2017 FILM CRITICS AWARDS:BOSTON SOCIETY FILM CRITICS/BOSTON ONLINE FILM CRITICS!

It happened this weekend: The BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS (of which I am a veteran member) met for the 37th time and voted Paul Thomas Anderson’s PHANTOM THREAD (which a significant number of critics have not yet seen) starring Daniel Day-Lewis in his ostensible farewell performance as a fictional couturier, the BEST FILM of the year. The decision came after 8 rounds of voting involving a close runoff among several top films including Guillermo del Toro’s THE SHAPE OF WATER about the rescue of an alien creature from the clutches of cruel scientists in a cold war with the Russians, and also earned a BEST ACTRESS AWARD for Sally Hawkins as a mute cleaning lady whose sympathetic performance spoke volumes. The other hot contender for Best Picture was the horror thriller GET OUT which earned Daniel Kaluuya the BEST ACTOR AWARD as the African-American boyfriend of a rich white girlfriend who goes home to meet her parents one weekend at their affluent estate, and discovers that his “having the creeps” is not unfounded.

The BOSTON ONLINE FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION (of which I am also a member) has also voted their awards this weekend and named GET OUT their BEST FILM of the year. Their BEST ACTOR AWARD went to the much talked-about Timothée Chalamet in a breakout performance as the teenage son of a professor who falls in love with a visiting grad student one summer in Northern Italy. The BEST ACTRESS honors went to Frances McDormand’s searing portrayal of a woman whose frustration over the unsolved rape and murder of her teenage daughter results in her putting up THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI.

HERE’s a complete list of ALL THE AWARDS from BOTH groups of film critics:

2017 BSFC WINNERS