Critics get one more say

The last, and often the most interesting, of the major critics groups to announce their picks for the top film achievements of the year is the National Society of Film Critics. The group, which includes 55 major film critics (although only a handful of them actually vote on every single award), waits until January to make their selections. It gives them some extra time to reflect on the year's films and what has been singled out so far.

If NSFC had picked Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture it would've been only the fourth time in 25 years that their selection was the same as both the New York and Los Angeles film critics (all three organizations agreed on L.A. Confidential, Schindler's List and Goodfellas as the best of their respective years). But they didn't. And they didn't even go for popular runner-up History of Violence (it was their runner-up too, although David Cronenberg won Best Director).

Instead their semi-shocking pick was Capote, a very fine film that wasn't getting a lot of attention but all of a sudden is making some noise. The award isn't likely to boost the film's Oscar chances that much (its nominations from the major guilds are far more important), but the win puts the spotlight on something other than Brokeback for a second and assures Capote a spot in the film geek history books. It was not an easy, or immediate, choice and a look at the entire process, as well as a list of winners and runner-ups in all categories is available here.

I'm actually very pleased with the group's choices this year. Their acting prizes went to Capote star Philip Seymour Hoffman, History of Violence supporting actor Ed Harris (who deserves more attention than he's been receiving) and a couple of fine young Southern ladies: Walk the Line's Reese Witherspoon and Junebug's Amy Adams. Additional prizes went to The Squid and the Whale for screenplay (which also won in NY and LA), Grizzly Man for documentary (ditto), Head-On for foreign language film and 2046 for cinematography.