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Los Angeles Film Critics Association
Best Picture: “Anora”
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
Leading Performances: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths”; Mikey Madison, “Anora”
Supporting Performances: Yura Borisov, “Anora”; Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
Screenplay: “A Real Pain” — Jesse Eisenberg
Animation: “Flow”
Cinematography: “Nickel Boys”
Editing: (TIE) “Nickel Boys” — Nicholas Monsour; “September 5” — Hansjörg Weißbrich
Production Design: Judy Becker, “The Brutalist”
Music Score: “Challengers” — Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Foreign Language: “All We Imagine as Light”
Documentary/Non-Fiction Film: “No Other Land”
New Generation Award: Vera Drew, “The People’s Joker”
Douglas Edwards Experimental Film Prize: “The Human Surge 3” by Eduardo Williams
Career Achievement Award: John Carpenter
Special Citation: Adam Hyman, for decades of curating, programming and administrating the screenings and other events of LA Filmforum

I definitely think Jesse Eisenberg is a lock for an Original Screenplay Oscar nomination. It would surprise me if the film got at least 3 noms, including for Culkin as well

The way things are looking, it’ll probably get a BP nom

Wow, Flow has been sweeping the Animated Feature prizes. Could it actually be competitive for the Oscar, or are we assuming The Wild Robot will become an obvious frontrunner once the industry rather than critics start having their say?

Globe nominees - some surprising snubs! No Deadwyler, the (not for long) front runner? Sing Sing looking as weak as ever, I never believed the resurgence narrative. The Substance I think is making it in for Oscars too. WTF is September 5 doing here with no other nom but Best Picture

From a UK perspective, there are three Best Film Golden Globe nominees with 18 certificates, and none of them are directed by Scorsese, Tarantino or Lanthimos. So if this carries through to the Oscars, we may have the first year since 1999 with more than one 18-certificate title shortlisted. (That year they were American Beauty and The Green Mile.)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
PAMELA ANDERSON (THE LAST SHOWGIRL)
ANGELINA JOLIE (MARIA)
NICOLE KIDMAN (BABYGIRL)
TILDA SWINTON (THE ROOM NEXT DOOR)
FERNANDA TORRES (I’M STILL HERE)
KATE WINSLET (LEE)

It's the Globes so she might win.

I know it sounds funny but allegedly she’s good in it and it’s directed by a lesser Coppola

Yeah, I haven't seen it so shouldn't be too judgmental. I guess the director Gia Coppola is the daughter of Francis Coppola's son who died in the boating accident.

lacritfan wrote: Mon Dec 09, 2024 9:03 pm Yeah, I haven't seen it so shouldn't be too judgmental. I guess the director Gia Coppola is the daughter of Francis Coppola's son who died in the boating accident.

Yep. Her name is even a direct connection to his (Gio)

beamish14 wrote: Mon Dec 09, 2024 9:11 pm

lacritfan wrote: Mon Dec 09, 2024 9:03 pm Yeah, I haven't seen it so shouldn't be too judgmental. I guess the director Gia Coppola is the daughter of Francis Coppola's son who died in the boating accident.

Yep. Her name is even a direct connection to his (Gio)

Even more so: his full name was Gian-Carlo and hers is Gian-Carla. She was his only child and he died while her mother was pregnant with her.

lacritfan wrote: Mon Dec 09, 2024 8:18 pm BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
PAMELA ANDERSON (THE LAST SHOWGIRL)

It's the Globes so she might win.

I posited above that she seemed like she would be the one to get lauded by critics but get overlooked in the major awards. But I don't know what the Globes are now. They're not taken seriously as critics, and can't really be considered major awards anymore.

The (blonde) sex symbol taking on a dramatic role late in her career and earning a Golden Globe nomination for her efforts has a long history, from Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop to Farrah Fawcett in Extremities to Pamela Anderson here. They don't even have to be that amazing in it, it's a narrative that Hollywood loves.

As for the nominations for female actors, Zoe Saldaña in Emilia Pérez is the lead and gives the standout performance. Despite playing the title character, Karla Sofía Gascón is absent from the screen for long stretches and should have been nominated in the supporting category, and didn't Selena Gomez come under fire for learning her Spanish dialogue phonetically and not doing a great job with it?

Hugh Grant got nominated again for Best Actor at Critics Choice for Heretic. Dark Horse Oscar nominee? I’d have thought awards would go for Hartnett if they want to reward a popular genre turn by a stalwart actor

But Hartnett's not particularly good, or showy, in a movie that's not particularly good either. Grant has legacy charm supplemented by a similar recent turn in Paddington 2, and A24's closer to the Academy's ear than Shyamalan.

Heretic also got much better reviews than Trap (deservedly in both cases), so that would explain the critical support for Grant.

Grant is also really funny, it’d be a pleasure to have him at all the junkets if he got nommed. If he shows up at SAG, I’ll start to believe it

Film Comment poll:

01 All We Imagine as Light
02 Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
03 Dahomey
04 No Other Land
05 The Beast
06 Evil Does Not Exist
07 La Chimera
08 Last Summer
09 Janet Planet
10 Anora

11 Hard Truths
12 A Traveler's Needs
13 Nickel Boys
14 The Human Surge 3
15 Close Your Eyes
16 A Different Man
17 I Saw the TV Glow
18 Juror #2
19 Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
20 Megalopolis

Ditto, undistributed:

01 No Other Land
02 Afternoons of Solitude
03 DIRECT ACTION
04 Pepe
05 Scénarios + Exposé du Film Annonce du Film "Scénario"
06 exergue — on documenta 14
07 Cloud
08 bluish
09 My Undesirable Friends Part I — Last Air in Moscow
10 Lázaro at Night

Oscars shortlists for various categories released. Among other things: the presently undistributed No Other Land and Union both appear in the Documentary category (and I have heard that at least the former is in the process of being acquired), Palestine makes its third (I think) appearance in the International category with From Ground Zero, and Dune 2's score does not appear because of rules nonsense.

How did All We Imagine as Light not make the shortlist for International Feature? I thought it was the only competition for The Seed of a Sacred Fig

No Other Land is masterful, both the best and most important doc of the year. So happy to see this and hoping it gets a proper nom. Also I thought Kneecap was fine if forgettable but I adore the group themselves and watching them be themselves at the Oscars would be an utter delight.

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Dec 17, 2024 7:42 pm How did All We Imagine as Light not make the shortlist for International Feature? I thought it was the only competition for The Seed of a Sacred Fig

Because the Indian Film committee is hilariously incompetent at their jobs and submitted another film instead. It also doesn't help that Payal Kapadia is also on the government's shitlist since she was arrested at a protest against the Indian government a couple years back.

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Dec 17, 2024 7:42 pm How did All We Imagine as Light not make the shortlist for International Feature? I thought it was the only competition for The Seed of a Sacred Fig

India did not submit it.

Grand Wazoo wrote: Tue Dec 17, 2024 7:45 pm No Other Land is masterful, both the best and most important doc of the year. So happy to see this and hoping it gets a proper nom.

Same here. I suspect it'll win, too, unless Dahomey gains some traction

Thailand, “How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies”

This is a great title. I will never watch it, the title is enough for me