Los Angeles Film Critics PreviewAs 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 PredictionsBest Picture
- No Country for Old Men
- Atonement
- The Diving Bell and Butterfly
Best Director
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen-No Country for Old Men
Joe Wright-Atonement
Sean Penn-Into the Wild
Best Actor
- Philip Seymour Hoffman-The Savages & Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
- Daniel Day-Lewis-There Will Be Blood
- John Cusack-Grace is Gone
Best Actress
- Laura Linney-The Savages
- Marion Cotillard-La Vie en Rose
- Julie Christie-Away from Her
Best Supporting Actor
- Javier Bardem-No Country for Old Men
- Hal Holbrook-Into the Wild
- John Travolta-Hairspray
Best Supporting Actress
- Cate Blanchett-I’m Not There
- Catherine Keener-Into the Wild
- Ruby Dee-American Gangster
Best Original Screenplay
- Juno
- Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
- Michael Clayton
Best Adapted Screenplay
- No Country for Old Men
- Into the Wild
- Gone Baby Gone
Best Cinematography
- Atonement
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
- The Kite Runner
Best Original Score
- Atonement
- There Will Be Blood
- Ratatouille
Best Documentary
- Sicko
- Body of War
- No End in Sight
Best Foreign Language Film
- The Diving Bell and Butterfly
- Persepolis
- The Orphanage
Best Animated Feature
- Ratatouille
- Persepolis
- The Simpsons Movie
New Generation Award
- Emile Hirsch
- Glen Hansard
- Ellen Page
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