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Press release

Winners Announced in 2004 Seattle Film Critics Awards

Forget about a recount! There will be no manual tally, no divining of intent, no lost ballots “discovered” behind the polling booth. The Seattle Film Critics have determined in no uncertain terms (okay, there is one tie) their choices for the best films of 2004.

The Puget Sound area’s fourteen most prominent print critics have fallen for the gym-rat nobility of MILLION DOLLAR BABY, naming it their best picture and giving the director nod to Clint Eastwood. We are pleased to encourage this fresh young face in his filmmaking endeavors.

Acting honors went to Jamie Foxx, for his dazzling diddy-bop through the life of Ray Charles, and Imelda Staunton, for her finely-tuned VERA DRAKE portrait of a housewife whose homely ministrations include back-room abortions. Supporting awards went to the lovingly re-discovered SIDEWAYS duo of Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen.

The Seattle Critics Awards are unique in bestowing a “Living Treasure” award, given to a long-cherished movie notable deserving of career recognition. This year’s winner is Henry Bumstead (born 1915), one of Hollywood’s greatest art director/production designers, whose astonishing catalog of films includes VERTIGO, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, TOPAZ, THE STING, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, THE FRONT PAGE (74), THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, CAPE FEAR (91), MYSTIC RIVER, and MILLION DOLLAR BABY.

(Previous “Living Treasure” winners: Maureen O’Hara, Christopher Lee.)

A “Special Citation” for restoration work went to Richard Schickel and Brian Jamieson, for their efforts in restoring 50 previously-unseen minutes to Samuel Fuller’s splendid 1980 film THE BIG RED ONE.

With that, the winners and runners-up in the Seattle Film Critics Awards. See below for voting members.

BEST PICTURE

Million Dollar Baby
Runner-up: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

BEST DIRECTOR

Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
Runner-up: Martin Scorsese, The Aviator

BEST ACTOR

Jamie Foxx, Ray
Runner-up: Jeff Bridges, The Door in the Floor

BEST ACTRESS

Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
Runner-up: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Thomas Haden Church, Sideways
Runner-up: Clive Owen, Closer

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Virginia Madsen, Sideways
Runner-up: Laura Dern, We Don’t Live Here Anymore

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Charlie Kaufman)
Runner-up: Vera Drake (Mike Leigh)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Sideways (Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor)
Runner-up: Million Dollar Baby (Jim Haggis)

BEST DOCUMENTARY

(tie) Control Room and Touching the Void

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Maria Full of Grace
Runners-up: Blind Shaft, Hero

BEST ANIMATED FILM

The Incredibles
Runner-up: Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Hero (Christopher Doyle)
Runner-up: Collateral (Dion Beebe, Paul Cameron)

BEST MUSIC

The Aviator (Howard Shore)
Runner-up: Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood)

LIVING TREASURE

Henry Bumstead

SPECIAL CITATION

Richard Schickel and Brian Jamieson, THE BIG RED ONE

The voters in the 2004 Seattle Film Critics Awards:

Soren Andersen – Tacoma News Tribune
Tim Appelo – Seattle Weekly
William Arnold – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sheila Benson – Seattle Weekly
John Hartl – Seattle Times
Robert Horton – The Herald
Richard T. Jameson – Queen Anne News
Moira Macdonald – Seattle Times
Derich Mantonela (Mike Anderton) – Seattle Gay News
Brian Miller – Seattle Weekly
Paula Nechak – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Mark Rahner – Seattle Times
Bradley Steinbacher – The Stranger

Press release

Winners Announced in Second Annual Seattle Film Critics Awards

December 18, 2003

Jack Valenti be damned! The second annual Seattle Film Critics Awards are here, despite Hollywood’s notorious ban on screeners. Fourteen of the most prominent print critics from the Puget Sound area have voted on the best in the film year, perhaps naively believing that movies should be seen on the big screen anyway.

The Seattle critics, all from print-only publications, handed major awards to small movies–yet found room for hobbits, too. AMERICAN SPLENDOR, the pixillated tale of Cleveland comic-book creator Harvey Pekar, won Seattle’s best picture award. The film’s screenplay, and leading lady Hope Davis, also got the nods in their categories. Meanwhile, Bill Murray won the best actor prize for LOST IN TRANSLATION, which makes us wonder how you say, “Now get outta here, ya knuckleheads” in Japanese.

In a category unique to the Seattle critics, a “Living Treasure” was also named, an award that honors some long-cherished movie notable deserving of career recognition. This year’s award went to Christopher Lee, the magnificently suave and sinister English actor whose work is gloriously associated with Hammer horror films, notably as perhaps the finest screen Dracula. No stranger to straight roles (THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE THREE MUSKETEERS), Lee has lately found acclaim in both the newest STAR WARS trilogy and THE LORD OF THE RINGS…even if he was unceremoniously cut from THE RETURN OF THE KING. (Last year’s “Living Treasure” was Maureen O’Hara.)

A Special Citation was awarded to Rialto Pictures, for their stirring restorations and/or re-releases of a series of French classics in the past year, including LE CERCLE ROUGE, QUAI DES ORFEVRES, and TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI.

Without further ado, the winners of the Seattle Film Critics Awards:

BEST PICTURE

American Splendor
Runners-up: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Lost in Translation

BEST DIRECTOR

Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation
Runner-up: Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

BEST ACTOR

Bill Murray, Lost in Translation
Runner-up: Paul Giamatti, American Splendor

BEST ACTRESS

Hope Davis, American Splendor
Runners-up: Charlotte Rampling, Swimming Pool, Charlize Theron, Monster

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Sean Astin, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Runner-up: Peter Sarsgaard, Shattered Glass

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Marcia Gay Harden, Mystic River
Runner-up: Patricia Clarkson, Pieces of April

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
Runners-up: Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds); A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

American Splendor (Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini)
Runner-up: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson)

DOCUMENTARY

Capturing the Friedmans
Runner-up: Spellbound

ANIMATED FEATURE

The Triplets of Belleville
Runner-up: Finding Nemo

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

The Man on the Train (France)
Runner-up: The Man Without a Past (Finland)

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Andrew Lesnie)
Runner-up: Girl With a Pearl Earring (Eduardo Serra)

MUSIC

A Mighty Wind (songs by Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Catherine O’Hara, Annette O’Toole, Harry Shearer, Jeffrey C.J. Vanston)
Runner-up: Lost in Translation (Brian Reitzell, Kevin Shields, William Storkson)

LIVING TREASURE

Christopher Lee

SPECIAL CITATION FOR FILM RESTORATION

Rialto Pictures

There is no Seattle film critics “group,” but a poll of the area’s top print film critics. The poll is organized by Parallax View: A Film Society, a group of film enthusiasts, professionals, and critics. The members of Parallax View are NOT the voters in the awards.

Critics voting in the 2003 awards:

Soren Andersen – Tacoma News Tribune
Tim Appelo – Seattle Weekly
William Arnold – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sheila Benson – Seattle Weekly
John Hartl – Seattle Times
Robert Horton – The Herald
Richard T. Jameson – Queen Anne News
Moira Macdonald – Seattle Times
Derich Mantonela (Mike Anderton) – Seattle Gay News
Brian Miller – Seattle Weekly
Paula Nechak – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Mark Rahner – Seattle Times
Bradley Steinbacher – The Stranger

Press release

Winners Announced in First Annual Seattle Film Critics Awards

December 19, 2002

Alarmed by the dearth of year-end movie awards, the film critics of the Puget Sound area have raised their voices in unison for the first time. Twenty-four of the area’s top critics have been polled for the first annual Seattle Film Critics Awards, and the results are in.

Todd Haynes’ FAR FROM HEAVEN proved close to critics’ hearts, winning in six categories, including best picture. The homage to the 1950s melodramas of director Douglas Sirk also won for Julianne Moore as best actress and two awards for Haynes, for best director and best original screenplay.

The Seattle critics also created a special annual category, the “Living Legend” award, which honors some long-cherished movie notable deserving of career recognition. This year’s award went to Maureen O’Hara, the Irish-born, flame-haired Hollywood star whose long career included her many collaborations with both John Wayne (THE QUIET MAN) and John Ford (HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY).

The awards were organized by a new Seattle organization, Parallax View: A Film Society, a group of film enthusiasts, professionals, and critics. The members of Parallax View are NOT the voters in the awards. A committee formed by Parallax View polled the area’s leading critics.

Herewith, the results of the 2002 Seattle Film Critics Awards:

2002 Seattle Film Critics Awards – Winners

Best Picture

Far From Heaven
Runner-up: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Best Director

Todd Haynes, Far From Heaven
Runner-up: Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Best Actress

Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven
Runner-up: Nicole Kidman, The Hours

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York
Runner-up: Michael Caine, The Quiet American

Best Supporting Actress

Bebe Neuwirth, Tadpole
Runner-up: Toni Collette, About a Boy

Best Supporting Actor

Chris Cooper, Adaptation
Runner-up: Dennis Quaid, Far From Heaven

Original Screenplay

Far From Heaven, Todd Haynes
Runner-up: Y Tu Mama Tambien; Alfonso Curaon, Carlos Curaon

Adapted Screenplay

The Hours, David Hare
Runner-up: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair

Documentary

The Kid Stays in the Picture
Runner-up: Standing in the Shadows of Motown

Foreign-Language Film

Y Tu Mama Tambien
Runner-up: The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat)

Cinematography

Far From Heaven, Edward Lachman
Runner-up: Gangs of New York, Michael Ballhaus

Music

Far From Heaven, Elmer Bernstein
Runner-up: Punch-Drunk Love, Jon Brion

Editing

Femme Fatale, Bill Pankow
Runner-up: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, D. Michael Horton

Production Design

Gangs of New York, Dante Ferretti
Runner-up: Far From Heaven, Mark Friedberg

Living Treasure

Maureen O’Hara

PARALLAX VIEW: A FILM SOCIETY is a newly-formed group of Seattle film professionals, enthusiasts, teachers, and critics. Our goal is to champion the cause of film literacy, foster public discussion of the place of movies in society, and promote the serious, sometimes delirious cause of film as art. To that end, we sponsor public events featuring filmmakers and critics, publish provocative writing about film, and present the annual Seattle Film Critics Awards, voted on each December.

Critics polled in the 2002 Seattle Film Critics Awards:

Soren Andersen – Tacoma News Tribune
William Arnold – Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker – freelance/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sheila Benson – freelance/Seattle Weekly
Jim Emerson – freelance/cinepad.com
Gillian Gaar – freelance/Tablet
Shannon Gee – freelance/Seattle Weekly
John Hartl – freelance/Seattle Times
Robert Horton – Everett Herald/KUOW-FM
Richard T. Jameson – freelance/Pacific Press Newspapers
Moira Macdonald – Seattle Times
Derich Mantonela (Mike Anderton) – Seattle Gay News
Michael Medved – freelance/syndicated
Brian Miller – Seattle Weekly
Kathleen Murphy – freelance/SteadyCam
Paula Nechak – freelance/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Nelson – The Stranger
Mark Rahner – Seattle Times
Bruce Reid – freelance
Jeff Shannon – freelance/Amazon.com
Steven Shaviro – freelance/shaviro.com
Keith Simanton – Internet Movie Database
Andy Spletzer – freelance
Tom Tangney – KIRO-AM