Austin Film Critics go for ‘Parasite,’ Adam Sandler, Jennifer Lopez, Florence Pugh

The Austin Film Critics Association (AFCA) announced its 2019 awards, with Parasite winning Best Film, Best Director (Bong Joon-Ho), Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Original Screenplay.

Acting award winners include Jennifer Lopez as Best Supporting Actress for Hustlers, Brad Pitt as Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Adam Sandler as Best Actor for Uncut Gems, and Lupita Nyong’o as Best Actress for Us. The outstanding performers in Knives Out garnered that film the AFCA’s Best Ensemble award.

The winner of this year’s Robert R. “Bobby” McCurdy Memorial Breakthrough Artist Award is Florence Pugh for her work in Midsommar, Little Women, and Fighting with My Family.

Other major awards include a Best Adapted Screenplay win for Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, I Lost My Body winning Best Animated Feature, and Apollo 11 winning Best Documentary. Josh Brolin wins Best Motion-Capture/Special Effects Performance for the second year in a row.

The 2019 Austin Film Award winner is Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life. A special screening of the winning film is scheduled for Weds, Jan. 22, at AFS Cinema. Tickets will be available soon.

The full list of winners, plus the AFCA Top Ten Films of 2019 and Top Ten of the Decade list, is included below.

Best Film: Parasite (dir: Bong Joon-Ho)

Best Director: Bong Joon-Ho, Parasite

Best Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, Us

Best Actor: Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers

Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Best Ensemble: Knives Out

Best Original Screenplay: Bong Joon-Ho & Jin Won Han, Parasite

Best Adapted Screenplay: Greta Gerwig, Little Women

Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins, 1917

Best Score: Thomas Newman, 1917

Best Editing: Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie, Uncut Gems

Best Foreign-Language Film: Parasite (dir: Bong Joon-Ho)

Best Documentary: Apollo 11 (dir: Todd Douglas Miller)

Best Animated Film: I Lost My Body (dir: Jeremy Clapin)

Best Stunts: John Wick 3: Parabellum

Best Motion Capture/Special Effects Performance: Josh Brolin, Avengers: Endgame

Best First Film: Booksmart (dir: Olivia Wilde)

The Robert R. “Bobby” McCurdy Memorial Breakthrough Artist Award: Florence Pugh, Midsommar, Little Women, Fighting with My Family

Austin Film Award: A Hidden Life (dir: Terrence Malick)

Special Honorary Award: To Agnes Varda, whose work inspired generations of filmmakers.

AFCA 2019 Top Ten Films:

1. Parasite
2. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
3. Uncut Gems
4. Marriage Story
5. The Irishman
6. The Farewell
7. Knives Out
8. Jojo Rabbit
9. 1917
10. Portrait of a Lady on Fire

AFCA Top Ten Films of the Decade:

1. Mad Max Fury Road

2. Moonlight

3. The Social Network

4. Get Out

5. Arrival

6. The Handmaiden

7. Parasite

8. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

9. Boyhood

10. Phantom Thread

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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