FINDING NEMO, THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE and LORDS OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING have started racking up various awards from film critics societies across the U.S. Following up its prize for best animated feature from the National Board of Review, NEMO nabbed a spot on the AFI Top Ten List for 2003. In addition, the fish tale took home the best animated feature prize from the New York Film Critics Online.
However, THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE beat out the behemoth NEMO for best animated feature from the New York Film Critics Circle. The French import also took home the best foreign language film prize from the Boston Film Critics. Even more impressive was BELLEVILLEs director Sylvain Chomets runner-up acknowledgement for best new filmmaker from the Bean Town critics.
On the visual effects front, RETURN OF THE KING captured the New York Film Critics Circle best picture recognition as well as best director award for Peter Jackson from the San Francisco Critics Circle. The final Tolkien tale in the RINGS series was also named to the AFI Ten Best List.
Comic book inspired AMERICAN SPLENDOR has also brought home some kudos. Hope Davis was awarded best actress and directors Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman best first feature by the New York Film Critics Circle. The film also made the AFI and New York Film Critics Onlines Top Ten List.
Joining NEMO, KING and SPLENDOR on AFIs list were THE LAST SAMURAI and MASTER & COMMANDER. Moreover, NEWSWEEKs reviewer David Ansen named SPLENDOR the best film of the year as well as placing RETURN OF THE KING at #2 and NEMO at #5 on his Top Ten List. ROLLING STONEs Peter Travers placed KING at #2 with MASTER & COMMANDER at #4, COLD MOUNTAIN at #5, SPLENDOR at #6, BIG FISH at #7, KILL BILL: VOL. 1 at #9 and HBOs TV mini-series ANGELS IN AMERICA at #10. Critic Ed Gonzalez of SLANT MAGAZINE ranked BIG FISH at #4 and anime epic MILLENNIUM ACTRESS at #6.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
