So this year the Independent Ethos had a say in awards season. It marked my first year voting with the prestigious Florida Film Critics Circle who voted me into the group earlier this year. That meant lots of awards-season watching including exclusive screenings and the over-working of my UPS guy. It also meant fewer posts because I had to watch a lot of movies.
Anyway, I turn it over to Dan Hudak (of Hudak on Hollywood and chairman of the FFCC), who released the following press release this morning with the breakdown:
FFCC Winners Announcement – 2012
December 18 – Ben Affleck’s “Argo” was the overwhelming winner of the Florida Film Critics Circle’s (FFCC) annual awards, taking home prizes for Best Picture, Best Director for Affleck and Adapted Screenplay for Chris Terrio.
“Argo” was the only film to win more than one award. Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for “Lincoln” (he previously won for “Gangs of New York” and “There Will Be Blood”), while Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was previously recognized by the group for his work in “Capote,” won Supporting Actor for his performance as a charismatic cult leader in “The Master.”
Jessica Chastain won Best Actress for Kathryn Bigelow’s hunt-for-Bin Laden drama “Zero Dark Thirty,” and Anne Hathaway won Supporting Actress for her emotional portrayal of Fantine in “Les Miserables.”
Roger Deakins had previously won the FFCC’s Cinematography honor for “The Man Who Wasn’t There” in 2001, and he won again this year for “Skyfall.” And in a mild upset, Rian Johnson won Original Screenplay for “Looper.”
In other awards, “The Intouchables” won a close race over “Amour” for Foreign Language Film, “Frankenweenie” took Animated Film and “The Queen of Versailles” was hailed as the best Documentary. The FFCC also honored the Art Direction/Production Design team from “Anna Karenina” and the Visual Effects unit from “Life Of Pi.”
And for a performance that generated Oscar buzz when “Beasts of the Southern Wild” was released over the summer, eight year-old Quvenzhané Wallis won the Pauline Kael Breakout Award.
Founded in 1996, the Florida Film Critics Circle is comprised of 21 writers from state publications. Dan Hudak of www.hudakonhollywood.com has served as chairman since March 2008. For more information on the FFCC, visit floridafilmcriticscircle.webs.com.
Complete list of winners:
Picture: Argo
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Director: Ben Affleck, Argo
Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, Argo
Original Screenplay: Rian Johnson, Looper
Cinematography: Roger Deakins, Skyfall
Visual Effects: Life Of Pi
Art Direction/Production Design: Thomas Brown, et. Al, and Sarah Greenwood, Anna Karenina
Foreign Language: The Intouchables
Animated: Frankenweenie
Documentary: The Queen Of Versailles
Breakout: Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Golden Orange: No award
* * *
Personally, it all seems rather safe. I nominated The Master (‘The Master’ harnesses cinema’s power to maximal effect – a film review), Holy Motors (Film Review: ‘Holy Motors’ pays tribute to cinema while exploring its edges), Take This Waltz and even The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr’s ‘The Turin Horse,’ the first masterpiece film of 2012) in more categories.
On the other hand, I was happy see my colleagues agreed with some of my nominees, including Quvenzhané Wallis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway in acting. Rian Johnson was also my pick for the refreshing Looper (Film Review: ‘Looper’ smartens up sci-fi tropes to riveting effect).
There were other filmmaking categories we agreed on, too. My only head-scratcher would be Skyfall, whose cinematography came across as quite banal compared to many other films of the year (I mean, look at the image above from Turin Horse and imagine a camera slowly circling it from one brilliant angle to another… for eight minutes!). Over all, I’m quite pleased with the results and now look forward to 2013… but also my up-coming list of favorite movies.
