French-language drama Amour received another accolade on Sunday as it was named the year’s best film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
The choice by the Los Angeles critics marked a move away from bigger Hollywood productions that the group favoured in the last two years
Only 10 days ago, Austrian film-maker Michael Haneke’s drama won four major categories – best film, director (Haneke), actor (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and actress (Emmanuelle Riva) – at the European Film Awards held in Malta. The film also won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May and is also Austria’s entry for the foreign-language Oscar.
Among the association’s other honours, 1950s cult drama The Master earned four awards: best director for Paul Thomas Anderson, best actor for Joaquin Phoenix, supporting actress for Amy Adams and production design for David Crank and Jack Fisk.
The Master was also chosen as best picture runner-up. The film stars Phoenix as a volatile World War II veteran who comes under the sway of a charismatic cult leader. Adams co-stars as the cult leader’s tough-minded wife.
Amour star Riva, who plays an elderly, ailing woman being cared for by her husband, shared the best actress honour in a tie with Jennifer Lawrence of the lost-soul romance Silver Linings Playbook.
Newcomer Dwight Henry was chosen as supporting actor for the low-budget critical darling Beasts of the Southern Wild. The film’s writer-director, Benh Zeitlin, received the group’s New Generation Award and shared the prize for best music score with composing partner Dan Romer.
The choice by the Los Angeles critics marked a move away from bigger Hollywood productions that the group favoured in the last two years. George Clooney’s The Descendants was named the best film of 2011 and David Fincher’s The Social Network won top honours in 2010.
The critics’ picks came days after both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review chose Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama bin Laden manhunt docudrama Zero Dark Thirty as the year’s best film.
Bigelow, who dominated the 2009 LA Critics awards with best picture and director wins for The Hurt Locker, was chosen this time as directing runner-up for Zero Dark Thirty.
The Hurt Locker went on to a best-picture win at the Oscars and made Bigelow the first woman ever to earn the best-director Oscar. Bigelow is considered a potential Oscar favourite again this time round with her new film.
The Los Angeles group named Tim Burton’s dead-dog tale Frankenweenie best animated film, while the documentary prize went to The Gatekeepers, director Dror Moreh’s exploration of intelligence operations by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency.
Chris Terrio earned the screenplay honour for Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage-crisis thriller Argo.
The critics group gave its first-ever prize for film editing to Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg for Zero Dark Thirty.
Next up on Hollywood’s awards calendar are the Screen Actors Guild nominations tomorrow and the Golden Globe nominations on Thursday. Oscar nominations follow on January 10.