37th Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards

A few hours ago the perhaps most powerful group of critics voted and here are some of the winners.

Best Picture: The Descendants
Runner-Up: The Tree of Life

Best Director: Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Runner-Up: Martin Scorsese for Hugo

Best Actress: Yun Jung-hee in Poetry
Runner-Up: Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia

Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain in Coriolanus, The Debt, The Help, Take Shelter, Texas Killing Fields, and The Tree of Life
Runner-Up: Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs

Best Actor: Michael Fassbender in A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, and X-Men: First Class
Runner-Up: Michael Shannon in Take Shelter


Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer in Beginners
Runner-Up: Patto Oswalt in Young Adult

Best Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi for A Separation
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki for The Tree of Life
Best Production Design: Dante Farretti for Hugo

Best Foreign-Language Film: Nanjin! Nanjin! (City of Life and Death), Chuan Lu
Best Documentary/Non –Fiction Film: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Werner Herzog
Best Animation: Rango

To check winners and runner-ups in all categories go here.  Some selection really puzzle me as find them rather odd, for example last year Best Actress went to a Korean actress and this year again; Best foreign-language film to magnificent –yet very hard-to-watch- Najing! Nanjing! a 2009 production and not to A Separation; but seems that with the few announcements up-to-date one category seems will have a lock: Best Supporting Actress. Most glad that Fassbinder is collecting honors and hope he will get an Oscar nod.

Seems this year critics will not agree as they did last year when The Social Network became the predictable Oscar nominee; this year could be a little bit more interesting. Let’s hope.