The Toronto Film Critics Association fell under the sway of The Master this year, naming Paul Thomas Anderson’s large-format drama its best picture and following through with awards for director, screenplay and supporting actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. (Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams were runners-up for actor and supporting actress.)
This marks the second time the association – of which I am vice-president and secretary – has given its top prizes to an Anderson picture. Magnolia won picture, director and screenplay in 1999. And it’s Anderson’s third director win he last won the prize 10 years ago for Punch-Drunk Love.
Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell won the 2012 Allan King Documentary Award and is one of the three finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, which this year comes with a $100,000 cash prize for the winning director. Denis Côté’s Bestiaire and Michael Dowse’s Goon are this year’s other nominees.
Another Canadian production, Panos Cosmatos’s sci-fi fantasy Beyond The Black Rainbow, shared the best first feature prize with Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts Of The Southern Wild.
Denis Lavant, who assumes at least 11 roles in Leos Carax’s demented fantasy Holy Motors, was named the year’s best actor, while Rachel Weisz was named best actress for her performance as a postwar Londoner who leaves her comfortable marriage for a torrid relationship with a younger veteran in Terence Davies’s The Deep Blue Sea. And Gina Gershon was named best supporting actress for her fearless turn in William Friedkin’s Killer Joe.
Michael Haneke’s shattering chamber drama Amour took top honours in the best foreign-language film, while Chris Butler and Sam Fell’s ParaNorman won for best animated feature.
The TFCA will present its awards – and name the winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award – at a gala dinner in January.
BEST PICTURE
The Master
(Runners-up: Amour, Zero Dark Thirty)
BEST ACTOR
Denis Lavant, Holy Motors
(Runners-up: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln Joaquin Phoenix, The Master)
BEST ACTRESS
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea
(Runners-up: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty Emmanuelle Riva, Amour)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
(Runners-up: Javier Bardem, Skyfall Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Gina Gershon, Killer Joe
(Runners-up: Amy Adams, The Master Ann Dowd, Compliance Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables)
BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
(Runners-up: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty Leos Carax, Holy Motors)
BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED OR ORIGINAL
The Master, written by Paul Thomas Anderson
(Runners-up: Lincoln, written by Tony Kushner Zero Dark Thirty, written by Mark Boal)
BEST FIRST FEATURE (TIE)
Beasts Of The Southern Wild, directed by Benh Zeitlin, and Beyond The Black Rainbow, directed by Panos Cosmatos
(Runner-up: The Cabin In The Woods, directed by Drew Goddard)
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
ParaNorman
(Runners-up: Brave, Frankenweenie)
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Amour
(Runners-up: Holy Motors, Tabu)
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Stories We Tell
(Runners-up: The Queen Of Versailles, Searching For Sugar Man)
ROGERS CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS
Bestiaire, Goon, Stories We Tell
