About Us

Welcome to the home of the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association (GWNYFCA), a collective of WNY film critics from in and around the Buffalo and Rochester metropolitan areas with an affinity for the cinematic art form.

Founded in 2018 as a way to bring the disparate voices from the area together, the GWNYFCA membership includes writers from daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, magazines, and online venues. We’re here to amplify each others’ work as well as champion the best cinema has to offer each year with regular polls and a year-end awards vote.

Please check out our members page to get to know our writers and feel free to follow their work on their various sites and social media platforms. And to follow along with the GWNYFCA, check out our Twitter page at @GWNYFilmCritics.


Awards Voting:
2023 Dates –
• Nominations Due: Dec. 19, 2023
• Nominees Announced: Dec. 22, 2023
• Voting Ballot Due: Dec. 28, 2023
• Winners Announced (Updated): Jan. 6, 2024 at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY

Rules:
Nomination voting will consist of every member compiling a ranked five choices per category with first place votes receiving 5 points, second place votes receiving 4 points, and so on in order to achieve a weighted consensus of those choices with the most points. Final voting will then be a weighted consensus in the same mold of the agreed upon nominees. (Tie-breaker: number of 1st place votes, then 2nd, and so on. Run-off vote if remains tied.)

Our categories:
• Best Picture
• Best Film in a Foreign Language
• Best Animated Film
• Best Documentary
• Best Director
• Best Lead Actor
• Best Lead Actress
• Best Supporting Actor
• Best Supporting Actress
• Best Original Screenplay
• Best Adapted Screenplay
• Best Cinematography
• Best Film Editing
• Best Score
• Breakthrough Performance
• Breakthrough Director