Argo Tops with San Diego Film Critics

Winning four awards from the San Diego Film Critics Society yesterday, ARGO came away with the most SDFCS acclaim this year. In addition to being named Best Film of 2012, ARGO won for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing. Here’s a list of all the winners:

Best Film: ARGO

Best Director: Ben Affeck, ARGO

Best Actress: Michelle Williams, TAKE THIS WALTZ

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, LINCOLN

Best Supporting Actress: Emma Watson, PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, DJANGO UNCHAINED

Best Original Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, THE MASTER

Best Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, ARGO

Best Foreign Language Film: THE KID WITH A BIKE

Best Documentary: THE INVISIBLE WAR

Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, HOUSE OF PI

Best Animated Film: PARANORMAN

Best Editing: William Goldenberg, ARGO

Best Production Design: Hugh Bateup and Uli Hanisch, CLOUD ATLAS

Best Score: Johnny Greenwood, THE MASTER

Body of Work: Cinematographer Greig Fraser (ZERO DARK THIRTY, KILLING THEM SOFTLY, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN)

Kyle Counts Award (For support of Cinema in San Diego): Dan Bennett, Emeritus SDFCS, former North County Times Film Critic, Festival Director of the San Diego International Children’s Film Festival.

Congratulations to all the winners!

For a complete list of the nominees, please go to www.sdfcs.org/.

San Diego Benefit Screening

The San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) is presenting a benefit screening of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize Award-nominated film Douchebag on October 19. Proceeds from this benefit will go to the group’s educational fund for scholarships. Lead actors Andrew Dickler and Ben York Jones -- plus the filmmakers --are planning to attend and to participate in a Q/A session at this event, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Landmark’s Hillcrest Cinemas. A ten-dollar per ticket donation is requested.

I haven't seen Douchebag yet, but noted film critic Leonard Maltin calls it “smart, surprising and funny!” He claims that “Hollywood could learn a few lessons from this indie sleeper.”

The film follows two long estranged brothers who embark on an eventful journey before one of them gets married. Their riotous road trip starts out as one kind of search (for an old flame) and ends up as another more important one.

(For more information about Douchebag, please go to www.douchebagmovie.com.)