The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 70mm drama about a battle of wills between a ravaged war veteran and the cult leader who offers him a place at his right hand, dominated the 2012 awards of the Toronto Film Critics Association.

Anderson’s film took Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, with co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman named the year’s Best Supporting Actor. Anderson has now won Best Picture twice (previous was Magnolia 1999) and Best Director three times (previous was Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love 2002). He also shared the Best Screenplay prize with Being John Malkovich author Charlie Kaufman (1999).

The awards were voted by the TFCA at a Dec. 16 meeting. The membership also chose the three finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award: Bestiaire, directed by Denis Côté; Goon, directed by Michael Dowse, and Stories We Tell, directed by Sarah Polley.

The 2012 TFCA Awards will be presented at a gala dinner at Toronto’s Carlu on January 8, 2013, hosted by Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. There the TFCA will also reveal the winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, which this year carries a record-setting $100,000 cash prize, now the richest arts award in the country. The runners-up will each receive $5,000. Don McKellar will present the award.

“The diversity of our three finalists for this extraordinary new prize show there’s nothing predictable about Canadian cinema,” said TFCA President Brian D. Johnson, film critic for Maclean’s. “These are all genres we haven’t seen before. Bestiaire is a visionary documentary from Montreal that explores our relationship to the animal world. Stories We Tell, a doc from Toronto, unfolds as a procedural home movie, investigating the filmmaker’s family secrets; and Goon, shot largely in Winnipeg and set across the country, is a viciously funny comedy about hockey violence.”

Canadian filmmakers were also honoured in the TFCA’s other awards, with Stories We Tell winning the Allan King Documentary Award and Panos Cosmatos sharing the Best First Feature prize for Beyond the Black Rainbow with Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild.

(Under the TFCA’s guidelines, contenders eligible for the awards include films released in Canada in 2012 plus films that qualify for the 2012 Oscars and have Canadian distribution scheduled by the end of February 2013.)

At the Jan. 8 gala, the TFCA will also present the Manulife Financial Student Film Award, which carries a $5,000 cash prize. It will be presented to a short film that the critics select from student entries submitted by film programs at Humber College, Ryerson University, Sheridan College and York University.

At the gala, the TFCA will also announce the Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, sponsored by Deluxe, which will present a cheque for $5,000 and provide an equivalent value in post- production services.

The Toronto Film Critics Association was established in 1997 and is comprised of Toronto based journalists and broadcasters who specialize in film criticism and commentary. All major dailies, weeklies and a variety of other print, electronic and web outlets are represented. Members of the TFCA also participate in the Federation of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI). As such, they have sat on juries at festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Montreal, Miami, Palm Springs, Chicago, Pusan, Moscow, Amsterdam, London and Vienna, among others.

The full list of Toronto Film Critics Association Awards winners and runners-up:

BEST PICTURE
“The Master” (eOne)
Runners-up:
“Amour” (Mongrel Media)
“Zero Dark Thirty” (Alliance Films)

BEST ACTOR
Denis Lavant, “Holy Motors”
Runners-up:
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”

BEST ACTRESS
Rachel Weisz, “The Deep Blue Sea”
Runners-up:
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”
Runners-up:
Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”
Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Gina Gershon, “Killer Joe”
Runners-up:
Amy Adams, “The Master”
Ann Dowd, “Compliance”
Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserable”

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, “The Master”
Runners-up:
Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Leos Carax, “Holy Motors”

BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED OR ORIGINAL
“The Master”, written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Runners-up:
“Lincoln”, written by Tony Kushner, based on the book
“Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin
“Zero Dark Thirty”, written by Mark Boal

BEST FIRST FEATURE – TIE
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”, directed by Benh Zeitlin
“Beyond the Black Rainbow”, directed by Panos Cosmatos
Runner-up:
“The Cabin in the Woods”, directed by Drew Goddard

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“ParaNorman” (Alliance Films)
Runners-up:
“Brave” (Disney*Pixar)
“Frankenweenie” (Disney)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
“Amour”(Mongrel Media)
Runners-up:
“Holy Motors” (Mongrel Media)
“Tabu” (filmswelike)

ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY AWARD
“Stories We Tell” (Mongrel Media)
Runners-up:
“The Queen of Versailles” (Mongrel Media)
“Searching for Sugar Man” (Mongrel Media)

ROGERS BEST CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS
“Bestiaire”, directed by Denis Côté
“Goon”, directed by Michael Dowse
“Stories We Tell”, directed by Sarah Polley