NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE ANNOUNCES

I've updated this list with 2nd, 3rd and even some apparent 4th place results. They're not definite, and may be subject to change - they're the best of what I can make from details which have not always stipulated the specific finishings for the runner-ups.

Best Picture

1.     Zero Dark Thirty

2.        Argo

3.        The Master

Best Director

1.     Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty)

2.        Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)

3.        Ben Affleck (Argo)

Best Actor

1.     Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

2.        Jack Black (Bernie)

3.        Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)

4.        Denis Lavant (Holy Motors)

Best Actress

1.     Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea)

2.        Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games / Silver Linings Playbook)

3.        Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)

4.        Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)

Best Supporting Actor

1.     Matthew McConaughey (Bernie / Magic Mike)

2.        Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

3.        Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)

Best Supporting Actress

1.     Sally Field (Lincoln)

2.        Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)

Best Screenplay

1.     Tony Kushner (Lincoln)

2.        Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty)

3.        Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom)

Best Cinematographer

1.     Greig Fraser (Zero Dark Thirty)

2.        Mihai Malaimare Jr. (The Master)

Best Animated Film

1.     Frankenweenie (Tim Burton)

2.        Brave (Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman)

3.        ParaNorman (Chris Butler and Sam Fell)

Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary)

1.     The Central Park Five (Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon)

2.        The Gatekeepers (Dror Moreh)

3.        This Is Not a Film (Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi)

Best Foreign Language Film

1.     Amour (Michael Haneke)

2.        Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

3.        Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

Best First Film

1.     How to Survive a Plague (David France)

2.        Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)

In case we required proof, the New York Film Critics Circle, perhaps the most prestigious critics organisation in the film industry, has proven the strength of Kathryn Bigelow's follow-up to The Hurt Locker, winning three awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Lincoln has also performed well, winning three awards itself, including a win for Sally Field over frontrunner Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) in Best Supporting Actress, and Daniel Day-Lewis' fifth NYFCC win! In these two films' combined dominance, other supposed frontrunners have been wholly shut out: The Master, Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Les Miserables, Life of Pi and Django Unchained each failed to win a single award, although some featured prominently in the voting, eventually finishing 2nd, 3rd or even noted 4th places. Rachel Weisz was surely always going to be a contender for her critically acclaimed performance in Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea - a low profile March release kept her largely out of the conversation, but her inclusion here ought not to be a surprise, and she joins an already unclear Best Actress race.