An Awards Night in New York

by Murtada Elfadl

Award events where the winners have already been announced have a particular way about them. The speeches are mostly prepared before, and the winners  - or their publicists and the people behind their movies - have a say in who gets to present them with the award. Last night the New York Film Critics Circle presented their 2019 awards and here are some of the presenter / winner pairings and why perhaps they’ve been chosen.

Yahya Abdul Mateen / Lupita Nyong’o…. He played her dad in flashbacks in Us

Claire Denis / Mati Diop …. Diop was in Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum...

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Podcast: Everything you wanted to know about precursor awards week ... but were afraid to ask*

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl welcome back NICK DAVIS! 

In this hour long conversation Nick, Murtada, and your TFE mastermind Nathaniel discuss the first gigantic week of precursor season. What hath the Globes and SAG wrought and who are we sad about (Alfre Woodard!) and who are we rooting for (Antonio Banderas) and the like. We're divided on Judy and Dark Waters and Robert DeNiro's The Irishman and we dunk a little on Richard Jewell and The Two Popes (sorry!). We also have words for NEON not finding a way to honor Clemency while pushing Parasite. Finally we try to suss out the impossible "Best Actor" race which is giving everyone predictive pause.  

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Precursor Madness

"The Irishman" takes NYFCC

Another day, another prize for The Irishman. Following its NBR win, the Martin Scorsese epic takes the much more prestigious top prize from the New York Film Critics Circle. This is Scorsese’s second movie to win the NYFCC. The first was Goodfellas (1990). 

Here are the winners and a few comments...

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NYFCC Obsesses Over Roma

The New York Film Critics Circle are one of the two most influential groups who pass out critics prizes (the other being their Los Angeles counterparts the LAFCA) during Oscar's preseason. Today the 40+ New York critics made their choices which involve multiple rounds of voting and discussions among the critics attending in the room. They were wild for Roma giving the Mexican black & white memoir the top prize and giving writer/director/producer/editor/director of photography Alfonso Cuarón two additional prizes with Best Director and Best Cinematography.

Their prizes went like so...

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The Oscar Week with Haddish in New York & Chastain in Palm Springs

by Murtada

Welcome back to The Oscar Week, where we follow Oscar contender appearances and interviews and examine how they impact their chances. After a 2 week hiatus, all the contenders were back in full campaign mode on both coasts, cramming in as many events as they could before the Golden Globes. Even hitherto missing person, Sally Hawkins, made an appearance at the Palm Springs Film Festival.

However the week, the moment, maybe even the year belonged to Tiffany Haddish. She took the New York Film Critics Circle awards dinner by storm, delivering an 18 minute epic speech. Here are a few excerpts:

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