The 2011 Critics Consensus Award Winners
You might have guessed it, or then again you might not have guessed it. Those of us who recall it know very well that the critics loved The Tree of Life in 2011 and bequeathed it plenty of awards and nominations. But they also rather liked The Artist, and it was a fairly close race between the two for the overall Critics Consensus Award for Best Picture that year. Likewise, Best Director was a close race, and The Artist likewise lost there, and you almost certainly wouldn't have guessed that Martin Scorsese would win for Hugo, not if you knew that the movie placed fifth in Best Picture. I'm not normally in the habit of revealing placements beyond first for the CCAs, but those are interesting details. Michelle Williams' long wait for Oscar recognition won't be replicated here, as she wins Best Actress for My Week with Marilyn, while non-Oscar nominatees Shailene Woodley and Michael Fassbender win Best Supporting Actress and Best Actor respectively. In all, the closeness of several of the races this year and the divergence from industry awards are a good indication of just how shaken up the critics were after industry voting bodies broke the warm relationship they'd established in the wake of the Crash debacle, ignoring The Social Network in favour of The King's Speech. Remind yourself of the 2011 nominations here, and check out the award winners below.
Best Picture
The Tree of Life (Dede Gardner, Sarah Green, Grant Hill, Terrence Malick, Brad Pitt and Bill Pohlad)
Best Director
Martin Scorsese (Hugo)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Michael Fassbender (Shame)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Shailene Woodley (The Descendants)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
Best Original Screenplay
Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne and Jim Rash (The Descendants)
Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki (The Tree of Life)
Best Editing
Thelma Schoonmaker (Hugo)
Best Production Design
Dante Ferretti (Hugo)
Best Music
Ludovic Bource (The Artist)
Best Ensemble Cast
Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O'Reilly, Sissy Spacek, Octavia Spencer, Mary Steenburgen, Emma Stone, Cicely Tyson and Mike Vogel (The Help)
Best Animated Feature
Rango (John B. Carls, Graham King and Gore Verbinski)
Best Documentary
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Adrienne Ciuffo, Werner Herzog and Erik Nelson)
Best Foreign Language Film
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
Image Credit: MovieStillsDB