SPOTLIGHT WINS NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS AWARD

The National Society of Film Critics shocked Oscar watchers today by announcing Tom McCarthy's Spotlight the best film of 2015. NSFC published its vote counts for its top three in each category, highlighting those unequivocal winners like Charlotte Rampling, Mark Rylance and Kristen Stewart in the acting categories, and the much closer races. Particularly tight was the Best Director race, while low figures in Best Actor go to show just how uncertain that category has been this year. There were welcome citations, like 2nd place for The Assassin's Lee Ping Bin in Cinematography, and less welcome ones, like Amy winning yet another Documentary prize with a no-show for The Look of Silence. Amy's win and Spotlight's were unusually mainstream picks for the normally arthouse-friendly society - last year, it chose Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye to Language 3D. Have a look at all their picks for 2015 below:

Best Picture

1. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy) - 23
2. Carol (Todd Haynes) - 17
3. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) - 13

Best Director
1. Todd Haynes (Carol) - 21
2. Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) - 21*
3. George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) - 20

Best Actor

1. Michael B. Jordan (Creed) - 29
2. Rohrig Geza (Son of Saul) - 18
3. Tom Courtenay (45 Years) - 15

Best Actress

1. Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) - 57
2. Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn) - 30
3. Nina Hoss (Phoenix) - 22

Best Supporting Actor

1. Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) - 56
2. Michael Shannon (99 Homes) - 16
3. Sylvester Stallone - (Creed) - 14

Best Supporting Actress

1. Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria) - 53
2. Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) - 23
3. Elizabeth Banks (Love & Mercy) - 17
=  Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs) - 17

Best Screenplay

1. Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer (Spotlight) - 21
2. Charlie Kaufman (Anomalisa) - 15
=  Adam McKay and Charles Randolph (The Big Short) - 15

Best Cinematography

1. Edward Lachman (Carol) - 25
2. Lee Ping Bin (The Assassin) - 22
3. John Seale (Mad Max: Fury Road) - 12

Best Non-Fiction Film
1. Amy (Asif Kapadia) - 23
2. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman) - 18
3. Seymour: An Introduction (Ethan Hawke) - 15

Best Foreign Language Film
1. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako) - 22
2. Phoenix (Christian Petzold) - 20
3. The Assassin (Hou Hsiao Hsien) - 16

Film Heritage Award
Association Chaplin (for supervising the digital restoration of Charlie Chaplin's Essanay Films)
The Criterion Collection and L'Immagine Ritrovata (for the restoration and packaging of the reconstructed version of The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Michelle Materre and Jake Perlin (for the series Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986)

Special Citation
One Floor Below (Radu Muntean)

*Lower placement due to featuring on fewer ballots