NY Film Critics' Historical Results - Installment 3: 1969 - 1989

nightwingnova
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Post by nightwingnova »

I concur about the National Society's vote breakdowns, specifically from 1966 - 1971 before Kauffmann and Simon left.
markyboo wrote:I have very much enjoyed learning about the NYFCC voting results from past years. Is it possible that someone could provide the same information from the National Society of Film Critics and the LA Film Critics?
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Post by Damien »

No, I like Sissy Spacek a great deal. And I'm even warming up on Meryl Streep.

But Daniel Day-Lewis is the worst!
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Post by Okri »

Does Damien not like Sissy Spacek?
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Post by The Original BJ »

Damien wrote:Thanks for the list, Precious. I didn't realize all those people had 4.
All those actors you LOVE. :D
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Post by Damien »

Thanks for the list, Precious. I didn't realize all those people had 4.
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Post by Precious Doll »

I suppose an interesting addition to this thread is who are the most awarded actors, particularly given that the New York Film Critics circle is the longest running critics group starting in 1935.

Here are the most honored actors by this group:

5 acting awards

Jack Nicholson

4 acting awards

Daniel Day Lewis
Robert De Niro
Sissy Spacek
Meryl Streep

3 acting awards

Ingrid Bergman
Julie Christie
Deborah Kerr
Burt Lancaster
Laurence Olivier
Liv Ullman
Joanne Woodward

2 acting awards

Alan Arkin
Marlon Brando
Robert Duvall
Jane Fonda
Greta Garbo
John Gielgud
Gene Hackman
Audrey Hepburn
Holly Hunter
Glenda Jackson
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Vivien Leigh
Helen Mirren
Bill Murray
Ralph Richardson
Maximillian Schell
James Stewart
Jon Voight
Dianne Wiest

A somewhat different list from the Academys.




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Post by Damien »

I did find the historical material I ad posted years ago on the NY Film Critics awards culled from newspaper reports from the time. Interestingly, just as it was the 1952 awards that rejuvenated this discussion recently, it was also 1952 that led to the original posts in the early 2000s. And although there seemed to be a big fight between pro- and anti-Chaplin forces, he curiously didn't receive any votes on the first ballot. Here's what I wrote:
===================
Magilla, The Importance of Being Earnest opened in New York on December 22, 1952 at the Baronet theatre, across from Bloomingdale’s. It was reviewed in the Times by second-stringer A.H. Weiler – Bosley Crowther was otherwise engaged at the Roxy reviewing Stars and Stripes Forever.

I happened to look at the NY Film Critics voting for 1952. Here are the results:

First off, the voting procedure in those years was that for the first five ballots, you needed a 2/3 majority to win. On the sixth ballot, a simple majority was enough. This provided for various machinations, in that if your choice didn’t have other support on the first ballot, you’d go along with something else that other people supported. (I think this procedure was established after the 1940 awards, when Best Actor took up something like 25 ballots – I’ll have to get the exact details – a 3-way race between ultimate winner Charlie Chaplin, James Stephenson (The Letter) and Thomas Mitchell (The Long Voyage Home)).

Anyway 1952:

On the sixth ballot, High Noon (10) beat The African Queen (5) (African was released in New York in Feb. 1952).

Other movies receiving votes on the first ballot were: Breaking The Sound Barrier; Come Back, Little Sheba; Greatest Show On Earth; Hans Christian Andersen; The Man In The White Suit; The Quiet Man; and Singin’ In The Rain.

Best Director: Fred Zinnemann beat John Huston, also 10-5. Receiving one vote each on the first ballot had been Charlie Chaplin (Limelight); Cecil B. DeMille (Greatest Show); David Lean (Sound Barrier); Alexander Mackendrick (Man in the White Suit) and William Wyler (Carrie).

Best Actress was the only first-round victory. Shirley Booth in Come Back, Little Sheba had 12 votes to Katharine Hepburn’s 3 for The African Queen.

Best Actor took five ballots, at which point Ralph Richardson in Breaking The Sound Barrier defeated Charlie Chaplin in Limelight 10 to 5.

On the first ballot Gary Cooper (High Noon) had 3 votes, Laurence Olivier (Carrie) had 2, and there was one apiece for Barry Fitzgerald (The Quiet Man), Alec Guiness (Man in the White Suit & The Promoter) and Millard Mitchell (My Six Convicts). On the second ballot, Marlon Brando showed up with one vote for Viva, Zapata!

I find it very curious that there wasn’t a single vote for Bogart in The African Queen, even though the movie clearly had a strong following among the Critics.

Foreign Film took all six ballots, at which point Rene Clement’s Forbidden Games had 8 votes compared to 6 for The White Line, which was Italian neo-realism directed by Luigi Zampa and starring Gina Lollobrigida and Raf Vallone. There was 1 vote for Two Cents Worth of Hope, an Italian comedy by Renato Castellano. On the first ballot, somebody voted for a documentary, Leonardo de Vinci, but the other critics insisted it wasn’t eligible because, even though it was from Italy, it was narrated by Albert Dekker, and thus wasn’t a Foreign LANGUAGE Picture.

Before any of the voting, it was determined that This Is Cinerama was not eligible in any category because it was a series of short films, not really a feature at all.
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Post by markyboo »

I have very much enjoyed learning about the NYFCC voting results from past years. Is it possible that someone could provide the same information from the National Society of Film Critics and the LA Film Critics?
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Post by Reza »

Damien wrote:
Eric wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:1981
Actress: Glenda Jackson (Stevie) 36
[Faye Dunaway (Mommie Dearest) 34]
Gah, never realized how frustratingly close Dunaway's performance was to landing this one!

Robbed. Just robbed.
I remember at the time my gang was dispirited and outraged by this voting result. It was even worse when the National Society of Film Critics gave their Best Actress prize by an equally small majority to Marília Pêra, the obscure actress from Little Pixote.

Dunaway's great, courageous and ferocious Mommie Dearest performance hadn't yet been relegated to joke-dom, and if she had won one of these awards it never would have. Grrrrr . . .
If she had won here then her career (post Mommie) may have taken a very different route not unlike that of Karen Black.
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Post by Damien »

Eric wrote:
Mister Tee wrote:1981
Actress: Glenda Jackson (Stevie) 36
[Faye Dunaway (Mommie Dearest) 34]
Gah, never realized how frustratingly close Dunaway's performance was to landing this one!

Robbed. Just robbed.
I remember at the time my gang was dispirited and outraged by this voting result. It was even worse when the National Society of Film Critics gave their Best Actress prize by an equally small majority to Marília Pêra, the obscure actress from Little Pixote.

Dunaway's great, courageous and ferocious Mommie Dearest performance hadn't yet been relegated to joke-dom, and if she had won one of these awards it never would have. Grrrrr . . .
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Post by Big Magilla »

Mister Tee wrote:A new voting system for a new age. A simple majority on a first ballot was good for a win – the select few who qualified for that are indicated with * before their names/films. After that, the critics submitted weighted ballots with 1-2-3 choices listed. There were some arcane rules about needing a majority of critics to at least mention the film/performance in question (I seem to remember James Mason actually led round two of the 1972 best actor balloting, but fell short on that technicality, requiring further voting and bringing about the Olivier win). And there were occasional runoffs, as you'll see noted. But for the most part it was a simple matter of garnering the most combined votes from this weighted voting.

It was Stacy Keach (Fat City) who led Marlon Brando on the second ballot.

According to Variety, "At this point a reviewer for a national magazine voiced the opinion that Keach's 20 points (out of a possible 60 from the 20 voting scribes) hardly constituted a group endorsement. He proposed that the rules be instantly amended to require at least 50 percent of the potential first place points of the membership on all ballots. There was some grumbling among the other reviewers that such last minute rule changes were less than fair, but no one strongly opposed his insistence that the revised procedure be adopted immediately. As a result, three more ballots were held until the fifth round tally resulted in the compromise choice of Laurence Olivier (30 points for Sleuth) over runners-up Brando (27), James Mason for Child's Play (20) and Peter O'Toole for The Ruling Class (15). Fact that Keach failed to even place on the last balloting could well be explained by the pall that had been cast over his selection by the dissenting, rule-revising critic. Olivier scored low on the original vote, but later he was apparently adjudged the safest and most widely acceptable choice.

The same rule switch cost Eddie Albert (The Heartbreak Kid) the prize for Best Supporting Actor, which ended up going to The Godfather's Robert Duvall."

I'm pretty sure the critic in question was Richard Schickel (Time).




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Post by Mister Tee »

Mister Tee wrote:
Reza wrote:Delphine Seyrig in The Damned? Surely it was Ingrid Thulin who figured in the voting in 1969?
Ah -- the fact check begins.

I don't have a hard copy of that year's stats; I got them from an encyclopedia of Times reviews at the NU library. It's possible I miscopied, or there was a typo.

In any case, since Seyrig wasn't in The Damned (I wouldn't have known that, since I saw the film only once, around 1971, wasn't familiar with many of the actors at the time, and loathed it so much I'd never go back), I think it's likely her votes were meant to be for Stolen Kisses, which was a 1969 release in NY.
A Google check turned up an obscure New York Magazine article, confirming Seyrig's votes were indeed for Stolen Kisses.
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Post by Eric »

Mister Tee wrote:1981
Actress: Glenda Jackson (Stevie) 36
[Faye Dunaway (Mommie Dearest) 34]
Gah, never realized how frustratingly close Dunaway's performance was to landing this one!

Robbed. Just robbed.
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Post by Mister Tee »

Reza wrote:Delphine Seyrig in The Damned? Surely it was Ingrid Thulin who figured in the voting in 1969?
Ah -- the fact check begins.

I don't have a hard copy of that year's stats; I got them from an encyclopedia of Times reviews at the NU library. It's possible I miscopied, or there was a typo.

In any case, since Seyrig wasn't in The Damned (I wouldn't have known that, since I saw the film only once, around 1971, wasn't familiar with many of the actors at the time, and loathed it so much I'd never go back), I think it's likely her votes were meant to be for Stolen Kisses, which was a 1969 release in NY.
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Post by Reza »

Delphine Seyrig in The Damned? Surely it was Ingrid Thulin who figured in the voting in 1969?
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