New York Film Critics Circle Awards: ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Dominates – Best Picture, Director, Cinematography UPDATE

Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” dominated the New York Film Critics Circle 2012 awards with wins for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Cinematographer. This pushes the film into serious Oscar contention, and will take the wind out of early frontrunner “Argo”‘s sails.

Consensus title “Lincoln” continues to lead the Oscar pack as the film took NYFCC Best Actor, Supporting Actress and Screenplay. Tim Burton’s artful “Frankenweenie,” while not a box office hit, will continue to lead the animation Oscar race. The film critics catapulted Rachel Weisz into the weak best actress race; little-seen “The Deep Blue Sea” will now rise to the top of awards voter screener piles. Matthew McConaughey is also now a serious supporting actor contender for his bravura performance in Steven Soderbergh’s “Magic Mike,” in all likelihood, among all the films he scored in this year.

Other Oscar contenders that could have used some help received none, including “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “The Master,” “Life of Pi,” “The Sessions” and “Silver Linings Playbook.”

This seems to be the first time one director has won best film for two consecutive movies (Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” also won). Prolific Fred Zinnemann won for both “High Noon” and “From Here to Eternity,” but he made “Member of the Wedding” in between. David Lean might have achieved it with “Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Lawrence of Arabia,” but there was no vote in 1962 because of a newspaper strike, and “To Kill a Mockingbird” might have won in any case.

Winners listed below.

Best Picture

“Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Screenplay

Tony Kushner, “Lincoln”

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”

Best Actress

Rachel Weisz, “The Deep Blue Sea”

Best Foreign Film

“Amour,” Michael Haneke

Best Animated Film

“Frankenweenie,” Tim Burton

Best Supporting Actor

Matthew McConaughey, “Bernie” & “Magic Mike”

Best Supporting Actress

Sally Field, “Lincoln”

Best Cinematographer

Greig Fraser, “Zero Dark Thirty”

Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary)

Ken Burns/Sarah Burns/David McMahon, “The Central Park Five”

Best First Film

David France, “How to Survive a Plague”

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

New York Film Critics Circle Awards: ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Dominates – Best Picture, Director, Cinematography UPDATE

New York Film Critics Circle Awards: 'Zero Dark Thirty' Dominates - Best Picture, Director, Cinematography UPDATE