Central Ohio Film Critics Awards 2009

2009 Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards
2009 Central Ohio Film Critics award winners: Jan. 9, 2009
 

WALL-E by Andrew Stanton
 

Best Film: WALL·E
Runners-up:
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Frozen River
4. The Dark Knight
5. Frost/Nixon
6. Milk
7. The Wrestler
8. Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
10. In Bruges
Best Foreign Language Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile)
Runner-Up: Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Runner-Up: American Teen
Best Animated Film: WALL·E
Runner-Up: Kung Fu Panda
Best Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
Runner-Up: Andrew Stanton (WALL·E)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Runner-Up: Sean Penn (Milk)
Best Actress: Melissa Leo (Frozen River)
Runner-Up: Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
Best Supporting Actor: [...]

New York Film Critics Online Awards 2008

2008 New York Film Critics Online Awards
2008 New York Film Critics Online Award winners: December 14, 2008
 

Dev Patel, Freida Pinto in Slumdog Millionaire
 

Best Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Top Ten Films (in alphabetical order)
Che
A Christmas Tale
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
The Wrestler
Best Foreign Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu
Best Documentary: Man on Wire by James Marsh
Best Animated Feature: WALL-E by Andrew Stanton
Best Director: Danny Boyle (with Loveleen Tandan) – Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor: Sean Penn – Milk
Best Actress: Sally Hawkins – Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire – Anthony Dod Mantle
Best [...]

2008 New York Film Critics Winners

There were no major surprises in the list of the New York Film Critics Circle’s 2008 winners — unless you count last year’s Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days being chosen this year’s best foreign film. (Last year, the New York critics’ picked the German drama The Lives of Others — released in Los Angeles in 2006 — as their top foreign film; the previous year, their choice was the French underground drama Army of Shadows, a 1969 release in its country of origin.)
Milk was voted best film, Sean Penn (above) was the best actor for his performance as slain gay leader Harvey Milk, and Josh Brolin was chosen best supporting actor for the same film. [...]

New York Film Critics Awards 2008

2008 New York Film Critics Circle Awards
2008 New York Film Critics Circle Award winners: Dec. 10, 2008
 

Best Picture: Milk directed by Gus Van Sant
Runners-up: Rachel Getting Married; Happy-Go-Lucky and Slumdog Millionaire (tie)

Best Foreign Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days directed by Cristian Mungiu
Runners-up: A Christmas Tale; The Class

Best First Film: Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Runners-up: Ballast; Reprise

Best Documentary: Man on Wire directed by James Marsh
Runners-up: Waltz with Bashir; Trouble the Water

Best Animated Film: WALL-E directed by Andrew Stanton
Runner-up: Waltz with Bashir

Best Director: Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
Runners-up: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire; David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Runners-up: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler; Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino

Best Actress: Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Runners-up: Melissa Leo, Frozen River; Kate Winslet, [...]

Nastri d’Argento 2008

2008 Nastri d’Argento
National Union of Italian Film Journalists’ 2008 Nastri d’Argento (Silver Ribbons) nominations: May 11, 2008
2008 Nastri d’Argento winners: Teatro Antico di Taormina, Sicily, on June 14, 2008
(”*” denotes the winner in each category)
 

Isabella Ragonese plays a college grad who struggles to find work in A Whole Life Ahead
 

Best Director
Antonello GRIMALDI – Caos calmo
Daniele LUCHETTI – Mio fratello è figlio unico
Silvio SOLDINI – Giorni e nuvole
* Paolo VIRZÌ – Tutta la vita davanti / A Whole Life Ahead
Gianni ZANASI – Non pensarci
Best European Film
Across the Universe – Julie Taymor
Elizabeth: The Golden Age – Shekar Kapur
Atonement – Joe Wright
La vie en [...]

Oscar 2008: 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS of Outrage

Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

In the LA Weekly, Scott Foundas wonders, "How do you say ‘Oscar scandal’ in Romanian"?
Oscar scandaliu perhaps?
I mean, for Zeus’ sake, even Scott Foundas’ own mother liked Cristian Mungiu’s widely praised Cannes Film Festival winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Why didn’t those Academy voters who pick the potential nominees for best foreign-language film feel the same way?
Why indeed.
I generally find the Academy’s choices pathetic, but that organization’s best foreign-language film voters make its best picture voters seem like arbiters of cinematic quality. (Of course, I know that taste is personal, etc., etc., but the loads of money poured into Oscar vote-buying and all the internal politicking [...]

Oscar 2008: Best Foreign-Language Film Semi-Finalists

The Unknown by Giuseppe Tornatore (top); The Counterfeiters by Stefan Ruzowitzky (bottom)

When I stated in my Oscar 2008 predictions that the Academy’s foreign-language film shortlist is the most difficult to predict, I wasn’t kidding.
Nowhere to be found in the list of nine foreign-language film semi-finalists are:

Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days — last year’s Cannes Film Festival winner and considered by numerous U.S. critics one of the best films of 2007;
Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s much-ballyhooed and New York Film Critics Circle winner Persepolis, which may still get a best animated feature nod;
and Juan Antonio Bayona’s box-office hit and multiple-Goya nominee The Orphanage.

Additionally, there was a major surprise among those that [...]

National Society of Film Critics Awards 2008

2008 National Society of Film Critics Awards
2008 National Society of Film Critics award winners: New York City on January 5, 2008
The numbers in parentheses represent the points earned by each individual/film.
 

Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood
 

Best Picture
There Will Be Blood (48) – Paul Thomas Anderson
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (28) – Julian Schnabel
No Country for Old Men (27) – Joel and Ethan Coen
Best Foreign-Language Film
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (57) – Cristian Mungiu
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (42) – Julian Schnabel
Persepolis (18) – Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson (47) – There Will Be Blood
Joel and Ethan Coen (29) – No Country for Old Men
Julian [...]

Best Films of 2007: VILLAGE VOICE/LA WEEKLY Film Poll

J. Hoberman, discussing the results of a "best of the year" poll of 56 American critics, in the Village Voice:
"Why shouldn’t we be preoccupied with homicidal sociopaths? America’s been at war for the past four and a half years — with, to cite the top-polling documentary, No End in Sight (#29). War makes you wonder what exactly defines murder and who is enabled to commit it. The morally ambiguous mode known as film noir was born during World War II and, as Jonathan Rosenbaum observed at the time, the national obsession with the cannibal genius Hannibal Lecter coincided with our first Iraq adventure, Operation Desert Storm. Where do these current killers come from? It’s suggestive that both There Will Be [...]

Toronto Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards
2007 Toronto Film Critics Association Award winners: December 18, 2007
 

Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men
 

Best Film: No Country for Old Men by Joel and Ethan Coen
Runners-up: Eastern Promises; Zodiac
Best Foreign-Language Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days by Cristian Mungiu
Runners-up: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; The Lives of Others
Best Canadian Film: Away from Her by Sarah Polley
Runners-up: Eastern Promises; Radiant City
Best Documentary: No End in Sight by Charles Ferguson
Runners-up: Iraq in Fragments; My Kid Could Paint That
Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Runners-up: David Cronenberg, Eastern Promises; David Fincher, Zodiac
Best Actor: Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
Runners-up: George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Gordon Pinsent, Away from Her
Best Actress (tie): [...]

Los Angeles Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
2007 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award winners: Dec. 9, 2007
 

FILM: There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson
Runner-up: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Julian Schnabel

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days directed by Cristian Mungiu
Runner-up: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly directed by Julian Schnabel

DOCUMENTARY/NON-FICTION FILM: No End in Sight directed by Charles Ferguson
Runner-up: Sicko directed by Michael Moore

DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Runner-up: Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

ACTRESS: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Runner-up: Anamaria Marinca, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

ACTOR: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Runner-up: Frank Langella, Starting Out in the Evening

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone [...]

Chicago Film Critics Awards 2007

2007 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
2007 Chicago Film Critics Association Award nominations: December 10, 2007
2007 Chicago Film Critics Association Award winners: December 12, 2007
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men
 

BEST PICTURE
Into the Wild
Michael Clayton
* No Country for Old Men
Once
There Will Be Blood
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
* 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Black Book
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
La Vie en Rose
Lust, Caution
The Orphanage
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Darfur Now
The King of Kong
Lake of Fire
No End in Sight
* Sicko
BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson — There Will Be Blood
* Joel and Ethan Coen — No Country for Old Men
David Fincher — Zodiac
Tony Gilroy — Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman — Juno
BEST ACTOR
George Clooney — Michael Clayton
Ryan Gosling — Lars and the Real Girl
Frank [...]