I think the over-under on Lincoln being named the best movie of 2012 by the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association was a pretty safe bet. The association of local movie scribes, of which I am a voting member, is typically a populist-leaning group. Last year’s top pick was The Descendants. In 2010, it was The Social Network. You get the idea. Not that Lincoln isn’t a pretty good movie; it is number five on my top movies of 2012 (which you will be able to read about tomorrow – UPDATE: Here’s are my top 25 features and top 10 docs). But this is a group that would never pick Holy Motors as their number one film. Here is the full DFWFCA list of this year’s best movies:
1. LINCOLN
2. ARGO
3 ZERO DARK THIRTY
4. LIFE OF PI
5. LES MISERABLES
6. MOONRISE KINGDOM
7. SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
8. SKYFALL
9. THE MASTER
10. BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Curiously, depending on how you consider Life of Pi, all of the top ten movies are domestic products, which makes me wonder if I don’t understand the rules of the balloting. Half my top ten are foreign movies. Also, just to rib my colleagues a little, missing from the organization’s nominees in all categories are some of the best films of the year that we didn’t receive screeners for or special year-end theater screenings, movies like Holy Motors, The Turin Horse, The Deep Blue Sea, This is Not a Film, etc. So there’s that.
The best actor nod is given to Daniel Day-Lewis for his role as the president in Lincoln. Jessica Chastain has been named best actress by the group for her role in Zero Dark Thirty. Kathryn Bigelow was named best director, and Amour, Michael Haneke’s unshakable film about love and death, was named best foreign film.
Here’s the full release with all the honorees:
DALLAS-FORT WORTH FILM CRITICS NAME “LINCOLN” BEST PICTURE OF 2012
The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association voted the historical epic LINCOLN as the best film of 2012, according to the results of its 19th annual critics’ poll released today.
Rounding out the composite list of the top 10 films of the year were ARGO (2), ZERO DARK THIRTY (3), LIFE OF PI (4), LES MISERABLES (5), MOONRISE KINGDOM (6), SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (7), SKYFALL (8), THE MASTER (9) and BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (10).
For Best Actor, the association named Daniel Day-Lewis for LINCOLN. Runners-up included Joaquin Phoenix for THE MASTER (2), John Hawkes for THE SESSIONS (3), Hugh Jackman for LES MISERABLES (4) and Denzel Washington for FLIGHT (5).
Jessica Chastain was voted Best Actress for ZERO DARK THIRTY. Next in the voting were Jennifer Lawrence for SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (2), Helen Mirren for HITCHCOCK (3), Emmanuelle Riva for AMOUR (4) and a tie between Quvenzhane Wallis for BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD and Naomi Watts for THE IMPOSSIBLE (5).
In the Best Supporting Actor category, the winner was Tommy Lee Jones for LINCOLN. He was followed by Philip Seymour Hoffman for THE MASTER (2), Christoph Waltz for DJANGO UNCHAINED (3), Alan Arkin for ARGO (4) and Robert De Niro for SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (5).
For Best Supporting Actress, the association named Sally Field for LINCOLN. Runners-up included Anne Hathaway for LES MISERABLES (2), Amy Adams for THE MASTER (3), Helen Hunt for THE SESSIONS (4) and Ann Dowd for COMPLIANCE (5).
Kathryn Bigelow was voted Best Director for ZERO DARK THIRTY. Next in the voting were Steven Spielberg for LINCOLN (2), Ben Affleck for ARGO (3), Ang Lee for LIFE OF PI (4) and Wes Anderson for MOONRISE KINGDOM (5).
The association voted AMOUR as the best foreign-language film of the year. Runners-up were A ROYAL AFFAIR (2), THE INTOUCHABLES (3), HOLY MOTORS (4) and THE KID WITH A BIKE (5).
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN won for Best Documentary over BULLY (2), HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (3), WEST OF MEMPHIS (4) and THE INVISIBLE WAR (5).
PARANORMAN was named the best animated film of 2012, with FRANKENWEENIE and THE PIRATES: BAND OF MISFITS as runners-up. Mark Boal won the Best Screenplay award for ZERO DARK THIRTY over Quentin Tarantino for DJANGO UNCHAINED.
The award for Best Cinematography went to Claudio Miranda for LIFE OF PI, followed by Roger Deakins for SKYFALL. The association gave its inaugural award for Best Musical Score to John Williams for LINCOLN.
The association voted BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD as the winner of the Russell Smith Award, named for the late Dallas Morning News film critic. The honor is given annually to the best low-budget or cutting-edge independent film.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association consists of 30 broadcast, print and online journalists from throughout North Texas. For more information, visit www.dfwfilmcritics.net.
