BEST PICTURE
*1. Goodbye to Language 25 (Jean-Luc Godard)
2. Boyhood 24 (Richard Linklater)
3. Birdman 10 (Alejandro G. Iñárritu)
3. Mr. Turner 10 (Mike Leigh)
BEST DIRECTOR
*1. Richard Linklater 36 (Boyhood)
2. Jean-Luc Godard 17 (Goodbye to Language)
3. Mike Leigh 12 (Mr. Turner)
BEST NON-FICTION FILM
*1. Citizenfour 56 (Laura Poitras)
2. National Gallery 19 (Frederick Wiseman)
3. The Overnighters 17 (Jesse Moss)
BEST SCREENPLAY
*1. The Grand Budapest Hotel 24 (Wes Anderson)
2. Inherent Vice 15 (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Birdman 15 (four co-writers)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
*1. Mr. Turner 33 (Dick Pope)
2. The Immigrant 27 (Darius Khondji)
3. Goodbye to Language 9 (Fabrice Aragno)
BEST ACTOR
*1.Timothy Spall 31 (Mr. Turner)
2. Tom Hardy 10 (Locke)
3. Joaquin Phoenix 9 (Inherent Vice)
3. Ralph Fiennes 9 (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
BEST ACTRESS
*1. Marion Cotillard 80 (Two Days, One Night, The Immigrant)
2. Julianne Moore 35 (Still Alice)
3. Scarlett Johansson 21 (Lucy; Under the Skin)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
*1. J.K. Simmons 24 (Whiplash)
2. Mark Ruffalo 21 (Foxcatcher)
3. Edward Norton 16 (Birdman)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
*1. Patricia Arquette 26 (Boyhood)
2. Agata Kulesza 18 (Ida)
3. Rene Russo 9 (Nightcrawler)
I just saw goodbye to language. A bad choice in my opinion. It is not oscar elligable because it never opened in LA.
Saw the gorgeous Mr. Turner yesterday . The 3rd best picture behind Boyhood and Birdman.
Sasha/Ryan – please change ‘Tailer’ to ‘Taylor’ in my previous comment 🙂
Godard is the Emperor’s New Clothes of filmmaking and the fact that Mr. Turner came in third confirms that the National Society of Film Critics are a pretentious lot of those who lie to themselves. Mr. Turner is the most boring movie I have ever seen, and the most boring movie anyone who has seen it has ever seen. It is not enjoyable. (I loved ‘Another Year’ by the way.) Mr. Turner is the worst movie of the year. Anyone who pretends otherwise is just scared of looking stupid – it’s ‘Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy’ all over again.
I’m glad I could teach you folks a new word today. I’m here to educate. (And in no way is using the word “philosophastering” an act of philosophastering, for the one that suggested that it has a boomerang effect.)
Speaking of British films, I just came across this story about the Golden Globe nominee ”Pride”: Pink News reports that the U.S. DVD cover for the movie removes gay references from its plot synopsis and photoshops out a banner that mentions ”lesbians and gays.”
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/01/02/us-dvd-cover-for-pride-removes-all-references-to-homosexuality/
@JOSEPH – The evidence suggests that, unlike you, most AMPAS voters actually prefer Leigh’s biopics – “Topsy-Turvy” is the only one of his films to actually WIN anything from the Academy…
How cool would the Oscars be if they did this?
I think Mr. Turner is way too long and kind of boring, but there’s no denying the brilliance of Spall and that beautiful cinematography. Like most Oscar voters, however, I prefer Leigh’s slices of life (Another Year, Happy-Go-Lucky) to his biopics (Topsy-Turvy, Mr. Turner).
Great to see Godard acknowledged. The fact that he is 84 and continues to push the envelop and experiment with new technology is amazing.
I noticed Reno was waiting for Goodbye to Language to come to Netflix, but the thing about the film is that it really needs to be seen in a theater in 3D in order to be appreciated. What a shame that it’s only playing in a few theaters, and that most moviegoers (even cinephiles) haven’t bothered to see it. It’s not like other Godard films that can be studied at home on a DVD.
I still don’t think Spall will make it in sadly. Anyone rememeber Sally Hawkins and Happy Go Lucky? Took the top 3 critics awards, other critics awards and even a Golden Globe and was snubbed for an Oscar nomination. But I think, even though original screenplay is packed, Mike Leigh can still get in. It’s really interesting that Birdman has barely made a showing with the NSFC, not to mention the LAFCA and NYFCC. It just shows how strong of a year this is for film. I also think Boyhood is not winning original screenplay. Grand Budapest Hotel has this, Birdman could win it too though.
“So basically Boyhood won Picture and Director; Marion Cotillard once again proves she is in the running for a Best Actress nomination, and likely to take the fifth slot from either Jennifer Aniston or Felicity Jones.”
How did she prove that? Come on, folks! The NSFC Awards are voted by critics and it’s not as if an Oscar voter takes a look at the tallies of critics’ wins and decides which actor should get his first slot based on that. If it were, Sally Hawkins would be nearly unbeatable for Happy-Go-Lucky (she won the lion share of awards that year, including the three biggies), Bill Murray would have swept for Rushmore and Virginia Madsen would have defeated Cate Blanchett easily. It’s not about that and Marion Cotillard has the huge disadvantage of being in a film that Oscars voters simply don’t get. Yes, she has the advantage of this being a laughably bad year for actresses, but there are always names the Academy would come up with.
Moore doesn’t need to sweep in order to win best actress. Kate Winslet didn’t sweep. She barely won critics’ awards. Sandra Bullock won a total of ZERO critics’ awards (unless you count the Critics’ Choice but to me they aren’t critics, all due respect). They still were the clear front-runners by Oscar night and they won.
On best actor: I’ve really been thinking about Spall a lot. This is a great performance and it saddens me that he probably won’t get nominated in the end. He needs number one votes, but how many will he get? The British community in the actors’ branch could gather behind Cumberbatch or Redmayne or they could be all over the place. The critical attention and the BAFTA nomination could help him though. He won’t kick out Cumberbatch, Keaton and the really overrated Redmayne. From then on, Gyllenhaal, Oyelowo and Carrel are vulnerable. I wouldn’t be surprised to have a line-up like that:
Cumberbatch
Fiennes
Keaton
Redmayne
Spall
But it could be as boring as:
Carell
Cumberbatch
Gyllenhaal
Keaton
Redmayne
Or it could be the even more predictable:
Cumberbatch
Gyllenhaal
Keaton
Oyelowo
Redmayne
Anyway, I do have a feeling Fiennes is in. And it would be great if Spall is in as well.
Timothy Spall is so wonderful in Mr Turner but it is a rough and difficult performance to appreciate. He’s such a weird character, and Spall puts the emotions out only in brief, surprising moments. I have certain problems with the movie’s intentions — is it a film about the nature of art or the biography of a man — but Spall is never anything than magnificent.
News flash for N.Y. fans of Marion Cotillard, the NSFC winner for Best Actress. She’ll be doing a Q&A at the Sun., Jan. 4, screening of ”Two Days, One Night” after the 7:20 p.m. screening at the IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St., New York City. Cotillard also will introduce the 9:30 p.m. screening.
Interesting word, philosophastering. It’s one of those few English words that actually boomerangs back on the user.
@Tom
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philosophastering
Godard – I love it.
“philosophastering” ?????
This calls for another, “meh.” Goodbye to Language is best compared to a student art project. The wisest thing anyone said about it was when one critic asked how it would have been received if it hadn’t been directed by the legendary Jean-Luc Godard. First of all, it would not have been seen by anyone. Second of all, on the off-chance anyone would have seen it, those people wouldn’t have been moved by its empty (and, frankly, tiresome) pretensions. Certainly, it would not have garnered this sort of praise, or elicited such endless philosophastering. Anyway, based on how the various members of this critics group voted just a few weeks ago at their regional film critics awards, I can only imagine that they were trying to do something different here.
Hopefully the fact that Cotillard won such a huge margin will be noticed by Academy voters
I think Timothy Spall clearly is going to be a strong possibility for a Best Actor nomination- Mr. Turner is, after all, critically acclaimed- and Mike Leigh’s finest in a decade.
Boyhood also was the clear winner here – Goodbye to Language is a joke for a winner; come on NSFC- you could have looked over the winners and realized Boyhood was the champion. 1 point difference- really?
So basically Boyhood won Picture and Director; Marion Cotillard once again proves she is in the running for a Best Actress nomination, and likely to take the fifth slot from either Jennifer Aniston or Felicity Jones.
Julianne Moore is NOT cleaning up house as expected. I think Lead Actress could very well go to someone else (Including Rosamund Pike).
This awards season is not over. Not by a mile.
Just saw Mr. Turner last Sunday and it’s no surprise that Spall took Best Actor here. I hope he gets in with Oscar but since it’s become more of a fashion show than something about great acting, I doubt it. This kind of reminds me of what happened with Sally Hawkins and Happy-go-Lucky. Yeah, she was nominated for, and won the Globe, but Spall was overlooked, mainly because it’s not a Hollywood type bio, Spall’s a character actor, but most important, I find it difficult to believe that three Brits will get in, let alone four. Redmayne is playing the kind of part that Hollywood loves to nominate and Hawking is very popular here, then there’s Oyelowo playing King, which doesn’t hurt and he holds the minority card. This is not to say that his performance is not good, it is, but we know well more about Martin Luther King here than we do about Turner the painter. Then there’s Cumberbatch, who’s popular here as Holms and from an Oscar prospect, is in a film that Harvey is pushing, so there’s your three. Spall is in a Non-Hollywood film, although helmed by a highly respected director, and SPC has others in the race who might have a better chance here (Carell for Foxcatcher) or (Miles Teller for Whiplash). Now, when it comes to the BAFTA, Spall will not only be nominated, he will win.
I sense a lot of advocacy.
Boyhood was dominating, and some voters – those who perhaps weren’t keen on toeing the critical line (or maybe even those who didn’t want to make Boyhood look like the critics’ darling and thereby spoil its chances of connecting with industry voters) – rallied against it. There’s no compelling reason, for me at least, for Jean-Luc Godard scoring half as many points as Richard Linklater (this is Godard, people!) in Best Director and then for Goodbye to Language to scrape past Boyhood and take Best Picture. Still, I applaud them on picking the film, because it’s fantastic, and it aligns very nicely with a lot of their other picks in the past.
How many times in history has a major American critics’ organisation chosen a film that was ineligible for the Oscars as its best of the year?
Another sign of advocacy: The Immigrant makes a showing in Best Cinematography, implying that the film has at least some support within the society. But Marion Cotillard is credited as winning Best Actress for Two Days, One Night alone. We know that they’re not averse to crediting performers for more than one film, because they do it for Scarlett Johansson. So, if The Immigrant and Marion Cotillard both have their fans here, then how come she wins in such an unprecedented landslide without a single mention for The Immigrant? Advocacy! Voters recognise that she has a viable shot at an Oscar nomination for Two Days, but much less of one for The Immigrant. That’s a big push they’re giving her, and most deserved.
Also deserved is Mr. Turner’s terrific showing. The film’s on a roll: strong box office, success within the NSFC, BAFTA nominations on the way next week and then Oscars the week after. I hope and expect it will do rather well with both of those groups.
Et tu, National Society of Film Critics? CITIZENFOUR in a landslide? You’d think these intelligent folks could distinguish between TOPIC and FILMMAKING, but, no. I genuinely feel sorry for all the fine documentarians who released movies this year – they seem to have no chance vs. the Snowden goliath.
Go Rene Russo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hopefully Goodbye to Language comes into Netflix soon so I don’t have to spend on Amazon to see it.
Still hoping for a Rene Russo supporting actress nom at the Oscars.
Always solid choices and I like that they publish the top vote getters.
National Society is always so different with their picks. Do you think Timothy Spall’s victory here is a sign that he’ll sneak into the Oscars’ Best Actor category?