There is no dominant front-runner for this year’s Best Picture Oscar, but you would never know that from the polls of the Florida Film Critics Circle and the Southeastern Film Critics Association (the two groups I belong to as a voting member).
Both tapped The Social Network, David Fincher’s account of the founding of Facebook, as the best film of 2010 and, as happens only occasionally, I am in agreement with the groups’ pick. Both organizations also named Fincher best director and singled out Aaron Sorkin for best adapted screenplay. SEFCA also recognized the movie’s cast as the year’s best ensemble, an award that the FFCC does not present.
Both groups also saw the leading acting categories the same, voting Colin Firth as the year’s best actor for his performance as speech-impaired King George VI in The King’s Speech and the best actress award went to Natalie Portman for the mentally unhinged ballerina in Black Swan. I concur on Firth, and expect him to also pick up the Oscar for the role, in part for being overlooked last year for his also impressive dramatic turn in A Single Man. I liked Portman’s performance, but my vote went to Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right, and the two of them should be battling it out for the Oscar.
The critics’ panels diverged when it came to the supporting acting categories. The Florida group voted for Geoffrey Rush, the unconventional speech therapist in The King’s Speech, and Hailee Steinfeld, the spunky frontier teen in the remake of True Grit. The Southeastern association went with two performers from The Fighter, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, as the brother and mother of brawling boxer Mickey Ward.
I side with the SEFCA picks and think they both are probable Oscar winners. Bale steals The Fighter with his loopy, brain-addled, drug-addicted performance and should edge out the fine work by Rush, who previous took home an Academy Award for Shine. Leo is a little-known veteran actress who is greatly admired in the industry. By contrast, Steinfeld is making her film debut. She’s quite good in the Coen Brothers’ highly stylized Western, but her central role is really the movie’s lead.
In a true no-brainer, both groups call Toy Story 3 the best animated feature of the year. I not only agree, but think the Oscars should just give a statuette to the film now and consider naming the category for the Pixar Studio.
The Florida Film Critics managed to scrape together four awards for Inception, the mind-bending action picture about invading the subconscious as a form of industrial espionage. FFCC recognized it for best original screenplay, best cinematography, best art direction/production design and best visual effects. SEFCA gave its original screenplay award to The King’s Speech and cinematography to True Grit, with Inception the runner-up in both categories.
I side with the Inception wins, but imagine the more traditional Motion Picture Academy will lean toward The King’s Speech come Oscar time.
The Florida circle calls The Tillman Story, about the friendly-fire death of pro football’s Pat Tillman in Iraq, the best documentary of 2010. The Southeastern group went with Inside Job, the well-made saga of the financial collapse. I voted for Waiting for Superman, the story of the failure of our public schools and how to fix them.
The year’s best foreign film, according to SEFCA, was the Korean thriller Mother. The Florida critics tapped I Am Love, a family tale of commerce and awakening passion, which got my vote.
The Florida Film Critics Circle is composed of 19 writers from publications across the state. The Southeastern Film Critics Association has 43 members working in print, radio and online media in nine states throughout the region.