Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” starts the award season in a big way, getting Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress, paving the way for Meryl Streep to get her 20th Academy Award nomination. Instead of Spielberg for Best Director, however, Greta Gerwig snuck in, with her highly acclaimed “Lady Bird,” as did Laurie Metcalf, taking Best Supporting Actress. Willem Dafoe rounded out the acting awards, for his performance in the little Indie “The Florida Project.” In the writing categories, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” came away with the Best Original Screenplay while the James Franco directed “The Disaster Artist” claimed Best Adapted Screenplay. Jordan Peele and his film “Get Out” were the big Best Ensemble and Best Directorial Debut winners, which could also prove beneficial to his Oscar chances. “Coco” won Best Animated Feature, which will likely be a trend at the Critics Awards this year while “Jane” took Best Documentary, which I can definitely see landing an Oscar nomination. “Foxtrot,” the Israeli entry for the Academy Awards took Best Foreign Language Feature. Some special awards went to Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot’s work on “Wonder Woman” and Angelina Jolie’s foreign language feature “First They Killed My Father.” This provides our first look into a collective mind this awards season and it paints a pretty broad picture, with much of the love being spread around. But Spielberg’s “The Post” definitely is the first horse out of the gate.
Best Picture: “The Post”
Best Director: Greta Gerwig – “Lady Bird”
Best Actor: Tom Hanks – “The Post”
Best Actress: Meryl Streep – “The Post”
Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe – “The Florida Project”
Best Supporting Actress: Laurie Metcalf – “Lady Bird”
Best Original Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson – “Phantom Thread”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber – “The Disaster Artist”
Best Animated Feature: “Coco”
Breakthrough Performance: Timothée Chalamet – “Call Me By Your Name”
Best Directorial Debut: Jordan Peele – “Get Out”
Best Foreign Language Film: “Foxtrot”
Best Documentary: “Jane”
Best Ensemble: “Get Out”
Spotlight Award: “Wonder Woman” – Patty Jenkins & Gal Gadot
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: “First They Killed My Father”
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: “Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992”
TOP FILMS
- “Baby Driver”
- “Call Me by Your Name”
- “The Disaster Artist”
- “Downsizing”
- “Dunkirk”
- “The Florida Project”
- “Get Out”
- “Lady Bird”
- “Logan”
- “Phantom Thread”
TOP 5 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS
- “A Fantastic Woman”
- “Frantz”
- “Loveless”
- “Summer 1993”
- “The Square”
TOP 5 DOCUMENTARIES
- “Abacus: Small Enough To Jail”
- “Brimstone & Glory”
- “Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars”
- “Faces Places”
- “Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS”
TOP 10 INDEPENDENT FILMS
- “Beatriz at Dinner”
- “Brigsby Bear”
- “A Ghost Story”
- “Lady Macbeth”
- “Logan Lucky”
- “Loving Vincent”
- “Menashe”
- “Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer”
- “Patti Cake$”
- “Wind River”
