Faith and Film Critics Circle Best of 2006 Awards

For a number of years now, I've been a member of the Faith and Film Critics Circle. It's an important group for me to be part of, and as I'm one of the more junior members it's great to be part of something bigger than myself, as well as having a place where there are people of much more experience than me that I can learn from.

One of the most important things we do is vote on annual awards, the winners of which were announced last Friday and are listed below:

Most Significant Exploration of Spiritual Issues - The New World
Children of Men (Runner-up)

Best Narrative Film - The New World
L'Enfant (Runner-up)

Best Documentary - 49 Up / - Jonestown (tie)

Best Actor - Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Forrest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland (Runner-up)

Best Actress - Helen Mirren, The Queen
Q'orianka Kilcher, The New World (Runner-up)

Best Supporting Actor - Michael Sheen, The Queen
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed (Runner-up)

Best Supporting Actress - Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
Adrianna Barazza, Babel (Runner-up)

Best Director - Terrence Malick, The New World
Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth (Runner-up)

Best Ensemble Cast - Little Miss Sunshine
The Departed (Runner-up)

Best Orginal Screenplay - Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth
Peter Morgan, The Queen (Runner-up)

Best Adapted Screenplay - Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, Little Children
Iris Yamashita/Paul Haggis, Letters From Iwo Jima (Runner-up)

Best Cinematography - Emanuel Lubezki, The New World
Emanuel Lubezki, Children of Men (Runner-up)

Best Original Score - Clint Mansell, The Fountain
Javier Navarrete, Pan's Labyrinth (Runner-up)

Best Film For the Whole Family - Lassie
Over The Hedge (Runner-up)

I should add a few notes. Some may wonder why we have included The New World when the Academy classed it as a 2005 film. To be honest we don't really understand why the Academy did this. Whilst a version of this film was screened in a few places in 2005, the version that was finally put on general release was a different cut, and that wasn't seen until January 2006. It makes sense, to us at least, to consider this as a 2006 film. To me, any other approach would reek of exclusivity.

Secondly, the voting procedure was led by Jeffrey Overstreet(pictured), and Ron Reed. I'd like to thank both of them. Jeffrey has served as chair of the FFCC for a long while now, but recently decided to step down to focus on other projects. Jeffrey's done a great job, and been a great inspiration to me personally, so I'd particularly like to thank him for all his work, and I'm looking forward to his continued presence as a member of the group.

There's a full list of all the members of the Faith and Film Critics Circle, as well as details of how you can join us at our website. (Thanks to Zac Kincaid for all his work on the website).