The 42nd Annual LAFCA Winners !
Sunday, December 4, 2016 at 1:00PM 
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association stretches back to 1975, a very great year in cinema history with one of Oscar's all time best Best Picture lineups (Dog Day Afternoon, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Nashville, Barry Lyndon, and Jaws). They gave four of those pictures awards in their first year, ignoring only Jaws. Though we normally despair that all film critics awards seem to be viewed through the prism of Oscar influence or prediction (critics groups should have their own identity / agenda or else what good are they?) in the LAFCA's case it's difficult to avoid. Los Angeles is an industry town and these are their local critics. So go crazy when you're looking at this list and want to think of it in terms of Oscar; It's easy to argue that its the single critics list that Oscar voters take most seriously since the bulk of the membership lives there. You can especially see this influence lately in LAFCA's choices for "career achievement" which are not so infrequently named as Honorary Oscar winners the following year or three thereafter as happened recently with Anne V Coates, Gena Rowlands, and Frederick Wiseman!
For a refresher last year's big LAFCA winners were Spotlight and Mad Max Fury Road which were of course very popular with Oscar, too. They sometimes get creative in the Best Actress category but their Best Picture winner tends to go to an obvious and highly competitive future Best Picture nominee or winner with rare exceptions like WALL•E (2008), American Splendor (2003), or Do The Right Thing (1989).
This year's prizes were bathed in Moonlight though La La Land put up a fight.
LAFCA WINNERS (AND TRIVIA)
Can I really hope that The Lobster will get an Oscar nomination in this category. Don't let me hope if it cannot come to be!
Meryl Streep holds the record here with 3 wins (all three in the 1980s). She won their supporting prize once as well for a fourth win
Daniel Day-Lewis holds their record with 3 wins (once in the 80s, twice in the 00s)
Dianne Weist, Joan Allen, and Maureen Stapleton have each won this category twice
Christopher Plummer & John Gielgud have both won this category twice
For lensing LA loves Emmanuel Lubezki most with 4 wins, Roger Deakins is in second with 3 wins. Other favorites: Ballhaus, Storaro, Menges, Seale Spinotti, and Kaminski (2 wins each)
Production Design Ryu Seong-hee, The Handmaiden (ru: David Wasco, La La Land)
Super choice!
Editing Granato, Mumma, Sozanski O.J. Made in America (ru: Tom Cross, La La Land)
They only recently started giving out an Editing prize (Zero Dark Thirty was first) so there's not much history to discuss
Music/Score Hurwitz, Pasek, Paul La La Land (ru: Mica Levi Jackie)
Mica Levi won this prize for Under the Skin but she fails to repeat. The only multiple winners of this prize for LA are Desplat, Burnett, and Shore (2 wins each), and Zbigniew Preisner (3 consecutive wins in the 90s)
It's cool that Your Name is playing in Los Angeles. It is deeply uncool that we don't get to see it here in New York.
Excited to see this James Baldwin doc at a special screening this week in NYC
Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), Claude Chabrol (France) , Olivier Assayas (France) and Paul Verhoeven (The Netherlands) have each won this prize twice from the LAFCA.
Reader Comments (65)
I will now no longer be satisfied with Isabelle Huppert getting Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA and Oscar nominations. I want her to WIN.
She may get the 'Cotillard slot' - but the Cotillard slot from 2007 not 2014.
Wow! These are amazing picks. On board with Dancin' Dan that the production design in The Handmaiden is great; there is a location that is seen a few times early in the film and referenced often, that becomes the site of one of the most emotional scenes in the movie. (Being cryptic b/c it's really a movie you should know as little as possible about before you see it. But it's fantastic).
Mahershala Ali is on track to be a lock for the win.
Adam Drive in Paterson - are we thinking he could break into the current 2 person race (Washington and Affleck, with Mortensen and others also possibilities)? I don't think this prize means anything on it's own but if he gets any more I think people will start talking about him.
The Lobster getting a screenplay award is absolutely correct.
The Lobster is one of the most pretentious films I've ever seen, and I normally dig that kinda thing. Totally unfunny and a waste of time outside of some decent performances and a cool concept.
I saw Certain Women at Sundance, and Lily Gladstone was definitely best in show. I'd love to see her nominated so brava!
You know that things are escalating towards fervent fanaticism when the first thing you do when you turn on the computer is to check the LAFCA winners. Yep, that was me I'm talking about.
And what a pleasant surprise to see Isabelle Huppert named as best actress for both films I love: L'Avenir and Elle! As if it wasn't enough, Rebecca freaking Hall finally was put in the spotlight as runner-up for her fearless performance as Christine Chubbuck.
And Adam Driver in Paterson is an inspired choice even just to break the strangehold of Casey Affleck as best actor. Then, there's supporting actor Issey Ogata's inclusion as runner-up. Although he is well known in Asian cinema for comedy, he was heartbreaking in other Asian films that were shown abroad: Tony Takitani and in Yi-Yi.
And Lily Gladstone in Certain Women! She broke my heart in the car scene with Kristen Stewart. Her acting is graceful for its artlessness. The way she looks at Kristen Stewart made me misty-eyed -- it was simply beautiful. I am equally glad that Kelly Reichardt's film is reaching more mainstream recognition. I'd recommend Wendy & Lucy for starters but my favorite is and always been Old Joy with singer Bonnie 'Prince' Billy in the lead. Reichardt's films are not showy, but once you get the pulse of the rhythm of the pace, you'll start to see tiny incidents of everyday that you feel you've encountered before. Like everyday life.
The Handmaiden winning award other than foreign-language film! It's production design is a thing of rare beauty. Like someone said in this thread, everything aligned so perfectly in this movie: acting, lush colors, auteurial flourish, dialogue, and comic timing!
I saw The Lobster in the Gaumont in November 2015 and it was just so deadpan in its hilarity. The things Olivia Colman's character said are so dark and extremely funny that I thought at that time that it would be wonderful for the screenplay to be nominated because that style of writing, that descent to delicious lunacy, that consistent parody of civilised society no longer populate the film world. Glad LAFCA gave them this award.
It doesn't even matter to me whether some of these winners and runner-ups get Oscar nominations (actually I do for the mileage they get from this high profile visibility), but I like it that they were noticed by one film critic group which seems unconcerned whether its choices are out of step with other critic groups or with general Oscar punditry.
Can't believe LAFCA awarded most of who I really wish would get citations and notices. So incredibly happy! Now, if Issey Ogata and Ralph Fiennes end up in the supporting category, I'll be satisfied.
Kudos to Moonlight, one of my favourites this year. I'm also thrilled to see Isabelle Huppert doing a sweep...she's long overdue for such accolades since The Piano Teacher. But the icing on the cake has to be Rebecca Hall - her performance in Christine was simply spellbinding! Let's hope she gets a nod, possibly replacing Negga or Adams in my wishlist.
Can we please not call dissent "backlash?" As if I can't have a different opinion than the consensus? If I'm being completely honest with myself, I found "Moonlight" a chilly experience filled with very questionable directorial choices and thinly written characters. Jenkins indulges way too frequently in overt formal flourishes that simply call attention to a rather ostentatious visual style that I didn't find consonant with the subject matter. Too many unmotivated long pans, slow motion, etc. I always felt at a distance from Chiron and his struggles, which I can't imagine was the intention. It's too cerebral when it should be psychologically penetrating and emotive. And yes, I get that it's about repression and conceal feeling, and I love movies like that, but this one feel surface-level to me. Will my mind change if I see it again? Possibly. But after one viewing, I was kind of unmoved.
Critics awards really need to be reminded that there is a whole world out there outside Toronto and Telluride. Of the 15 movies that won LAFCA awards today (special awards not counted), THIRTEEN of them premiered at the Telluride and/or Toronto Film Festivasl.
Would Moonlight really be such a strong player if it didn't played those festivals?
Oh shit, I never considered of The Handmaiden as a Production Design nominee but that's an awesome choice I'll be hoping happens now thanks to this win.
Rebecca Hall's been completely forgotten for this tricky performance (not even Indie Spirits!) so this is a rather surprising and inspired pick as a runner-up to Huppert. Good for her, that movie is tiny but had a solid limited run that extended beyond coastal cities despite the film not being universally acclaimed or anything.
Mostly everything else is fab. Yay Moonlight.
@ Jonathan
Clearly, you're dead inside.
I kid, I kid.
I am predicting Donald Trump will be tweeting his disgust when the Oscar nominations are announced. There are going to be a LOT of African-American, Muslim, Hispanic and LGBTQI themed movies and actors nominated this year.
Bette -- ooh. that will be a wonderful turn of events. Especially since he got elected on identity politics. Yes, ppl who are complaining: fury about multiculturalism and identity politics is its own identity politics i.e. white nationalism. It's gross. America is a melting pot and Stronger Together than when we divide everyone.
Sijmen -i totally agree. I love Moonlight but it's very clear (as it is with Sight & Sound and Cannes) that film critics and awards bodies have very very limited field of visions and usually involve the one event that they love the most (whichever festival that is). I actually think one of the problems -- at least with critics -- is the disdain for "awards". If you are really anti-Oscar or "top ten lists" and some types of critics are, are you really keeping lists to remind yourself about what you should award? No. And so you're even more susceptible to recency or groupthink. When you don't take these things seriously you become a victim of them :)
The narrative is swelling toward a Moonlight victory at the Oscars. That will be fine with me.
Jonathan you are the one who is right.
Saw Moonlight this past weekend and was incredibly moved to tears. Barry Jenkins deserves the Best Director Oscar. (Still have to see La La Land)
Saw Manchester by The Sea, and had more admiration for the filmmaking and Casey Affleck's performance than actual love for it. It was moving in some parts, but I was kind of detached from it emotionally. Reminds me of how I felt about Boyhood, which won so many critics awards but was barely awarded by the Academy.