The Los Angeles Film Critics, following the New York Film Critics, has named “Roma” Best Picture of the Year. Other critics groups around the country are doing the same thing. This is for better or worse. The Oscars tend not to choose the same film as the critics groups. One reason is that the Best Picture at the Academy Awards tends to address a BIG ISSUE or have a larger theme. “Roma is a beautiful, personal memoir. “Green Book” concerns racism, friendship, and even has a nod to tolerance of homosexuality. Because of the big issue, I doubt “Vice,” a political satire, will be competing with these two films. But we’ll see. It’s an open race, with a lot of time for opinions to change.
The LA critics really liked “Leave No Trace.” They also went for two actors who bear watching closely now in the running: Ethan Hawke and Toni Colette. Hawke seems like he’d have to be in the mix for the Oscars, but who would he push out? The good betting has Bradley Cooper, Viggo Mortensen, Willem Dafoe, Rami Malek as the top four. Ryan Gosling could suffer, which is a shame. And what about Christian Bale? Not so easy.
Toni Colette could also be a spoiler in Best Actress. Glenn Close, Lady Gaga, and Nicole Kidman are cemented in. Olivia Colman comes next from “The Favourite” (even though Rachel Weisz is really the lead). Is Colette the fifth? With “Widows” fading at the box office, Viola Davis may get pushed aside. (She’ll be back, so we’re not worried.)
The story keeps changing. Stay tuned…And as I always say, What about Yalitza?
Best Picture – ROMA
Runner up: Burning
Best Director – Debra Granik (Leave No Trace)
Runner up: Alfonso Cuarón (ROMA)
Best Actor – Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)
Runner up: Ben Foster (Leave No Trace)
Best Actress – Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
Runner up: Toni Collette (Hereditary)
Best Supporting Actor – Steven Yeun (Burning)
Runner up: Hugh Grant (Paddington 2)
Best Supporting Actress – Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Runner up: Elizabeth Debicki (Widows)
Best Screenplay – Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Runner up: Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (The Favourite)
Best Production Design – Hannah Beachler (Black Panther)
Runner up: Fiona Crombie (The Favourite)
Best Editing – Joshua Altman and Bing Liu (Minding the Gap)
Runner up: Alfonso Cuarón and Adam Gough (ROMA)
Best Cinematography – Alfonso Cuarón (ROMA)
Runner up: James Laxton (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Best Music Score – Nicholas Britell (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Runner up: Justin Hurwitz (First Man)
Best Foreign Language Film – Burning and Shoplifters (tie)
Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film – Shirkers
Runner up: Minding the Gap
Best Animation – Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse
Runner up: Incredibles 2
New Generation – Chloé Zhao (The Rider)
Special Citation – The Other Side of the Wind
Douglas Edwards Independent/Experimental Film/Video – Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson and Guy Maddin (The Green Fog)
Career Achievement (previously announced) – Hayao Miyazaki
