38th New York Film Critics Circle Awards
January 3, 1973
Best Picture:
Cries and Whispers
The 38th New York Film Critics Circle Awards, announced on 3 January 1973, honored the best filmmaking of 1972. [1]
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish filmmaker and dramatist. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known as "profoundly personal meditations into the myriad struggles facing the psyche and the soul." Some of his most acclaimed works include The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), Persona (1966), and Fanny and Alexander (1982); these four films were included in the Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012 critics poll.
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director. Recognised as one of the greatest European actresses of all time, Ullmann is known as the muse and frequent partner of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She acted in many of his films, including Persona (1966), Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes from a Marriage (1973), The Passion of Anna (1969), and Autumn Sonata (1978).
Cries and Whispers is a 1972 Swedish period drama film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann. The film, set in a mansion at the end of the 19th century, is about three sisters and a servant who struggle with the terminal cancer of one of the sisters (Andersson). The servant (Sylwan) is close to her, while the other two sisters confront their emotional distance from each other.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a 1972 surrealist film directed by Luis Buñuel from a screenplay co-written with Jean-Claude Carrière. The narrative concerns a group of bourgeois people attempting—despite continual interruptions—to dine together. The French-language film stars Fernando Rey, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Julien Bertheau, and Milena Vukotic.
Ingrid Lilian Thulin was a Swedish actress and director who collaborated with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She was often cast as harrowing and desperate characters, and earned acclaim from both Swedish and international critics. She won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in Brink of Life (1958) and the inaugural Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Silence (1963), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress BAFTA for Cries and Whispers (1972).
Swedish cinema is known for including many acclaimed films; during the 20th century the industry was the most prominent of Scandinavia. This is largely due to the popularity and prominence of directors Victor Sjöström and especially Ingmar Bergman; and more recently Roy Andersson, Lasse Hallström, Lukas Moodysson and Ruben Östlund.
Stéphane Audran was a French actress. She was known for her performances in award-winning films such as The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and Babette's Feast (1987), and in critically acclaimed films like The Big Red One (1980) and Violette Nozière (1978).
Sven Vilhem Nykvist was a Swedish cinematographer. He worked on over 120 films, but is known especially for his work with director Ingmar Bergman. He won Academy Awards for his work on two Bergman films, Cries and Whispers (1972) and Fanny and Alexander (1982), and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography for The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He is also known for his collaborations with Woody Allen for Crimes and Misdemeanors, Another Woman, New York Stories, and Celebrity and Andrei Tarkovsky on The Sacrifice.
Fernando Casado Arambillet, best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and television actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States. A suave, international actor best known for his roles in the films of surrealist director Luis Buñuel and as the drug lord Alain Charnier in The French Connection (1971) and French Connection II (1975), he appeared in more than 150 films over half a century.
Harriet Andersson is a Swedish actress, best known outside Sweden for being part of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company. She often plays impulsive, working class characters.
"'Joao MacDowell'" is a Brazilian composer known for fusing contemporary and popular styles with classical music. His work includes opera, symphonic, chamber music, and early albums of Brazilian pop. On the occasion of the concert premiere of his fifth opera The Seventh Seal, Swedish journalist Johanna Paulsson – Dagens Nyheter, noted the composer as “A new thinker in the genre.”(en nytänkare inom genren). Stockholm, August 30, 2018.
The BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay is a British Academy Film Award for the best script. It was awarded from 1968 to 1982. In 1983 it was split into BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay and BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The French Syndicate of Cinema Critics has, each year since 1946, awarded a prize, the Prix Méliès, to the best French film of the preceding year. More awards have been added over time: the Prix Léon Moussinac for the best foreign film, added in 1967; the Prix Novaïs-Texeira for the best short film, added in 1999; prizes for the best first French and best first foreign films, added in 2001 and 2014, respectively; etc.
The 26th Cannes Film Festival was held from 10 to 25 May 1973. The Grand Prix du Festival International du Film went to Scarecrow by Jerry Schatzberg and The Hireling by Alan Bridges. At this festival two new non-competitive sections were added: 'Étude et documents' and 'Perspectives du Cinéma Français'.
European art cinema is a branch of cinema that was popular in the latter half of the 20th century. It is based on a rejection of the tenets and techniques of classical Hollywood cinema.
The David di Donatello for Best Foreign Director is a category in the David di Donatello Awards, described as "Italy’s answer to the Oscars". It was awarded by the Accademia del Cinema Italiano to recognize outstanding efforts on the part of non-Italian film directors during the year preceding the ceremony. The award was given from 1966 until 1990.
The 7th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 29 December 1972, honored the best filmmaking of 1972.
The 9th Guldbagge Awards ceremony, presented by the Swedish Film Institute, honored the best Swedish films of 1972 and 1973, and took place on 29 October 1973. Cries and Whispers directed by Ingmar Bergman was presented with the award for Best Film.
Claude Jaeger was a Swiss-born French film producer and actor.