2018 Seattle Film Critics Society Award Winners

If you read this site on any regular basis, you’ve likely encountered me ranting about ranking movies, grading movies, and basically comparing works of art to one another as if there’s even a grain of objective truth to be found. I dislike it, quite a bit. But that’s a conversation for another time and place, and because of the whims and wills of writing on the internet, it’s never stopped me from assigning scores to a movie, writing “best of” lists, and all the rest. Nor has it stopped me from voting for end-of-year awards for a number of critics groups I belong to. One of these, the Seattle Film Critics Society, solicited input from our members and just revealed the 2018 Seattle Film Critics Society Awards.

I voted for some of these winners. I definitely did not vote for others. While some of them may not be my top choices, I don’t look at any of these as particularly egregious or cringe-inducing (as has happened in polls I’ve participated in before). In my opinion, most of these movies, performances, and other efforts are generally very good and worth watching. 

As usual with this sort of endeavor, make of the results what you will. You’re smart people with your own proclivities and opinions; you can watch movies and make up your own minds, regardless of what I or any other critic says. That’s the beauty of art, it’s subjective and open to individual interpretation. 

Sometime this week, likely tomorrow, I plan to post my nomination ballot for the SFCS awards so you can see how I voted if that interests you. I don’t intend it as “here’s what should have won” or “here’s why I’m so much smarter than everyone else” kind of flag waving, it’s simply information I have readily at hand and may be of interest.

As lukewarm as I am to the idea of voting and ranking and all the rest, I do feel privileged to be part of the SFCS and other groups. It’s a job most of us do for little to no money, less prestige, and more headaches than you can imagine. But we do it because we love movies and it’s nice to hang out with other like-minded weirdos. 

That said, here are the 2018 Seattle Film Critics Society Awards:

BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR: Roma  

BEST DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

BEST ACTOR: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed

BEST ACTRESS: Toni Collette, Hereditary

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST: Widows

BEST SCREENPLAY: The Favourite – Deborah Davis & Tony McNamara 

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, directors

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Roma – Alfonso Cuarón, director

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Free Solo – Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, directors

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roma – Alfonso Cuarón 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Black Panther – Ruth E. Carter

BEST FILM EDITING: Mission: Impossible - Fallout – Eddie Hamilton

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Mandy - Jóhann Jóhannsson

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: The Favourite – Fiona Crombie (Production Designer); Alice Felton (Set Decoration) 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Mission: Impossible - Fallout – Jody Johnson

BEST YOUTH PERFORMANCE: Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade 

VILLAIN OF THE YEAR: Erik Killmonger – Black Panther – portrayed by Michael B. Jordan