More Film Critics Weigh in with Their Annual Awards

Three more critics groups voted today, most notably the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) and the New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO)–of which ComingSoon.net’s Edward Douglas is a member–and while there were a lot of similarities with their choices, possibly showing some sort of consensus brewing, there were a few obvious differences.

The moving slavery drama 12 Years a Slave swept the Boston film critics’ top two honors for Best Picture and director Steve McQueen with NYFCO also choosing the film as their Best Picture in a close race, but instead giving their award for direction to Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity. The Los Angeles critics also gave Cuaron their Best Director honor, and Gravity their Best Picture award in a tie with recent NBR winner, Spike Jonze’s Her.

NYFCO and BSFC went with the same two actors for their respective leading categories, those honors going to Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) and actress Cate Blanchett for her performance in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. L.A. also honored Blanchett, but she shares that honor with Blue is the Warmest Color star Adèle Exarchopoulos, whose Breakthrough Performance was also honored by NYFCO. Both those groups named “Blue” their Foreign Language film of the year.

Bruce Dern added another award to his mantle from the L.A. critics for his performance in Alexander Payne’s Nebraska – Ejiofor was a runner-up.

Both NYFCO and LAFCA gave their Supporting Actress award to Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’O for her heartbreaking role in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave as well as naming Jared Leto as Supporting Actor for his role in Dallas Buyers Club – in the case of LAFCA, Leto ended up in a tie between himself and James Franco for Spring Breakers. BSFC went off on their own choosing the late James Gandolfini for Enough Said and June Squibb for her supporting performance in Nebraska.

NYFCO honored Spike Jonze’s Her for his creative original screenplay while Boston went with Nicole Holofcener’s screenplay for Enough Said and L.A. liked the screenplay for Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight.

Ryan Coogler received his third award of the week, this one from NYFCO for Debut Director for his indie hit Fruitvale Station.

All three groups felt that Emmanuel Luezki’s Cinematography for Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity was the best they’d seen this year and all three groups also gave special awards for Use of Music/Music Score to T. Bone Burnett for his music in the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, which just opened this past Friday.

David O. Russell’s American Hustle (Sony) received NYFCO’s award for Best Ensemble Cast, while the Boston critics gave their own award to Nebraska.

As far as Best Documentary, LAFCA went with Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell while the other two groups went with Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing.

Animated Feature awards were given to Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises (by BSFC and NYFCO) and Ernest and Celestine (LAFCA).

What does it all mean? It could mean nothing or it could mean everything. Awards love from critics groups can theoretically bring more attention to films that Academy members may not have had a chance to see it but might have a DVD screener sitting on a stack just waiting to be watched. It seem like the acting categories are developing bonafide frontrunners at this point while we seem to be paving the way for a second year in a row where the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director go to different movies.

Here is the full list of winners from the New York Film Critics Online:

Best Picture: “12 Years a Slave”

Director: Alfonso Cuaron, “Gravity”

Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”

Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”

Best Ensemble Cast: “American Hustle”

Breakthrough Performance: Adele Exarchopoulos, “Blue Is the Warmest Color”

Best Screenplay: Spike Jonze, “Her”

Best Debut Director: Ryan Coogler, “Fruitvale Station”

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Gravity”

Best Use of Music: “Inside Llewyn Davis”

Best Foreign Language Film: “Blue is the Warmest Color”

Best Documentary: “The Act of Killing”

Best Animated Feature: “The Wind Rises”

TOP ELEVEN PICTURES

12 Years a Slave

Before Midnight

Blue is the Warmest Color

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Inside Llewyn Davis

Nebraska

Philomena

Prisoners

The Wolf of Wall Street

The full list of awards given by the L.A. Film Critics follows:

Best Picture: (tie) “Gravity” and “Her”

Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, “Gravity”

Runner up: Spike Jonze, “Her”

Best Actor: Bruce Dern, “Nebraska”

Runner up: Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”

Best Actress: (tie) Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine,” and Adele Exarchopoulos, “Blue Is the Warmest Color”

Best Supporting Actor: (tie) Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club,” and James Franco, “Spring Breakers”

Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”

Runner up: June Squibb, “Nebraska”

Best Foreign Language Film: “Blue is the Warmest Color”

Runner up: “The Great Beauty”

Best Animation: “Ernest & Celestine”

Runner up: “The Wind Rises”

Best Documentary: “Stories We Tell”

Runner up: “The Act of Killing”

Best Screenplay: Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, “Before Midnight”

Runner up: Spike Jonze, “Her”

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Gravity”

Runner up: Bruno Delbonnel, “Inside Llewyn Davis”

Best Editing: Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Sanger, “Gravity”

Runner up: Shane Carruth and David Lowery, “Upstream Color”

Best Production Design: K.K. Barrett, “Her”

Runner up: Jess Gonchor, “Inside Llewyn Davis”

Best Music Score: T Bone Burnett, “Inside Llewyn Davis”

Runner up: Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett, “Her”

Douglas Edwards Independent/Experimental Film/Video: “Cabinets of Wonder: Films and a Performance by Charlotte Pryce”

And the full list of winners from the Boston Society of Film Critics:

Best Picture: “12 Years a Slave”

Best Director: Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”

Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”

Best Supporting Actor: James Gandolfini, “Enough Said”

Best Supporting Actress: June Squibb, “Nebraska”

Best Ensemble Cast: “Nebraska”

Best Screenplay: Nicole Holofcener, “Enough Said”

Best Documentary: “The Act of Killing”

Best Animated Film: “The Wind Rises”

Best Foreign Language Film: “Wadjda”

Best New Filmmaker: Ryan Coogler, “Fruitvale Station”

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Gravity”

Best Editing: Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill, “Rush”

Best Use of Music in a Film: “Inside Llewyn Davis”