Maya Cade for founding the
Black Film Archive, which expands knowledge of and access to
Black films made between 1915 and 1979, and includes her critical essays that define the project and consider the films in relation to each other and to the cinema overall.
The late
Peter Bogdanovich and
Bertrand Tavernier, distinguished critic-filmmakers who never lost their passion for other people's movies and film history. Both crowned their careers with invaluable chronicles of their engagement with the cinema: Tavernier with the documentary My Journey Through French Cinema, and the books "50 Years of American Cinema" and "American Friends". Bogdanovich with the books "Who the Devil Made It" and "Who the Hell's in It".
Special Citation for a Film Awaiting U.S. Distribution
Jean-Gabriel Périot's documentary Returning to Reims, which draws on
Didier Eribon's 2009 memoir about his French hometown, and the inequities of class and education that shaped him and his family.
Dedication
This year's awards were dedicated to the memory of two longtime members who died:
Morris Dickstein and Michael Wilmington.[4][5] Dickstein brought warmth, enthusiasm and prodigious analytic skills as a
literary critic and
cultural historian to writing about movies in journals like Dissent and Partisan Review, and in books like "Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression". Wilmington wrote beautifully and passionately about cinema as a critic for many publications, including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, and co-authored the critical study "John Ford". The awards were also dedicated to Liz Weis, who stepped down after serving 47 years as executive director of the
National Society of Film Critics.