The Dublin Film Critics Circle, the body representing professional reviewers in the city, has agreed with wise Ticket readers and comfortably anointed Driveas the best film of 2011. Nicolas Winding Refn's existentialist thriller also triumphed at the recent inaugural Ticket Awards.
Ryan Gosling, seen nearly everywhere this year, also doubled-up by winning a Ticket Award for best actor and the relevant prize with the DFCC. Jessica Chastain, seen absolutely everywhere this year, won the won the critics' best actress prize for The Tree of Life.
A runaway success at the box-office, John Michael McDonagh's The Guardeasily took the gong for best Irish film. That competition was, however, a little more competitive than the Ticket race, with Carmel Winters's Snapand Tom Hall's Sensation, Nos 2 and 3 respectively, both polling decent figures.
Oscar-watchers will once again sigh at seeing Senna, Asif Kapadia's treatment of Ayrton Senna, pick up another award for best documentary of 2011. Senna was inexplicably left off the Academy's long list for their documentary prize. It will be interesting to see if Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, Iran's pick for the best foreign-language Oscar and the DFCC's choice in that race, will receive a nod from the old fogeys.
The Dublin Film Critics Circle, presided over by Tara Brady of this parish, welcomes professional critics who have been working for a year or more. Full results can be found on the Screenwriter blog. See irishtimes.com/blogs/screenwriter
