Capping off a day that saw the The Tree of Life the runner-up in the category. I don’t consider this much of a surprise as I never expected this group to run with the herd. Then again, if you consider that a surprise there are a few others in store.
First off, for Best Actress we don’t have a win for Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Michelle Williams or even Tilda Swinton, but instead Yun Jung-hee (Poetry) takes home the award with Cannes Best Actress winner Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia) taking runner-up.
Best Actor also bucked the Oscar prediction trend, awarding Michael Fassbender the award, though it’s unfortunate the group cops out by not naming the award for any particular film and instead saying it’s for A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame and X-Men: First Class.
It’s also interesting to see Asghar Farhadi‘s screenplay for A Separation take home screenplay honors with Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash’s screenplay for The Descendants taking runner-up honors.
Finally, I absolutely love seeing The Chemical Brothers‘ score for Hanna taking home Best Music/Score and Cliff Martinez‘s score for Drive taking runner-up. Very nice to see.
I have included the full list of winners below though I am still waiting to hear what won Foreign Language from the group. I have also added the win for The Descendants to the “Oscar Oveture” as the Los Angeles Film Critics are now the second organization to award a film other than The Artist Best Picture honors, the other was the National Board of Review, which named Martin Scorsese’s Hugo.
Best Picture
- The Descedants
Runner-up: The Tree of Life
Best Actor
- Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame and X-Men: First Class)
Runner-up: Michael Shannon (Take Shelter)
Best Actress
- Yun Jung-hee (Poetry)
Runner-up: Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia)
Best Supporting Actor
- Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
Runner-up: Patton Oswalt (Young Adult)
Best Supporting Actress
- Jessica Chastain (Coriolanus, The Debt, The Help, Take Shelter and Texas Killing Fields,” “Tree of Life)
Runner-up: Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs)
Best Director
- Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life)
Runner-up: Martin Scorsese (Hugo)
Best Screenplay
- A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
Runner-up: The Descendants (Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash)
Best Cinematography
- The Tree of Life (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Runner-up: City of Life and Death (Cao Yu)
Best Documentary/Non-fiction Film
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams (dir. Werner Herzog)
Runner-up: The Arbor (dir. Clio Barnard)
Best Animated Film
- Rango
Runner-up: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Best Foreign Language Film
- City of Life and Death
Runner-up: A Separation
Best Music/Score
- Hanna (The Chemical Brothers)
Runner-up: Drive (Cliff Martinez)
Best Production Design
- Hugo (Dante Ferretti)
Runner-up: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Maria Djurkovic)
Douglas E. Edwards Award for Independent/Experimental Film/Video
- Spark of Being (dir. Bill Morrison)
