NY Film Critics Circle Moves Up Voting Date, Jumps to Front of Awards Line

This is interesting: The New York Film Critics Circle announced today that it has moved up its 2011 awards-voting conference to Nov. 28 -- two full weeks prior to its usual mid-December vote and right to the front of the line in terms of awards-season tone-setting and influence.

The vote will take place the same day as the Gotham Awards, which themselves are less a mainstream kudos barometer than an indie/specialty confab where the likes of Moneyball, J. Edgar, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, War Horse, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and other studio fare would not likely find any quarter. Those latter three titles in particular raise the question of how and when the NYFCC (of which our own Stephanie Zacharek is an illustrious member) will actually get to see these films; historically only the secretive National Board of Review -- who last year voted on Dec. 2 -- have enjoyed such early access from the studios in particular.

The NBR may yet move its own date back ahead of the critics, which would then, of course, require even earlier screenings of carefully withheld films, and thus -- in concert with the NYFCC -- anoint a handful of legitimate Oscar frontrunners before December even starts. Pretty nuts. Developing...