From Film Society of Lincoln Center
NY Film Critics Pick Best of 2012
A scene from How To Survive a Plague. Image via IFC Films
Members of the New York Film Critics Circle gathered today to vote on the best films and performances of 2012. The group, formed in 1935, is again meeting at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center to conduct their annual vote.
Just three years after winning the Best Director Award with New York Film Critics Circle for The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow took home the award for her upcoming film centering on the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty.
Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, our surprise screening at this year's New York Film Festival, took home two acting awards for Daniel Day-Lewis (Best Actor) and Sally Field, respectively. While Day-Lewis is known to be a intensely devoted actor, Sally Field, who plays Lincoln's wife Mary Todd, has reported to have spent almost a decade preparing for this role.
Best Supporting Actor was handed to Matthew McConaughey for his work in Richard Linklater's Bernie and Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike. These two performances—along with stellar turns in William Friedkin's Killer Joe, Lee Daniels' The Paperboy, and Jeff Nichols' upcoming Mud—have allowed McConaughey long-awaited, much-deserved recognition.
Recently selected as the best film performance of the year by New York Magazine, Rachel Weisz's performance in Terrance Davies' The Deep Blue Sea won Best Actress.
Michael Haneke's acclaimed new film Amour won the prize for Best Foreign Language Film. Winner of the Palme d'Or in Cannes earlier this year, Haneke's latest swept the European Film Awards over the weekend. It stars Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant in the story of an aging French couple coming to terms with the changing nature of their longterm relationship.
How to Survive A Plague, the powerful documentary about Act-Up and the 1980s AIDS crisis was named the best first feature film of the year. The nod was a surprise in a category that usually awards a narrative film. The documentary, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, recently won the Gotham Award for Best Documentary and the IDA Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award. Last week it was nominated for the Spirit Award for Best Documentary.
The critics picked The Central Park Five, a doc that debuted in Cannes before hitting the fall festival circuit, as the best nonfiction movie of 2012. The film, by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon, looks at New York's late-80s Central Park jogger case.
Cinematographer Greig Fraser was honored for his work on Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty today. He's had a busy 2012 also serving as the D.P. on Snow White and the Huntsman, as well as Killing Them Softly. Fraser has also worked on The Boys Are Back and Bright Star.
The New York Film Critics Circle awards will be presented at a New York City ceremony on Monday, January 7, 2013.
The full list of winners
Best Picture
Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Screenplay
Lincoln, written by Tony Kushner
Best Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea
Best Supporting Actor
Matthew McConaughey, Bernie and Magic Mike
Best Supporting Actress
Sally Field, Lincoln
Best Foreign Language Film
Amour, directed by Michael Haneke
Best Animated Film
Frankenweenie, directed by Tim Burton
Best Cinematography
Greig Fraser, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Nonfiction Film
Central Park Five, directed by Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns
Best First Feature
How To Survive a Plague, directed by David France
