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.