The 1st Florida Film Critics Circle Awards honored the best in film for 1996. The Coen brothers’ Fargo won four awards.

Best Film:

Fargo

Runner-up: Breaking the Waves

Best Director

Joel Coen – Fargo

Best Actor

Geoffrey Rush – Shine

Runners-up: Tom Cruise – Jerry Maguire

Best Actress

Frances McDormand – Fargo

Runner-up: Brenda Blethyn – Secrets & Lies

Best Supporting Actor

Edward Norton – The People vs. Larry Flynt, Everyone Says I Love You and Primal Fear

Runner-up: William H. Macy – Fargo

Best Supporting Actress:

Courtney Love – The People vs. Larry Flynt

Runner-Up: Joan Allen – The Crucible

Best Screenplay:

Joel and Ethan Coen – Fargo

Best Cinematography:

John Seale – The English Patient

Best Foreign Language Film:

Ridicule – France

Best Song:

“That Thing You Do” – That Thing You Do!

Pauline Kael Breakout Award:

Doug Liman (director) and Jon Favreau (actor/writer) – Swingers

Golden Orange for Outstanding Contribution to Film:

The 15 African-American men who pooled their resources to finance Get on the Bus.

The Walt Disney Company, for standing up to protests concerning the content of its films by Chinese authorities and the Southern Baptist Convention.