New York Film Critics Circle announces winners

New York Film Critics Circle announces 2011 winners

The Gotham scribes, who traditionally kick off the award season, picked The Artist as the Best Picture of 2011. That's a black-and-white silent film.

Two historical portrayals were chosen by the NY group as best actor and actress: Brad Pitt as Billy Beane; Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher.

Malick's The Tree of Life was picked for cinematography.


Many of the best films on Rotten Tomatoes this year are the sorts of films that don't normally get picked as Best Picture (top films below, with % of positive reviews). The list below is dominated by unseen arthouse films and pure entertainment films. Let's face it, they're not going to award the Best Picture Oscar to the Muppets and Jason Segal.

A Separation 100% (Opens Dec 30th)

The Muppets 98%

Tailor, Tinker, Soldier, Spy 98% (Opens Dec 9th)

The Artist 97%

Harry Potter and whatever the hell he's doing this time 96%

Hugo 96%

Moneyball 95%

The Guard 95%

13 Assassins 95%

Win Win 94%

Midnight in Paris 93%

50/50 93%

Source Code 92%

Drive 92%

Take Shelter 92%

A Separation is also the highest-rated 2011 film at IMDb. It's a Persian-language film which is the favorite in the foreign film category.

I think Woody Allen will probably be nominated for Midnight in Paris, but will not win.

I wonder if Scorsese will win the Oscar for Hugo. It is rated 8.6 at IMDb (tied for first), got 96% positive reviews (tied for fifth), and is an accessible film directed by an acknowledged genius.

There are some possible Oscar candidates missing from the list above:

Spielberg's The War Horse

Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Alexander Paine's The Descendants

David Fincher's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Help - the best film of the year on CinemaScore, meaning it's the most crowd-pleasing