Boston Society of Film Critics

The Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts, United States, based publications.

The BSFC was formed in 1981 to make "Boston's unique critical perspective heard on a national and international level by awarding commendations to the best of the year's films and filmmakers and local film theaters and film societies that offer outstanding film programming."

Every year for the past three decades, the Boston Society of Film Critics give their Boston Society of Film Critics Awards. The 2009 award for best picture and best director went to The Hurt Locker directed by Kathryn Bigelow and also won three other awards (best actor, best cinematography and best film editing). It was the first time in the organization's thirty-year history that one film took home five awards.

Categories of awards:

Society

A society is a group of people involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification or dominance patterns in subgroups.

Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap.

A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.

Boston

Boston (pronounced ⁱ/ˈbɒstən/) is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston also served as the historic county seat of Suffolk County until Massachusetts disbanded county government in 1999. The city proper covers 48 square miles (124 km²) with an estimated population of 655,884 in 2014, making it the largest city in New England and the 24th largest city in the United States. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.7 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan statistical area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region is home to 8.1 million people, making it the sixth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon American independence from Great Britain, the city continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub, as well as a center for education and culture. Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing over 20 million visitors per year. Boston's many firsts include the United States' first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and first subway system (1897).

Film criticism

Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, it can be divided into journalistic criticism such as appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and published in academic journals.

Journalistic criticism

Film critics working for newspapers, magazines, broadcast media, and online publications, mainly review new releases, although some reviewers include reviews of older "classic" films. The plot summary and description of a film that makes up the majority of the review can have an impact on whether readers or listeners decide to see a film.

In the 2000s, the impact reviews have on a film's box office performance and DVD rentals/sales have become a matter for debate. Some analysts argue that modern movie marketing, using pop culture convention appearances (e.g., Comicon) and social media along with traditional means of advertising, have become so invasive and well financed that established reviewers with legitimate criticism cannot be heard over this promotional content. Moreover, this has led, in part, to a decline in the readership of many reviewers for newspapers and other print publications. There are less film critics on television and radio in the last thirty years. Most of the discussion of film on television is focused on the amount of box office business a film does, as if financial success were the only criterion needed to define artistic success. Today arts criticism in general does not hold the same place it once held with the general public.

Christian Bale

Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. He has starred in both blockbuster films and smaller projects from independent producers and art houses.

Bale first caught the public eye at the age of 13, when he was cast in the starring role of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987). Based on the original story by J. G. Ballard, Bale played an English boy who is separated from his parents and subsequently finds himself lost in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. In 2000, he garnered critical acclaim for his portrayal of serial killer Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. He is known for going to great lengths to portray characters in films, notably for the psychological thriller The Machinist (2004), where he lost 63 pounds (28.5 kg) to play the role of Trevor Reznik.

Bale went on to receive greater commercial recognition and acclaim for his performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). His portrayal of Dicky Eklund in the David O. Russell-directed biographical film The Fighter (2010), earned him widespread acclaim and a number of awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has since gained further critical acclaim, as well as subsequent Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and Golden Globe nominations for his roles in Russell's American Hustle and Adam McKay's The Big Short.