On your marks….get set….go!

With the Oscars due to take place in late February, the craziness of awards season is finally upon us as a large group of critics and fans obsess over their favourites films and actors and whether they’ll do well over the next two and a half months.

The season officially began today with the New York Film Critics Circle taking all day to eventually award the big prizes to a pair of politically-historical films which both take a big step towards possible Oscar glory.

Upcoming war thriller Zero Dark Thirty, which focuses on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, clinched three wins for Best Film, Best Director for The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow and Best Cinematography. However main star Jessica Chastain missed out on the Best Actress award.

The other big winner was Steven Spielberg’s historical biopic Lincoln which claimed Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress for Sally Field and another Best Actor win for Daniel Day-Lewis as the iconic president Abraham Lincoln.

A big upset in Best Actress saw British beauty Rachel Weisz secure the prize for her performance in Liverpudlian Terence Davies’s bleak romantic drama The Deep Blue Sea which was released in the US back in April. Matthew McConaughey was also a surprise winner in Best Supporting Actor for his roles in Bernie and the stripper comedy Magic Mike.

Tim Burton’s gothic animation Frankenweenie won Best Animated film while Michael Haneke’s acclaimed French drama Amour won the Best Foreign Language Film award.

The list of winners are below.

BEST FILM
Zero Dark Thirty

BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

BEST ACTRESS
Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matthew McConaughey (Bernie/Magic Mike)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Sally Field (Lincoln)

BEST SCREENPLAY
Tony Kushner (Lincoln)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Greig Fraser (Zero Dark Thirty)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Frankenweenie

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Amour

BEST NON-FICTION FEATURE
The Central Park Five

BEST FIRST FEATURE
How to Survive a Plague

No awards love here for Argo, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook or The Master. Early days yet….

Let the games begin!