BEST PICTURE
*1. Amour (Sony Classics) – 28
2. The Master – 25
3. Zero Dark Thirty – 18
BEST DIRECTOR
*1. Michael Haneke (Amour) – 27
2. Kathryn Bigelow – 24
2. Paul Thomas Anderson – 24
BEST ACTOR
*1. Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln – 59 (Dreamworks/Touchstone)
2. Denis Lavant – 49
2. Joaquin Phoenix – 49
BEST ACTRESS
*1. Emmanuelle Riva – Amour – 50 (Sony Classics)
2. Jennifer Lawrence – 42
3. Jessica Chastain– 32
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
*1. Matthew McConaughey – Magic Mike (Warner Bros.), Bernie (Millennium Entertainment) – 27
2. Tommy Lee Jones – 22
3. Philip Seymour Hoffman – 19
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
*1. Amy Adams – The Master (The Weinstein Co.) – 34
2. Sally Field – 23
3. Anne Hathaway – 13
BEST NONFICTION
*1. The Gatekeepers – Sony Pictures Classics – 53
2. This Is Not a Film – 45
3. Searching for Sugar Man – 23
BEST SCREENPLAY
*1. Lincoln (Dreamworks/Touchstone) – Tony Kushner – 59
2. The Master (P.T. Anderson)– 27
3. Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell) – 19
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
*1. Master (Mihai Malaimare, Jr. ) – 60
2. Skyfall (Roger Deakins) – 30
3. Zero Dark Thirty (Greig Fraser) – 21
EXPERIMENTAL: This Is Not a Film (Jafar Panahi)
FILM HERITAGE
• To Laurence Kardish, Senior Film Curator at MoMA, for his extraordinary 44 years of service, including this year’s Weimar Cinema retrospective.
• To Milestone Film and Video for their ongoing Shirley Clarke project.
DEDICATION: This year’s awards are dedicated to the late Andrew Sarris, one of the most original and influential American film critics as well as a founding member of the Society.
Previously: Today, most of the most prominent film critics in the country will meet at Sardis in New York and vote for the best film of the year.
The NSFC was established to counter the New York Times’ influence of Bosley Crowther back in the day, and to that end, they have only matched Oscar’s Best Picture five times since they were formed in 1966, 40 years ago: Annie Hall, Schindler’s List, Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, The Hurt Locker.
They are among the largest critics group voting on awards with the most peculiar tastes. They could be called, for our purposes, the polar opposite of the Broadcast Film Critics, another large voting body with more mainstream tastes that more closely match the Oscar voters.
The NSFC gave their prize to Melancholia last year, The Social Network the previous year and the The Hurt Locker before that.
They should announce some time around noon but I don’t have any ETA. Perhaps one of you readers does. Their current membership is here, as well as their own definition of who they are.
I really don’t have a clue as to what they will choose but I would not be surprised if it were either Amour or Zero Dark Thirty.
