AFCA Awards: From 'Black Swan' to 'Winnebago Man'

The Austin Film Critics Association announced its 2010 awards on Wednesday. It's hard for me to write this up as a straight news story since I'm a voting member, and I got to pick some of these awards -- Jenn is a member too this year. I'm happy to say that the movie that won Best Film is currently my favorite of the year: Black Swan. The movie also was awarded Best Director (Darren Aronofsky), Best Actress for Natalie Portman, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

Another pleasant surprise is that the Best Austin Film award went to an indie documentary: Winnebago Man, which first played Austin at SXSW 2009. Director Ben Steinbauer and producer Joel Heller are both Austinites. The doc about Jack Rebney won the award against some tough competition this year. I liked this film very much when I saw it at Alamo Drafthouse this summer; you can read more about it in Don's review. (It's now on DVD.)

The full list of awards is after the jump. AFCA also decided to give a special award this year to a TV show -- the Austin-shot series Friday Night Lights. True Grit was also partially shot in town as well as parts of Central Texas, and its star Hailee Steinfeld won Best Supporting Actress. I'm also pleased that overall, this year's award recipients are from a relatively eclectic list of movies, from The King's Speech to TRON: Legacy to Exit Through the Gift Shop. Now, can we get Banksy to show up at an awards ceremony?

AFCA 2010 Awards:

Best Film: Black Swan

Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Best Original Screenplay: Black Swan, Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin

Best Cinematography: Black Swan, Matthew Libatique

Best Original Score: Tron: Legacy, Daft Punk

Best Foreign Language Film: A Prophet (Un Prophète), France [dir. Jacques Audiard]

Best Documentary: Exit Through the Gift Shop [dir. Banksy]

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3 [dir. Lee Unkrich]

Robert R. McCurdy Memorial Breakthrough Artist Award: Chloë Grace Moretz, Kick-Ass/Let Me In

Best First Film: Monsters, Gareth Edwards

Austin Film Award: Winnebago Man, Ben Steinbauer

Special Honorary Award: Friday Night Lights, for producing excellent, locally made television and
contributing to the film community in Austin for the past five years

Top 10 Films:

1. Black Swan
2. The Social Network
3. Inception
4. Toy Story 3
5. The King's Speech
6. True Grit
7. The Fighter
8. Un Prophete
9. Winter's Bone
10. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World