January 2, 2019 — The diverse members of the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) have spoken, and their votes have allowed the best cinematic effort of 2018 to surface.
“It was a tight and tense race for sure, and after tallying the votes we have found the brightest among 2018’s gems,” said Nguyen Le, who alongside Bavner Donaldo and Wesley Lovell, forms the organization’s Governing Committee.
"Roma," director Alfonso Cuarón’s reportedly autobiographical film, produced by Participant Media and Esperanto Filmoj, is going home with the Best Picture award, winning over other potent nominees such as the heartfelt “If Beale Street Could Talk” adaptation, topical “First Reformed,” and dynamite period piece “The Favourite.” The film follows a middle-class family’s maid named Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) through one year of her life.
On top of this, "Roma" also wins the following awards: Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Director, and Best Cinematography.
The film is also warmly received by OFCS members. Writing for DC Filmdom, Eddie Pasa said “Aparicio is a revelation;” CineSnob’s film writer Kiko Martinez said the film is “as close to cinematic poetry as you can get;” for Culturess, Kristen Lopez said it was “beautifully composed and aesthetically brilliant;” and Susan Granger considers Cuarón’s feature “sensitively written, insightfully directed and vibrantly photographed.”
Among other notable wins are three for “If Beale Street Could Talk” (for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Score); two for “Mission: Impossible - Fallout” (for Best Editing and a Technical Achievement Award for Best Stunt Coordination); and one for “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (for Best Animated Feature).
Members of the OFCS also handed out Lifetime Achievement Awards to five candidates, among them actress Rita Moreno and director Spike Lee, and two Special Achievement Awards.
"With another successful year in the history books, our members have clearly stepped up to the task of selecting the year's best,” Lovell said. “The diverse selections our membership has made reflect the bountiful and broad-ranging experiences of our members and that will always be our biggest and brightest victory."
The Online Film Critics Society, composed of 283 film critics whose work appears mainly on the internet, was founded in 1997 to support online critics and provide them a unified voice in the dominant culture of print journalism.
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