43rd Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Winners

The so-called "most powerful" group of American critics voted their 2017 awards and top award went to Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name which is a surprise in the sense that film in America was the object of negative reviews, especially those related to film story being about "gay statutory rape" (sic). Sigh.

Then, under group standards believe voting was "fast" as only took five-and-a-half hours and I recall voting for longer than six hours, lol.  Still was too-long for me to follow live.

Most interesting were the awards given to female actors as it's great to see outstanding Sally Hawkins being honored as she has had many-many great performances along her career and Laurie Metcalf being recognized for her work in the big screen.

No doubt that group liked Guadagnino's film but thanks to them Guillermo del Toro's latest film has been put in the awards race.  Notorious is how once again the west coast film critics honors differ from their colleagues in the east coast as basically agree in documentary and foreign-language film, in both actors categories and nothing else.  Can't wait for other film critics groups to announce their awards as can't see yet a clear trend among this influential group of people surrounding the film industry.

Group gives many awards and what is worth noting in this edition is the fact that winners are spread among many films and when also consider runner-ups the amount of films get larger, which only confirms that this awards season will be hard to predict and probably will honor more films than in previous years.  Also remarkable in this group is to notice that there are many independent film, more than studio films, which makes me wonder what could happen with the Oscars, would they remain loyal to studios or will they skew to independent?  In about a month we will know.

The 2017 Winners

Best Picture: Call Me by Your Name
Runner-up: The Florida Project

Best Animation: The Breadwinner
Runner-up: Coco

Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film:  Faces Places
Runner-up: Jane

Best Foreign-Language Film: (tie)
BPM (Beats Per Minute
Loveless

Best Director (tie)
Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water
Luca Guadagnino for Call Me by Your Name

Best Actress: Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water
Runner-up: Frances Mcdormand in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Supporting Actress: Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird
Runner-up: Mary J. Blige in Mudbound

Best Actor: Timothee Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name
Runner-up: James Franco in The Disaster Artist

Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project
Runner-up: Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Screenplay: Jordan Peele for Get Out
Runner-up: Martin Mcdonagh for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Cinematography: Dan Lauster for The Shape of Water
Runner-up: Roger Deakins for Blade Runner

Best Production Design: Dennis Gassner for Blade Runner
Runner-up: Paul D. Austerberry for The Shape of Water

Best Editing:  Lee Smith for Dunkirk
Runner-up: Tatiana S. Riegel for I Tonya

Best Music Score: Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread
Runner-up: Alexandre Desplat for The Shape of Water

Douglas Edwards Independent/Experimental Film/Video:  Lee Anne Schmitt for Purge This Land

New Generation: Greta Gerwig
Career Achievement: Max Von Sydow

To check winners at official site go here.