The Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced their awards for 2010 today and in doing so continue the trend of naming David Fincher’s The Social Network as the best film of the year. The film also took home Best Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin).
However, instead of winning director outright, David Fincher shares those honors with Carlos helmer Olivier Assayas. Additionally, the film tied for best score with Alexandre Despalt’s score for Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer. So it wasn’t total domination, but Fincher’s film did come away with the most awards.
At Best Actor, Oscar front-runner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) takes those honors with Carlos star Edgar Ramirez taking runner-up rather than the likes of Jesse Eisenbeg (The Social Network) or James Franco (127 Hours), the two actors most likely competing with Firth for Oscar’s Best Actor.
Best Supporting Actor surprised me a little, but not by the win for the highly deserving Niels Arestrup (A Prophet) — though he won’t be considered by the Academy due to the film being ineligible — but by the fact Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech) beat out Christian Bale (The Fighter) as runner-up. Bale’s performance is above and beyond what Rush, in an admittedly impressive performance, did in The King’s Speech. I still see Bale as the Oscar front-runner, but this does add a bit of a question mark to the equation.
Best Actress, like Best Supporting Actor, went to one of last year’s foreign contenders. Kim Hye-ja took the prize for her performance in Mother with Jennifer Lawrence’s Winter’s Bone performance taking runner-up kudos. This is a big boost for Lawrence whom has always been in the conversation, but the top of the heap seems to have belonged to either Annette Bening (The Kids are All Right) and/or Natalie Portman (Black Swan) the last few months.
Next, Jacki Weaver’s win for Animal Kingdom proves the Aussie actress is a growing force on the awards trail after her win with the National Board of Review. Is it enough to move to the top of the Oscar predictions pack? We’ll see how the rest of the week shapes out.
Elsewhere, Carlos was named Best Foreign Language film ahead of Mother and Toy Story 3 took Best Animated honros over The Illusionist
I have included the complete list of winners directly below and be sure to check out my “Oscar Overture” section to see how things are stacking up to this point with awards from critics groups as well as the schedule for all the guild awards.
Best Picture
- The Social Network
Runner-up: Carlos
Best Actor
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Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
Runner-up: Edgar Ramirez (Carlos)
Best Actress
- Kim Hye-ja (Mother)
Runner-up: Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)
Best Supporting Actor
- Niels Arestrup, A Prophet
Runner-up: Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actress
- Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Runner-up: Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer
Best Director
- Olivier Assayas (Carlos) and David Fincher (The Social Network) (tie)
Best Screenplay
- The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)
Runner-up: The King’s Speech (David Seidler)
Best Cinematography
- Black Swan (Matthew Libatique)
Runner-up: True Grit (Roger Deakins)
New Generation Award
- Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture)
Best Documentary/Non-fiction Film
- Last Train Home (dir. Lixin Fan)
Runner-up: Exit Through The Gift Shop (dir. Banksy)
Best Foreign-Language Film
- Carlos
Runner-up: Mother
Best Animated Film
- Toy Story 3
Runner-up: The Illusionist
Best Music/Score
- The Ghost Writer (Alexandre Desplat) and The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) (tie)
Best Production Design
- Inception (Guy Hendrix Dyas)
Runner-up: The King’s Speech (Eve Stewart)
Douglas E. Edwards Award for Independent/Experimental Film/Video
- Film Socialism
Legacy of Cinema Awards
- Serge Bromberg (Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno)
- The F.W. Murnau Foundation and Fernando Pena for the restoration of Metropolis
Career Achievement
- Paul Mazursky
