By Debbie Schlussel

As frequent readers know, I’m a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society.  Every major city has a film critics group, comprised of all the mainstream print and broadcast media movie critics, and they all vote and announce their choices for best film, best actor, etc., at the end of each year.  The studios hold a special day of screenings for us, and we are sent a ton of DVD screeners to view as well.  The Detroit Film Critics announced our choices, Friday, and I agreed with like two of them, which is a record for me in the three years I’ve been in it.

Below are my nominations, the final nominees, and then, the winners.  I’ve put in bold a link to each of my reviews of the movies in question, the first time each movie is mentioned.  There are a couple of movies, “The King’s Speech” and “True Grit,” for which I’m not allowed to post my review until they debut, this coming week (stay tuned), but since I nominated and voted for them, you do the math.  Many of you correctly guessed that I liked “The King’s Speech.”  I guess I’m either becoming predictable  . . . or I’m (hopefully) consistent and stable (or all of these).

I will be posting a separate list of my top ten best movies of the year in the next week or so, but our rules and constraints for this list are different.  In this case, we could nominate and/or vote for 1-5 choices, with the number 1 choice being worth the most (5 points) and the number 5 choice being worth the least (1 point).  So, here’s what I picked as a DFCS critic . . .

MY NOMINATIONS:

BEST FILM [Note that I’ve changed my mind on the order of these since the time that I submitted these nominations, but I still choose “The King’s Speech” as my #1 pick.  Like I said, you’ll see my full list of the year’s best flicks, later this week.]

1. “The King’s Speech” [review will be posted on December 24th]
2. “Mao’s Last Dancer” [didn’t post my review when it came out b/c I had a migraine, but will this week]
3. “127 Hours”
4. “Hereafter”
5. “True Grit” [review will be posted on December 22nd]

BEST DIRECTOR
1. Danny Boyle (“127 Hours”)
2. Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”)
3. Ethan & Joel Cohen (“True Grit”)
4. Brian Koppelman & David Levien (“Solitary Man“)
5. Christopher Nolan (“Inception“)

BEST ACTOR
1. Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech”)
2. James Franco (“127 Hours”)
3. Jeff Bridges (“True Grit”)
4. Michael Caine (“Harry Brown“)
5. Russell Crowe (“The Next Three Days“)

BEST ACTRESS
1. Hillary Swank (“Conviction“)
2. Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit”)
3. Cecile De France (“Hereafter”)
4. Melissa Leo (“The Fighter“)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1. Geoffrey Rush (“The King’s Speech”)
2. Sam Rockwell (“Conviction”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1. Helena Bonham Carter (“The King’s Speech”)

BEST ENSEMBLE
1. “Hereafter”
2. “The King’s Speech”
3. “Inception”
4. “The Town”
5. “The Joneses”

BREAKTHROUGH
1. Frankie & George McLaren (“Hereafter”)
2. Chi Cao (“Mao’s Last Dancer”)
3. Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit”)
4. Aaron Johnson (“Kick Ass“)
5. Angela Wesselman-Pierce (“Catfish“)

***

DETROIT FILM CRITICS SOCIETY NOMINEES:

BEST FILM
* “127 Hours”
* “Inception”
* “The King’s Speech”
* “The Social Network”
* “Winter’s Bone” [ I did not post my review of “Let Me In” because it was screened during the Jewish holidays. Will try to post it this upcoming week.]

BEST DIRECTOR
* Danny Boyle (“127 Hours”)
* David Fincher (“The Social Network”)
* Deborah Granik (“Winter’s Bone”)
* Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”)
* Edgar Wright (“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World“)

BEST ACTOR
* Jeff Bridges (“True Grit”)
* Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”)
* Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech”)
* James Franco (“127 Hours”)
* Ryan Gosling (“Blue Valentine”) [My review of this movie will be posted when this movie debuts, date unknown]

BEST ACTRESS
* Nicole Kidman (“Rabbit Hole”) [My review of this movie will be posted when this movie debuts, date unknown]
* Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”)
* Natalie Portman (“Black Swan“)
* Michelle Williams (“Blue Valentine”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
* Christian Bale (“The Fighter”)
* Andrew Garfield (“The Social Network”)
* John Hawkes (“Winter’s Bone”)
* Sam Rockwell (“Conviction”)
* Mark Ruffalo (“The Kids Are All Right“)
* Geoffrey Rush (“The King’s Speech”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
* Amy Adams (“The Fighter”)
* Helen Bonham Carter (“The King’s Speech”)
* Greta Gerwig (“Greenberg“)
* Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”)
* Jacki Weaver (“Animal Kingdom”) [I never posted my review of this b/c I had a migraine the weekend it debuted. May try to post it this upcoming week.]

BEST ENSEMBLE
* “The Fighter”
* “The Kids Are All Right”
* “The King’s Speech”
* “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”
* “Winter’s Bone”

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
* Andrew Garfield (“The Social Network”/”Never Let Me Go“)
* Greta Gerwig (“Greenberg”)
* Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”)
* Chloe Moretz (“Kick Ass”/”Let Me In“) [ I did not post my review of “Let Me In” because it was screened during the Jewish holidays. Will try to post it this upcoming week.]

***

MY FINAL VOTES (remember, I had to choose from the nominees, above):

BEST FILM
1) “The King’s Speech”
2) “127 Hours”

BEST DIRECTOR
1) Danny Boyle (“127 Hours”)
2) Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech”)

BEST ACTOR
1) Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech”)
2) Jeff Bridges (“True Grit”)
3) James Franco (“127 Hours”)

BEST ACTRESS
1) Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1) Geoffrey Rush (“The King’s Speech”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1) Helena Bonham Carter (“The King’s Speech”)

BEST ENSEMBLE
1) “The King’s Speech”

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
1) Chloe Moretz (“Kick-Ass”/”Let Me In”)

***

And here are the winners, as voted on by the Detroit Film Critics Society:

BEST FILM: “The Social Network”
BEST DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle (“127 Hours”) –****  MY CHOICE, TOO  ****
BEST ACTOR: Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech”)–****  MY CHOICE, TOO  ****
BEST ACTRESS: Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christian Bale (“The Fighter”)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Adams (“The Fighter”)
BEST ENSEMBLE: “Winter’s Bone”
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”)