2005 NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS AWARDS
Jan 7–The National Society of Film Critics, meeting on Saturday, January 7th, 2006, chose “CAPOTE” as Best Picture for the Year 2005.
NSFC AWARDS 2005
BEST PICTURE
1. Capote (Bennett Miller) – 12 votes (on sixth ballot)
2. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg) – 11 votes (on sixth ballot)
3. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai) (fifth ballot)
BEST NONFICTION PICTURE
1. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog) – 60 points
2. Darwins Nightmare (Hubert Sauper) – 27
3. Ballets russes (Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine) – 19
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE PICTURE
1. Head-On (Fatih Akin) – 26
2. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai) “-23
3. Cach (Michael Haneke) – 18
BEST DIRECTOR
1. David Cronenberg (A History of Violence) – 32
2. Wong Kar-wai (2046) – 26
3. Bennett Miller (Capote) – 23
BEST SCREENPLAY
1. The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach) – 37
2. Capote (Dan Futterman) – 33
3. Munich (Tony Kushner and Eric Roth) – 14
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1. 2046 (Christopher Doyle, Kwan Pun-leung, Lai Yiu-fai) ” 50
2. Good Night, and Good Luck. (Robert Elswit) – 16
3. The New World (Emmanuel Lubezki) – 11
BEST ACTOR
1. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) – 68
2. Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale) – 41
3. Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) – 40
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1. Ed Harris (A History of Violence) – 27
2. Frank Langella (Good Night, and Good Luck.) – 22
2. Matthieu Amalric (Munich) -0 22
BEST ACTRESS
1. Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) – 37
2. Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice) – 27
3. Vera Farmiga (Down to the Bone) – 18
3. Kate Dollenmayer (Funny Ha Ha) “-18
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1. Amy Adams (Junebug) – 33
2. Ziyi Zhang (2046) – 28
3. Catherine Keener – 22 (Capote, The Interpreter, Ballad of Jack and Rose, The 40-Year-Old Virgin)
EXPERIMENTAL AWARDS
1. SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE (1968) and TAKE TWO 1/2(2005), William Greaves remarkable investigation into the nature of the acting process and power relationships on a movie set.
2. 13 Lakes, Ten Skies, and 27 Years Later, the three 2005 productions of James Benning. Few have done more over the last thirty years to expand the sensory and temporal boundaries of moving pictures.
FILM HERITAGE AWARD
Unseen Cinema, the 7-disc DVD box set collection of pre-1942 American avant-garde cinema assembled by Anthology Film Archives and Bruce Posner — a massive and unprecedented undertaking made in concert with 60 other film archives and preservation organizations across the globe.
SPECIAL CITATION
THE NSFC COMMENDS AND CONGRATULATES our colleague Kevin Thomas for his 44-year tenure as a movie critic at the Los Angeles Times, for his tireless championing in the heart of the worlds movie capital of the power and beauty of independent, experimental and foreign film, for his long and important service to moviegoers around the industry, the country and the world.
The Society, which is made up of 57 of the countrys leading movie critics, held its fortieth annual awards voting meeting at Sardis Restaurant in New York City. Voting was conducted using a weighted ballot system. Scrolls will be sent to the winners. David Sterritt presided and was reelected as chairman. The Executive Director is Elisabeth Weis, who may be e-mailed at [email protected] if you require further information.
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS
The National Society of Film Critics counts among its members many of the country's leading film critics. Its purpose is to promote the mutual interests of film criticism and filmmaking. One means for doing this is its new weekly poll rating the latest film and DVD releases; it can be found at http://nsfc.zap2it.com/nsfc/cda/index.jsp.
Founded in l966, the Society differs from other critical associations in a number of significant ways. In the first place, it is truly national. Its 57 members include the critics from major papers in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Its members also include the critics not just of Time, Newsweek, and The New Yorker, but also of The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, The Boston Phoenix and Salon. Secondly, membership is by election.
The Society represents movie criticism in the United States by supplying the official critic delegate to the National Film Registration Board of the Library of Congress and abroad as the official American representative in FIPRESCI, the international federation of members of the film press.
Besides responding to specific issues, such as colorization, film preservation, or the ratings system, the Society regularly meets early in January to vote on the Society's awards for the finest film achievements of the year. Awards go for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, and, should the Society choose to award one, Best Nonfiction Film, Best Foreign-Language Film, Best Production Design and Best Experimental work. When the occasion warrants, the society also votes for a Film Heritage Award and Best Picture Still Awaiting Distribution.
The Society has published an ongoing series of anthologies of articles: In November, 2005, it published The X List: Movies that Turn Us On. Earlier books are The A List: 100 Essential Films (2002); Produced and Abandoned: a video guide to The Best Films Youve Never Seen (1990); Foreign Affairs, its counterpart for foreign films (1991); Love and Hisses, a guide to the most controversial films and issues (1992); They Went Thataway: Redefining Film Genres (1993); and Flesh and Blood (1995). Earlier, the Society published six volumes of its annual reviews, as well as The National Society of Film Critics on Movie Comedy (l977) and The National Society of Film Critics on the Movie Star (1981). The group can genuinely be said to represent the best of contemporary American film criticism.
