The 42nd Annual LAFCA Winners !

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) 

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New York ♥︎s Moonlight & La La Land

The New York Film Critics Circle was founded way back in 1935 when the Oscars were just 8 years old themselves. In their first year they agreed but disagreed with the NYFCC choosing The Informer and Oscar following suit with a Best Picture nomination for that but the eventual prize to Mutiny on the Bounty. Not much has really changed since. The NYFCC aesthetics aren't anti-Oscar but they're just as likely to go slightly left of field with a more challenging option as their #1 as they are to pre-stamp a future winner. 

Here's what they chose this year...

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"La La Land" leads the Critics Choice Nominations

The BFCA has spoken and as per usual the results are a mix of beautiful support of outstanding motion pictures and a few pockets of embarrassment! Under the beautiful support umbrella we find three terrific pictures leading the nominations with 12 for La La Land and 10 each for Arrival and Moonlight. Under the pockets of embarrassment portion of our programming in what universe is Captain Fantastic a "comedy" (Viggo Mortensen, who gives one of the year's best dramatic performances is nominated as best comedy actor but  not as best actor. What a world).

The BFCA's special categories, which aren't as well defined as the Globes, usually carry with them lots of weird and empty-headed calls. How, for instance, do you have 6 nominees for most categories but only 4 for Best Actress in an Action picture and only nominate supporting actresses for that prize and leave out two leading women who really carried their films with aplomb: Mary Elizabeth Winstead in 10 Cloverfield Lane and Blake Lively in The Shallows. Why even have these categories if you're not going to do them justice? 

All the nominations (film & tv) with comments are after the jump...

FILM AWARDS

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Got any FYCs ?

Ballots went out today for the Critics Choice Movie Awards (so early. too early) and though I've already reminded fellow voters who is eligible for Young Performer (since you need lists / reminder jogs for the less discussed categories) it occurs to me that I don't keep the best records about some my own awards categories.

This is where you can FYC at me! Why not share yours in our off-Oscar categories like Cameo, Diva, Villain, Hero, Sexpot, Musical Sequence, Credit Sequence, Opening Scene, Ending, Best Kiss and Best Sex Scene to jog my memory so I make good decisions. And what sort of "year in review" lists would you most love to read? All of that starts in December so let your voice be heard.

After the jump, for the curious without twitter, the FYCs I shared today...

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'Critics Choice' Winners List & Oscar-Calling Post-Mortem

the night doubled as a live tribute to Amy SchumerDespite the disdain many members of the media, including some within the BFCA, seem to hold for the HFPA, the organization that runs the Golden Globes, everyone seems to want to be them. The Critics Choice Awards, now in their 21st year, have had trouble emerging from that institution's shadow.

Though the CCMAs had seemed to be on a slight upswing around the turn of the decade (the Meryl Streep years of Doubt and Julie & Julia seemed to go well in terms of media interest, comparatively at least), things have been since trending downward and went truly haywire this year.  In addition to the "never take us seriously!" self-sabotage to change a nominee lineup after nominations had been announced, there are the strange impulses that can only come from not trusting the voting body such as the need to give Amy Schumer a special prize in the year when she's already going to win a normal prize.

Meanwhile the continued expansion of categories over the past several years has created a clusterf*** that requires that very few of them be televised live. Which is a pity because if they were they might be worth discussing. Mad Max Fury Road won 9 prizes but it didn't even remotely emerge from the night feeling like a big winner since only one of the nine was televised! [More...]

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