LAFCA Names "Amour" The Best of the Year. (Plus Boston & NYFCO)

Warning this post will contain no photos of Zero Dark Thirty in protest. It's a film I thoroughly enjoyed but critical sweeps do great injustice to the art of cinema each year. No film or performance has ever been so great as to be the only achievement worth rewarding in its calendar year. The modern age of hive-mindedness also does great injustice to awards season which needs drama as fuel. This is not to say that one shouldn't vote one's mind if a certain sweeper is also your personal favorite but if everyone's personal favorites are always the same we automatically a) need fewer groups trumpeting the collective opinion or b) we need more critics who have idiosyncratic taste to keep the art of the discussion of cinema at its liveliest.

LOS ANGELES
We've already heard from NYC's top critics who gave three awards each to Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln and today the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the LA wing of critical-consensus makers get their say. Given that this particular group is something like the Home Team for the bulk of AMPAS members, their votes matter. Stay tuned as voting commences!

FILM Amour (ru: The Master)
DIRECTOR Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master (ru: Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty)
ACTRESS (tie) Jennifer Lawrence Silver Linings Playbook and Emmanuelle Riva Amour 
ACTOR  Joaquin Phoenix The Master (ru: Denis Lavant, Holy Motors)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS  Amy Adams, The Master (ru: Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables & The Dark Knight Rises)
SUPPORTING ACTOR  Dwight Henry Beasts of the Southern Wild (ru: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained)
ANIMATED FILM  Frankenweenie (ru: It's Such a Beautiful Day)
DOCUMENTARY The Gatekeepers (ru: Searching for Sugar Man)
FOREIGN FILM  Holy Motors (ru: Footnote)
NEW GENERATION  tba tba
SCREENPLAY Argo (ru: Silver Linings Playbook)
CINEMATOGRAPHY  Roger Deakins Skyfall (ru: Mihai Malaiare, Jr. The Master)
PRODUCTION DESIGN  David Crank & Jack Fisk The Master (ru: Adam Stockhausen, Moonrise Kingdom)
EDITING Zero Dark Thirty
INDEPENDENT/EXPERIMENTAL Leviathan 
MUSIC SCORE  Dan Romer & Benh Zeitlin Beasts of the Southern Wild (ru: Jonny Greenwood, The Master)

Last Year's LAFCA Winners if you'd like to compare them...

Boston & NYFCO after the jump

BOSTON
Yesterday we heard from an upstart Boston group but today the real deal, the Boston Society of Film Critics who have been voting for 32 years. They were quite adventurous in the 1990s (in comparison to most critics groups these days) and each year we cross our fingers that they'll become so again.

How to Survive a Plague won two prizes from BSFCPICTURE Zero Dark Thirty (ru: (tie) Moonrise Kingdom & Amour)
DIRECTOR Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty (ru: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master)
SCREENPLAY Tony Kushner, Lincoln
ACTOR Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln (ru: Denis Lavant, Holy Motors)
ACTRESS Emmanuelle Riva, Amour (ru: Deanie Yip, A Simple Life)
FOREIGN FILM Amour (ru: Holy Motors)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Sally Field, Lincoln (ru: Emma Watson The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
SUPPORTING ACTOR Ezra Miller, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (ru: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained)
ENSEMBLE Seven Psychopaths (ru: Moonrise Kingdom)
ANIMATED FILM Frankenweenie (ru: ParaNorman)
DOCUMENTARY How to Survive A Plague (ru: )
EDITING Zero Dark Thirty (ru: Argo)
NEW FILMMAKER David France How to Survive a Plague (ru: Benh Zeitlin Beasts...)
CINEMATOGRAPHY The Master (runner up: Life of Pi and Moonrise Kingdom)
USE OF MUSIC Moonrise Kingdom (runner up: Django Unchained)

NYFCO
In smaller type this Sunday, December 9th, the New York Film Critics Online (NYFCO) -- some of my friends are members (including favored co-star Katey Rich) -- also held court to determine winners.

PICTURE Zero Dark Thirty
ACTRESS Emmanuelle Riva, Amour (ru:?)
ACTOR Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln (ru:)
DIRECTOR Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Dark Locker Thirty
FOREIGN FILM Amour
DOCUMENTARY Central Park Five
ANIMATED FILM Chico & Rita
DEBUT DIRECTOR Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild (ru: ?)
USE OF MUSIC Django Unchained
CINEMATOGRAPHY Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi (ru: ?)
SCREENPLAY Zero Dark Thirty (ru: Argo)
SUPPORTING ACTOR Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln (ru: Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
ENSEMBLE CAST Argo
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Comments

[NATHANIEL R]

Hannibal -- it does seem that way but Argo strikes me as an actor's movie and only actors can vote on the nominations. we'll see.

[TB]

I'm calling it. This year is going to be entirely dependent on the guilds. There are too many categories that are split critically. Other than Kathryn Bigelow, Tony Kushner, and maybe Daniel Day Lewis, there hasn't been enough consensus from critics to lock any wins down. And what's more, there are too many contenders that are split between comedy and drama to count on the Globes or the Critics Choice Awards to be an indicator. It's all across the board. I mean look at what's going on with Best Actress. Chastain and Riva get a huge boost into the season, but they're going to be competing with each other in Best Actress in a Drama categories for the next two months, while it looks like Jennifer Lawrence will sail through in Comedy all year.

Maybe for once we'll have some surprises up on the podium?

[NATHANIEL R]

TB -- oh sweet delusion. I hope so too! ;)

[Edwin]

TB- The Golden Globes are, to my knowledge, the only awards body that splits up comedy and drama. The BFCA has Best Comedy Film, Best Comedy Actor, and Best Comedy Actress categories, but all of them are still also eligible in the regular Best Film/Actor/Actress categories as well, kind of like how foreign films are eligible for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film. So the Golden Globes are still the only venue where Lawrence won't be competing against Chastain and Riva.

I'm wondering what will happen with the Django Unchained actors now, because this is the second runner-up mention Waltz has gotten for Best Supporting Actor (he also got mentioned by the NYFCC), and from what I've heard, Weinstein has recently decided to campaign him in the supporting category after all. This means that three Django costars will all be vying for a slot in Best Supporting Actor, and they could easily cancel each other out. Jackson probably won't be too much a threat anyway since he hasn't gotten so much as a mention yet, but I don't see both Waltz and DiCaprio being nominated. It will be interesting to see if a consensus forms over the next week or so.

[brookesboy]

These awards for the highly overrated The Master are so disappointing. Phoenix, who I greatly admire, is so over the top in this pretentious mess. I mean, he's actually walking around like a monkey. And Adams is so much better in Trouble With the Curve. In The Master, she's terribly miscast, though she does a game attempt.

[eric l]

these critics circle like to give awards to the actors who will be the most entertaining to have at their luncheon. (Most of them have already had phil hoff). it's kind of like the hasty pudding club.