The Oscar nominations have yet to be announced, but if you thought David Fincher’s The Social Network had people talking about it before, the film’s coronation by several US film critics’ groups certainly won’t hurt its cause. In a sudden spasm of announcements, the Los Angeles, New York and Boston groups all handed their top prize to the story of Mark Zuckerberg and his first few Facebook "friends."
Los Angeles named the film as best picture, while Fincher shared best director with Carlos’ Olivier Assayas. Colin Firth took best actor for The King’s Speech, and in a more surprising nod, Kim Hye-Ja got best actress for Mother, beating out runner-up Jennifer Lawrence for Winter’s Bone.
There was another surprising – if soundly deserved – win for A Prophet’s Niels Arestrup as best supporting actor, and Animal Kingdom’s Jacki Weaver got supporting actress. Among the other awards? Toy Story 3 was best animation, The Ghost Writer and **Social Network **shared score, Aaron Sorkin won best screenplay for Network and Matthew Libatique got best cinematography for Black Swan.
Boston, meanwhile, gave best picture, director, and screenplay to The Social Network, with Jessie Eisenberg scoring the actor gong. Black Swan saw Natalie Portman take best actress, while the movie also snatched the editing award. Best supporting actor was Christian Bale for **The Fighter **and supporting actress was more of a surprise – Juliette Lewis for Conviction.
New York’s critics picked Network for picture and Fincher as director with Sorkin for screenplay, but gave the acting kudos to James Franco for 127 Hours and Natalie Portman for Black Swan. The Fighte****r’s Christian Bale and Melissa Leo took home the supporting awards. Oh, and Clint Mansell won best score for Swan.
The American Film Institute doesn’t really go in for categories,preferring to pick its films and TV series of the year. Making the cinematic list this year were** Black Swan**, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids are All Right, 127 Hours, The Social Network, The Town, Toy Story 3, True Grit and Winter’s Bone.
And finally, back over this side of the pond, the Richard Attenborough Film Awards, which are given out by regional critics around the country, lauded The Social Network as film of the year with Aaron Sorkin grabbing screenwriter of the year.
Christopher Nolan took filmmaker of the year, Colin Firth won actor of the year for The King’s Speech and Noomi Rapace snagged actress of the year for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Empire favourite (and review of the year contributor) Chloe Moretz took rising star and Michael Caine won All Time Legend. Among the public votes, T****oy Story 3 got animated film, 3D film and family film of the year, while The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was British film of the year.