George Clooneyโs family drama โThe Descendantsโ was chosen Sunday as the yearโs best film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, whose prizes are an early influence on the way to the Academy Awards.
From โSidewaysโ director Alexander Payne, โThe Descendantsโ stars Clooney as a neglectful father in Hawaii trying to tend his daughters after his wife falls into an accident-induced coma.
Michael Fassbender won best actor for a breakout year that included leading roles as a sex addict in โShame,โ as a genetic mutant in โX-Men: First Class,โ as psychiatrist Carl Jung in โA Dangerous Methodโ and as sullen Victorian gentleman Rochester in โJane Eyre.โ
The best-actor runner-up was Michael Shannon as a man beset by apocalyptic visions in โTake Shelter.โ
The criticsโ group passed over big Hollywood names to bestow its best-actress prize on Yun Jung-hee for the South Korean drama โPoetry,โ in which she plays a grandmother in the early stages of Alzheimerโs who struggles with a new desire to write a poem.
Kirsten Dunst was best-actress runner-up as a depressive woman who finds inner strength as another planet bears down on a collision course with Earth in โMelancholia.โ
Notoriously press-shy filmmaker Terrence Malick was named best director for his epic family drama โThe Tree of Life,โ starring Brad Pitt as a domineering father who mixes tenderness and cruelty in raising his sons. โTree of Lifeโ was the best-picture runner-up to โThe Descendants.โ
The film also helped pick up the supporting-actress honor for Jessica Chastain, who was cited for โThe Tree of Lifeโ and five other films in which she co-starred this year. โTree of Lifeโ also earned the cinematography award for Emmanuel Lubezki (the runner-up was Cao Yu for โCity of Life and Deathโ).
The directing runner-up was Martin Scorsese for his 3-D family adventure โHugo,โ about an orphan boy unraveling a mystery pegged to a toy-seller at a Paris train station in the 1930s.
Christopher Plummer won as supporting actor for โBeginners,โ in which he plays an elderly dad who announces to his son that heโs gay. The runner-up was Patton Oswalt as an aging nerd who becomes unlikely pals with an old high school bombshell in โYoung Adult.โ
Chastain, largely unknown until this year when she appeared in half a dozen films, was picked as supporting actress for her rush of movies, among them โTree of Life,โ in which she plays a nurturing mother as counterpoint to Pittโs harsh dad. Besides โTree of Life,โ Chastainโs films included โThe Help,โ โTake Shelterโ and โCoriolanus.โ
Janet McTeer was runner-up for supporting actress for her cross-dressing role as a woman disguising herself as a male laborer in โAlbert Nobbs.โ
The LA critics passed over the acclaimed silent film โThe Artist,โ considered a potential best-picture favorite at the Feb. 26 Oscars. Their East Coast counterparts, the New York Film Critics Circle, chose โThe Artistโ as the yearโs best picture last week. โThe Artistโ also is tied for the lead with five nominations at the Spirit Awards honoring independent film.
Prizes from the two criticsโ groups help sort out the awards picture amid the crush of Oscar contenders that studios fling into theaters at the end of the year. The Oscar outlook will be further refined by nominations Wednesday for the Screen Actors Guild Awards and Thursday for the Golden Globes.
The LA critics honored Johnny Deppโs Western comedy โRangoโ as best animated film. Steven Spielbergโs globe-trotting action tale โThe Adventures of Tintinโ was runner-up.
The electronic duo the Chemical Brothers earned the prize for best music score for the action thriller โHanna.โ The runner-up was Cliff Martinez for another action tale, โDrive.โ
Also Sunday, the American Film Institute released its list of the yearโs top-10 films, listed alphabetically: โBridesmaids,โ โThe Descendants,โ โThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,โ โThe Help,โ โHugo,โ โJ. Edgar,โ โMidnight in Paris,โ โMoneyball,โ โThe Tree of Lifeโ and โWar Horse.โ The group does not rank films on its top-10 list.
The AFI, whose awards honor U.S. films, gave a special prize to French director Michel Hazanaviciusโ โThe Artist.โ
Other LA critics winners:
โข Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, โA Separationโ; runner-up, Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, โThe Descendants.โ
โข Foreign-language film: โCity of Life and Deathโ; runner-up, โA Separation.โ
โข Documentary-nonfiction film: โCave of Forgotten Dreamsโ; runner-up, โThe Arbor.โ
โข Production design: Dante Ferretti, โHugoโ; runner-up, Maria Djurkovic, โTinker Tailor Soldier Spy.โ
โข New Generation award: โMartha Marcy May Marlene.โ
โข Independent-experimental film: โSpark of Being.โ
Cinematographer Pepe Avila del Pino Discusses Residenteโs โ313,โ Winning An ASC Award
Pepe Avila del Pinoโs second career nomination for an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award earned him his first win earlier this week in Los Angeles--for outstanding achievement in music videos on the strength of the Residente-directed โ313โ featuring performances by Residente, Sรญlvia Pรฉrez Cruz and Penelope Cruz. The cinematic, stirringly beautiful โ313โ opens with Penelope Cruz narrating in Spanish, reflecting on the meaning of life and the passage of time. She is joined by ballet dancers who are said to represent time while Cruz represents life itself. The ethereal music video brings us the essence of time in our lives. Residenteโs life and time are seemingly controlled, respectively, by Cruz and the dancers from the outset. But towards the end of the video, Residente starts to orchestrate his own time and life. What canโt be denied, though, is that time is fleeting as Cruz and Residente begin to disappear before our eyes. Avila del Pino, AMC, is best known for his work in television and features. In fact, his alluded to first ASC Award nomination came in 2018 on the basis of the TV pilot for The Deuce, directed by Michelle MacLaren. Over the past seven years, Avila del Pino has lensed select music videos--all for his friend, Residente (a.k.a. Rene Perez Joglar). The Residente videos have thus become passion projects, done out of โpure loveโ with the same close-knit team. The โ313โ song and video were especially personal to Residente in that they were both inspired by a friend who had died about a year earlier. To win an ASC Award for this particular project is most gratifying for Avila del Pino--not only because of the videoโs significance to Residente, but also the deep feelings the DP has for the ASC.... Read More