The Coen Brothers’ take on the early 1960s New York folk scene was named Best Picture Of The Year 2013 by the National Society Of Film Critics on January 4.

The Society’s 48th annual awards voting meeting’s weighted ballot system also delivered the Coens the best director crown, named Oscar Isaac best actor and anointed Bruno Delbonnel best cinematographer.

Cate Blanchett won the actress award for Blue Jasmine, James Franco was voted best supporting actor for Spring Breakers and Jennifer Lawrence best supporting actress for American Hustle.

Before Midnight earned the best screenplay. Blue Is The Warmest Color was named best foreign film, while An Act Of Killing took the documentary prize.

Leviathan was named best experimental film. Stray Dogs by Ming-liang Tsai and Hide Your Smiling Faces by Daniel Patrick Carbone shared Best Film Awaiting American Distribution.

The following won the Film Heritage Award:

  • MoMA for its Allan Dwan retrospective;

  • the surviving reels of Orson Welles’ first professional film, Too Much Johnson, discovered by Cinemazero (Pordenone) and Cinetecca Del Friuli, funded by the National Film Preservartion Foundation and restored by the George Eastmann House;

  • the BFI for restorations of Alfred Hitchcock’s nine silent films;

  • the DVD American Treasures From The New Zealand Film Archive.

The meeting was dedicated to the memory of Roger Ebert and Stanley Kauffmann.

There will be no awards ceremony; the winners receive scrolls. David Sterritt was re-elected chairman for 2014.

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