The New York Film Critics Award: "The Greatest Honor"

Forget the Oscars.  Ignore the Oscar buzz.  Watch the Oscars show for the red carpet fashion, and new masters of ceremonies Anne Hathaway and James Franco.  I haven't really cared about the winners for several years now.  True, they've thrown cinephiles a few bones in Annie Hall, Godfather I and II, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.  


But they never gave one to Stanley Kubrick.  They'd been celebrating mediocrity since the 80s:  Ordinary People, Dances with Wolves, Driving Miss Daisy, A Beautiful Mind, Braveheart, Crash, Forrest Gump, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks (twice at that!), Marisa Tomei, Jack Palance, Ron Howard, Lionel Richie's Say You Say Me.  So why should I take them seriously?  

The awards I look forward to at year's end are the ones handed out by the New York Film Critics Circle.  The great John Huston (Prizzi's Honor) once called their award "the greatest honor that anyone in my profession can receive."   They recognized what the Academy snubbed such as Citizen Kane, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Mulholland Drive, Sideways,  Persepolis, Steve Martin (All of Me), Cameron Diaz (There's Something About Mary), Lisa Kudrow (The Opposite of Sex).

This year's New Film Critics awardees are:
Best Film: "The Social Network"
Best Director: David Fincher ("The Social Network")
Best Screenplay: Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg ("The Kids Are All Right")
Best Actress: Annette Bening (for "The Kids Are All Right")
Best Actor: Colin Firth ("The King's Speech")
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo ("The Fighter")
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo ("The Kids Are All Right")
Best Cinematography: Matthew Libatique ("The Black Swan")
Best Animated Film: "The Illusionist"
Best Non-fiction Film : "Inside Job"
Best Foreign Language Film: "Carlos"
Best First Feature: "Animal Kingdom"

Hooray for Annette Bening!  She's made the right career move by playing a lesbian.  Twice she was denied an Oscar by Hilary Swank.  Hilary first won for playing a transgender man. A few years after, she built more muscle for her boxing role and then won again.  Hilary has another Oscar-worthy performance in Conviction.  Can't wait for the Oscars if only to see Annette's reaction if she loses to Hilary.  Annette could still reprise Linda Hunt's Oscar-winning role in The Year of Living Dangerously before it's too late.  Doon lalaki na talaga si Linda.

Linda Hunt as a man in "The Year of Living Dangerously"