December 8, 2012 (Boston, MA) -The Boston Online Film Critics Association have chosen their winners for the 2012 year. Awards were selected via a system of online voting. This encouraged efficiency and accuracy for the final results, announced on their website at www.bofca.com.
The recipients of the First Annual BOFCA Awards are:
BEST PICTURE:
ZERO DARK THIRTY
BEST DIRECTOR:
Kathryn Bigelow, ZERO DARK THIRTY
BEST ACTOR:
Daniel Day-Lewis, LINCOLN
BEST ACTRESS:
Jessica Chastain, ZERO DARK THIRTY
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Tommy Lee Jones, LINCOLN
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Anne Hathaway, LES MISERABLES
BEST SCREENPLAY:
Tony Kushner, LINCOLN
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
OSLO, AUGUST 31ST
BEST DOCUMENTARY:
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
BEST ANIMATED FILM:
PARANORMAN
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Roger Deakins, SKYFALL
BEST EDITING:
William Goldenberg & Dylan Tichenor, ZERO DARK THIRTY
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
Jonny Greenwood, THE MASTER
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST:
MOONRISE KINGDOM
THE TEN BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR:
- ZERO DARK THIRTY
- BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
- LINCOLN
- MOONRISE KINGDOM
- DJANGO UNCHAINED
- OSLO, AUGUST 31ST
- HOLY MOTORS
- THE MASTER
- ARGO
- CLOUD ATLAS
During the following week, BOFCA will publish their membership’s individual ballots at www.bofca.com for readers interested in how final decisions were made.
Founded in May 2012, BOFCA fosters a community of web-based film critics and provides them with a supportive group of colleagues and a professional platform for their voices to be heard. They collect and link to their reviews every week at a website that also features original content by members, including filmmaker interviews and spotlights on Boston’s vital repertory film scene.
By widening professional membership to writers working in new media, BOFCA aims to encourage more diverse opinions in the field. The Boston Online Film Critics Association has gathered together critics writing for publications that collectively receive over 15 million impressions/page views per month. BOFCA is present on social media year-round with members’ film articles and essays.
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PARANORMAN!
Pretty much defines consensus as it stands right now.
Obama’s ZDT is going to sweep the season! Yay!
I get the feeling a LOT of these will translate into Oscar wins. . .
Thanks Paddy and Mattoc on the clarification.
And the sheep start to flock behind the leader, as the fanboys have done since the beginning of time…
And the sheep start to flock behind the leader, as the critics have done for the past 4 years now…
Stage show, yup. Neither time it was my choice, though. But it wasn’t bad. Some good songs. Jon from S Club played Marius one time. If you’re British, you might know what I’m talking about. He was always my least favourite member.
Haha someone reads my blog and commented on it! Made my day! What a pretentious cunt – I have a blog lol.
Sam, I suspect Paddy is talking about the stage show.
Mattoc:
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it!!!! Ah bit I better stay clear of I DREAMED A DREAM for obvious reasons!
Paddy, let me get this clear. You state above that you have not seen LES MISERABLES yet, then in a subsequent entry you say you have actually seen it TWICE. Which is it, have you seen it or haven’t you seen it? Look above at the two comments and how they differ.
In any case, no problem at all. Just checked out your wonderful site and left a comment under your own Boston on-line re-cap and have added you to my own site’s sidebar. Yours is an opinion I’d like to have right there to access.
^ ” What else was I supposed to say?
This is where you’re supposed to break out into song.
Ya know Paddy I responded to you with respect, and ended with “Fair enough.” What else was I supposed to say? When I see LES MISERABLES I will be better equipped to engage here. I did see the Broadway show several times and feel it showcases one of the greatest of all theatrical scores, so I’d say the odds are strong I will react favorably.
Christophe: I hear you for sure.
Suspect all you want, Sam. I like musicals… good ones at least. I’ve seen Les Mis twice.
@Sam Juliano
I’m not a stage musical kind of guy either, I was bored to death watching Chicago and Dreamgirls. But I do appreciate older musicals from the golden days (West Side Story, The Sound of Music,…), and I understand their importance in movie history. So I just assumed Les Misérables had the potential to be a throwback to that kind of glorious movies and take the concept even further, based on its epicness and rousing tunes (and despite its rather cheesy lyrics).
We can now predict that Zero Dark Thirty will receive the female vote from the Academy. It’s like the election all over! Yay!
The proof will be in the pudding Paddy. That said though, I suspect you are not a “musical kind of a guy.” Fair enough.
I’m so happy for Deakins! Skyfall was so beautiful to look at! And yay for Moonrise Kingdom 🙂
Johnny Greenwood for “The Master”!!!
It would be a real shame if the Academy missed the opportunity to nominate “The Master” for Cinematography, Score, Actor, and Supporting Actor (and maybe Supporting Actress). As a whole, I won’t gripe when it isn’t nominated for Picture or Director. But the movie’s individual parts are extraordinary.
there does seem to be something rather sinister afoot
The fact that it’s shit?
I jest… I haven’t yet seen it. But not one of the trailers, clips or featurettes thus far has ignited my interest. I may not be in the position to say that Les Mis is shit, but I am in a position to say that it sure looks like shit from here.
Christophe: I quite agree. Though Awards Daily seems to have more fans of the movie musical than any other site out there (to it’s infinite credit) the film musical is the one form that young intellectuals like to dismiss with glee.
The core fans of LES MISERABLES will always be either passionate adherents of the Broadway/London theatre phenomenon (yes I am one and believe Schonberg and Boutuil’s ravishing score to be the best written in the past 40 years, easily besting anything from Andrew Lloyd Weber) and fans of opera. (I fall into that category too but there are many others that do as well) There is nothing more threatening to the film intellectual than a crossover film with theatrical roots. The irony is that a strong argument could be made that theatre and opera are the greatest art forms of all, and that the film addicts are the ones coming in from a subservient position. I won’t take sides there myself as I love all these forms.
I have not seen LES MISERABLES yet, but I do anticipate loving it, because I am coming in such a fervent fan. But I agree there does seem to be something rather sinister afoot.
Earlier this year I didn’t even have Zero Dark Thirty on my radar as an Oscar film to stir things up. In fact, I even considered the possibility that the film might not do so well at the box office or among critics. But now that the film has been seen by critics and people are putting at their top 10 list for best films of year, folk here seem to be getting mad.
Was it not just 4 or 5 months ago that we were predicting a sweep for Les Mis and Lincoln? Or was it not just about 2 months ago that people were clamoring for Argo to win best picture. Before September the Master was considered some force be reckoned with. Now it will be miracle with Phoenix or Hoffman can win.
What I am saying is this Oscar race is way more exciting than last year’s race. People were already putting down the Artist as a winner in November and the film did eventually win at the Oscars. It was the predictability of the race that made it boring. This year we STILL have at least 4 if not 3 major contenders for Best Picture and you folks are still bitchin’ about ZD30 and the praise it has gained. If anything a late game changer should be welcomed!
I haven’t seen it, but seriously stop. This year alone has been enough to rival 2010 and while I doubt Kathryn Bigelow’s latest will win Best Picture I do think its Oscar campaign will be one to watch.
I have a feeling these results are exactly what the Oscars will replicate. The only real question is who else will be nominated.
Alright ! These Critics Know What’s Up ! Know They Are Hitting It On The Head! BOOM! J
@danemychal
Why so much hate against Les Misérables? Have you even seen it yet? Maybe you have, I don’t know, but still I’ll never understand why some people show that much contempt toward that movie when it hasn’t even been released yet.
Well, danemychal, because the best movie rarely wins.
And by the way, Shakespeare in Love is a good movie.
Why would people be mad about Zero Dark Thirty sweeping all the way to Oscar if it really is the best movie? The worst crime would be for thel best film to sweep everything and lose BP to something like Les Mis. Don’t you people remember Brokeback and Crash? Seriously, folks, you rarely get suspense AND the deserving winner both in the same uear. Lets just hope the Academy picks one of the 2 or 3 best films for BP this year and spares us from another Shakespeare in Love type of moment.
Great to see the further confirmation of Day-Lewis (where is that Bradley Cooper adherent who was admonishing Day-Lewis supporters the other day on the NBR thread? Ha!) Day-Lewis will win nearly all the awards from critics in the days to come in this category as he rightfully should.
Great seeing Hathaway finally winning.
And what a fantastic choice in OSLO, AUGUST 17th, which is flat out one of the five best films of 2012.
No doubt Zero Dark Thirty is a strong contender, but will it please the Academy enough to give it the #1 slot? At this point I doubt it. Chastain could pull through, though, as Lawrence, as promising an actress as could be, doesn’t have the right role this year to win.
It is getting a little silly, and still, we are all here reading and interested in their lists. Bloggers are posting all those on their front pages. It has been like this forever, and it won’t change.
I agree, in the end, the critics’ choices won’t matter much, because AMPAS will like what they will like, but the buzz IS good for those really in the race. And this, IMO, is the immediate function of these lists – buzz. The building up of more buzz towards the award we are ALL waiting for.
Personally, I like to see those film I like this year being recognized no matter what. So, I have fun reading all this lists, whether I like the results or not.
“Why do critics keep making political choices? It should be about cinema, not about glorifying the deeds (torture included) of the american imperialism.”
Have you seen the film? If so, please tell me what the political message is here becasue my understanding is that it’s about people trying to complete a job under extremely stressful circumstances.
Why is the choice “political”? Because it’s recent news? Because it’s a fictionlized account of a historical event? You’ve just dismissed Lincoln, Les Miserables, and Argo. Is Beasts of the Southern Wild political – y’know, poh folk/Katrina? On what, then would you like your movies based? Games and comics?
You and that other fool that referred to it as the “obama movie” – go find politics somewhere that matters. You’re only making fools of yourselves here.
Even worse than a new critics group where the hell is Kathryn Bigelow gonna put all these meaningless awards? Daniel Day is going have to add on to his house. Imagine if you had to be present to accept all the critical awards now being handed out. The whole “critic” thing really is kinda like a Tim Burton movie. I can see it now Tim Burton directs and produces The Nightmare before the Critics name their Best.
You also have to wonder how many of these critics group each of these people belong too. Example. Are they like members of the Boston On Line Critics, and then the Boston Film Society Critics, and the National On Line Critics and then the National Society of Critics, The National Board of Review? I mean this is getting a little bit silly.
AMPAS isn’t going to pay a lot attention to the critics. The critics are like the bane of their existence. Another “new group”. Hell some of us should get together and create our own critics group and start marketing awards. The critics groups are a joke anymore.
I had to laugh at Mattoc and Georgia Association of Critics. That was damn funny and probably has more truth to it than anyone wants to accept. I also liked the “bbbbbaaaaa baaaaa critic sheep have you seen a movie….”. So approrpriate.
I had to laugh at Mattoc and Georgia Association of Critics. That was damn funny and probably has more truth to it than anyone wants to accept.
Nic V, meet the critics of the Georgia Film Critics Association. All two of them.
https://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2012/01/18/tree-of-life-moneyball-certified-copy-win-georgia-film-critics-awards/
Nice list. And I am happy to see Skyfall being recognized – Although I really liked The Dark Knight Rises, I prefer The Dark Knight. So Skyfall is my choice for the “blockbuster spot”.
I share the reservations about 0D30. My expectations are high for it because I loved The Hurt Locker and believe the quality would be of the high order. But since I haven’t seen it (I am back home in Brazil and it’ll be out January 18th here), I cannot share the enthusiasm just yet. All this is doing is build more expectations, which scares me a bit because the disappointment might be huge in the end. I really hope not.
Oooooosllloooo! Such a great movie
Nice to see Oslo, August 31 get some love — truly one of the best films of the year, and one people will actually watch decades from now.
Amour not remembered at all.
Skyfall, Django!
Why do critics keep making political choices? It should be about cinema, not about glorifying the deeds (torture included) of the american imperialism.
@ Superkk
when was Lawrence the frontrunner? Based on what awards?
Lawrence’s frontrunner-ness was that after-TIFF-before-NYFCC period = merely great film festival buzz. That’s all. Nothing else.
I’m not a Lawrence hater, I do like her work, in fact love her in some of her films, but there’s frontrunner-buzz and frontrunner-actuality.
The former Lawrence had for some time, the latter Chastain has NOW.
Argo seems to be dropping. Boston doesn’t even support its native son. Maybe its resentment, but these last 3 critic selections seem to proclaim ‘Go Argo yourself.’
Chill, stop fretting and enlighten me with your choices. It’s probably a combination of the critical consensus in the US and Europe in which case it wouldn’t fuck my life
this list means nothing to me. they are a new online group. lets see what LA does tomorrow. another big win for chastain and lawrence will officially be knocked out as the frontrunner.
Everything Kane just said.
I don’t see all the backlash for Zero Dark Thirty. People say they should “shake things up” or “have their own voice”. But imagine for a second you are a member of the Boston Critics and Zero Dark Thirty happens to be your favorite film without question. Are you going to pick something else to appeal to the public and shake up the race? No, you’ll stick with the film you love the most and believe is the best film of the year rather than lying and betraying yourself. Calling any other film the best of the year to shake things up because other critics got their first is not honest, in a way it’s frankly selling out. The Master happens to be my favorite film of the year. If it keeps losing to Zero Dark Thirty or Lincoln, I’m okay with that if those critics believe those two are better than The Master. This is about awarding the best of the year in every category, not about trying to make the year unpredictable for us.
Good list. Joining the consensus but with some distinct choices like Deakins and the Cloud Atlas and The Master in their top Ten.
@Calvin
Yep, and right now there is no “universally acclaimed” animated feature on Metacritic like previous Oscar winners – actually, since the beggining of the category, all of them were acclaimed, except Rango. Frankenweenie won NYFFC, Wreck-it Ralph won NBR, and Paranorman won BOFCA, but Brave leads the Annie nominations alongside Rise of the Guardians. So, it’s still an unpredictable year.
Their top seven could easily end up winning at the Oscars. Not bad for their first year, although critics’ groups surely ought to represent the tastes of their respective memberships rather than pander to the consensus in the hope of matching AMPAS’ choices (*cough…BFCA…cough*)
Although I’m sure the BOFCA is acting honestly.
One question: how many of you have already seen Zero dark thirty? I mean, reading the reviews so far, from very different kind of critics, checking that on metacritic the film has 98/100 and on rottentomatoes keeps 100%. I begin to think we are witnessing a rare achievement. It is a much stronger year than the social network/king’s speech year, stronger than the hurt locker/Avatar year. Maybe Zero Dark thirty is just an undeniable masterpiece stronger than “supposed rules” and “scenarios” that were defining the awards season so far…
Not sure who this new group is, but good for Deakins and Greenwood; overall, a good list.
Zero Dark Thirty naysayers: ever consider that the film just might be that good? I wish they would open it earlier so that we could eliminate some of the riffraff, but I share the frustration in getting excited about something I’ve yet to see over some other pretty damn good films.
Hooray for Oslo!! That film is phenomenal.
It’s interesting to notice that Brave, so far, hasn’t showed up on the Best Animated Feature category (indeed, it’s not the best of the year).
Haha, Obama’s film won again.
The Meta Critics have finally started posting scores for Quartet 🙂 YAYYY
60/100 from the first 4
I so want to see Maggie with a Best Actress Comedy nomination at the Globes,
I am not fantasizing too much, right? 😉
@mecid
Not yet. I’m just comparing the 2012 awards race to 2010’s. So far, ZDT is the highest scoring film of the year on MT and is winning one critics group award after another… exactly like TSN. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I’m a huge fan of Chastain after her phenomenal work last year. Heck, even her work in Madagascar 3 was great.
DEAKINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!
good choices. One thing interests me. I think after seeing Les Mis dissapointing critics groups try to buzz other films, particularly ZD30 to avoid one horse (Lincoln) Oscar race. It will be interesting to see Lincoln vs. ZD30.
This is not BSFC right? The legit Boston Critics Group is BSFC. WHy are critics group suddenly springing out of nowhere?
Ha ha Renee – how funny we both use the word sheep at the very same time!!!
Well if the LA critics go for ZDT tomorrow we can officially call it …… we will have a critical sweep happening ala Social Network. For me ZDT is a more worthy winner BUT in a year that is filled with such great films I really have a hard time accepting it. Critics are becoming a bunch of sheep – they see those that lead the way and to maintain credibility, they follow! ZDT may go all the way and carry on through the Guilds but I am not so sure that the Actors branch will be as supportive as the critics. Please Lord don’t let this awards season become another snooze-fest!
One of the most blatant “let’s just award the buzz frontrunner of every category and not have a thought of out own” from a critics group I have ever seen. Deakins winning is an Oscar thing for being snubbed, not a critics thing.
Even if Zero Dark 30 ends up in Social Network-esque shoes,
we need to keep in mind that:
– Kathryn Bigelow already has and Oscar AND
– Jessica Chastain’s chances are a thousand years stronger than Jesse Eisenberg’s were;
and a few words about the awards: totally predictable choices for the most part 🙁
SURPRISE US critics, SURPRISE US!
Hey Ryan, any word on the Georgia Film Critics Association nominations?
The association that consisted of one guy who ran a taco stand. Their credibility was lacking but that taco guy sure had good taste.
Have you seen ZD30 already, Yashar?
as much as I like to see the love of ZDT growing strong, I would love to see other films get reconigsed. There are plenty of good films to choose from this year, and I think different groups have different opinions about “the best film”, so why stuck with the same choice?
Love to see the inclusion of Moonrise Kingdom and Holy Motors.. I’m particularly thrilled with the animation category. The have awarded 3 dirent films so far.
Just how many new critic groups are going to pop up this year?
Take it all the way to the Oscars, Deakins. And yay for Greenwood. Other than that– bring on the LAFC
That is a really awesome top 10. Kudos for the inclusion of Holy Motors and Cloud Atlas.
Regarding ZDT, I hope it’s not another Social Network situation (As in, a super smart and highly rated film getting all the critic awards until Academy comes and gives the studio to a sentimental film about a stuttering king or something).
Take THAT, Ann Dowd!
Interesting, not inspired with the awards ( I like to share the wealth) top ten is odd, they must have a motley group.
Hathaway! Cloud Atlas!!!!!! Skyfall!
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roger Deakins, SKYFALL
Yes!