As you’d expect from a city boasting one of the world’s major film festivals, the Toronto Film Critics Association is one of the most discerning and unconventional groups on the block, and so they’ve again proved with their 2012 picks. Continuing its recent mini-run of critics’ prizes, “The Master” takes another Best Picture prize, also nabbing Best Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actor for Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Meanwhile, after several runner-up citations, “Holy Motors” dynamo Denis Lavant finally gets a Best Actor award to call his own, while “The Deep Blue Sea” star Rachel Weisz claims a bookend to her NYFCC trophy. The Toronto crowd really showed their independent colors, however, in the Best Supporting Actress race, where Gina Gershon got her first mention of the season for her gutsy work in “Killer Joe.” O Canada, we stand in awe of thee. Full list of winners after the jump, and, you know, at The Circuit.
Best Picture
“The Master” (Runners-up: “Amour,” “Zero Dark Thirty”)
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, “The Master” (Runners-up: Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”; Leos Carax, “Holy Motors”)
Best Actor
Denis Lavant, “Holy Motors” (Runners-up: Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”; Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”)
Best Actress
Rachel Weisz, “The Deep Blue Sea” (Runners-up: Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”; Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”)
Best Supporting Actor
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master” (Runners-up: Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”; Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”)
Best Supporting Actress
Gina Gershon, “Killer Joe” (Runners-up: Amy Adams, “The Master”; Ann Dowd, “Compliance”; Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables”)
Best Screenplay
“The Master” (Runners-up: “Lincoln,” “Zero Dark Thirty”)
Best Foreign Language Film
“Amour” (Runners-up: “Holy Motors,” “Tabu”)
Best Animated Feature
“ParaNorman” (Runners-up: “Brave,” “Frankenweenie”)
Best Documentary
“Stories We Tell” (Runners-up: “The Queen of Versailles,” “Searching for Sugar Man”)
Best First Feature
(TIE) Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and Panos Cosmatos, “Beyond the Black Rainbow” (Runner-up: Drew Goddard, “The Cabin in the Woods”)
Best Canadian Film (finalists)
“Stories We Tell” (Runners-up: “Bestiaire,” “Goon”)