The National Society of Film Critics today chose Jean-Luc Godard’s 3-D film Goodbye to Language as Best Picture of the Year 2014.
The Society, made up of many of the country’s most distinguished movie critics, held its 49th annual awards voting meeting, using a weighted ballot system, at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Center as guests of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Scrolls will be sent to the winners.
Fifty-nine members are eligible to vote, though a few disqualify themselves if they haven’t seen every film. Any film that opened in the U.S. during the year 2014 was eligible for consideration. There is no nomination process; members meet, vote (using a weighted ballot), and announce all on January 3. There is no awards party; scrolls are sent to the winners.
Here is a list of the winners and runners-up, with vote counts from the final round.
BEST PICTURE
*1. Goodbye to Language 25 (Jean-Luc Godard)
2. Boyhood 24 (Richard Linklater)
3. Birdman 10 (Alejandro G. Iñárritu)
3. Mr. Turner 10 (Mike Leigh)
BEST DIRECTOR
*1. Richard Linklater 36 (Boyhood)
2. Jean-Luc Godard 17 (Goodbye to Language)
3. Mike Leigh 12 (Mr. Turner)
BEST NON-FICTION FILM
*1. Citizenfour 56 (Laura Poitras)
2. National Gallery 19 (Frederick Wiseman)
3. The Overnighters 17 (Jesse Moss)
BEST SCREENPLAY
*1. The Grand Budapest Hotel 24 (Wes Anderson)
2. Inherent Vice 15 (Paul Thomas Anderson)
2. Birdman 15 (four co-writers)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
*1. Mr. Turner 33 (Dick Pope)
2. The Immigrant 27 (Darius Khondji)
3. Goodbye to Language 9 (Fabrice Aragno)
BEST ACTOR
*1.Timothy Spall 31 (Mr. Turner)
2. Tom Hardy 10 (Locke)
3. Joaquin Phoenix 9 (Inherent Vice)
3. Ralph Fiennes 9 (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
BEST ACTRESS
*1. Marion Cotillard 80 (Two Days, One Night)
2. Julianne Moore 35 (Still Alice)
3. Scarlett Johansson 21 (Lucy; Under the Skin)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
*1. J.K. Simmons 24 (Whiplash)
2. Mark Ruffalo 21 (Foxcatcher)
3. Edward Norton 16 (Birdman)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
*1. Patricia Arquette 26 (Boyhood)
2. Agata Kulesza 18 (Ida)
3. Rene Russo 9 (Nightcrawler)
FILM HERITAGE AWARD
1. To Ron Magliozzi, associate curator, and Peter Williamson, film conservation manager, of the Museum of Modern Art, for identifying and assembling the earliest surviving footage of what would have been the feature film to star a black cast, the 1913 “Lime Kiln Field Day” starring Bert Williams.
2. To Ron Hutchinson, co-founder and director of The Vitaphone Project, which since 1991 has collected and restored countless original soundtrack discs for early sound short films and features, including the recent Warner Bros. restoration of William A. Seiter’s 1929 “Why Be Good?”
DEDICATION: The meeting was dedicated to the memory of two distinguished members of the Society who died in 2014: Jay Carr and Charles Champlin.
