National Society of Film Critics

National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film:

Year Winner Director(s)
1966 Blow-Up - Michelangelo Antonioni
1967 Persona - Ingmar Bergman
1968 Shame - Ingmar Bergman
1969 Z - Costa-Gavras
1970 MASH - Robert Altman
1971 Claire's Knee - Éric Rohmer
1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - Luis Buñuel
1973 Day for Night - François Truffaut
1974 Scenes from a Marriage - Ingmar Bergman
1975 Nashville - Robert Altman
1976 All the President's Men - Alan J. Pakula
1977 Annie Hall - Woody Allen
1978 Get Out Your Handkerchiefs - Bertrand Blier
1979 Breaking Away - Peter Yates
1980 Melvin and Howard - Jonathan Demme
1981 Atlantic City - Louis Malle
1982 Tootsie - Sydney Pollack
1983 The Night of the Shooting Stars - Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
1984 Stranger Than Paradise - Jim Jarmusch
1985 Ran - Akira Kurosawa
1986 Blue Velvet - David Lynch
1987 The Dead - John Huston
1988 The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Philip Kaufman
1989 Drugstore Cowboy - Gus Van Sant
1990 Goodfellas - Martin Scorsese
1991 Life Is Sweet - Mike Leigh
1992 Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood
1993 Schindler's List - Steven Spielberg
1994 Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino
1995 Babe - Chris Noonan
1996 Breaking the Waves - Lars von Trier
1997 L.A. Confidential - Curtis Hanson
1998 Out of Sight - Steven Soderbergh
1999 Being John Malkovich - Spike Jonze & Topsy-Turvy - Mike Leigh
2000 Yi Yi: A One and a Two - Edward Yang
2001 Mulholland Drive David Lynch
2002 The Pianist - Roman Polanski
2003 American Splendor - Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman
2004 Million Dollar Baby - Clint Eastwood
2005 Capote - Bennett Miller
2006 Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermo del Toro
2007 There Will Be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson
2008 Waltz with Bashir - Ari Folman
2009 The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow
2010 The Social Network - David Fincher
2011 Melancholia - Lars von Trier
2012 Amour - Michael Haneke

Older Film Discoveries 2012

Here are a few fine films I finally caught up with or discovered in 2012.

Two by Grémillon - Light yet heavy:
Lumière d’été (1943)
Le ciel est à vous (1944)

Two by Preminger - Well written and great characters:
Daisy Kenyon (1947)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Two by Aldrich - Fun films not message movies:
Emperor of the North (1973)
All The Marbles (1981)

Two by Naruse - Like short novels:
Repast (1951)
Ginza Cosmetics (1951)




Two from the 70's - Full of gritty hope:
Charley Varrick – Don Siegal – 1973
They Might Be Giants - Anthony Harvey - 1971

Two from the 50's - The darker side:
The Music Room – Satyajit Ray - 1958
The Big Heat – Fritz Lang – 1953

Two Silent Flms - When editing was king:
The Last Command - von Sternberg - 1928
Salt for Svanetia – Mikhail Kalatozov - 1930

One Psychedelic 60's film - Rare and rarefied:
La Prisonnière - Henri Clouzot - 1968

Best Movies 2012

Another year has passed and it's time to try and make a best film list. I watched a good many new films in 2012 but still managed to miss many that could make this list. Nonetheless, a list must be made so here it is - in no order.

The Kid With The Bike
Moonrise Kingdom 
This Is Not A Film
Unforgivable
Lincoln
Argo 
Footnote
Rust & Bone
The Turin Horse
Django Unchained
Farewell My Queen 
Searching for Sugar Man

The next twelve:
9.79*
Barbara
Beasts of The Southern Wild
The Hunter [Australian]
The Hunter [Iranian]
In The Family
Intouchables
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Premium Rush [pleasure - no guilt]
Silver Linings Playbook
Starlet
Women on The Sixth Floor

A few that had good moments:
The Avengers
The Deep Blue Sea
Haywire
The Loneliest Planet
Miss Bala
The Master
Perks of Being a Wallflower
Prometheus
The Sister
Wuthering Heights [the first half]
Zero Dark Thirty

As always there are a good many I have yet to see that may make these lists as I catch up with them.^

^Updated 3/14/13