Boston-area film critic (and sf fan/critic) Daniel M. Kimmel writes to let us know that The Boston Society of Film Critics “met Sunday and included three genre films among their honorees. South African director Neill Blomkemp was named best new filmmaker for his District 9, where aliens lived in segregated townships outside of Johannesburg. Pixar’s Up was cited as best animated film. The big surprise was in the award for best ensemble cast where the gritty drama Precious shared the prize with the rebooted Star Trek.” The full list of this year’s winners is on this page.
SF/F/H films don’t often receive much recognition from the group, although last year, too, three of their awards went to genre films (WALL-E won two and The Dark Knight one).
The Boston Society of Film Critics was formed in 1981 to make “Boston’s unique critical perspective heard on a national and international level by awarding commendations to the best of the year’s films and filmmakers and local film theaters and film societies that offer outstanding film programming.” Kimmel is a past president of the Society, and is the Boston correspondent for Variety (since 1986). He was the film reviewer for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette from 1984 to 2009, and the film columnist for SFScope Editor Ian Randal Strock’s Artemis Magazine. He’s written several books on the television and film industries, including his latest, I’ll Have What She’s Having: Behind the Scenes of the Great Romantic Comedies.