What a crazy morning and afternoon the New York Film Critics Circle had picking their winners. This critics group has a fairly decent track record with their winners going on to either be winners or nominees, so today was very important. They picked winners that everyone had underestimated, and sent the avalanche roaring. I do not have a twitter, but there is some big backlash for some of their choices. As I said before, all the big voting bodies will split and there will not be a movie that everyone rallies around....at least not right now. But before I discuss my few points I have, here is what the New York Film Critics Circle deemed best:
Best Picture: American Hustle
Best Actor: Robert Redford, All Is Lost
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Best Director: Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Best Foreign Language Film: Blue Is the Warmest Color
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Animated Film: The Wind Rises
Best Screenplay: American Hustle
Best Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis
Best First Film: Fruitvale Station
Best Documentary: Stories We Tell
After the screenings of American Hustle, people started taking off David O. Russell and his movie from their predictions, but left only Jennifer Lawrence. Today we see that American Hustle has been brought back into the game, and now that it defeated what everyone thought to be a 12 Years a Slave victory in Best Picture, Director, and Supporting Actress, it could be a force that people must look out for. If Jennifer Lawrence continues to win from here, she would be the first person to win a Supporting Oscar the year after she won a Leading Oscar....but she is going to need to win more than just this for me to even consider that a big possibility. So props to American Hustle for being stronger than expected. Maybe 12 Years a Slave is not as strong as people have been predicting? Who knows, we shall see in the next few weeks if that is true or not.
The fact that Best Picture and Best Director split is cause for a raise in the eyebrows. Usually the two go hand in hand, unless it is a tough year with too many movies to reward. The Oscar has only split Picture and Director three times since 2000, and when it comes down to the Oscar, this year I do not see a split. Steven McQueen was expected to win, but he will have a tougher fight than we thought if he wants to win. We will discuss that more later.
Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett, and Jared Leto were not surprise winners, those were expected. I thought the love of 12 Years a Slave would be a lot stronger so I chose it for Best Actor and Supporting Actress, but clearly Redford and Lawrence proved their strength. Cate and Jared are current front runners in their categories, and I can see them going all the way to the Oscar. I have not seen any of the winning acting performances, so I have no way to say if they were worthy, but no body is a for sure shoe in for the Oscar. This year everyone has to fight, which makes it all the more entertaining to watch.
The fight has begun, the punches have been thrown, no knock outs yet though because this fight has many rounds to go. I will continue to give you a front row seat near the ring, so tune in tomorrow for the next fight with the National Board of Review. I expect more shocks there as well!
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