2007 was my second year as a voting member of the NYFCO, so going in I had a much better idea of what to expect than I did my first time out. The chief thing I learned was that nine times out of ten, my own personal favorite choice in each category probably wouldn’t win and may not even place. Accepting that cold, hard fact made it a little easier to be strategic in terms of voting. It’s all a numbers game in the end and if you manage to plan your own votes so you get the right numbers, a favorite can still win or, more often, you’re able to ensure that the next best film/actor/director wins. Without spoiling everything, here’s a general recap of how the awards went, category by category.

Breakthrough Performance
My Top Choice: Tang Wei, Lust, Caution
The Winner: Ellen Page, Juno
What Happened: No drama here–Page received a clear majority of votes in the first round. Wei never even came close sadly; the closest runner-up was Casey Affleck from Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Even though she wasn’t my first pick, I can’t argue that Juno isn’t a breakthrough role for Page, who should be getting plenty of work now based on her sly, witty performance. But since I was already familiar with her talent prior to Juno (she’s very good in Hard Candy, for example) her work wasn’t as revelatory as Wei, who is making her film debut in Lust, Caution, but is good enough that she seems like a multi-year veteran of the business.

Actress
My Top Choice: Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
The Winner: Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
What Happened: After some debate about whether or not Blanchett belonged in supporting actress, lead actress or both we agreed to keep her in supporting and see what would happen. If she won, she’d be automatically disqualified from competing in the other category. If she lost, we’d keep her on the ballot. It took two rounds, but she eventually came out the victor, just edging out Amy Ryan from Gone Baby Gone, who is currently winning every other critics’ award out there. But I’m happy we went with Blanchett, who is phenomenal as Bob Dylan circa 1964-65.

Supporting Actor
My Top Choice: Irfan Khan, The Namesake
The Winner: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
What Happened: Bardem, who was my second choice, won in a cakewalk, with Casey Affleck again coming in as the runner-up. Interestingly, this turned out to be the only award that No Country picked up all afternoon–a shock to me, as I expected it to dominate. Sorry that Khan had to go unrewarded, but between The Namesake, A Mighty Heart and The Darjeeling Limited, he got a lot of exposure this year and that will hopefully translate to more roles.

Screenplay
My Top Choice: Kelly Masterson, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead:
The Winner: Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola, The Darjeeling Limited
What Happened: Perhaps the biggest surprise of the afternoon came when Wes Anderson’s sadly neglected fifth feature won a close race between Michael Clayton and No Country for Old Men in the screenplay category. In the first round, it was my third choice and then jumped to my first choice in round two. No Country is a very good film, but it’s strength doesn’t lie in its dialogue; Michael Clayton meanwhile is a film that I imagine read quite dry on the page but is enlivened considerably by its stellar cast. Of the three Darjeeling felt like the film that played as well on the page as it does onscreen. So far we’re the only group to show Anderson’s film some love too, so its win makes me quite pleased overall, even if I originally hoped to see Masterson’s superb Before the Devil script get the prize.

Cinematography
My Top Choice: Eric Gautier, Into the Wild
The Winner: Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
What Happened: Despite strong competition from No Country for Old Men and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, There Will Be Blood won the category in the first round, with Into the Wild finishing a distant fifth. That’s a shame, because I really do think it’s the most beautiful film I’ve seen this year on a purely visual level. Where both No Country and Blood photograph the American wilderness as if its something to be feared, Gautier’s photography is an unabashed celebration of our wide open spaces. That’s why I called the movie the 21st century version of On the Road–it makes you want to grab a backpack and hit the highways and skyways on your own cross-country adventure. But I can’t be too upset as Blood was my second choice. Elswit conjure up some spectacular images, particularly an oil rig fire at dusk that has to be seen to be believed.

Film Music/Score
My Top Choice: Once
The Winner: There Will Be Blood
What Happened: At a future date, we hope to define this category a little more clearly because as of now, we have films like I’m Not There and Sweeney Todd, which use pre-existing music with new orchestrations, opposite films like Once and There Will Be Blood, which feature an entirely original score/songs. I thought that Once had this award in the bag since everyone who sees it instantly wants to buy the soundtrack, but instead, Blood (my third choice) won easily.

Debut Director
My Top Choice: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, The Lives of Others
The Winner: Sarah Polley, Away From Her
What Happened: Polley’s film won easily in the first round, with Lives finishing a distant second. I had missed Polley’s film when it opened in March and only just caught up with it this past week in anticipation of her nomination. Having seen the film, I’m okay with her win. I don’t think it’s as confident a piece of direction as Donnersmarck’s movie or Juan Antonio Bayona, who was in competition for The Orphanage. But Polley clearly has a great rapport with actors–Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent do excellent work in this film and their director knows enough to just keep the camera trained on them to capture every subtle glance or knowing gesture.

Director
My Top Choice: Sean Penn, Into the Wild
The Winner: P.T. Anderson, There Will Be Blood
What Happened: An exciting category–going in, I was convinced that the Coen boys had this award sewn up, but as it turned out, the three way race between the Coens, Anderson and Julian Schnabel was too close to call, so we went to a round two that knocked out the Coens and then a round three that pitted Schnabel against Anderson. I backed Anderson in both of these rounds and he wound up just beating out Schnabel. Penn was never even a competitor, unfortunately. But I’m pleased to see Anderson come out on top–Blood is probably his most ambitious film and, at times, his messiest, but it’s distinctly his all the way through.

Actress
My Top Choice: Tang Wei, Lust, Caution
The Winner: Julie Christie, Away From Her
What Happened: If at first you don’t succeed, try try again! That’s the mantra I followed with the Actress category, throwing my top choice to the terrific Tang Wei, who was always going to be a longshot. In the end, Wei gathered a respectable number of votes, but they weren’t enough to overcome the machine that was Christie, whose performance in Away From Her was the most definitive win of the day. Good for her–Christie is very good in the movie and she is a screen legend after all. But her performance simply didn’t excite me as much as Wei or my other picks, Belen Rueda from The Orphanage and Carice van Houten from Black Book (who did fairly well too).

Actor
My Top Choice: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
The Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
What Happened: This was the only category where my first choice won outright. Day-Lewis is riveting in Blood and even if you don’t care for the movie, his performance will stay with you for days. Interestingly, Viggo Mortensen’s performance from Eastern Promises finished a strong second. Although he wasn’t one of my picks, it was nice to see that overlooked film get some backing. If this were a weaker year for movies, I’m sure it would have ranked higher for me, but there’s just so much great stuff out there, something had to fall by the wayside.

Ensemble
My Top Choice: The Darjeeling Limited
The Winner: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
What Happened: It took three rounds, but the excellent crime caper Before the Devil… eventually took the award, beating out my first choice, The Darjeeling Limited and Juno (my second pick). The main reason I didn’t go with Devil in this category, even though I love the movie, is that I felt Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance clearly dominated the proceedings. To me, Darjeeling is a better example of a film that is a genuine ensemble picture, in that none of the three leads really stands apart from the other in terms of screentime or quality of performance. But I’m not overly upset with the outcome: I was hoping we’d honor Devil in some way and an award for Ensemble is better than none at all.

Picture
My Top Choice: There Will Be Blood
The Winner: There Will Be Blood and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Tie)
What Happened: Again, I expected No Country for Old Men to squeak out a victory here and, in fact, that movie did force a three way run-off in the second round between Blood and Butterfly. But the Coens couldn’t last beyond that round and that pitted Anderson and Schnabel against each other once again. This time, the face-off resulted in a genuine tie that wasn’t going to be broken anytime soon. So we decided to pair them as a tie, a decision that caused a bit of trouble later, as you’ll see. I’m okay with the tie though–Butterfly was not one of my choices, but I do respect it. I’m thrilled that Blood finished as strongly as it did–it’s a film that I think will gain in reputation as the years go by.

Foreign Language
My Top Choice: After the Wedding
The Winner: The Lives of Others and Persepolis (Tie)
What Happened: Our rules state that if a foreign film wins the Picture category, the foreign language category is automatically eliminated, under the rationale that if the best picture winner is in a foreign language, it would naturally be the best foreign language film too. But because our Picture race ended in a tie, we decided to go ahead with the category anyway and wound up with a four-way split between Lives of Others, Black Book, Persepolis and The Diving Bell. When the second round resulted in a four-way tie between each of the films, we had to get rid of one and went with Bell as it already had won the Picture award. Of the three remaining films, Lives of Others and Persepolis finished in a dead heat and we once again chose to acknowledge the tie rather than force an additional round that would probably end the same way.

Documentary
My Top Choice: No End in Sight
The Winner: Sicko
What Happened: Michael Moore’s latest doc just squeaked out a victory over Charles Ferguson’s extraordinary No End in Sight. This is the award I’m most disappointed in. Sicko has its positive attributes, but I’m tired of the way Michael Moore often snaps up every documentary award out there because his films have a major studio behind them. Oftentimes, he wins purely because of the fact that many voters haven’t been able to see the other films. A win for No End in Sight or the third-place finisher Into Great Silence would have helped break the Moore machine. Oh well…at least it’ll be another three years before we have to deal with him again.

Animated Feature
My Top Choice: Beowulf
The Winner: Persepolis
What Happened: Alas poor Beowulf–I enjoyed his film and awarded him my top vote, but the mighty warrior fell with a thud, finishing a distant fourth. Instead Persepolis (my second choice) took home the prize and I’m glad for that, if for no other reason that it kept Pixar’s very flawed effort Ratatouille from winning. It feels strange to be in a position of rooting against Pixar, America’s premiere animation studio, but the fact of the matter is I just didn’t like Ratatouille all that much. Persepolis on the other hand is really good and makes excellent use of hand-drawn animation–an increasingly vanishing art form.

And that’s it! Overall, I’m very pleased with the way the awards turned out. Unlike last year where I felt many of the picks were compromise choices, I think we really took a chance on some interesting titles that satisfied most of the members.

Now all that remains for me is to carve out my annual Top Ten list, where I don’t have to worry about hoping a group of people agrees with me. I’ve still got a bunch of movies to catch up on and many to re-watch, but I hope to have my Year in Review posted on December 31 at the absolute latest. Until then…