Michael Keaton won best actor for playing a Boston Globe editor in “Spotlight”, while best actress went to Saoirse Ronan in “Brooklyn”, a drama about Irish immigrants that has proved surprisingly popular, playing to packed houses on Long Island.
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Things continue to heat up over the next week with the Los Angeles Critics Association announcing its awards on Sunday.
“Son of Saul”, the Oscar frontrunner for Best Foreign-Language Film, won Best First Feature while one of last year’s Oscar nominees for the foreign language prize, “Mauritania” won that award here. Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) and Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria) were awarded supporting accolades. Ronan earned Best Actress and Stewart earned Best Supporting Actress, but the acting awards featured still more surprises. Frederick Wiseman’s Queens documentary, In Jackson Heights, took best documentary.
Members of the New York Film Critics Circle are voting on year-end superlatives this morning. But the NYFCC win serves as a reminder that “Clouds” wasn’t actually released in the US until April of this year, and serves as a timely reminder to critics filing their ballots for the Indiewire, Village Voice, and Film Comment polls next week.
In addition, Disney-Pixar’s Oscar favorite “Inside Out” was named best animated film, while legendary composer Ennio Morricone (“The Hateful Eight”) earned one of two of the NYFCC’s “special awards”. Rylance’s wry offerings gave the film a whole other dimension that obviously stands out. Along with the rest of the cast, Keaton is being campaigned in the supporting category for the film.
Whats even more remarkable about Carols success is that neither of its leading actresses Rooney Mara or Cate Blanchett were rewarded for their towering performances, even though there has already been widespread chatter that the duos portrayals have been the best of the year. And I think that’s legitimate, personally. Nevertheless, this only pumps more fuel into his supporting hopes.
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“Tis the season for Carol, apparently”. In my discussions, not a lot of Academy voters have watched Haynes’ film yet. Push that issue. But by the way, the last time Haynes and his film swept best director and best film, Far From Heaven failed to make the cut in either category at the Oscars.
