Some More Awards for You

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, along with the New York Film Critics Online, the Washington DC Area Film Critics, the Boston Society of Film Critics, announced their end-of-the-year awards yesterday, favoring (surprise) Stephen Frears' The Queen and being the second to name Letters from Iwo Jima as the best film of the year. In other news, AFI named their 10 best film of the year, but, really, who cares about them? Just in case you do, the awards are as follows.

LAFCA:

Best Picture: Letters from Iwo Jima - dir. Clint Eastwood
Runner Up: The Queen - dir. Stephen Frears

Best Director: Paul Greengrass (United 93)
Runner-Up: Clint Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers)

Best Actor: (tie) Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Best Actress: Helen Mirren (The Queen)
Runner-Up: Penélope Cruz (Volver)

Best Supporting Actor: Michael Sheen (The Queen)
Runner-Up: Sergi López (Pan's Labyrinth)

Best Supporting Actress: Luminiţa Gheorghiu (The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu [Moartea domnului Lăzărescu])
Runner-Up: Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)

Screenplay: Peter Morgan (The Queen)
Runner-Up: Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine)

Foreign Language Film: The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) - dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Runner-Up: Volver - dir. Pedro Almodóvar

Documentary/Non-Fiction Film: An Inconvenient Truth - dir. Davis Guggenheim
Runner-Up: Darwin's Nightmare - dir. Hubert Sauper

Production Design: Eugenio Caballero (Pan's Labyrinth)
Runner-Up: Jim Clay, Veronica Falzon, Geoffrey Kirkland (Children of Men)

Animated Film: Happy Feet - dir. George Miller
Runner-Up: Cars - dir. John Lasseter, Joe Ranft

Music: Alexandre Desplat (The Painted Veil and The Queen)
Runner-Up: Thomas Newman (The Good German and Little Children)

Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men)
Runner-Up: Tom Stern (Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers)

New Generation Award: Micharl Arndt, Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine)

Independent/Experimental: (tie) Old Joy - dir. Kelly Reichardt, In Between Days - dir. So Yong Kim

NYFCO:

Best Picture: The Queen

Best Director: Stephen Frears (The Queen)

Best Actor: Forrest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Best Actress: Helen Mirren (The Queen)

Supporting Actor: Michael Sheen (The Queen)

Supporting Actress: (tie) Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Catherine O'Hara (For Your Consideration)

Screenplay: Peter Morgan (The Queen)

Ensemble Cast: Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine)

Debut as Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine)

Breakthrough Performance: Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)

Cinematography: Dick Pope (The Illusionist)

Score: Philip Glass (The Illusionist)

Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth - dir. Davis Guggenheim

Animated Film: Happy Feet - dir. George Miller

Foreign-Language: Pan's Labyrinth (El labertino del Fauno) - dir. Guillermo del Toro

The 10 Best Films of 2006 (the rest listed alphabetically):
The Queen
Babel - dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu
The Fountain - dir. Darren Aronofsky
Inland Empire - dir. David Lynch
Little Children - dir. Todd Field
Little Miss Sunshine - dir. Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Pan's Labyrinth - dir. Guillermo del Toro
Thank You For Smoking - dir. Jason Reitman
Volver - dir. Pedro Almodóvar
Water - dir. Deepa Mehta

WDCAFC:

Best Film: United 93 - dir. Paul Greengrass

Best Actor: Forrest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Best Actress: Helen Mirren (The Queen)

Best Supporting Actor: Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond)

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)

Best Director: Martin Scorsese (The Departed)

Best Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking)

Best Foreign Film: Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del Fauno) - dir. Guillermo del Toro

Best Animated Feature: Happy Feet - dir. George Miller

Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth - dir. Davis Guggenheim

Best Ensemble: Little Miss Sunshine

Best Art Direction: Marie Antoinette

BSFC:

Best Picture: The Departed - dir. Martin Scorsese
Runner-Up: United 93 - dir. Paul Greengrass

Best Director: Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
Runner-Up: Paul Greengrass (United 93)

Best Actor: Forrest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)
Runner-Up: Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson)

Best Actress: Helen Mirren (The Queen)
Runner-Up: Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal)

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)
Runners-Up: Michael Sheen (The Queen), Alec Baldwin (The Departed, Running with Scissors, and The Good Shepherd)

Best Supporting Actress: Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson)
Runner-Up: Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada)

Best Ensemble Cast: United 93
Runner-Up: The Departed

Best Screenplay: William Monahan (The Departed)
Runner-Up: Peter Morgan (The Queen)

Best Foreign Film: Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del Fauno) - dir. Guillermo del Toro
Runner-Up: Volver - dir. Pedro Almodóvar

Best Documentary: (tie) Deliver Us from Evil - dir. Amy Berg, Shut Up and Sing - dir. Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck
Runner-Up: 51 Birch Street - dir. Doug Block

Best New Filmmaker: Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson)
Runner-Up: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine)

Best Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro (Pan's Labyrinth)
Runners-Up: Stuart Dryburgh (The Painted Veil), Xiaoding Zhao (Curse of the Golden Flower)

AFI:

The 10 Best Films of the Year (Alphabetically):
Babel - dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Islam - dir. Larry Charles
The Devil Wears Prada - dir. David Frankel
Dreamgirls - dir. Bill Condon
Half Nelson - dir. Ryan Fleck
Happy Feet - dir. George Miller
Inside Man - dir. Spike Lee
Letters from Iwo Jima - dir. Clint Eastwood
Little Miss Sunshine - dir. Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
United 93 - dir. Paul Greengrass

Thoughts:

The Best Actor and Actress race has become obnoxiously boring, as both Forrest Whitaker and Helen Mirren have won what looks to be every prize awarded so far. I would be upset with this, had Mirren ever won an Oscar. Just watch the trailer for Shadowboxer where the credits read, "Academy Award Winner Cuba Gooding, Jr." and "Academy Award Nominee Helen Mirren." What sort of world do we live in where Cuba Gooding Jr. is an Oscar winner and not Helen Mirren? So, I won't complain too much, though I do have my fingers crossed for Penélope Cruz, who, with one single swoop, has converted me into a die-hard fan thanks to Volver. Cruz looks to be Mirren's only threat in the Best Actress category, as long as Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada goes for Supporting Actress. We all know that the Academy loves her so much, they might even nominate her if she did a sequel to She-Devil. Jennifer Hudson (pictured above) and Catherine O'Hara seem to be the big ones in the Supporting Actress category, as I'm sure the Academy will not recognize Luminita Gheorghiu for The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu. The Supporting Actor category looks really up in the air, though Michael Sheen as Tony Blair in The Queen and Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond look like front-runners. Spain appears to have the Best Foreign Film category locked, whether they choose Pan's Labyrinth or Volver as their selection, and United 93 is emerging as the real surprise in this end-of-the-year awards season. While I have no doubt that The Departed will get a nod for Best Film and Director, the Boston Society of Film Critics went for the jugular in their picks, singing out the gritty Departed, raw United 93, and rough Half Nelson as their big winners, adhering to the city's stereotypes. The New York Film Circle, one of the more respectable of the circles, will announce their awards later today, so expect Mirren and Whitaker to bag a few more prizes, and we'll see whether Eastwood's Iwo Jima will take another best film nod.