The 44th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards was held recently and it saw a number of noteworthy winners. The ceremony saw a number of smaller dramas taking home some big prizes which is not really a surprise when it comes to awards shows but it also saw some big comic book films get some love. Marvel Studios’ Black Panther looks to be the horse Marvel’s betting on to get that Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. Although it’s hard to say if that would actually happen even with the Best Drama Golden Globe nomination, we can say that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is gonna get some glory to come.
Among some of the more popular films honored that night, it looks like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse got themselves a solid crown winning the award for Best Animation. Into the Spider-Verse beat out none other than Pixar’s Incredibles 2 which was the runner-up of the category (Yeah, this awards show works that way). It isn’t very common to see a comic book film beating out Pixar in the animated category. Then again, it isn’t very common to see a theatrically released animated comic book film nowadays. Also, Incredibles 2 was just meh so Into the Spider-Verse was the more deserving one there.
A bunch of other acclaimed films got plenty of love from the ceremony however with Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma taking home the Best Picture award beating runner-up Burning (Which is an amazing film I might add). Best Director went to Debra Granik for Leave No Trace with the runner-up being Cuaron for Roma. Best Actor went to Ethan Hawke for First Reformed with the runner-up being Ben Foster for Leave No Trace, Best Actress went to Olivia Colman for The Favourite beating runner-up Toni Collette for Hereditary (A.K.A The year’s best horror film). Steven Yeun took home the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Burning (Nice…) beating out runner-up Hugh Grant for Paddington 2. For Best Supporting Actress, the award went to Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk with the runner-up being Elizabeth Debicki for Widows.
For Best Screenplay, Can You Ever Forgive Me? took home the award with the runner-up being The Favourite. Roma won the award for Best Cinematography (Not surprised there) with If Beale Street Could Talk being the runner-up. Documentary Minding the Gap won for Best Editing beating out Cuaron’s Roma. Best Production Design went to Marvel Studio’s Black Panther (There you go people) with the runner-up being The Favourite. Best Music Score went to Nicholas Britell for If Beale Street Could Talk with the runner-up being Justin Hurwitz for First Man. Best Foreign Language Film was a weird one with it being a TIE for both Burning (South Korea) and Shoplifters (Japan) so… we’re all winners?
Anyway, Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film went to Shirkers with the runner-up being Minding the Gap. The New Generation Award went to Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao who has made acclaimed works such as Songs My Brother Taught Me and The Rider. The Career Achievement Award went to the legendary Hayao Miyazaki known for making Studio Ghibli classics such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. The Douglas Edwards Experimental/Independent Film/Video Award went to Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson and Guy Maddin for The Green Fog. Special Citation went to Orson Welles’ experimental film The Other Side of the Wind which finally saw the light of day after several attempts were made at reconstructing the unfinished film.
Finally, an awards show that honors good movies. It’s pretty awesome to see Into the Spider-Verse beating out a Pixar film and it’s pretty telling of what we can expect later on in the Oscars. It’s still hard to say if Black Panther will get that Best Picture nomination but it seems like a lock for Into the Spider-Verse to get the animation award or at the very least, a nomination.
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