2007 NYFCC Awards
Note to Oscar: You can’t stop what’s comin’
The 2007 New York Film Critics Circle handed out their awards this morning and No Country for Old Men is the big winner. The Coens take Screenplay, Director and Picture while Javier Bardem takes Supporting Actor.
- Picture: No Country for Old Men
- Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
- Actor: Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood
- Actress: Julie Christie, Away From Her
- Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
- Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone, Baby Gone
- Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
- Cinematographer: Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
- Foreign Film: The Lives of Others
- Documentary: No End in Sight
- Animated Film: Persepolis
- First Film: Sarah Polley, Away From Her
- Special Critics’ Award: Charles Burnett, Killer of Sheep
- Lifetime Achievement: Sydney Lumet
Truth be told, the critical love so far seems fairly evenly spread between No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood with NY going for the former and LA going for the latter. There’s what’s East and there’s what’s west and never the twain shall meet I suppose.
Also, as far as Oscars go, I’m not convinced the critical awards are the most reliable indicator of the eventual winner. If I was a betting man, my money would still be on either Atonement or Sweeney Todd. It will be interesting to see what happens with the various guilds though. Also, the Golden Globe nominations are coming up on December 13th. Stay tuned.
Filed under: Awards, News
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I agree Craig, the major critics awards can be a guide to nominations but not so much wins - at least when the field is as open as this. Sweeney and Atonement are likely to be popular with Academy members. But I don’t see them as necessarily any more popular than No Country. Each of these films will have their vocal detractors. Sweeney for being a musical and too gory, Atonement for being a little emotionally removed, and No Country for its ending and violence. I don’t agree with these dismissals - though I’ve not yet seen Sweeney, the musical and blood aspects won’t automatically turn me off.
On the positive side, the Academy do like themselves an artfully made visceral ride. Who doesn’t? And with No Country they get an unexpectedly wistful and thought provoking ending thrown in too.
Anyway friendo, I’m happy your number one (by a coin toss) and number two favorite films of the year did so well to this point. I love both the films too though in a different order and I’d be a very happy man if either ultimately won. But I think No Country is the far stronger hand. TWbB is likely to be more generally admired by cineastes rather than the Academy.
It’s a little weird for me to be in line with so many critics. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying.
Between There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men, I think the Coen film has much better Oscar potential, but I’m not convinced it’s light enough to win the whole enchilada.
I should also point out, I will not be crushed if it loses. I very much enjoy the horse race, but I don’t attach a lot of meaning to it.
It’s going to be an interesting year at the races since most of the studio’s message movies (ie, Oscar hopefuls) have died such painful deaths both critically and with audiences. It appears that pinning all their hopes on a war the public is tired of even thinking about was a tremendous error in judgment.
But I’m not sure if that opens the door for Blood or No Country or just simply makes Atonement all that more powerful of an Oscar option.
Nice to see the critics giving credit where credit is due in each of these cities. I’m just surprised Deakins isn’t getting more love for his amazing work this year. I suppose Assassination of Jesse James is being ignored as it was too “pretentious” for the critics, Elah is suffering a little bit of the Crash backlash, and no one wants to overload No Country with too many accolades.
I’m sorry to see Deakins getting overlooked, but I wonder if his vote wasn’t split 2 or 3 ways. I like to think people have mostly forgotten about Elah, but to my untrained eye, his work in Jesse James was more interesting than No Country, even if No Country is the critical darling.
What I’m enjoying is seeing No Country rubbed in the noses of all the people who hated it. I’m a small person. I know this.
I’m happy for Elswit and Kaminski, but I agree that Deakins deserved the win for Jesse James. Maybe this is an area critics are less in step with the Academy. Expect the guilds to give Deakins the deserved recognition. And once nominated, the general Academy membership are more likely to reward his beautiful looking cinematography, than work which offers the camera as a character like Diving Bell does.
I really liked your comments about the studio’s message films, Joel.
Thanks sartre, although I’m wondering now if most of those movies really had much chance with the Oscars anyway? They don’t really fit the pattern of nominees from recent years. Maybe in acting categories, possible screenwriting…if they had been worth nominating.
You know, I’m sure Deakins was overlooked for Jesse James simply because many of the critics that complained about it seemed annoyed by the beautiful visuals. I think that overall dismissal of the movie is in part because the visuals are so startling and so different…and that was part of the reason I enjoyed the movie so much.
Craig, I agree that No Country’s visuals aren’t as showing as Jesse James (and maybe not entirely as memorable) but I would state that technically they are just as brilliantly done and in some respects, the subtle touch of much of the visuals is what makes them work so well. I’m not sure what credit should go to Deakins here but there are a number of shots in the movie where the lighting and framing is critical to the storytelling, in some ways more so than any other film I’ve seen so far this year (with the possible exception of Zodiac).
Almost spoilers below—–
Case in point: Llewelyn returning to the shootout, his truck in the background. Sheriff Ed and Chigurh’s near meeting in a motel room. And Llewelyn awaiting a vistor in his third hotel room. There are a bunch of others, but these scenes alone are so purely visual and rely so heavily on lighting that they deserve special mention.