It’s December, and the annual avalanche of year-end lists, best-ofs, and awards for music, movies, books, and anything else that anyone on the internet can think of to rate is getting underway. As is its habit, the National Board of Review kicked off the season for film, releasing its picks of the best of the year at the end of last week. The Washington Area Film Critics Association, a collection of TV, radio, print, and internet film critics in the area with 39 voting members (full disclosure: I’m one of those members), is usually second to the plate — and this morning WAFCA released its nominees and award-winners.
On top of the heap in nominations was David Fincher’s The Social Network, which picked up eight nods; Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, Christopher Nolan’s Inception and the Coen brothers’ remake of True Grit, which is due out near the end of December, snagged seven apiece. Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours took in six nominations. Inception came out on top for total awards, with four, for Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography and Score. The Social Network was right behind with three, though it took the biggies of Best Picture and Director, as well as Adapted Screenplay. The other top nominees were shut out of the awards completely.
There weren’t really any big surprises among the nominees or the winners. Best Foreign Film for the critically divisive Biutiful, from Alejandro González Iñárritu, was probably the biggest surprise of the bunch, followed by the Banksy street art film Exit Through the Gift Shop for Best Documentary. The latter is mildly surprising, not because of any controversy over the quality of the film, but lingering doubts over whether the events in the film are actually true or not. (I think it’s likely a hoax — but I say it still qualifies as a documentary, and likely the best of the year, because it still manages to circuitously document real people and a real art scene, rather brilliantly couching it within an elaborately constructed framing story.)
Check out the full list of winners after the jump. For the complete list of nominees, check out WAFCA’s website. How do my own picks compare? Stay tuned for the annual best-of-the-year edition of Popcorn & Candy on December 30.
