‘The Artist’ Tops Boston Critics Awards; ‘Margaret’ Gets Multiple Runner-Up Prizes
Michel Hazanavicius’s “The Artist” topped the Boston Society of Film Critics Awards this afternoon, taking the group’s top honor.
Beyond that, the film’s only other award was a prize for music (which it shared with “Drive”). It lost best director to Martin Scorsese (for “Hugo”) and best screenplay to “Moneyball.”
Other major winners include Brad Pitt, Michelle Williams, Albert Brooks and Melissa McCarthy, each of whom took home a prize for acting. “The Tree of Life” took best cinematography while “Project Nim” won best documentary honors.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the awards was the strong presence of Kenneth Lonergan’s “Margaret,” which was a runner-up for a whopping four prizes, including best picture. The group tweeted after the announcement that “it’s worth noting that many of us couldn’t see ‘Margaret’ because the studio did not issue screeners and there was only 1 screening.”
Last year, David Fincher’s “The Social Network dominated the awards, taking honors for best picture, director, screenplay (Aaron Sorkin), actor (Jesse Eisenberg) and “use of music in a film” (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). Other major winners included “Black Swan”‘s Natalie Portman for best actress, “The Fighter”‘s Christian Bale for best supporting actor and, most surprisingly, “Conviction”‘s Juliette Lewis for best supporting actress.
Full list of this year’s announced winners below. Check out a list of all the awards so far this year here.
Best Picture
“The Artist“
(Runners-up: “Hugo” and “Margaret”)
Best Director
Martin Scorsese, “Hugo”
(Runner-up: Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”)
Best Actor
Brad Pitt, “Moneyball“
(Runners-up: George Clooney, “The Decendants” and Michael Fassbender, “Shame”)
Best Actress
Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn“
(Runner-up: Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”)
Best Supporting Actor
Albert Brooks, “Drive”
Best Supporting Actress
Melissa McCarthy, “Bridesmaids“
(Runner-up: Jeannie Berlin, “Margaret”)
Best Screenplay
“Moneyball”
(Runner-up: “Margaret”)
Best Foreign Film
“Incendies”
(Runners-up: “A Separation” and “Poetry”)
Best Cinematography
“The Tree of Life”
(Runner-up: “Hugo”)
Best Documentary
“Project Nim”
(Runner-up: “Bill Cunningham, New York)
Best Film Editing (awarded in memory of Karen Schmeer)
“The Clock”
(Runner-up: “Hugo”)
Best New Filmmaker (awarded in memory of David Brudnoy)
Sean Durkin, Martha Marcy May Marlene
(Runner-up: JC Chandor, Margin Call)
Best Ensemble Cast
“Carnage
(Runner-up: “Margaret”)
Best Use of Music in a Film
“The Artist” and “Drive”
(Runner-up: “The Descendants”)
Best Film Series
All Roads Lead to Nowhere: The Films of Monte Hellman (HFA)
American Punk (HFA)
The Complete Henri-Georges Clouzot (HFA)
Noir Nights (ArtsEmerson)
Science on Screen (Coolidge Corner)
Best Rediscoveries
Children of Hiroshima (Masterworks by Maneto Shindo, HFA)
Days and Nights in the Forest (Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan: Two Generations in Indian Cinema, HFA)
Deep End (The Radical Visions of Jerzy Skolimowski, HFA)
The Makioka Sisters (New and Restored Prints, MFA)
The Shooting (All Roads Lead to Nowhere The Films of Monte Hellman, HFA)
Special Commendations
To the Brattle Film Foundation for ten years as a nonprofit, for its continued commitment to film preservation, and for its eclectic, and historically and culturally relevant repertory programming at the Brattle Theater.
To Ben Fowlie, Sara Archambault, and Sean Flynn, co-founder programmers of DocYard, for presenting a vibrant forum for the Boston documentary community to see important new non-fiction works and to have meaningful discussions with the filmmakers.
To The Museum of Fine Arts for purchasing, programming, and broadly promoting Christian Marclay’s film installation, “The Clock,” and for allowing audiences to experience this unique work of cinema in its full 24-hour runtime on select dates.
