Last year the LAFCA (one of the twin titans of critics groups, the other being their east coast rivals the NYFCC who announce tomorrow) made some fine choices last year, a best picture win for WALL•E and a smart off-mainstream choice for production design given to the brilliant Mark Friedberg on Synecdoche, New York. Here's what they had to say this year... there's something for everyone.Picture The Hurt Locker [ru: Up in the Air]
Director Bigelow, The Hurt Locker [ru: Haneke, The White Ribbon]
Actress Yolande Moreau, Séraphine [ru: Carey Mulligan, An Education]
- Generally there's one acting category wherein the LAFCA will not stick to the status quo. And here it is. She also won the César in France.
Supporting Actress Mo'Nique in Precious [ru: Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air]
Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds [ru: Peter Capaldi, In the Loop]
- Sweepers! Or shaping up to be nearly so.
Production Design Philip Ivey for District 9 [ru: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg, Avatar]
Cinematography Christian Berger for The White Ribbon [ru: Barry Ackroyd for The Hurt Locker]
Foreign Film Summer Hours [ru: The White Ribbon]
Documentary (tie) The Cove and The Beaches of Agnes
Music/Score T-Bone Burnett and Stephen Bruton for Crazy Heart [ru: Alexandre Desplat for Fantastic Mr. Fox. Strange that this wasn't a multiple film prize since he also scored Coco Avant Chanel and Chéri this year]
Experimental Film C.W. Winter and Anders Edstrom for The Anchorage
Career Achievement Jean-Paul Belmondo
How do you think the LAFCA did this year? Can you also get behind these "best" decisions? Where do you disagree most?
<-- James Cameron & Kathryn Bigelow on the set of her terrific film Strange Days (1995) which he produced. They had divorced four years earlier in 1991 after three years of marriage.The NYFCO also announced today. That's the New York Film Critics Online... I wish their call letters were less confusing because I've seen people mistake them for the NYFCC in the past and that ain't right. Anyway my girl Katey is part of the NYFCO so I have to respect. The online critics went with James Cameron's Avatar for Best Picture and Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director for The Hurt Locker. This once again underlines my year-long hope for an ex-spouse battle come Oscar time. I've been a fan of Bigelow and Cameron, separately and together for 20+ years now. So it's nice to see them enjoy a good year simultaneously. The big winner, if you're into counting, was Inglourious Basterds which has taken 3 prizes so far (Supporting Actor, Screenplay and Cinematography) You can see rest of their prizes here...
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