Here's how 'Capote' pulled off a dramatic upset at National Society of Film Critics
Just like the sneaky, tiny terror of modern literature himself, Truman Capote's biopic caused a ruckus at a National Society of Film Critics powwow today. "Capote" pulled off an upstart, come-from-behind victory to win best picture after 6 ballots conducted during the longest voting conclave in memory — 5 and a half hours — while 26 critics gathered at Sardi's restaurant in New York City.
On the first ballot, most of the 55 national members voted either in person or via proxy, resulting in a consensus of 6 films being the strongest vote-getters. Leading with the most points was "A History of Violence," but just narrowly so over "Brokeback Mountain." The other films, cited alphabetically: "Capote," "Munich," "2046" and "The World."
If no winner is determined on the first ballot, proxy votes are discounted and a new tally is taken involving just the members present, who rank their three favorite films, giving three points to their top choice. A winner must have both the most points and be listed on a plurality (or majority) of ballots. On the second ballot, "A History of Violence" pulled far ahead of "Brokeback," but didn't have enough points to prevail.
Upon the fifth ballot, no winner yet emerged, but the field was narrowed to "Capote," "A History of Violence" and "2046." "2046" was dropped from consideration and voters had to choose between "Capote" and "Violence." "Capote" won 12 to 11.
One of the most decisive victories was achieved by Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Capote"), who won best actor on the first ballot.
Photo: He'll drink to that! 'Capote' recently staged an impressive sweep of nominations at all four major guilds: producers, writers, actors and directors.
(Sony Pictures Classics)
Among other award victories, one noteworthy result was the winner of best screenplay: Noah Baumbach for "The Squid and the Whale." Baumbach is the son of two former members of NSFC, Jonathan Baumbach and Georgia Brown. "When he was a kid, Noah actually attended a few of our parties," says executive director Elisabeth Weis. "As I recall, somebody drafted him to be bartender."
Scrolls will be mailed to the winners. The society does not conduct presentation ceremonies like the New York and L.A. critics do.
In its 40 years of existence, the NSFC has agreed with the Oscars on only four best pictures, but it can probably take credit for pushing one of them across the academy’s finish line — "Annie Hall," an early spring release in 1977 that probably would’ve been forgotten by late December when other award groups seemed to be fawning over "Star Wars," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "The Turning Point" and "The Goodbye Girl." The society also agreed with the Oscars on "Unforgiven," "Schindler's List" and "Million Dollar Baby." Last year the society was the first awards group to hail "Million Dollar Baby," which may have helped its momentum toward the Oscars.
The society's greatest influence in recent years was probably on the success of "The Pianist," which it voted best picture of 2002. While it didn't win the top Academy Award, the society's push no doubt helped "Pianist" to score upset Oscars for director, screenplay and actor.
Here are today's full scores:
BEST PICTURE
(6 ballots)
1. Capote (Bennett Miller) – 12 votes (on sixth ballot)
2. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg) – 11 votes (on sixth ballot)
3. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai) (fifth ballot)
BEST DIRECTOR
(3 ballots)
1. David Cronenberg (A History of Violence) – 32
2. Wong Kar-wai (2046) – 26
3. Bennett Miller (Capote) – 23
BEST ACTOR
(1 ballot)
1. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) – 68
2. Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale) – 41
3. Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) – 40
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
(2 ballots)
1. Ed Harris (A History of Violence) – 27
2. Frank Langella (Good Night, and Good Luck.) – 22
2. Matthieu Amalric (Munich) – 22
BEST ACTRESS
(3 ballots)
1. Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) – 37
2. Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice) – 27
3. Vera Farmiga (Down to the Bone) – 18
3. Kate Dollenmayer (Funny Ha Ha) – 18
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
(2 ballots)
1. Amy Adams (Junebug) – 33
2. Ziyi Zhang (2046) – 28
3. Catherine Keener – 22 (Capote, The Interpreter, Ballad of Jack and Rose, The 40-Year-Old Virgin)
BEST NONFICTION PICTURE
1. Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog) – 60 points
2. Darwin’s Nightmare (Hubert Sauper) – 27
3. Ballets russes (Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine) – 19
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE PICTURE
1. Head-On (Fatih Akin) – 26
2. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai) – 23
3. Caché (Michael Haneke) – 18
BEST SCREENPLAY
1. The Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach) – 37
2. Capote (Dan Futterman) – 33
3. Munich (Tony Kushner and Eric Roth) – 14
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1. 2046 (Christopher Doyle, Kwan Pun-leung, Lai Yiu-fai) – 50
2. Good Night, and Good Luck. (Robert Elswit) – 16
3. The New World (Emmanuel Lubezki) – 11
EXPERIMENTAL AWARDS
1. SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE (1968) and TAKE TWO ½ (2005), William Greaves’ remarkable investigation into the nature of the acting process and power relationships on a movie set.
2. 13 Lakes, Ten Skies, and 27 Years Later, the three 2005 productions of James Benning. Few have done more over the last thirty years to expand the sensory and temporal boundaries of moving pictures.
FILM HERITAGE AWARD
“Unseen Cinema, the 7-disc DVD box set collection of pre-1942 American avant-garde cinema assembled by Anthology Film Archives and Bruce Posner — a massive and unprecedented undertaking made in concert with 60 other film archives and preservation organizations across the globe.”
SPECIAL CITATION
THE NSFC COMMENDS AND CONGRATULATES our colleague Kevin Thomas for his 44-year tenure as a movie critic at the Los Angeles Times.
Capote, Best Picture of the year... You really have to question their little voting system, don't cha? I mean, yes, the film is a bit of a bore, if not for the CAST, of which I found Hoffman to be the weakest. Keener carried that film... I find Mr. Hoffman a highly irritating actor, always conveying things with this put on air, that is totally untruthful... (sorry I didn't by his performance.) NONE OF THEM ACTUALLY.
I'm also not a Brokeback Mountain supporter. I think it a better picture than CAPOTE, but A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is by far the best of the three. Viggo Mortensen's performance the most carefully considered, and subtle.
BEST ACTOR is a toss up between Viggo and Heath.
BEST supporting actor is where Brokeback shines. Jake is the heart of that film, he carries the love in his sleeve, and he is heart breaking. Is it me, or did I think of REESE as a supporting actress... I don't mind her win, she gave the best female performance this year... in any category... the rest of the women had such poorly written characters (except for the lovely Ms. Knightley) you'd have to wonder why not just give the award to REESE and get it over with...
Posted by: Miles | January 12, 2006 at 02:46 PM
"Capote" winning Best Picture seems like such a compromise to me. Although it is a good film, it is ultimately an actors' showcase (for Hoffmann, Keener and others) rather than a transcendent film in its own right. I think "A History of Violence" boasts equally good performances (Mortensen, Bello, Harris and Hurt all brought their "A" game to that one) and is a more interesting, original movie. "2046" was more a mind-warp than a movie, and the fact that it got into the top 3 is very telling here -- there's probably not a lot of predictive value in the outcome we got here. For the record, I still believe "Brokeback Mountain" is the film of the year and is richly deserving of the Oscar.
I think it will be a toss-up between Hoffman and Ledger for Best Actor come Oscar time, but the Academy hugely respects Hoffman, so I think he will pull it out. In the end, it's as much about behind-the-scenes political and historical calculus as quality of the film anyway, right? In the same vein, I'm beginning to suspect that Paul Giamatti might just get handed a Best Supporting Actor statuette at this year's Oscars for "Cinderella Man" mainly as a mea culpa for the Academy overlooking his past few great performances.
Posted by: RockyTop | January 11, 2006 at 02:07 PM
Enough with "BOREDback Mountain" wich to me is nothing but a long and pretencious
"Oh! we are so hip, cool,daring and open minded 'cause the cowboys are gay" soap opera! Heth Ledger is so full of ticks that he make Al Pacino look suttle. Plus he's clueless.
All that bull*&? about him being all interior and powerfull! COME ON! He's eyes are empti and the only thing you can feel is he's fear of having to simulate (very badly may I say) another sex scene with Jake Gyllenhaal (Who on the other hands does an amazing job). The only true wonder in that pathetic mess is the luminous Michelle Williams. She looks so fragile and wounded that you can feel her pain and her sadness even when she's not on screen. Thank god for her.
On Oscar night give her an Oscar and let Heth do the Babysitting!
Posted by: stephane | January 09, 2006 at 09:48 AM
I think that all the attention paid to Hoffman at this early stage is going to backfire. It is a good performance but over the next month or so, we're going to see a backlash begin. By the time the Oscars are upon us, the Brokeback momentum will carry Ledger to the stage. His performance is far more nuanced and complex. Jamie Foxx winning last year for doing basically the same trick as Hoffman will have a negative implact PSH's chances. If a few more theatres like the one in Utah boycott Brokeback it will ensure that it sweeps this year's Oscars, Ledger along with it.
Posted by: TorontoTom | January 09, 2006 at 09:39 AM
I agree with you very much so, ALEX. I left the theater after watching Capote thinking Hoffman did great technically, but left little emotional impact on me. Afterall Oscar best actor award just went to someone who did a good job impersonating a well documented singer last year, does Oscar voters feel the need to reward similar effort two years in a roll? I for one won't if I were the voter. Capote is good enough to make the best picture nominee, but it simply does not have the emotional impact and message needed to be best picture winner.
Posted by: oscarpdx | January 08, 2006 at 05:39 PM
This film is not much more than one great performance by Hoffman. Thats it. I have seen it and not many more than just critics have seen it with a box office intake of just 12 million since opening in September. Disapointing. If it was as great as these groups seem to think it is....the word of mouth would have been better and this would have translated to better box office which it hasn't. "Good Night and Good Luck" didn't do any better....good film but not that great .... 27 million worldwide. And I don't buy the argument that these films are not for the public at large. Believe it or not there is an audience out there that likes intelligent well made films and they do show up to see them. Give the public a little credit. It is pretentious to think that the public does not know a good film when they see it. "Capote" and GNGL were not that great thats why they didn't show up.
Exhibit A: The Constant Gardener was also universally praised by critics.....but the difference with this film was that once the public went to see it.....the public agreed with the critics and it continued to have good word of mouth thereby garnering respectable box-office for a film of this quality and subject matter. Its box-office intake worldwide is now 60 million worldwide and still growing. And thats before the DVD release. These other films will need the DVD release if they ever will be considered successful other than critically. "Gardener" is considered a success critically AND commercially. And this is something AMPAS should consider when considering their Best Picture contenders. A film which is loved by critics AND the public....."Gardener" seems to fit the bill in both categories and that can't be said by most films this year.
Posted by: nancy | January 08, 2006 at 03:23 PM
Must agree with Alex regarding Ledger's role over Hoffman. Capote impressions are a dime a dozen. Ennis is a much more developed and much more challenging.
Capote for best picture is also laughable.
Best picture???
Does anyone even care about the NSFC?
Posted by: jim | January 08, 2006 at 03:01 PM
Simply put, Capote is a ludicrous choice for best picture, no matter how good Hoffman was (and he was fantastic, really the only memorable thing in the picture). Even with its many flaws, History of Violence would have been a better choice. Capote was so shallow and uninvolving that it managed to turn one of the century's great stories-within-a-story into a nazel-gazing still life. Dreck.
Posted by: chris | January 08, 2006 at 02:09 PM
Enough praise for Seymour Hoffman. I believe his role was not as challenging as Heath Ledger's, who really digs deep to bring us the burning pain of Ennis Del Mar. All Seymour had to do was talk slow and in a high pitched voice. His character didn't bring much to the table, that is why I believe he should not receive an Oscar. His character is not memorable at all.
Posted by: ALEX | January 08, 2006 at 11:02 AM