Los Angeles Critics Preview

Los Angeles Film Critics Preview

As precursor season as lifted off we will be seeing who will become our critical darlings and who is becoming bona-fide contenders. Los Angeles doesn’t have the best track record with picking Oscar winners dating back to 1993’s Schlinder’s List. However, 7 of the last 10 Best Picture winners have been nominated for Best Picture. Last year they went with Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima which would go on to be nominated for Best Picture despite the bumps in the road

New York is another story, 5 of 10 of their Best Picture winners have gone on to be nominated for Oscar. The last time they picked a winner was also in 1993 for Schlinder’s List. The tend to get more artsy and more independent. What I love about New York, they’re not afraid to give other critics the finger and pick their favorites.

So who will win these two big awards? There is no set method or way to predict but you can narrow them down pretty easily. Los Angeles could go the way of big Hollywood such as No Country for Old Men or Atonement, or go completely obscured as they did in 02’ and 03’ respectively (About Schmidt, American Splendor). What would be considered obscured? Once, Hairspray, The Diving Bell and Butterfly? God, I have no idea.

The acting awards are even worse; Philip Seymour Hoffman could gather the body of work for his two champion performances in The Savages and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Emile Hirsch is a safe pick for his breakout performance in Into the Wild. I’ll play the John Cusack card again for Grace is Gone but no one is really talking too much about him. Daniel Day-Lewis could start the car on his Oscar campaign for There Will Be Blood if he’s named Best Actor. Maybe even Johnny Depp, who knows?

The ladies have some options but there are safe choices like Julie Christie in Away from Her or Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose, Ellen Page would lock herself in for great performance in Juno but she may be a little young for their liking. I can’t recall the last time they went with a youngling in this category. Keira Knightley is in the Oscar frontrunner Atonement, so she has a shot but her buzz is dying out rather quickly and needs some CPR. I’ll stand with a left field choice such as Laura Linney for The Savages. No real reason rather than I’m predicting her in the #2 spot in the Best Actress race and this would confirm that.

Director’s choices tend to be in correlation with Oscar nominations, especially the lone director spots. They’ve chosen David Lynch for Mulholland Dr., Pedro Almodovar for Hable con Ella; they even gone with the future winners like Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain. So who will Los Angeles like this year? Sweeney Todd could gain more momentum if director Tim Burton won another critics award, he would surely be the most beneficial. Sean Penn for Into the Wild or Joe Wright for Atonement are likely choices as well but I’m going with the beginning of a close director race between three directors; Atonement's Joe Wright and Joel & Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men. I think this will be the Coens brothers to lose come Oscar time if the film keeps performing as well as it is thus far.

Los Angeles Film Critics Predictions

Best Picture

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Atonement
3. The Diving Bell and Butterfly

Best Director

1. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen-No Country for Old Men
2. Joe Wright-Atonement
3. Sean Penn-Into the Wild

Best Actor

1. Philip Seymour Hoffman-The Savages & Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
2. Daniel Day-Lewis-There Will Be Blood
3. John Cusack-Grace is Gone

Best Actress

1. Laura Linney-The Savages
2. Marion Cotillard-La Vie en Rose
3. Julie Christie-Away from Her

Best Supporting Actor

1. Javier Bardem-No Country for Old Men
2. Hal Holbrook-Into the Wild
3. John Travolta-Hairspray

Best Supporting Actress

1. Cate Blanchett-I’m Not There
2. Catherine Keener-Into the Wild
3. Ruby Dee-American Gangster

Best Original Screenplay

1. Juno
2. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
3. Michael Clayton

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Into the Wild
3. Gone Baby Gone

Best Cinematography

1. Atonement
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3. The Kite Runner

Best Original Score

1. Atonement
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Ratatouille

Best Documentary

1. Sicko
2. Body of War
3. No End in Sight

Best Foreign Language Film

1. The Diving Bell and Butterfly
2. Persepolis
3. The Orphanage

Best Animated Feature

1. Ratatouille
2. Persepolis
3. The Simpsons Movie

New Generation Award

1. Emile Hirsch
2. Glen Hansard
3. Ellen Page