Although we are only a few days into awards season, winners from today’s three critic groups (Boston, Los Angeles and New York) are starting to look probable not just for Oscar nominations but for the win as several films and actors benefited from a busy day of prizes.
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Firstly, the Boston Society of Film Critics announced their winners with upcoming political films Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln sharing three wins each. Once again, ZD30 (which chronicles the hunt for Osama Bin Laden) was named Best Film beating off competition from Moonrise Kingdom and Amour. Kathryn Bigelow secured the Best Director prize (ahead of Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master) to add to her recent wins at New York and the NBR while it also won for Best Editing.

Lincoln also fared well with a Best Screenplay prize as well as acting awards for Daniel Day-Lewis in Best Actor as the American president Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field in Best Supporting Actress as Lincoln’s wife Mary.

Emmanuelle Riva won the first of her three award wins tonight in Best Actress for her powerful role in Amour while there was a surprise win in Best Supporting Actor for Erza Miller in the dark comedy The Perks of Being a Wallflower as he beat off Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained.

Frankenweenie (Animated Feature), Amour (Foreign Language) won their respective categories with The Master (Cinematography) and Moonrise Kingdom (Use of Music) rounding off the main recipients.

The full list of winners are below (with runner-ups):

BEST FILM
Zero Dark Thirty
(RU – *TIE* Amour/Moonrise Kingdom)

BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty
(RU – Paul Thomas Anderson – The Master)

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
(RU – Denis Lavant – Holy Motors)

BEST ACTRESS
Emmanuelle Riva – Amour
(RU – Deanie Yip – A Simple Life)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Erza Miller – The Perks of Being a Wallflower
(RU – Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Sally Field – Lincoln
(RU – Emma Watson – The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

BEST SCREENPLAY
Tony Kushner – Lincoln
(RU – Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Master
(RU – *TIE* Life of Pi/Moonrise Kingdom)

BEST EDITING
Zero Dark Thirty
(RU – Argo)

BEST USE OF MUSIC
Moonrise Kingdom
(RU – Django Unchained)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Frankenweenie
(RU – Paranorman)

BEST NEW FILMMAKER
David France – How To Survive a Plague
(RU – Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Amour
(RU – Holy Motors)

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Searching for Sugar Man
(RU – Queen of Versailles)

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Next up, New York once again contributed to awards season as their online critics group unveiled their winners for 2012.

As with their group from last week, they awarded Zero Dark Thirty with the Best Film prize as well as another win for director Kathryn Bigelow in her own category and a Best Screenplay gong.

Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor again but this time it was his male co-star Tommy Lee Jones who shared the acting recognition with him as he secured Best Supporting Actor for Lincoln. Emmanuelle Riva made it two out of two with another Best Actress win for Amour while Anne Hathaway secured her first big win in the season in Supporting Actress for her challenging role in the upcoming musical epic Les Miserables.

Quvenzhané Wallis claimed the Breakthrough Performance award for her performance in indie-drama Beasts of the Southern Wild while there were sole victories for Argo (Best Ensemble), Life of Pi (Cinematography) and Django Unchained (Use of Music).

The full 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
Emmanuelle Riva – Amour

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables

BEST SCREENPLAY
Mark Boal – Zero Dark Thirty

BEST ENSEMBLE
Argo

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Life of Pi

BEST USE OF MUSIC
Django Unchained

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Quvenzhané Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Amour

BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Central Park Five
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Finally, Los Angeles finished things off by revealing their bold (and different) winners. They are seen as one of the top national film critic groups to influence awards season along with New York and Washington.

Zero’s dominance ended (for now) with the LA group selecting Michael Haneke’s Amour as the surprise winner of Best Film. Leading star Emmanuelle Riva won her third award of the day though she actually tied the best actress gong with fellow Oscar hopeful Jennifer Lawrence for her role in David O’Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook.

The Master gained some much-needed recognition in its battle for Oscar glory claiming wins for director Paul Thomas Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix (Best Actor) and Amy Adams (Best Supporting Actress) while also being runner-up in other categories. However there was a bizarre but welcoming win in Best Supporting Actor for Dwight Henry for his debut role in Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Argo (Screenplay), Skyfall (Cinematography), Frankeenweenie (Animated Feature) and Holy Motors (Foreign Language) were the other big winners of this incredibly busy day for awards seas0n.

The full list of winners are below (with runner-ups):

BEST FILM
Amour
(RU – The Master)

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson – The Master
(RU – Kathryn Bigelow – Zero Dark Thirty)

BEST ACTOR
Joaquin Phoenix – The Master
(RU – Denis Lavant – Holy Motors)

BEST ACTRESS
*TIE* Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook/Emmanuelle Riva – Amour

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Dwight Henry – Beasts of the Southern Wild
(RU – Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – The Master
(RU – Anne Hathaway – The Dark Knight Rises/Les Miserables)

BEST SCREENPLAY
Chris Terrio – Argo
(RU – David O. Russell – Silver Lining Playbook)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Skyfall
(RU – The Master)

BEST EDITING
Zero Dark Thirty
(RU – Argo)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Master
(RU – Moonrise Kingdom)

BEST MUSICAL SCORE
Benh Zeitlin & Dan Romer – Beasts of the Southern Wild
(RU – Jonny Greenwood – The Master)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Frankenweenie
(RU – It’s Such a Beautiful Day)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Holy Motors
(RU – Footnote)

BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Gatekeepers
(RU – Searching for Sugerman)

Source: Awards Daily