’12 Years a Slave’ Big Winner with Boston & Washington D.C. Film Critics

In both Boston and Washington, D.C., 12 Years a Slave took home multiple awards in picture, acting categories (including ensemble), directing, score, and screenplay.  At Boston the Steve McQueen film of Solomon Northrup’s memoir of enslavement picked up three awards (and one runner-up for best supporting actress), and in D.C. it received a whopping six awards.  This posits it even further into the awards competition than before (though perhaps not as prominently as with New York and L.A. where it got a couple of nods).

According to the Boston Globe, however, the odds could have been not in McQueen’s film’s favor had more critics had a chance to see The Wolf of Wall Street – only one screening was held (this has been an issue at other awards circles, though it likely won’t be an issue later in the main Oscar/Globes races as voters get screeners).

As Ty Burr, critic for the Globe, notes in his article: ““Wolf,” which arrives in theaters Christmas Day, was in the cutting room until very recently and Paramount has scrambled to get the movie seen by major critics groups before their end-of-year meetings. The sole Boston screening came too late for many local reviewers to attend, and “Wolf” came in second to “12 Years” in the best picture, director, actor (DiCaprio), screenplay, and editing categories. The voting was close — but close counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, not movie awards.”

The other major note from Boston was a nod for the late James Gandolfini for his performance in the romantic comedy Enough Said, his last completed film where he played a divorcee in a relationship with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss.  Whether this could lead to more posthumous notices is yet to be seen, but it’s the first indication.

Another interesting award is a tie in the runner-up for Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club and, more surprisingly, Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips (he played the lead pirate who takes over Tom Hanks‘ freighter) – for the latter, even as a runner-up, it’s quite a notice as he is mostly an amateur actor culled from a Somali group in Minneapolis, Minnesota (where the production culled most of its actors for realism).  Apparently it was also a close call for the documentary The Act of Killing (over the Killer Whale pic Blackfish) and The Wind Rises over Disney’s Frozen in animation.

Enough Said

Meanwhile in D.C., Slave picked up awards for Picture, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita N’yong’o picked up awards for actor and supporting actress, the whole cast got an ensemble nod, and Hans Zimmer and John Ridley picked up notices for music and screenplay respectively.  It was clearly the big winner, and other awards common with both circles are Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine and cinematography for Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity (Cuaron also picked up director in D.C.).

It’s unclear if the critics in the D.C. area got to see Wolf of Wall Street or not either, though the lack of any notices there could be an indication of that.  Curiously, American Hustle received zero notices at either circle, and Her only received screenplay (original) for Spike Jonze in D.C.

Also unique to this festival was a special prize for a film that depicted the U.S. capital in a unique way (called the Joe Barber award), which went to Lee Daniels’ The Butler.  And this was the first major city to award for foreign film The Broken Circle Breakdown, trumping favorite Blue is the Warmest Color, and a special Youth Performance award for Ty Sheridan in Mud.

Broken Circe Breakdown

Let us know in the comments and on Twitter what you think.  Here below are the full results:

BOSTON:

Best Picture: “12 Years a Slave”
Runner-up: “The Wolf of Wall Street”

Best Director: Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”
Runner-up: Martin Scorsese, “The Wolf of Wall Street”

Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
Runner-up: Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Wolf of Wall Street”

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Runner-up: Judi Dench, “Philomena”

Best Supporting Actor: James Gandolfini, “Enough Said”
Runners-up: Barkhad Abdi, “Captain Phillips“; Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”

Best Supporting Actress: June Squibb, “Nebraska”
Runner-up: Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”

Best Screenplay: Nicole Holofcener, “Enough Said”
Runner-up: Terrence Winter, “The Wolf of Wall Street”

Best Foreign Language Film: “Wadjda”
Runner-up: “Blue is the Warmest Color”

Best Documentary: “The Act of Killing”
Runner-up: “Blackfish”

Best Animated Film: “The Wind Rises”
Runner-up: “Frozen”

Best New Filmmaker: Ryan Coogler, “Fruitvale Station”
Runner-up: Joshua Oppenheimer, “The Act of Killing”

Best Ensemble: “Nebraska”

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Gravity”
Runner-up: Philippe Le Sourd, “The Grandmaster”

Best Film Editing: Dan Hanley and Mike Hill, “Rush”
Runner-up: Thelma Schoonmaker, “The Wolf of Wall Street”

Best Use of Music: T-Bone Burnett, “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Runner-up: Mark Orton, “Nebraska”

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WASHINGTON D.C.:

Best Film:
12 Years a Slave

Best Director:
Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

Best Actor:
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Supporting Actor:
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Actress:
Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)

Best Acting Ensemble:
12 Years a Slave

Best Youth Performance:
Tye Sheridan (Mud)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)

Best Original Screenplay:
Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Animated Feature:
Frozen

Best Documentary:
Blackfish

Best Foreign Language Film:
The Broken Circle Breakdown

Best Art Direction:
Production Designer: Catherine Martin, Set Decorator: Beverley Dunn (The Great Gatsby)

Best Cinematography:
Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, A.M.C. (Gravity)

Best Editing:
Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger (Gravity)

Best Original Score:
Hans Zimmer (12 Years a Slave)

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, D.C.:
Lee Daniels’ The Butler