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31st LONDON FILM CRITICS’ CIRCLE AWARD WINNERS

Posted Thursday, February 10th, 2011 - 1 Comment »
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31st LONDON FILM CRITICS’ CIRCLE AWARD WINNERS

In aid of the BFI Archive and in partnership with Sky 3D and Moët & Chandon

EMBARGOED ACROSS ALL MEDIA UNTIL 9.15PM THURSDAY 10 FEBRUARY

London, 10 February 2011: Two films swept the board tonight at the 31st London Film Critics’ Circle Awards. The Social Network and The King’s Speech had been neck and neck in the running with seven nominations apiece, but The Social Network pipped The King’s Speech at the post with four wins to three.

The Social Network took the highest honour, Film of the Year. It also took Director of the Year for David Fincher, British Actor in a Supporting Role for Andrew Garfield and Screenwriter of the Year for Aaron Sorkin. Aaron Sorkin was present to represent the film and to receive his award. The King’s Speech also triumphed claiming Best Actor for Colin Firth, who accepted his award in person, British Director of the Year for Tom Hooper and The Attenborough Award for British Film of the Year.

Another Year, which had received four nominations, was honoured by way of Lesley Manville who accepted the Moët British Actress of the Year award in person. Olivia Williams was also present to collect her award for British Actress in a Supporting Role for The Ghost. Actress of the Year was taken by Annette Bening for her role in The Kids are All Right and Christian Bale won British Actor of the Year for The Fighter. Young British Performer of the Year went to NEDs’ Conor McCarren. Breakthrough British Filmmaker was won by Gareth Edwards for his highly praised feature debut, Monsters. The Foreign Language Film of the Year was awarded to the critically acclaimed Of Gods and Men directed by Xavier Beauvois.

The London Film Critics’ Circle awarded Kristin Scott Thomas the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Cinema for her outstanding contribution to cinema. The award was presented to Scott Thomas by Sam Taylor Wood, her director on Nowhere Boy.

Also present on the red carpet this evening were Rosamund Pike, Mike Leigh, Ruth Sheen, David Bradley, Edgar Ramirez, Clio Barnard, Christine Bottomley, Holly Cushing, Jamie D’Cruz
Luca Guadagnino, J Blakeson, Thomas Turgoose, Will Poulter, Tracy O’Riordan, Jessica Barden, Peter Wight, Allan Niblo, James Richardson and Sam Bain.

Chairman of the London Film Critics Circle, Jason Solomons, said: “Congratulations to the winners in an extremely close-fought year, where so many worthy titles caught the eyes of the Critics. The purpose of these awards is to bring attention to the wide variety of films on offer to viewers and I think we’ve done that with our nominees and winners.
I’m particularly thrilled to see Colin Firth again, continuing on his fine form of last year when he won for A Single Man. And Kristin Scott Thomas was an impeccable recipient of our Dilys Powell Award, demonstrating her wit, elegance and graciousness and allowing us all to recall the highlights of a highly impressive career in cinema.”

This year’s edition of the Film Critics’ Circle Awards was presented by Jason Solomons. It was held for the first time at BFI Southbank, in aid of their new charity partner, the BFI Archive, to help with the preservation and restoration of British film, in particular Hitchcock’s nine silent features, as part of the BFI’s landmark ‘Rescue the Hitchcock 9 Campaign’. The Awards were presented in partnership with Sky 3D and Moët & Chandon.

31st London Critics’ Circle Film Awards winners in full:

FILM OF THE YEAR
The Social Network (Sony)
Runner-up: The King’s Speech (Momentum)

TOP 10 FILMS of 2010
1. The Social Network (Sony)
2. The King’s Speech (Momentum)
3. Black Swan (Fox)
4. Toy Story 3 (Disney)
5. The Kids Are All Right (Universal)
6. Another Year (Momentum)
7. True Grit (Paramount)
8. Inception (Warner)
9. I Am Love (Metrodome)
10. Winter’s Bone (Artificial Eye)

THE ATTENBOROUGH AWARD: BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR
The King’s Speech (Momentum)
Runner-up: Another Year (Momentum)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Of Gods and Men (Artificial Eye)
Runner-up: I Am Love (Metrodome)

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
David Fincher – The Social Network (Sony)
Runner-up: Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan (Fox)

BRITISH DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech (Momentum)
Runner-up: Mike Leigh – Another Year (Momentum)

ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech (Momentum)
Runner-up: Edgar Ramirez – Carlos (Optimum)

ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right (Universal)
Runner-up: Natalie Portman – Black Swan (Fox)

BRITISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Christian Bale – The Fighter (Paramount/Momentum)
Runner-up: Jim Broadbent – Another Year (Momentum)

BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Lesley Manville – Another Year (Momentum)
Runner-up: Tilda Swinton – I Am Love (Metrodome)

BRITISH ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Andrew Garfield – The Social Network (Sony)
Runner-up: David Bradley – Another Year (Momentum)

BRITISH ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Olivia Williams – The Ghost (Optimum)
Runner-up: Rosamund Pike – Made in Dagenham (Paramount)

SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR
Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network (Sony)
Runner-up: David Seidler – The King’s Speech (Momentum)

YOUNG BRITISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
Conor McCarron – NEDs (Entertainment One)
Runner-up: Jessica Barden – Tamara Drewe (Momentum)

BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH FILM-MAKER
Gareth Edwards – Monsters (Vertigo)
Runner-up: Clio Barnard – The Arbor (Verve)

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Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | 1 Comment »

One Response to “31st LONDON FILM CRITICS’ CIRCLE AWARD WINNERS”

  1. Lynn Richer says:
    February 10, 2011 at 7:04 pm

    There is no doubt that Colin Firth did indeed give the best performance of the year..(best in the last several years in fact) so great!!

    But the Social Network as best picture and not “Kings speech” is a bit ridiculous….the story was lame the acting Ok…and certainly not interesting to the majority of the population over 17!!

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