San Francisco Film Critics Circle Loves The Florida Project, The Shape of Water and Andy Serkis

Erik Anderson December 10, 2017

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle have chosen Sean Baker’s The Florida Project as the best film of 2017. The group also gave the film a Best Supporting Actor win to Willem Dafoe, bringing his total wins in this category this season to eight so far.

The SFFCC really spread the wealth today as no film dominated or even won more than two awards. The Shape of Water was the day’s other double winner with Guillermo del Toro winning Best Director and the film’s production design picking up that win.

Call Me By Your Name, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, Baby Driver, Blade Runner 2049 and I, Tonya all found themselves a win today. Perhaps the biggest surprise, and to the happiness of many, was Andy Serkis’s Best Actor win for War for the Planet of the Apes. The internet has been rabid for recognition of Serkis and his motion capture performances since his Gollum in the Lord of the Rings series and today the San Francisco Film Critics Circle gave them something to cheer about.

Last year, the group’s top awards went to Moonlight in a massive sweep of six wins. All SFFCC wins last year went on to Oscar nominations or wins except one (The Handmaiden).

Here is the full list of nominees and winners.

Best Picture
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
THE FLORIDA PROJECT – winner
GET OUT
THE SHAPE OF WATER
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Best Director
Sean Baker – THE FLORIDA PROJECT
Guillermo del Toro – THE SHAPE OF WATER – winner
Greta Gerwig – LADY BIRD
Christopher Nolan – DUNKIRK
Jordan Peele – GET OUT

Best Actor
Timothee Chalamet – CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
James Franco – THE DISASTER ARTIST
Daniel Kaluuya – GET OUT
Gary Oldman – DARKEST HOUR
Andy Serkis – WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES – winner

Best Actress
Annette Bening – FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL
Sally Hawkins – THE SHAPE OF WATER
Frances McDormand – THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Margot Robbie – I, TONYA – winner
Saoirse Ronan – LADY BIRD

Best Supporting Actor
Willem Dafoe – THE FLORIDA PROJECT – winner
Armie Hammer – CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Richard Jenkins – THE SHAPE OF WATER
Sam Rockwell – THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
Michael Stuhlbarg – CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

Best Supporting Actress
Holly Hunter – THE BIG SICK
Allison Janney – I, TONYA
Melissa Leo – NOVITIATE
Lesley Manville – PHANTOM THREAD
Laurie Metcalf – LADY BIRD – winner

Best Foreign Language Film
BPM – winner
A FANTASTIC WOMAN
FRANTZ
IN THE FADE
THE SQUARE

Best Animated Feature
THE BREADWINNER
COCO – winner
THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE
LOVING VINCENT
YOUR NAME

Best Documentary
BRIMSTONE & GLORY
CITY OF GHOSTS
DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME
FACES PLACES – winner
JANE

Best Cinematography
BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Roger Deakins – winner
DUNKIRK – Hoyte van Hoytema
THE FLORIDA PROJECT – Alexis Zabe
THE SHAPE OF WATER – Dan Laustsen
WONDER WHEEL – Vittorio Storaro

Best Production Design
BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Dennis Gassner
DUNKIRK – Nathan Crowley
PHANTOM THREAD – Mark Tildesley
THE SHAPE OF WATER – Paul D. Austerberry – winner
WONDERSTRUCK – Mark Friedberg

Best Editing
BABY DRIVER – Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos – winner
BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Joe Walker
DUNKIRK – Lee Smith
THE POST – Michael Kahn
THE SHAPE OF WATER – Sidney Wolinsky

Best Screenplay (original)
THE BIG SICK – Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon
GET OUT – Jordan Peele – winner
LADY BIRD – Greta Gerwig
THE SHAPE OF WATER – Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI – Martin McDonagh

Best Screenplay (adapted)
THE DISASTER ARTIST – Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME – James Ivory – winner
MOLLY’S GAME – Aaron Sorkin
MUDBOUND – Dee Rees and Virgil Williams
WONDERSTRUCK – Brian Selznick

Best Original Score
BLADE RUNNER 2049 – Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch
DUNKIRK – Hans Zimmer
PHANTOM THREAD – Jonny Greenwood – winner
THE SHAPE OF WATER – Alexandre Desplat
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES – Michael Giacchino

Special Citation (for that underappreciated indie gem)
BRIMSTONE & GLORY – winner
COLUMBUS
THE OTHER KIDS

Marlon Riggs Award: Bay Area filmmaker Peter Bratt

About the San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC)
Founded in 2002, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle is comprised of critics from around the Greater Bay Area. Its members include film journalists from the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the East Bay Times, SF Weekly, the East Bay Express, the San Jose Metro, Palo Alto Weekly, the San Francisco Examiner, Variety, KCBS, KGO, KSJS, Radio Sausalito, The Wrap and more.

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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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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.