by Nathaniel R
How many critics groups are left? We honestly lose track!
Today we're looking at two more. First is the Austin Film Critics Association who were the only group brave enough in 2006 to step away from Helen Mirren's inexplicable steamroll for The Queen in a Best Actress year that was insane with great options (their iconoclastic choice that year: Ellen Page in Hard Candy). This year though they haven't strayed very far from consensus except that they gave Roma only one prize (!).
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists also announced their prizes which are an exact carbon copy, down the line, of critical consensus leaders, so it's a good thing they have several unusual categories, too. Here are the results...
AUSTIN FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Best Film: If Beale Street Could Talk (dir: Barry Jenkins)
Best Director: Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Actress: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Supporting Actor: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Best Ensemble: Widows
The usual suspects but for a shut-out of Roma in the top two prizes with If Beale Street Could Talk taking those. This is the first year Austin has given out an ensemble award.
Best Original Screenplay: Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You
Best Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Fascinating that no critics groups were willing to look beyond Roma for cinematography. And by fascinating we mean annoying. Yes, Roma is unquestionably awesome to look at. But NO other cinematography this year its equal? That seems like a stretch to these eyeballs. If Oscar voters feel similarly we might have a REALLY weird cinematography list this year at Oscar. You need #1 votes to land a nomination. If 80% of ballots have Roma up top, that's really slim margins for the rest of the field so concentrated fandoms will be very important. Which films might benefit from the tiniest fractions of concentrated fandom making the difference in this field?
Best Score: Jóhann Jóhannsson, Mandy
Best Editing: Tom Cross, First Man
Best Foreign-Language Film: Burning (dir: Chang-dong Lee)
Best Documentary: Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (dir: Morgan Neville)
Best Animated Film: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (dir: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman)
Best Stunts: Mission: Impossible — Fallout
Best Motion Capture/Special Effects Performance: Josh Brolin, Avengers: Infinity War
Best First Film: Eighth Grade (dir: Bo Burnham)
Breakthrough Artist Award: Brian Tyree Henry, If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Austin Film Award: Support the Girls (dir: Andrew Bujalski)
Special Honorary Award: To Bo Burnham, Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton for their brilliant collaborative work on Eighth Grade.
AFCA 2018 Top Ten Films:
- The Favourite
- Roma
- Blindspotting
- You Were Never Really Here
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- First Reformed
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- Eighth Grade
- Shoplifters
- Suspiria
Color us confused that If Beale Street Could Talk is way down at #7 in their top ten list but took their best film prize and Roma is at #2 but also missed their foreign film prize?
ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS
Best Film: Roma
Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Best Actress: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Supporting Actor: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Best Ensemble: Black Panther
Best Original Screenplay: The Favourite
Best Adapted Screenplay: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Best Cinematography: Roma
Best Editing: Roma
Best Foreign-Language Film: Roma
Best Documentary: Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (dir: Morgan Neville)
Best Animated Film: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (dir: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman)
So, they picked the consensuzzzz vote in literally every category with one caveat: Ensemble doesn't really have a consensus, though, since not every organization gives that prize and it's not Oscar related so people don't feel the need to be predictive (relief!). So since they're not budging on the usuals, and co-signing what every other male-dominated critics group has chosen, we have to look to their special awards to get something resembling a unique point of view.
Best Woman Director: Marielle Heller, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Best Woman Screenwriter: Deborah Davis, The Favourite
Best Animated Female: Elastigirl, Incredibles 2
Breakthrough Performance: Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace
Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry: Rachel Morrison for paving the way with her Oscar nomination for Mudbound followed by DP work on Black Panther
Actress Defying Age and Ageism: Viola Davis, Widows
Bravest Performance: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Actress Most in Need of a New Agent: Jennifer Lawrence, Red Sparrow
Most Egregious Age Difference Between Lead and Love Interest Mission Impossible Fallout, Tom Cruise (56) and Rebecca Ferguson (35)
Remake or Sequel That Shouldn't Have Been Made: Overboard
Hall of Shame Award Alleged Abusers Weinstein, Moonves, CK, Rush, Franco, Singer, Rose, Lauer, et al