just glad we aren't in a year where people are pretending that TV miniseries like OJ Made in America, which won NYFCC & Oscar last year, are feature films.
Foreign Language Film BPM (BEATS PER MINUTE) by Robin Campillo
The last French film to win was Blue is the Warmest Color (2013). Last year they chose Toni Erdmann.Only five of their winners in the past 20 years have gone on to win the Oscar. Lately they've been mostly choosing Oscar submitted foreign films but that was less common in the past.
First Film GET OUT by Jordan Peele
We wonder if Greta Gerwig was declared ineligible due to co-directing Nights and Weekends (2008)? It took them 45 minutes to announce this first prize. Last year it was a tie between Edge of Seventeen and Krisha.
Special Award Critic Molly Haskell
This year's upcoming ceremony will be dedicated to the late film critic Richard Shickel.
Thursday, November 30, 2017 at 12:45PM
Reader Comments (64)
chofer -- and also your choice of words seems to suggest that i dont think the Academy changed at all which clearly i do. I'm SO happy that they're changin. I would have gone even further than Cheryl-Boone Isaacs and froze on male inductees for a year or two (barring the new nominees obviously who would still be welcome to join) to try to bring gender parity. She did a good job with adding ethnic diversity but it was kind of alarming to me that there were more men than women invited just like always (even though the ratio was better than before)
DJDeeJay
I'm not implying otherwise. I'm more concerned on Nathaniel trying to "think" like them. It sure helpe to be a little more audacious. A little more "hipper". It could only help to put a spotlight on something else, entirely. Like, Haddish? Sean Baker, perhaps?
Sometimes I think that trying to pick their brains it's like a vicious circle. You call some other options, and chances are they're going to see them. Whether they like it or not.
That holds true for all the pundit's blogosphere.
Nat:
It's what I said above, It's not your fault.,. And I 100% agree about: "I would have gone even further than Cheryl-Boone Isaacs and froze on male inductees for a year or two"
If that puts Dench on a hold and make Ronan (surely the better player this; you may agree on this one) more visible, then Boone Isaacs got into something.
I wish you were more like YOU and less like THEM. Even on predictions. There's no stake in being right or wrong. I like your choices far better than the Academy's usually.
And by Weinstein I meant something "passé". Something of that old mentality that needs to be changed . Nothing to do with his antics.
If anyone is making way for Dench, I think it'll be Sally Hawkins, sadly.
But I'm still not entirely comfortable predicting Judi Dench just yet. She could be a Helen Mirren/Hitchcock situation (Golden Globe/BAFTA/SAG) that is snubbed at the end when voters filling out their ballots are like "wait, is she really the best?"
I'm more curious to know who Tiffany Haddish pushes out if she starts gaining steam in supporting actress. Spencer? Blige? Hunter?
@Aron To Hadish's benefit is it appears Janney and Metcalf are the only two certainties. I think Hunter is in her own way too, as a way to recognize the film and the ensemble and the biggest role, but of course, she can still fall through the side.
Other than that it was always open. Blige, Pfeiffer, Thomas, Spencer, Leo, Roberts, etc. None of them actually looked strong enough to round up a consensus top 5 or 6. So if Haddish gains traction she can push aside any of the others.
My guess would be her and Thomas rounds up the top 5.
Happy that they are spreading the wealth, but I think Lady Bird is this year's Juno. Maybe an awards darling but is too slight to win best picture. Just IMHO.
Tiffany Haddish is also a long-shot for an Oscar nomination for supporting actress, unless other factors are at play. I think she is hysterical ... as a stand up comic.
This looks like a good set of results. Of the films, I've only seen Get Out and Call Me By Your Name so far but I'm hoping to see The Florida Project this weekend and I am looking forward to Lady Bird. As for Girls Trip, I looked up clips online and found a hilarious scene involving a grapefruit. After that and the peach in a certain other film, is this the award season's unlikeliest trend?...
Steve_Man: I've seen The Big Sick and without seeing how things shook down, I'd have assumed Hunter and Romano would have been treated as a package deal, slightly tilted toward Ray "I somehow got the Oscar Clip" Romano. (Yeah, I don't know what movie awards groups watched that nominated one and not the other.)
Romano was better than advertised from his supporters. Holly Hunter is an institution and she's preferable in The Big Sick than she was in her last nominated performance in Thirteen. Now I dislike that movie immensely but on re-watches Hunter doesn't move me a bit. She got in because of who she is rather than what she did. Romano is so hot with the old man beard.
Wow! What an inspiring list o winners!! 😘
Ronan may not be the youngest best actress but she sure is the youngest to win it twice!! I tink she's clearly the frontrunner now at the 2nd or 3rd spot. So happy for Lady Bird!! 😁
That said, i thot Call Me by Yo Name is gonna take best film. I've a hunch tt Lady Bird prevails here bcos it did not manage to get first film n director prize. Its a pity they stop announcing the runners-up, the race must be super close in those top categories!!
Fyi.. Deborah Kerr won NYFCC thrice, in 1947,1957 n 1960. In fact, she the first actress to claim that prize thrice.
I felt Ray Romano was the big takeaway from The Big Sick. Hunter was fine but didn't have much to do.
Glad for the wins from NYFCC (even if I am more LAFCA when it comes to critics' circles). I have not seen the winning films but glad that Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet and Faces Places won. Critics' choices are just that, choices from a group of people whose collective decision to award films and performances and non-acting awards do not mirror the other choices chosen by their minoritarian members. I used to like NYFCC a lot during the times when Mike Leigh films won and actresses like Alison Steadman and Jane Horrocks were honored. But I also like the fact that Joan Cusack and Lisa Kudrow and Julie Christie became winners. I prefer the choices of LAFCA because of their inclusion of foreign actors and some unheralded English-speaking films (Vera Farmiga in Down to the Bone spring to mind). Last year I was happy with the choice for Huppert and Rebecca Hall.
This is late n a minor quib: Glenda Jackson oso won NYFCC twice in 1970 n 1981, although her 2nd win is for Stevie which was released in the West Coast in 1978!! 😂
Stevie din gain any award traction cept for a Golden Globe nom in 1978, but three yrs later, both East Coast based NYFCC n NBR named her best actress over Dunaway (NYC runner-up), Streep, Keaton n Hepburn.