National Board of Review Awards: The Irishman, Sandler, Zellweger
Posted on December 4, 2019 at 8:27 am
The National Board of Review’s 2019 awards:
Copyright 2019 Roadside Attractions
Best Film: THE IRISHMAN
Best Director: Quentin Tarantino, ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
Best Actor: Adam Sandler, UNCUT GEMS
Best Actress: Renée Zellweger, JUDY
Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt, ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
Best Supporting Actress: Kathy Bates, RICHARD JEWELL
Best Original Screenplay: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, Ronald Bronstein, UNCUT GEMS
Best Adapted Screenplay: Steven Zaillian, THE IRISHMAN
Breakthrough Performance: Paul Walter Hauser, RICHARD JEWELL
Best Directorial Debut: Melina Matsoukas, QUEEN & SLIM
Best Animated Feature: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD
Best Foreign Language Film: PARASITE
Best Documentary: MAIDEN
Best Ensemble: KNIVES OUT
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Roger Deakins, 1917
NBR Icon Award: Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: FOR SAMA
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: JUST MERCY
Top Films (in alphabetical order)
“1917”
“Dolemite is My Name”
“Ford v Ferrari”
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Knives Out”
“Marriage Story”
“Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”
“Richard Jewell”
“Uncut Gems”
“Waves”
Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)
“Atlantics”
“Invisible Life”
“Pain and Glory”
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
“Transit”
Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
“American Factory”
“Apollo 11”
“The Black Godfather”
“Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese”
“Wrestle”
Copyright 2019 Roadside Attractions
Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
“The Farewell”
“Give Me Liberty”
“A Hidden Life”
“Judy”
“The Last Black Man in San Francisco”
“Midsommar”
The Nightingale”
“The Peanut Butter Falcon”
“The Souvenir”
“Wild Rose”
Awards Season. Begins: “Marriage Story” Tops the Gotham Awards
Posted on December 3, 2019 at 10:09 pm
The Gotham Awards are always among the first of the awards season, and while they are quirky and not great predictors of the Oscars, they are always a good indicator of some of the films we’ll be discussing as the more traditional awards are given out, and, if we look at the “breakthrough” awards, future nominees, too. I’m especially happy to see “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” among the nominees for script and breakthrough actor, “When They See Us” as the series award winner, Awkwafina recognized as Best Actress for “The Farewell,” and the exquisite Taylor Russell as the winner of the “breakthrough” award for acting.
The nominees and winners:
Best Feature
“The Farewell”
“Uncut Gems”
“Waves” “Marriage Story” (WINNER)
“Hustlers”
Best Documentary “American Factory” (WINNER)
“Apollo 11”
“The Edge of Democracy”
“Midnight Traveler”
“One Child Nation”
Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre, “The Mustang” (WINNER)
Kent Jones, “Diane”
Joe Talbot, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”
Olivia Wilde, “Booksmart”
Phillip Youmans, “Burning Cane”
Best Screenplay
Lulu Wang, “The Farewell”
Tarell Alvin McCraney, “High Flying Bird”
Jimmie Fails, Joe Talbot, and Rob Richert, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” Noah Baumbach, “Marriage Story” (WINNER)
Ari Aster, “Midsommar”
Best Actor Adam Driver, “Marriage Story” (WINNER)
Aldis Hodge, “Clemency”
Adam Sandler, “Uncut Gems”
Willem Dafoe, “The Lighthouse”
Andre Holland, “High Flying Bird”
Copyright 2019 A24
Best Actress
Florence Pugh, “Midsommar” Awkwafina, “The Farewell” (WINNER)
Mary Kay Place, “Diane”
Alfre Woodard, “Clemency”
Elisabeth Moss, “Her Smell”
Breakthrough Actor Taylor Russell, “Waves” (WINNER)
Julia Fox, “Uncut Gems”
Aisling Franciosi, “The Nightingale”
Jonathan Majors, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”
Noah Jupe, “Honey Boy”
Chris Galust, “Give Me Liberty”
Breakthrough Series – Long Form
“Chernobyl”
“David Makes Man”
“My Brilliant Friend”
“Unbelievable” “When They See Us” (WINNER)
Breakthrough Series – Short Form “Pen15” (WINNER)
“Ramy”
“Russian Doll”
“Tuca & Bertie”
“Undone”
And the Runner-Up Is: Podcast Discussion of Picnic and the Best Films of 1955
Posted on November 20, 2019 at 8:56 am
Oscar-ologist Kevin Jacobsen’s delightful “And the Runner-up Is” podcast looks back at the Academy Awards and considers which films that did not win have better stood the test of time than the ones that brought home the gold. Spoiler alert: We agreed that “Marty” is still at the top of the 1955 list, but we had a great time talking about the runner-up, Joshua Logan’s “Picnic,” starring William Holden and Kim Novak and based on the play by William Inge.
We are proud to announce the winners of this year’s Critics Choice Awards for documentaries:
Apollo 11 took home the evening’s most prestigious award for Best Documentary Feature as well as Best Editing for Todd Douglas Miller, Best Score for Matt Morton, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Science/Nature Documentary.
There was a tie for Best Director between Peter Jackson for They Shall Not Grow Old, and Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar for American Factory. They Shall Not Grow Old also brought home the award for Most Innovative Documentary. American Factory also won the award for Best Political Documentary.
“Once again, we are thrilled to celebrate and support the vibrant and groundbreaking work of these talented documentarians. We are proud that our yearly gala event has become an informed and valuable way for people to find the best films out there and for the work of these filmmakers to find their audiences,” said CCA CEO Joey Berlin. “It was a great night of lauding the greats in the documentary field as well as some outstanding newcomers.”
At the ceremony a special new honor, The D A Pennebaker Award, was presented to legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman. The award, formerly known as the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award, is named for prior winner D A Pennebaker, who passed away last summer. It was presented by filmmaker Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker’s long-time collaborator and widow.
Acclaimed filmmaker Michael Apted was presented with The Landmark Award, an honor bestowed upon him for his extraordinary and unparalleled achievement with the Up series, which has just added 63 Up, distributed by BritBox, to this historic work. The award was presented by Michael Moore, who was honored with the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award last year.
The award for Best Cinematography went to John Chester for The Biggest Little Farm.
Best Narration went to Bruce Springsteen for Western Stars.
Honeyland took home the award for Best First Documentary Feature for directors Tamara Kotevska an Ljubomir Stefanov.
The award for Best Biographical Documentary went to Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am.
The Best Music Documentary award went to Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.
Maiden won the Best Sports Documentary award.
The Best Short Documentary Award was given to Period. End of Sentence.
This year’s honorees for Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary are Dr. Amani Ballor (The Cave), David Crosby (David Crosby: Remember My Name), Tracy Edwards (Maiden), Imelda Marcos (The Kingmaker), Hatidze Muratova (Honeyland), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula Jean Swearengin (Knock Down the House), Linda Ronstadt (Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice), and Dr. Ruth Westheimer (Ask Dr. Ruth).
The nominees for this year’s Documentary Awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association are:
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
American Factory (Netflix)
Apollo 11 (Neon)
The Biggest Little Farm (Neon)
The Cave (National Geographic)
Honeyland (Neon)
The Kingmaker (Showtime)
Knock Down the House (Netflix)
Leaving Neverland (HBO)
Maiden (Sony Pictures Classics)
One Child Nation (Amazon Studios)
They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.)
BEST DIRECTOR
Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts, For Sama (PBS)
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, American Factory (Netflix)
John Chester, The Biggest Little Farm (Neon)
Feras Fayyad, The Cave (National Geographic)
Peter Jackson, They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.)
Todd Douglas Miller, Apollo 11 (Neon)
Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, One Child Nation (Amazon Studios)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ben Bernhard and Viktor Kossakovsky, Aquarela (Sony Pictures Classics)
John Chester, The Biggest Little Farm (Neon)
Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma, Honeyland (Neon)
Nicholas de Pencier, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Kino Lorber)
Muhammed Khair Al Shami, Ammar Suleiman, and Mohammad Eyad, The Cave (National Geographic)
Richard Ladkani, Sea of Shadows (National Geographic)
BEST EDITING
Georg Michael Fischer and Verena Schönauer, Sea of Shadows (National Geographic)
Todd Douglas Miller, Apollo 11 (Neon)
Jabez Olssen, They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.)
Amy Overbeck, The Biggest Little Farm (Neon)
Lindsay Utz, American Factory (Netflix)
Nanfu Wang, One Child Nation (Amazon Studios)
BEST SCORE
Jeff Beal, The Biggest Little Farm (Neon)
Matthew Herbert, The Cave (National Geographic)
Matt Morton, Apollo 11 (Neon)
Plan 9, They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.)
H. Scott Salinas, Sea of Shadows (National Geographic)
Eicca Toppinen, Aquarela (Sony Pictures Classics)
BEST NARRATION
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Kino Lorber)
Alicia Vikander, narrator
Jennifer Baichwal, writer
The Biggest Little Farm (Neon)
John Chester and Molly Chester, narrators
John Chester, writer
The Edge of Democracy (Netflix)
Petra Costa, narrator
Petra Costa, Carol Pires, David Barker and Moara Passoni, writers
The Elephant Queen (Apple)
Chiwetel Ejiofor, narrator
Mark Deeble, writer
For Sama (PBS)
Waad Al-Kateab, narrator
Waad Al-Kateab, writer
Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People (First Run)
Adam Driver, narrator
Oren Rudavsky and Bob Seidman, writers
One Child Nation (Amazon Studios)
Nanfu Wang, narrator
Nanfu Wang, writer
Western Stars (Warner Bros.)
Bruce Springsteen, narrator
Bruce Springsteen, writer
BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Midge Costin, Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (Matson Films)
A.J. Eaton, David Crosby: Remember My Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
Pamela B. Green, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (Kino Lorber/Zeitgeist Films)
Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, Honeyland (Neon)
Richard Miron, For the Birds (Dogwoof)
Garret Price, Love, Antosha (Lurker Films)
BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY
Amazing Grace (Neon)
Apollo 11 (Neon)
Maiden (Sony Pictures Classics)
Mike Wallace is Here (Magnolia)
Pavarotti (CBS Films)
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (Netflix)
They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.)
What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali (HBO)
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY
David Crosby: Remember My Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
The Kingmaker (Showtime)
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Greenwich)
Love, Antosha (Lurker Films)
Mike Wallace is Here (Magnolia)
Pavarotti (CBS Films)
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (Magnolia)
BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
Amazing Grace (Neon)
David Crosby: Remember My Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Greenwich)
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (Abramorama)
Pavarotti (CBS Films)
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (Netflix)
Western Stars (Warner Bros.)
BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY
American Factory (Netflix)
The Edge of Democracy (Netflix)
Hail Satan? (Magnolia)
The Kingmaker (Showtime)
Knock Down the House (Netflix)
One Child Nation (Amazon Studios)
BEST SCIENCE/NATURE DOCUMENTARY
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Kino Lorber)
Apollo 11 (Neon)
Aquarela (Sony Pictures Classic)
The Biggest Little Farm (Neon)
The Elephant Queen (Apple)
Honeyland (Neon)
Penguins (Disney)
Sea of Shadows (National Geographic)
BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable (Entertainment Studios)
Diego Maradona (HBO)
Maiden (Sony Pictures Classics)
Rodman: For Better or Worse (ESPN)
The Spy Behind Home Plate (Ciesla Foundation)
What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali (HBO)
MOST INNOVATIVE DOCUMENTARY
Aquarela (Sony Pictures Classics)
Cold Case Hammarskjöld (Magnolia)
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (Netflix)
Screwball (Greenwich)
Serendipity (Cohen Media)
They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.)
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
The Chapel at the Border (Atlantic Documentaries)
(Director and Producer: Jeremy Raff)
Death Row Doctor (The New York Times Op-Docs)
(Director: Lauren Knapp)
In the Absence (Field of Vision)
(Director: Yi Seung-Jun. Producer: Gary Byung-Seok Kam)
Lost World
(Director and Producer: Kalyanee Mam. Producers: Adam Loften and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee)
Mack Wrestles (ESPN)
(Directors and Producers: Taylor Hess and Erin Sanger. Producers: Erin Leyden and Gentry Kirby)
Period. End of Sentence. (Netflix)
(Director: Rayka Zehtabchi. Producers: Melissa Berton, Garrett K. Schiff and Lisa Taback)
The Polaroid Job (The New York Times Op-Docs)
(Director: Mike Plante)
Sam and the Plant Next Door (The Guardian)
(Director and Producer: Ömer Sami)
The Unconditional
(Director and Producer: Dave Adams. Producers: Adam Soltis, Renee Woodruff Adams, Josie Swantek Heitz, and Chris Tuss)
The Waiting Room (The Guardian)
(Director and Producer: Victoria Mapplebeck)
MOST COMPELLING LIVING SUBJECTS OF A DOCUMENTARY
Dr. Amani Ballor – The Cave (National Geographic)
David Crosby – David Crosby: Remember My Name (Sony Pictures Classics)
Tracy Edwards – Maiden (Sony Pictures Classics)
Imelda Marcos – The Kingmaker (Showtime)
Hatidze Muratova – Honeyland (Neon)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush, and Paula Jean Swearengin – Knock Down the House (Netflix)
Linda Ronstadt – Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Greenwich)
Dr. Ruth Westheimer – Ask Dr. Ruth (Hulu)
The first-time winner of the new D.A. Pennebaker award for lifetime achievement will very appropriately go to the legendary Frederick Wiseman. There is hardly an institution in America, from high school to mental hospital to upscale department store to library that has not been the subject of one of and illuminated by his documentaries.
Another outstanding awardee is Michael Apted, who will receive the Landmark Award for the groundbreaking UP series. There’s never been anything like it. A documentary about school children turned into one of the most extraordinary longitudinal studies in the history of science. I always look forward to the next episode.
The Gotham Awards are always among the first of the awards season, and while they are quirky and not great predictors of the Oscars, they are always a good indicator of some of the films we’ll be discussing as the more traditional awards are given out, and, if we look at the “breakthrough” awards, future nominees, too. I’m especially happy to see “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” among the nominees for script and breakthrough actor, “When They See Us” as the series award winner, Awkwafina recognized as Best Actress for “The Farewell,” and the exquisite Taylor Russell as the winner of the “breakthrough” award for acting.
