The sexually explicit lesbian romance Blue is the Warmest Color took the best foreign language film award in the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association polling announced this morning (its 20th annual), with 12 Years a Slave taking best picture and Matthew McConaughey best actor for Dallas Buyers Club.
In all, Buyers Club ended up with two awards, including one for supporting actor Jared Leto, playing a drag queen with HIV. The film is set in Dallas, and tracks early efforts to wage war against the AIDS crisis. 12 Years also won awards for best supporting actress for Lupita Nyong’o, while Cate Blanchett took best actress as an emotionally unstable woman in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, and Alfonso Cuaron won best director for Gravity.
The association, unlike many critics’ groups, lists the finalist in many categories. So, while 12 Years won for best picture, it was followed by (2) Gravity, (3) Nebraska, (4) American Hustle, (5) Dallas Buyers Club, (6) Her, (7) The Wolf of Wall Street, (8) Inside Llewyn Davis, (9) Capt. Phillips and (10) Mud. That last film makes two top-10 films starring Texan McConaughey, who also appears in No. 7’s Wolf of Wall Street.
McConaughey was followed in the polling for best actor by 12 Years‘ Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nebraska‘s Bruce Dern, Capt. Phillips‘ Tom Hanks and Wolf‘s Leonardo DiCaprio. Runners-up to Blanchett for best actress are Sandra Bullock as a stranded astronaut in Gravity, Judi Dench, as a mother searching for the son taken from her in Philomena, Meryl Streep as a fading Oklahoma matriarch in August: Osage County and Emma Thompson, as Mary Poppins creator P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks.
Supporting actor runners-up are Michael Fassbender (12 Years a a Slave), Barkhad Abdi (Capt. Phillips), Daniel Bruhl (Rush) and Jonah Hill (Wolf of Wall Street). Supporting actress contenders were June Squibb (Nebraska), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Julia Roberts (August: Osage County) and Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine).
Following Cuaron for best director were Steve McQueen (12 Years), Alexander Payne (Nebraska), David O. Russell (American Hustle) and Martin Scorsese (Wolf). Runners-up for best foreign language film were The Hunt, The Great Beauty, The Wind Rises and The Grandmaster.
Best animated film went to Frozen, followed up Despicable Me 2. Best documentary was 20 Feet from Stardom, followed by The Act of Killing, Stories We Tell, Blackfish and The Gatekeepers (which was nominated last year for the best documentary feature Oscar). John Ridley won the best screenplay award for 12 Years over a tie between Bob Nelson for Nebraska and Spike Jonze for Her. The award forcCinematography went to Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity, followed by Sean Bobbitt for 12 Years. The association gave its award for best score to Steven Price for Gravity.
The association also presents The Russell Smith Award every year, named for the gay Dallas Morning News film critic who passed away more than a decade ago. Fruitvale Station won the prize as the best low-budget or cutting-edge independent film.
This Friday’s print edition of Dallas Voice is the Hollywood Issue, and will contain reviews and/or previews of some of these films, which have yet to official open in Dallas.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association consists of 29 broadcast, print and online journalists from throughout North Texas, including me. For more information, go here.
