And on it rolls. David Fincher's The Social Network has taken the top awards from the New York Film Critics Circle: Best Film and Director. Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right has won three, though: Best Screenplay (Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg), Actress (Annette Bening) and Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo). Best Actor: Colin Firth in Tom Hooper's The King's Speech. Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo in David O Russell's The Fighter. Best Cinematography: Matthew Libatique for his work on Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. Best Animated Film: Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist. Best Non-fiction Film: Charles Ferguson's Inside Job. Best Foreign Language Film: Olivier Assayas's Carlos. Best First Feature: David Michôd's Animal Kingdom.
Speaking of which, and to explain why that image is up there: "The Melbourne crime drama Animal Kingdom has 'done some good things, sweetie,' cleaning up at the 2010 AFI Awards," reports Michael Bodey in the Australian — so naturally, this AFI stands for the Australian Film Institute. "David Michôd's film about three vicious brothers and their approving mum, played by Jacki Weaver, won the key award for best film, topping a two-night ceremony in which it won ten awards from its 18 nominations, including three of the four main acting awards and two popularity votes, the AFI Members' Choice award and the News Limited newspapers' Reader's Choice Award." And the paper has the full list of winners. Nathaniel R posts Jackie Weaver's acceptance speech (2'31") and for good reason: "The speech is so adorable we are just going to pretend that it was delivered to us in America via satellite for her Los Angeles Film Critics Association triumph and NBR win."
Meantime, Encore Magazine looks back on the year in Australian cinema and picks a top ten.
For GQ, Edgar Wright, whose own Scott Pilgrim vs The World hasn't been appearing on many lists so far, lists his "Five Favorite Movies of the Year," adding a line or two for each: The Social Network, Black Swan, Toy Story 3, Enter the Void and 127 Hours.
Movie City News has the Broadcast Film Critics Association nominees; Black Swan leads with 14 — a record, notes indieWIRE's Peter Knegt.
As Curt Holman reports for Creative Loafing Atlanta, the Southeastern Film Critics Association has unveiled its list of awards. Long story short: The Social Network with, going by the totals, The King's Speech a close second. "The Social Network won film of the year and screenwriter honors for Aaron Sorkin at the fifth Richard Attenborough Film Awards, Blighty's regional critics' kudos, at a ceremony in London on Sunday," reports Variety. Back to iW's Peter Knegt; he's got the Indiana Film Journalists Association awards: The Social Network wins Best Film and Screenplay, while Christopher Nolan wins Best Director and his Inception wins an Original Vision Award.
"One day a year, Franklin Leonard transforms from midlevel studio executive mired in development meetings, script readings and note-taking into Hollywood's most important soothsayer," writes Nicole Sperling for the Los Angeles Times. "The 32-year-old is the mastermind and compiler of the Black List, a compendium of the year's best unproduced screenplays. Today marks Leonard's sixth annual metamorphosis, and when he presses 'send' on his e-mail — shooting the list around Hollywood and beyond — he may again change the fates of scores of screenwriters looking to crack the big leagues." And she's got this year's top ten.
The L's Mark Asch offers "A Brief Explanation As to What You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Is Doing On My Top 10 List."
Bogdan George Apetri's Outbound has won the Golden Alexander and Athina Rachel Tsangari's Attenberg takes Silver at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
Everyone bellyaching about how Staid, predictable Crix org's nominations/awards are has clearly never ordered pizza for more than 2 people. Mon Dec 13 15:11:26 via TweetDeck
James Rocchi
jamesrocchi
Viewing. In "YouTube Rewind 2010: Year in Review," the top ten most watched viral videos of the year race by in a minute and a half. Below, though, you'll find several more lists such as the "Top Movie Trailers of 2010"; they'll tell you, too, how many times each has been viewed.
Dan Kois's "Top Ten Comics of 2010" for Vulture. The New Yorker not only lists its most popular articles of the year, it also gets David Sedaris to recommend a few of his favorite audio books of the year.
OPENING TODAY
"Merging astronomy, Buddhist philosophy, and political and social unrest, Mundane History may carry a modest title, but its ambitions are exactly the opposite," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. "A simple, almost spare family drama told through strong, purposeful images, this first feature from the Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong parallels the emotional dynamic of a single home with the tumult of an entire country."
In the Voice, Nicolas Rapold notes that this "unlikely diptych of caregiver-and-patient portrait and Enter the Void nebular freakout" won a VPRO Tiger Award at Rotterdam in February. At MoMA for one week.
IN OTHER NEWS
Midnight Eye has posted two new interviews today. Rea Amit and Alexander Jacoby: "Of the major filmmakers of the Japanese New Wave, Yoshishige Yoshida (whose name is sometimes transliterated as Kiju Yoshida) remains arguably the least well known in the West, despite recent retrospectives in Europe and North America. That may speak for the fact that his films are often difficult and demanding, and require some historical knowledge and awareness of Japanese society for full appreciation. Nevertheless, their sensual beauty ought to be accessible to any sensitive viewer. And alongside their intellectual depth, Yoshida's finest films display a profound engagement with the emotions of his characters."
And Marc Saint-Cyr: "Since beginning his filmmaking career at Toei, Gen Takahashi has rigorously defined himself as a true independent spirit. He has maintained a maverick sensibility throughout his self-administered education in filmmaking, work methods and even thematic motifs within his films."
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