'Manchester', 'Moonlight' and 'La La Land' Lead Early Critics Awards

It has begun. Awards season is "officially" underway after what has been a busy seven days of early -- and I mean ridiculously, unnecessarily early -- precursor citations. The main takeaway: In a studio year as lack-lustre as 2016 was, it looks like critically acclaimed indies will be leading the race, namely Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea and Damien Chazelle's La La Land, while some sneak-peek twitter reactions to Scorsese's recently screened Silence paint it as a major last-minute lurker that could crash the party.

The National Board of Review got the ball rolling last Tuesday, handing Manchester four prizes including Best Film, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. Moonlight trailed with a pair of wins for Jenkins' direction and Naomie Harris' incredible performance.

The New York Film Critics Circle followed up two days after with three prizes apiece for both Manchester and Moonlight, but at the eleventh hour voted in favour of La La Land as Best Film (not an unprecedented move for that group).

That same day, La La Land went on to dominate the Critics Choice nominations with 12. Again, Moonlight had a prominent showing with 10, Manchester with 7 (Full list of nominees will appear at the end of the post with some quick takes).

The LA Film Critics Association rounded out the week by naming Moonlight the best of the year just this afternoon. The film also won Best Director, Supporting Actor and Cinematography. La La Land only earned a single prize from the west coast crew (for music), but was runner-up in five other categories, making it the most represented title in the group's day of announcements. Hmmm... were they afraid giving it multiple wins would smack of homerim?

'Boyhood' dominates busy day of critical kudos

There were three critics groups announcing their awards today (props to all those folks who sat at there computer for 12 hours watching the drip feed of winners on Twitter): Boston Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Online, and the LA Film Critics Association. All three of them echoed the New York Film Critics Circle's decision to name Richard Linklater's Boyhood the best film of 2014.

Linklater himself also took all three Best Director prizes, but wasn't even in a timezone where he could hear all the good news! Instead he was overseas at the British Independent Film Awards, where his critical darling won Best International Film. Talk about an eventful day!

Beyond those top two categories, the only other race which saw a unanimous winner from all three organizations was Best Documentary, which predictably went to Citizenfour. I've only seen a couple of docs this year (the other being the enjoyable if unremarkable Life Itself), so I'll have to catch up with a lot of the other contenders before deciding if all this praise for this one is justified.

After the jump I'll list the winners and runner-ups of the LAFCA with some thoughts:

Gravity and Her win with LA critics

In a deadlocked voting slog that yielded three ties, the LA Film Critics Association finally finished announcing their year-end superlatives, and the conjoint winners of their Best Picture prize are Gravity and Her.

Gravity also nabbed honours for Directing, Cinematography, and Editing (all of them very possible Oscar victories too). Her only managed to win one additional award for Production Design, but was runner-up for Music, Director, and Screenplay.

Speaking of Screenplay, that's my favourite pick of the day, going to Before Midnight, which I'll be rooting for all year long in this category. Another selection that delights me is Ernest & Celestine for Animated Feature. Even though its English translation has not yet been released, the warm and whimsical story of a bear and mouse forming an unlikely friendship still won me over in its native French tongue. Besides, we wouldn't want The Wind Rises hogging all the critics awards, would we?

The other two ties of the came in the Acting races, with Best Supporting Actor going between Jared Leto and James Franco, and Best Actress going between Cate Blanchett and Adele Exarchopoulos.

Full list of winners below.

LAFCA goes for Amour

The L.A. Film Critics Association handed Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner Amour their top prize, but the big winner of the day is Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, which picked up four awards after having been shut out by the NYFCC and NBR.

Another big winner with three wins of its own is Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild, and I'm tickled pink about it! Awards for the score and Dwight Henry's performance are both Oscar-worthy, and I'm hoping this might give 'em a boost in their respective races.

On average, a swell bunch of winners (from the ones I've seen, anyway).

Best Picture: "Amour" Funny that the first critics award not to go to Zero Dark Thirty still went to a film that the public hasn't been able to see yet!

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, "The Master" A defendable choice indeed. The man's directorial voice is becoming ever more distinctive.

Best Actress: (TIE) Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook" and Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour" This is Riva's third win of the day, coming after the Boston and New York Online critics.

Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master" A necessary win for him to keep his Oscar prospects alive.

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, "The Master" Nice to see some attention for this difficult, easy-to-overlook performance.

Best Supporting Actor: Dwight Henry, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Yes. Yes. Yes.

Best Screenplay: "Argo" Terrific pick. As great as Lincoln's screenplay is, I'd hate to see it hog all the writing awards.

Best Foreign Film: "Holy Motors" Did not care for it. Obviously trying to spread things around.

Best Documentary: "The Gatekeepers" Definitely in the hunt for Oscar.

Best Animation: "Frankenweenie" Might this one become the critics darling?

Best Film Editing: "Zero Dark Thirty" Can't wait to see it.

Best Cinematography: "Skyfall" Outstanding. Sadly, it feels like yet another Oscar that Deakins will lose.

Best Music/Score: "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Love this pick. The music branch is so resistant to newcomers, though.

Best Production Design: "The Master" Production design was top notch, but I wish they had gone with something more creative.

New Generation Award: Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" Well deserved.

Douglas Edwards Experimental/Independent Film/Video Award: "Leviathan"

LA Film Critics annoint The Descendants

It's been a busy day for critics awards, starting off with the Boston Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Online handing out their year-end accolades, and capping off with the renowned LA Film Critics Association. But while the BSFC and NYFCO were trend-following, handing top honours to current Oscar frontrunner The Artist, the LAFCA was going their own way, shutting out the crowd-pleasing silent film entirely in favour of some more offbeat choices.

Ultimately, however, it was Alexander Payne's overrated The Descendants coming out on top, but I absolutely dig the support shown for The Tree of Life, with Terrence Malick winning his first directing prize of the season, while Emmanuel Lubezki remains undefeated on the year for cinematography awards. In addition, I love that they gave Best Screenplay to Asghar Farhadi's brilliant Iranian drama A Separation, for which I will post a brief review sometime this week.

By the way, someone should tell these critics groups that they aren't doing Jessica Chastain any favours by giving her these blanket awards that encompass her entire 2011 filmography. They need to get behind ONE performance in order to help her to a nomination

Best Picture
The Descendants

Runner-up: The Tree of Life

Best Director
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

(Runner-up: Martin Scorsese, Hugo)

LAFCA Winners!

The Social Network takes Best Picture, Screenplay, and ties for Best Director and Score. Oscar contenders Colin Firth and Jackie Weaver took Best Actor and Supporting Actress respectively, while Actress and Supporting Actor went to left-field choices Kim Hye-ja (Mother) and Niels Arestrup (excellent in A Prophet).

Winners and runners-up after the cut.

LAFCA on the way (among others)

The Washington D.C. Area film critics got a head start on the year's critics awards last week, but the big kickoff is today when the highly revered (and at times, influential) Los Angeles Film Critics Association will announce their favourites of 2010.

The organization has been on a red hot streak over the last 3 years, selecting inspired masterworks There Will Be Blood, WALL-E, and The Hurt Locker as the respective Best Pictures of 2007, 2008, and 2009. Who will it be this year?

The logical choice (and as far as I'm concerned, the best choice) would be The Social Network, which seems poised to become the critics darling of 2010. But this group hasn't always sprung for the logical choice, and they have other options that could use the publicity boost more than David Fincher's film.

Lisa Cholodenko's L.A.-set The Kids Are All Right, one of the year's best films by any account, might find a welcome home with the LAFCA for instance. Its complete shutout from the National Board of Review stung a bit, and while it may not win the group's Best Picture prize today, I expect it to show up somewhere. Perhaps Best Actress or a Special Citation?

Let's not forget Darren Aronofsky's artsy psycho-thriller Black Swan, which I could envision coming away with either the club's Best Picture, Director, or Actress prize.

Results will go up sometime in the afternoon. Also announcing today are the New York Film Critics Online and the Boston Society of Film Critics. The season is underway!