Detroit Loves "The Artist", Feels "Shame"

After my chat with Judy Greer I've been feeling homesick for Detroit. Or maybe it's just the ghost of Christmases past floating about though I haven't done a Christmas in Michigan in years. So what a perfect day for the Detroit Film Critics to announce their winners! The Artist is no sweeper but it's proving to be a formidable competitor on the critical map. A nice surprise from Detroit is the solid support afforded Shame which took two of the six acting prizes. 

Picture The Artist
Director Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Screenplay Moneyball
Documentary Tabloid

...and the acting prizes
Actress Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Actor Michael Fassbender, Shame
Supporting Actress Carey Mulligan, Shame
Supporting Actor Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Breakthrough Performances Jessica Chastain
Ensemble Carnage

How amazing is this ad for SHAME from a UK paper I believe?

Since I used to live in the Detroit area, I know how long it can be before Oscar releases show up there so I read this piece from John Serba on the voting with great interest. Here's what he says about Best Actress:

Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn. A strong candidate in a weak-ish field. Although now that I've seen “Young Adult,” I'd have voted for Charlize Theron over Williams. So it goes."

I weep for the Michiganders who had a weak Best Actress year! This year is just incredible for Best Actress but, alas, many of the best performances were found in tiny films that maybe never made it to the Detroit Metro area or did not get the attention they deserved if they showed their which was probably for one week in one theater. So it goes, indeed.

The members of this organization, which I'm only listing due to Motown kinship, are as follows: Kirk Baird (The Toledo Blade), Jason Buchanan (allmovie.com), Jim Fordyce (MIentertainment.biz), Adam Graham (The Detroit News), Corey Hall (The Metro Times), Tom Long (The Detroit News), Jeff Meyers (The Metro Times), John Monaghan (The Detroit Free Press), Warren Pierce (WJR Radio), Greg Russell (WMYD-TV), James Sanford (The Kalamazoo Gazette), Tom Santilli (Examiner.com), Debbie Schlussel (Sirius Patriot Channel 144’s Mike Church Show), Perry Seibert (allmovieguide.com), John Serba (The Grand Rapids Press), Lee Thomas (WJBK Fox 2), Mike Tyrkus (Cinemanerdz.com), Kirk Vanderbeek (Real Detroit Weekly), Greg Walton (WIOG/KRSP), and Stephanie Webb (WZZM, ABC 13), Chris Williams (Advisor & Source Newspapers), and Rob Worley (Backlot D.) 

Critics Prizes Dotting The Map

You may have noticed that The Film Experience never publishes the lists of nominees from small critics organizations. The winners we like to cover, yes. But nominees? This is, in my opinion, the last thing the already crowded landscape of movie awards needs is for each tiny critics organization to attempt to share not just their advocacy for Best of the Best but all the other ones they liked too. If winners announcements are good enough for the three most prestigious societies (NYFCC, LAFCA and NSFC) they should be good enough for the smaller groups. It all becomes too much noise. The multiple daily announcements actually bring one of We Need To Talk About Kevin's best scenes to mind. Tilda's weary mom stops near a construction site to allow a jackhammer to drown out the endless crying of her demon baby. Hilariously wrong but you feel for her. 

But now that we have some winners, here we go! 

San Diego Film Critics Society

Film The Artist
Director Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive
Actress Brit Marling, Another Earth
Actor Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
Supporting Actress Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
Supporting Actor Nick Nolte, Warrior
Ensemble Performance Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Animated Film Arthur Christmas
Documentary Project Nim
Foreign Film I Svil
Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life
Editing Oliver Bugge Coutté, Beginners
Production Design Dante Ferretti, Hugo
Original Screenplay Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen
Adapted Screenplay Moneyball by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin
Score Alexandre Desplat, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Body of Work Jessica Chastain
Kyle Counts Award Lee Ann Kim, San Diego Asian Film Foundation

Houston, Toronto, Indiana, and the African American Film Critics Association after the jump with more cities to come...

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BFCA 'Critics Choice' Nominees: It's Hugo vs. The Artist

As you may or may not know, I am a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association. So this weekend, I rushed to turn in my ballot hoping against hope that my tiny voice will save them from their own relentless interest in predicting the Oscars above all else. I hoped, for example, that here is where you'd see a bit of Off Oscar movement for some of the interesting divisive movies such as Melancholia or critical hit only performances like Olivia Colman's in Tyrannosaur or things only critics have seen but that they lovedlovedloved like A Separation (Trust: I'm far from the only one.) While hope springs eternal, this year they held on tight to just what you'd expect: Oscar predictions! There are about 250 members of the BFCA -- you can see a list here --  and remarkably none of us are named Peter Travers though as a group we seem to collectively share his Oscar-hewing choices under the guise of "My opinion - screw Oscar!" (teehee). But what can you do?!

Movieloving duo The Artist and Hugo led the nominations with 11 nods apiece. Let's look at each category. The "Critics Choice" Awards will be held on January 12th, 2012 and broadcast on VH1 as per usual. This year's hosts will be Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer.

BEST PICTURE

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Drive
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse 

(SOLE) SURPRISE / BAD NEWS FOR: I really thought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 would place her given that so many media types (many of them BFCA members) are obsessed with those massive franchises - especially when/because they're ending. Otherwise this is just what you'd expect for an Oscar prediction + DRIVE which, yes, I voted for. Duh!
THREAT TO WIN: I think you're looking at Hugo vs. The Artist and not just due to the nomination count. 

It's HUGO vs. THE ARTIST, each with 11 nominations

BEST DIRECTOR

• Stephen Daldry, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
• Alexander Payne, The Descendants
• Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo
• Steven Spielberg, War Horse

SURPRISE: Refn's genre effort paid off. And Spielberg's schmaltz-a-thon? That's not a surprise but: Yikes. I guess the BFCA really thinks War Horse will score big with Oscar. Perhaps it shall. Otherwise, it's exactly as you'd expect though I'm pleased to see Refn squeeze in to the Oscar predictions.
BAD NEWS FOR: Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris. He hasn't been nominated for Best Director at the Oscars in a very long time. One wonders if they'll want to welcome him back this year given the "comeback" story with his film's surprise hit status. 
THREAT TO WIN: I'm assuming the BFCA members will swerve towards Scorsese with a combo of hero worship and genuine love for his new film. 

BEST ACTRESS 

• Viola Davis, The Help
• Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
• Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
• Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin
• Charlize Theron, Young Adult
• Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

SURPRISE: This is good news for Olsen and Swinton who are both still in the fight for an Oscar nod despite films that are more alienating than Oscar goes for. 
BAD NEWS FOR: From an Oscary standpoint this is another nail in Glenn Close's Albert Nobbs coffin. From the needed a boost file, this is a tough blow for Olivia Colman and Kirsten Dunst.

THREAT TO WIN: The BFCA likes to give Meryl Streep best actresses wins and, extraordinarily, they like to do it with ties. It keeps happening (tied with Anne Hathaway in 2008, tied with Sandra Bullock for 2009). so expect her to win her third in 4 years in January... but...

poll by twiigs.com

COMPLETE NOMINATIONS AND MORE COMMENTARY AFTER THE JUMP.

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'Attack of the 50 Foot Vanessa!' San Francisco Winners

I've long been saying that if Oscar voters actually see Ralph Fiennes Shakespearean adaptation Coriolanus -- it's an "if" because 80% of the contenders, even the teensy tiny ones, chose December as their best Oscar strategy -- it'll be tough to stop Vanessa Redgrave from crushing her Best Supporting Actress competition. Though Fiennes is the actor/director it's the legendary Oscar winner who walks away with the movie as his proud, fierce, monster mom, so proud of her son's battle scars she comes across as yet more bloodthirsty than he.

So today she picks up her second precursor after the British Independent Film Awards. San Francisco apparently likes their moms all sticky with a violent son's blood. See also their best actress winner: Tilda Swinton

San Francisco Film Critics Circle Winners
PICTURE The Tree of Life
DIRECTOR Terrence Malick, the Tree of Life 
ACTRESS Tilda Swinton, We Need To Talk About Kevin
ACTOR... Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus
SUPPORTING ACTOR Albert Brooks, Drive

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY JC Chandor, Margin Call
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
ANIMATED FEATURE Rango
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Certified Copy
DOCUMENTARY Tabloid
CINEMATOGRAPHY The Tree of Life
SPECIAL CITATION "The Mill and the Cross"
MARLON RIGGS AWARD (Courage and Vision in Bay Area film community)
National Film Preservation Foundation 

All in all a very good showing for The Tree of Life, Tinker Tailor and bloody mamas everywhere. Now excuse me while I do a happy dance for Certified Copy. YES.

LAFCA & NYFCO Part Ways Over The Artist

Could Fassbender be eyeing Oscar?Andreas here. Want to see end-of-year craziness in action? Look at today: first, the Boston Society of Film Critics announces their awards, then before they've finished, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Online start tag-teaming it! It all starts to blend together sometimes -- Emmanuel Plummer won for something called Drivemaids? -- but no worries, we've got it straightened out:

First, the LAFCA winners...

PICTURE The Descendants (runner-up: The Tree of Life)

DIRECTOR Terence Malick for The Tree of Life

 (Runner-up: Martin Scorsese for Hugo)

SCREENPLAY Asghar Farhadi for A Separation (For Your Consideration!)

ACTRESS Yun Jung-hee for Poetry

 (Runner-up: Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia)

ACTOR Michael Fassbender for A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, and X-Men: First Class

 (Runner-up: Michael Shannon for Take Shelter)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS Jessica Chastain for everything

(Runner-up: Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs)

SUPPORTING ACTOR Christopher Plummer for Beginners

 (Runner-up: Patton Oswalt for Young Adult)

CINEMATOGRAPHY Emmanuel Lubezki for The Tree of Life

 (Runner-up: Cao Yu for City of Life and Death)

PRODUCTION DESIGN Dante Ferretti for Hugo

 (Runner-up: Maria Djurkovic for Tinker Tailor)

DOCUMENTARY/NONFICTION Cave of Forgotten Dreams

 (Runner-up: The Arbor)

ANIMATION Rango

 (Runner-up: The Adventures of Tintin)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM City of Life and Death

 (Runner-up: A Separation)

NEW GENERATION The creative team behind Martha Marcy May Marlene

INDEPENDENT/EXPERIMENTAL Spark of Being

BEST MUSIC/SCORE The Chemical Brothers for Hanna

 (Runner-up: Cliff Martinez for Drive)

Commentary and NYFCO awards after the jump.

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