International Cinephile Society Awards 2012
Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, Margaret’s Anna Paquin, Weekend’s Tom Cullen, and The Tree of Life’s Terrence Malick and Brad Pitt were some of the winners of the 2012 International Cinephile Society Awards. The honors are announced by “an online group made up of approximately 80 accredited journalists, film scholars, historians and other industry professionals who cover film festivals and events on five continents.” And cinephiles they clearly are; some of their choices would put the U.S.-based National Society of Film Critics to shame. (See further below the full list of International Cinephile Society winners and runners-ups.)
Writer-director Farhadi’s Iranian family drama A Separation, which is up for the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay Academy Awards, won as Best Picture of 2011, in addition to Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Ensemble (including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress runners-up Peyman Moaadi and Shahab Hosseini). Farhadi was also the runner-up for Best Director.
Paquin was the Best Actress winner for her performance in Kenneth Lonergan’s much-praised but little-seen psychological drama Margaret, while Tom Cullen was voted Best Actor for his enamored gay man in Andrew Haigh’s Weekend.
Terrence Malick was the Best Director for the cosmic family drama The Tree of Life, which also earned citations for Best Supporting Actor Brad Pitt, Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), and Best Film Editing (Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber, Mark Yoshikawa). The Best Supporting Actress was Margaret’s J. Smith-Cameron.
Among the other ICS winners were Mysteries of Lisbon’s Carlos Saboga and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, who tied for the Best Adapted Screenplay Award; Gore Verbinski’s animated feature Rango; and Andrei Ujica’s The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu.
Best Picture
01. A Separation
02. The Tree of Life
03. Mysteries of Lisbon
04. Certified Copy
05. Weekend
06. Margaret
07. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
08. Drive
09. Meek’s Cutoff
10. Hugo
11. Melancholia
Best Director: Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life
Runner-up: Asghar Farhadi – A Separation
Best Film Not in the English Language
01. A Separation
02. Mysteries of Lisbon
03. Certified Copy
04. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
05. The Skin I Live In
06. Poetry
07. House of Pleasures
08. Le Havre
09. Le Quattro Volte
10. Of Gods and Men
Best Actor: Tom Cullen – Weekend
Runner-up: Peyman Moaadi – A Separation
Best Actress: Anna Paquin – Margaret
Runner-up: Juliette Binoche – Certified Copy
Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt – The Tree of Life
Runner-up: Shahab Hosseini – A Separation
Best Supporting Actress: J. Smith-Cameron – Margaret
Runner-up: Jessica Chastain – Take Shelter
Best Original Screenplay: A Separation – Asghar Farhadi
Runner-up: Weekend – Andrew Haigh
Best Adapted Screenplay (tie): Mysteries of Lisbon – Carlos Saboga | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan
Runner-up: The Skin I Live In – Agustín Almodóvar, Pedro Almodóvar
Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life – Emmanuel Lubezki
Runner-up: Mysteries of Lisbon – André Szankowski
Best Editing: The Tree of Life – Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber, Mark Yoshikawa
Runner-up: Drive – Matthew Newman
Best Production Design: The Mill and the Cross – Marcel Slawinski & Katarzyna Sobanska-Strzalkowska
Runner-up: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Maria Djurkovic
Best Original Score: Drive – Cliff Martinez
Runners-up: Mysteries of Lisbon – Jorge Arriagada; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias
Best Ensemble: A Separation
Runner-up: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Best Animated Film: Rango, dir.: Gore Verbinski
Runner-up: Winnie the Pooh
Best Documentary: The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, dir.: Andrei Ujica
Runner-up: Nostalgia for the Light
Best Picture Not Released in 2011
Alps
Century of Birthing
Declaration of War
The Deep Blue Sea
Elena
Faust
The Kid with a Bike
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
This Is Not a Film
The Turin Horse
Grammy Awards’ movies
The Grammy 2012 winners in the “visual media” categories have already been announced. The winner for Best Song Written for Visual Media was Diane Warren’s “Born to Be Somebody,” from the Justin Bieber documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, sung by Justin Bieber himself.
The other contenders were Family Guy’s “Christmastime Is Killing Us” by Ron Jones, Seth MacFarlane, and Danny Smith; Tangled’s “I See the Light” by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater, and sung by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi; Winnie the Pooh’s “So Long” by Zooey Deschanel, and sung by Deschanel and M. Ward; Footloose’s “Where the River Goes” by Zac Brown, Wyatt Durrette, Drew Pearson, and Anne Preven, and sung by Brown; and another Diane Warren ditty, Burlesque’s “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me,” sung by Cher.
The Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media was Alexandre Desplat for Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, starring Best Actor Oscar winner Colin Firth. The other nominees were Alexandre Desplat for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Clint Mansell for Black Swan, Daft Punk for TRON: Legacy, and Ryan Shore forThe Shrine. [Correction: We had initially – and erroneously – posted that Clint Mansell had won for Black Swan.]
The Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media went to “Boardwalk Empire Volume 1,” featuring various artists. The other nominees in that category were “Burlesque” (Christina Aguilera), “Glee: The Music, Volume 4” (the Glee cast), the soundtrack for the animated feature Tangled (various artists), and “True Blood Volume 3” (various artists).
The Grammy Awards ceremony/pre-ceremony is currently being held at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. The evening will feature a Jennifer Hudson-led tribute to singer Whitney Houston, who died yesterday at age 48.
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never pic: Paramount Pictures
Whitney Houston Tribute: Jennifer Hudson at Grammy Awards
Jennifer Hudson, who won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls, and Chaka Khan will pay tribute to Whitney Houston at the Grammy Awards ceremony this evening at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. When Hudson won a Grammy in 2009, Houston was the one who handed her the trophy. Yesterday, Whitney Houston, age 48, was found dead at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Also receiving a posthumous tribute at the 2012 Grammys is singer Etta James. Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt will present the homage.
In addition to Hudson, Khan, Keys, and Raitt, other presenters at the this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony include Marc Anthony, Dierks Bentley, Jack Black, Reba McEntire, Drake, Fergie, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love), Best Actress Academy Award nominee Diana Ross (Lady Sings the Blues), Ryan Seacrest, Ringo Starr, and Amir “Questlove” Thompson.
Scheduled performers at the Grammys’ main telecast include Adele, Jason Aldean, Kelly Clarkson, The Beach Boys, Tony Bennett, Carrie Underwood, Chris Brown, Deadmau5, Foo Fighters, David Guetta, Lil Wayne, Glen Campbell, The Band Perry, Blake Shelton, The Civil Wars, Coldplay, Rihanna, Foo Fighters, Diana Krall, Bruno Mars, Paul McCartney, Nicki Minaj, Maceo Parker, Katy Perry, Bruce Springsteen, The E Street Band, Taylor Swift, Joe Walsh, Foster the People, and Maroon 5.
Razzie Awards
According to Razzie Award voters, Adam Sandler and Jack and Jill are the embodiment(s) of the year’s cinematic nadir. See below.
Note: The other four Worst Picture nominees were Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, New Year’s Eve, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.
Worst Picture: Jack and Jill
Worst Actor: Adam Sandler – Jack and Jill & Just Go With It
Worst Actress: Adam Sandler – Jack and Jill
Worst Supporting Actor: Al Pacino – Jack and Jill
Worst Supporting Actress: David Spade – Jack and Jill
Worst Ensemble: The entire cast of Jack and Jill
Worst Director: Dennis Dugan – Jack and Jill & Just Go With It
Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel: Jack and Jill
Worst Screen Couple: Adam Sandler and Katie Holmes, Al Pacino, or himself in Jack and Jill
Worst Screenplay: Jack and Jill – Screenplay: Adam Sandler & Steve Koren; Story: Ben Zook
“Film Awards 2012” notes
Adam Sandler Jack and Jill image: Tracy Bennett | Columbia Pictures.
*last modified in September 2025