38th NSFC Awards
January 3, 2004
Best Film:
American Splendor
The 38th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 3 January 2004, honored the best in film for 2003. [1] [2] [3]
1. Clint Eastwood – Mystic River
2. Peter Jackson – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
3. Sofia Coppola – Lost in Translation
1. Bill Murray – Lost in Translation
2. Sean Penn – Mystic River
3. Paul Giamatti – American Splendor
1. Charlize Theron – Monster
2. Hope Davis – American Splendor and The Secret Lives of Dentists
3. Naomi Watts – 21 Grams
1. Peter Sarsgaard – Shattered Glass
2. Tim Robbins – Mystic River
3. Alec Baldwin – The Cooler
1. Patricia Clarkson – Pieces of April and The Station Agent
2. Maria Bello – The Cooler
3. Shohreh Aghdashloo – House of Sand and Fog
1. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini – American Splendor
2. Brian Helgeland – Mystic River
3. Craig Lucas – The Secret Lives of Dentists
1. Russell Boyd – Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
2. Lance Acord – Lost in Translation
3. Harris Savides – Elephant
1. The Man Without a Past (Mies vailla menneisyyttä)
2. The Triplets of Belleville (Les triplettes de Belleville)
3. Unknown Pleasures (Rèn xiāo yáo)
1. To Be and to Have (Être et avoir)
2. The Fog of War
3. Spellbound
Lost in Translation is a 2003 romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Sofia Coppola. Bill Murray stars as Bob Harris, a fading American movie star who is having a midlife crisis when he travels to Tokyo to promote Suntory whisky. There, he befriends another estranged American named Charlotte, a young woman and recent college graduate. Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris, and Fumihiro Hayashi are also featured. The film explores themes of alienation and disconnection against a backdrop of cultural displacement in Japan. It defies mainstream narrative conventions and is atypical in its depiction of romance.
Mystic River is a 2003 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, and starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, and Laura Linney. The screenplay, written by Brian Helgeland, was based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. It is the first film in which Eastwood was credited as composer of the score.
House of Sand and Fog is a 2003 drama film directed by Vadim Perelman, with a screenplay written by Perelman and Shawn Lawrence Otto. It is based on the novel of the same name by Andre Dubus III.
The Fog is a 1980 American independent supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also co-wrote the screenplay and created the music for the film. It stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh and Hal Holbrook. It tells the story of a strange, glowing fog that sweeps over a small coastal town in Northern California.
The 8th Golden Satellite Awards, honoring the best in film and television of 2003, were presented by the International Press Academy on February 21, 2004.
The 24th Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2003, were given on 14 December 2003.
The 7th Online Film Critics Society Awards, honoring films made in 2003, were given on 5 January 2004.
The 69th New York Film Critics Circle Awards, honoring the best in film for 2003, were announced on 15 December 2003 and presented on 11 January 2004 by the New York Film Critics Circle.
The 16th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2003, were presented in 2004. The awards were originally going to be cancelled because the 2003 screener ban but when a judge ruled against it and the studios started to send out screeners again the awards were held after all.
The 29th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) on January 7, 2004, honored the best in film for 2003. The ceremony was originally called off because of the MPAA screener ban as members felt they could not see all the movies in time for their awards but when that was removed the show was back on.
The 9th Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2003, were given on January 5, 2004. The organization, founded in 1990, includes 63 film critics for print, radio, television, and internet publications based in north Texas.
The 75th National Board of Review Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2003, were given on 3 December 2003.
The 3rd New York Film Critics Online Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2003, were given on 15 December 2003.
The 2nd Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2003, were given on December 19, 2003.
The 24th London Film Critics Circle Awards, honouring the best in film for 2003, were announced by the London Film Critics Circle on 11 February 2004.
The 4th Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2003, were given on 2 February 2004.
American Splendor is a 2003 American biographical comedy drama film written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. The film, which chronicles the life of comic book writer Harvey Pekar, is a hybrid production featuring live actors, documentary, and animation. It is based on the 1976–2008 comic book series of the same name written by Pekar and the 1994 graphic novel Our Cancer Year written by Pekar and Joyce Brabner. The film stars Paul Giamatti as Pekar and Hope Davis as Brabner. It also features appearances from Pekar and Brabner themselves, who discuss their lives, the comic books, and how it feels to be depicted onscreen by actors.
The 56th Writers Guild of America Awards, given in 2004, honored the film and television best writers of 2003.
The Secret Lives of Dentists is a 2002 drama film directed by Alan Rudolph. The screenplay was written by Craig Lucas, based on the novella The Age of Grief by Jane Smiley. It had its world premiere at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and was subsequently screened at several other festivals, including Sundance and Cannes. It had a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 1, 2003.