by Nathaniel R
Pint sized big talent Julia Butters and Quentin Tarantino both won prizes recently for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
In the latest round up of critics prizes we have critics from the SouthEastern US, Las Vegas, Boston (online) and one of the two (or is it three now?) female critics organizations called "Women's Film Critic's Circle". Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Parasite pick up several more prizes as do Portrait of a Lady on Fire and... Harriet?
Tomorrow one of the historically coolest and most discerning critics groups is naming their winners (Boston Society of Film Critics -- don't fail us!) but until that potentially exciting announcement here are the latest four associations to announce. The winners and a few comments are after the jump...
Renée gets another prizeSEFCA
(SouthEastern Film Critics Association)
Picture Parasite
Director Martin Scorsese, The Irishman (runner up: Bong Joon-ho, Parasite)
Actress Renée Zellweger, Judy (runner up: Lupita Nyong'o, Us)
Actor Adam Driver, Marriage Story (runner up: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker)
Supporting Actor Brad Pit, Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood (runner up: Joe Pesci, The Irishman)
Supporting Actress Laura Dern, Marriage Story (runner up: Florence Pugh, Little Women)
Screenplay Parasite (runner up: Marriage Story)
Adapted Screenplay The Irishman (runner up: Little Women)
Ensemble Knives Out (runner up: The Irishman)
Cinematography 1917 (runner up: Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood)
Documentary Apollo 11 (runner up: American Factory)
Foreign Film Parasite (runner up: Pain & Glory)
Animated Film Toy Story 4 (runner up: I Lost My Body)
Gene Wyatt Award (for film that best evokes the spirit of the south): Peanut Butter Falcon (runner up: Just Mercy)
TOP TEN FILMS OF 2019
1. “Parasite”
2. “The Irishman”
3. “Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood”
4. “Marriage Story"
5. “1917”
6. “Jojo Rabbit”
7. “Little Women”
8. “The Farewell"
9. “Uncut Gems”
10. “Ford V Ferrari”
We aren't exactly fans of Peanut Butter Falcon (apart from Shia Labeouf's dependable strength as leading man) but we do cherish critics prizes that focus on their own region. It's good to have a regional identity as otherwise it feels a bit "why do we need another group?" ish. In fact the 30-40 plus regional critics groups would all do well to establish some sort of prize like SEFCA's Gene Wyatt Award or the WAFCA's "best portrayal of DC" prize, don't you think? Those prizes would be so cool to track each year to give various groups more of their own identity.
Despite their love for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (6 PRIZES!) Brad Pitt lost Best Supporting Actor to another Category Fraud candidate Willem Dafoe in The Lighthouse.
LVFCS
(Las Vegas Film Critics Society)
Picture Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Director Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Actor Adam Sandler Uncut Gems
Actress Renée Zellweger Judy
Supporting Actor Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse
Supporting Actress Margot Robbie, Bombshell
Ensemble Knives Out
Screenplay Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
Adapted Screenplay The Two Popes
Score Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Song "Stand Up" Harriet
Costume Design Dolemite Is My Name
Art Direction Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Cinematography 1917
Editing Ford V Ferrari
Visual Effects Avengers: Endgame
Documentary Apollo 11
Foreign Film Parasite
Animated Film Missing Link
Action Film Ford V Ferrari
Comedy: Dolemite Is My Name
Horror/Sci-Fi: MidSommar
Family Film: Fighting With My Family
Breakout Filmmaker Olivia Wilde, Booksmart
Youth Performance (Male) Noah Jupe, Honeyboy
Youth Performance (Female) Julia Butters, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Another ensemble prize for Knives Out. It's a bit weird that it missed with SAG since SAG used to love those super large star-driven casts.
Las Vegas is one of the few organization that gives us nearly all of the Oscar-correlative prizes rather than just say, cinematography, so it's always a bit fun to watch. They do also tend to be less late-year- release focused than other critics groups from our casual observation over the years and we appreciate that, since movies are a year round passion for us. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was the lucky beneficiary of this full year approach this time around with SIX prizes.
Harriet took the most prizes from the Women's Film Critic Circle
WFCC
(Women's Film Critics Circle)
Movie About Women Portrait of a Lady on Fire (runner up: Little Women)
Best Movie By A Woman (Director) Kasi Lemmons, Harriet (runner up: Celine Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire)
Woman Storyteller (Screenwriter) Greta Gerwig, Little Women (runner up: Celine Sciamma, Portrait of a lady on Fire)
Actress TIE Lupita Nyong’o Us and Cynthia Erivo, Harriet (runner up: Renée Zellweger, Judy)
Actor Adam Driver, Marriage Story (runner up: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker)
Animated Female: Elsa, Frozen 2 (runner up: Bo Peep, Toy Story 4)
Equality of the Sexes Marriage Story (runner up: Aeronauts)
Screen Couple TIE Noemi Merlant & Adele Haenel in Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Scarlett Johansson & Adam Driver in Marriage Story (runner up: Jennifer Lopez & Constance Wu in Hustlers)
Foreign Film by or About Women Portrait of a Lady on Fire (runner up: Atlantics)
Documentary by or About Women Varda by Agnes (runner up: TIE Maiden and Honeyland)
Adrienne Shelley Award (for a film that passionately opposes violence against women): TIE Bombshell and The Nightingale (runner up: Hustlers)
Josephine Baker Award (for film that expresses the woman of color experience in America): Harriet (runner up: Queen & Slim)
Karen Morley Award (for film about a woman's place in history and search for identity): Harriet (runner up: Little Women)
Acting and Activism Award: Jane Fonda
Lifetime Achievement Award: Alfre Woodard
Alfre Woodard gets a lifetime achievement but she wasn't even nominated for Best Actress and they had (WAIT, IT GETS MUCH MORE UPSETTING) 14 nominees in that category! One really gets more and more of the sense that people just didn't see Clemency this year before voting. We suppose that's partially on Neon but it's also on film critics who didn't make time for it. Many of the other late year releases that are just now opening or have yet to open have been more widely screened and showered with more awards despite worse reviews *cough* Bombshell).
In between our two complaints (yes there's one more - sorry WFCC) we should note that we love the "Best Animated Female" category. It's fun... even if we wish the blissful reinvention of Bo Peep (Toy Story 4's best reason to exist) would have triumphed over Elsa who was still treading her same character arc in film two.
We can't say that we understand FOUR Harriet prizes (still saddened by that film's mediocrity) when there were so many terrific films by women this year, and starring women of color too (!), but critics organizations are made from compromise so who knows how the voting went amongst their 75 members. But just to give you a taste of how much richness they had to choose from their other self-selected nominees for "Movie By A Woman" represent an incredible array of acclaimed pictures: American Factory, Booksmart , Clemency , The Farewell , Harriet , High Life , Hustlers , Little Women , The Nightingale , Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and The Souvenir. All of those had much stronger rotten tomatoes and metacritic scores than Harriet (73%/66) so it's a bit perplexing (and interesting). Perhaps female critics just liked Harriet a whole lot better than male critics and male critics do dominate metacritic and rotten tomatoes scores.
BOFCA
(Boston Online Film Critics Association)
Picture Parasite
Director Bong Joon-ho, Parasite
Actor Adam Sandler Uncut Gems
Actress Lupita Nyong’o Us
Supporting Actor Brad Pit, Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
Supporting Actress Florence Pugh, Little Women
Screenplay Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
Ensemble Little Women
Score Uncut Gems
Cinematography Robert Richardson, Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
Editing Thelma Schoonmaker The Irishman
Documentary Apollo 11
Foreign Film Parasite
Animated Film Toy Story 4
TOP TEN FILMS OF 2019
1. “Parasite”
2. “Uncut Gems”
3. “The Irishman”
4. “Once UPon A Time… In Hollywood
5. “Marriage Story”
6. “Little Women”
7. “Portrait Of A Lady On Fire”
8. “Ford V Ferrari”
9. “The Farewell”
10. “Us”
Happy to see Lupita Nyong'o doing so well with critics --Us even made their top ten list! -- but we do always wonder (this is not a subtweet of Boston Online but just a thing we've obvserved for many years about all regional critics prizes) in such cases if an early prize from one of the two most prestigious organizations (NYFCC & LAFCA) influences later regional voting and whether or not some of the other smaller critics groups would have voted for something less Oscar atypical if NYFCC or LAFCA didn't go there first. On the other hand LAFCA's prize for Mary Kay Place in Diane hasn't helped her curr any additional critics group favour so maybe the love for Lupita was always going to be there and didn't need the very high profile stampe of approval from NYFCC?
PREVIOUSLY IN CRITICS PRIZES