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

Best Picture  –   Phantom Thread
Best Actor – Daniel Kaluuya for Get Out
Best Actress –  Sally Hawkins for The Shape of Water
Best Supporting Actor –  Willem Dafoe for The Florida Project
Best Supporting Actress –  Laurie Metcalf for Lady Bird
Best Director – Paul Thomas Anderson fior Phantom Thread
Best Screenplay –  Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
Best Cinematography – Hoyte Van Hoytema for Dunkirk
Best Documentary – Dawson City: Frozen in Time
Best Foreign-Language Film  (awarded in memory of Jay Carr) –  The Square
Best Animated Film –  Coco
Best Film Editing (awarded in memory of Karen Schmeer) –  David Lowery for A Ghost Story
Best New Filmmaker (awarded in memory of David Brudnoy) –  Jordan Peele for Get Out
Best Ensemble Cast –  The Meyerowitz Stories
Best Original Score –  Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread

Series Awards, Commendations and Rediscoveries, click HERE!

2017 BOFCA WINNERS

GET OUT BEST PICTURE

BEST PICTURE
GET OUT

PHANTOM THREAD BEST DIRECTOR

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, PHANTOM THREAD

TIMOTHEE CHALAMET BEST ACTOR

BEST ACTOR
Timothée Chalamet, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

FRANCES MCDORMAND BEST ACTRESS

BEST ACTRESS
Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI

WILLEM DAFOE BEST ACTOR

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Willem Dafoe, THE FLORIDA PROJECT

LAURIE METCALF BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Laurie Metcalf, LADY BIRD

GET OUT BEST ENSEMBLE

BEST ENSEMBLE
GET OUT

GET OUT BEST SCREENPLAY

BEST SCREENPLAY
Jordan Peele, GET OUT

FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER BEST FOREIGN

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER

FACES PLACES BEST DOCUMENTARY

BEST DOCUMENTARY
FACES PLACES

COCO BEST ANIMATED

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
COCO

BLADE RUNNER 2049 BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins, BLADE RUNNER 2049

DUNKIRK BEST EDITING

BEST EDITING
Lee Smith, DUNKIRK

SHAPE OF WATER PHANTOM THREAD BEST SCORE TIE

BEST SCORE (TIE)
Alexandre Desplat, THE SHAPE OF WATER
Jonny Greenwood, PHANTOM THREAD

GET OUT TOP TEN 2017