Best Supporting Actress. My Ballot

I'm so tardy with my own awards. I generally get all the major stuff up before Oscar nominations but no such luck this year. I'll try to throw up at least one category per day now so we can finish this month. The actress categories were TORTURE this year because there were definitely more than 5 award-worthy performances per. In fact, the performances were so good this year that it's really too bad they couldn't have been spread out over the past few years when the pickings were slimmer. I'm not finished with lead actress but Supporting Actress was easier. As is the tradition, I only list 12 women as nominees, finalists, and semi-finalists. I could've gone to 20. These are the dozen best in my estimation for the Film Bitch Awards...

Amy & Melissa, Acting Heavyweights for "The Fighter"

• Amy Adams, The Fighter
• Dale Dickey, Winter's Bone
• Anne Marie Duff, Nowhere Boy
• Kirsten Dunst, All Good Things
• Kimberly Elise, For Colored Girls
• Ann Guilbert, Please Give
• Barbara Hershey, Black Swan
• Melissa Leo, The Fighter
• Rosamund Pike, Made in Dagenham
• Mia Wasikowska, The Kids Are All Right
• Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
• Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer

And even then I had no room for fine work from two of my favorite actresses: Dianne Wiest (Rabbit Hole) and Kristin Scott Thomas (Nowhere Boy). Apologies! Awardage is a hair-tearing teeth-gnashing business when you love too many too much and too often.

MY ACTING NOMINEES

Who made your list? Do you share the love of these performances?

20:10 "In For" or "Done For"?

The 20th minute and 10th second of The Ghost Writer

"Oh dear. You must be wondering what you've let yourself in for."
-Olivia Williams as "Ruth Lang" in The Ghost Writer (2010)

What a perfect moment to represent this movie in this series. Love that they look like so funereal (this is the beach where the body washed up at the beginning, isn't it?) Plus that security detail trailing the writer and Ruth Lang looks more stalker than a protector with the framing.

Related Post: Top Ten List

NSFC Loves France, Olivia Williams, The Social Network

The National Society of Film Critics, founded in the 1960s, remains one of the most prestigious critics groups. Though they follow numerous critics groups to their "best!" declarations each year, they don't usually take orders so well. You can always count on a surprise or two though there's still no denying The Social Network.

Olivia Williams takes her first prize for The Ghost Writer

Picture The Social Network (runner up: Carlos and Winter's Bone)
Director David Fincher for The Social Network (ru: Olivier Assayas for Carlos and Roman Polanski for The Ghost Writer)

Actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno in Vincere (ru: Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right and Lesley Manville in Another Year)
Actor Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network (ru tie: Colin Firth in The King's Speech and Edgar Ramirez in Carlos)
Supporting Actress Olivia Williams in The Ghost Writer (ru: Amy Adams in The Fighter and tied for third: Melissa Leo in The Fighter and Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom)
Supporting Actor Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech (ru: Christian Bale in The Fighter and Jeremy Renner in The Town)

The actress categories are especially interesting for the names and the order. As you may remember, I'm fond of Olivia Williams in The Ghost Writer (though I have too many candidates for Best Supporting Actress and I'm still debating who I shall proclaim "best!") No sign of Natalie & Hailee at NSFC though they've been hogging the conversation this week. Lesley Manville sure could've used this win though for a late push. As discussed on the podcast, that 5th spot in Best Actress is still very volatile.

Screenplay Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network (ru: David Seidler for The King's Speech and Roman Polanski & Robert Harris for The Ghost Writer)
Cinematography Roger Deakins for True Grit (ru: Matthew Libatique for Black Swan and Harris Savides for Somewhere)
NonFiction Inside Job (ru: Exit Through the Gift Shop and Last Train Home)
Foreign Language Film Carlos (ru: A Prophet and White Material)
Film Heritage Awards 1. The Film Foundation (20th Anniversary) 2. "Chaplin at Keystone" Flicker Alley, "Elia Kazan Collection" (Fox) 4. Upstream rediscovered 1927 film directed by John Ford (National Film Preservation Board) 5. On the Bowery (Milestone) and 6. Word is Out (Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and distributed by Milestone)

I'm a francophile myself but found it surprising that all three of their favorite foreign films winner Carlos, Oscar nominee A Prophet (pictured left) and Claire Denis' White Material are Gallic. Crazy! What about Mother? I Am Love? Vincere (since they loved Giovanna)? Dogtooth?