Black Film Critics Circle 2010 Inaugural Awards

Best Picture
The Social Network

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan

Best Actor
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
(tie) James Franco – 127 Hours

Best Actress
Natalie Portman – Black Swan

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale – The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress
Melissa Leo – The Fighter

Best Independent Film
Night Catches Us

Best Original Screenplay
Christopher Nolan – Inception

Best Adapted Screenplay
Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network

Best Documentary
Waiting For Superman

Best Foreign Film
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Best Animated Film
Toy Story 3

Best Ensemble
The Social Network

Pioneer – Haile Gerima – As the independent producer, director, writer of “Teza”, Gerima has been recognized for sustaining African Diaspora culture and empowering disenfranchised populations through his highly artistic and provocative work. His commitment to speaking truth to power is depicted in a body of work from the seventies up to his ground-breaking film Sankofa of the nineties. Gerima is a visionary with an eye for promoting black culture in film in a positive and historical light.

Breakout Performance -Jaden Smith – Jaden is a rising star who is recognized for his excellent performance in the summer blockbuster remake “The Karate Kid.” With an unmistakable charisma and charm, an acting ability beyond his years, and commitment and dedication to the role, Smith was a scene stealer. There is no doubt that Smith has a bright future ahead of him.

Special Mention -Gareth Edwards – With his SF film “Monsters”, Edwards took an original and organic approach to cinema bringing the industry back to its roots of visual storytelling. Edwards’ creativity defies the trend of contrived narratives and reliance on big budgets and gimmicks and instead gives the audience rich stories and memorable characters. “Monsters” is a great look at how Sci-Fi is done right (human stories, not creature-features) by a Director who understands that less is more, with good visual effects employed economically to enhance the film – not define it.

BFCC’s Top Ten Picks
1. The Social Network
2. Inception
3. Black Swan
4. The Fighter
5. The Kids Are All Right, The Town (Tie)
7. Toy Story 3
8. The King’s Speech
9. Winter’s Bone
10. The Ghost Writer

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Black Film Critics Circle is a film critics organization dedicated to honoring excellence of professionals in the film industry in U.S. and World Cinema. The organization launched in 2010 to celebrate achievements in cinema, maintain the integrity of a true critics organization and advance a collective vision of journalists of the black Diaspora. BFCC’s mission is to acknowledge and honor the contributions by people of the black Diaspora in the film industry who work in front of and behind the camera while also welcoming promising new talent; Assist in the development of new talent in the field of entertainment journalism through educational opportunities, mentoring and strategic partnerships: Raise awareness of the significance of black film and black film history as a critical part of film culture and preservation

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One Response to “Black Film Critics Circle 2010 Inaugural Awards”

  1. Troofire says:

    Interesting that “For Colored Girls” is not mentioned in any awards.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon