Utah Film Critics Association: Emma Stone Wins First Critics’ Award, La La Land is Best Pic

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The Utah Film Critics Association gave La La Land their Best Picture prize but the bigger news was that they also awarded its star, Emma Stone, her first Best Actress prize of the critics’ season. The majority of awards have gone back and forth between Isabelle Huppert (Elle) and Natalie Portman (Jackie). Stone won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival earlier this fall but had failed to win a prize since then.

Elsewhere, Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) won his 10th Best Director prize so far this season. His film also took home Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali (who’s been utterly dominating this season) and the film’s first Adapted Screenplay win since the Academy announced the screenplay must compete in that category at the Oscars.

Here is the full list of winners and runners-up:

Best Picture: La La Land
Runner-up: Moonlight

Best Director: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Runner-up: Damien Chazelle, La La Land

Best Actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Runner-up: Joel Edgerton, Loving

Best Actress: Emma Stone, La La Land
Runner-up: Ruth Negga, Loving

Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight and John Goodman, 10 Cloverfield Lane (tie)

Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Fences
Runners-up: Naomie Harris, Moonlight and Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea

Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins and Tarell McCraney, Moonlight
Runner -up: Eric Heisserer, Arrival

Original Screenplay: Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water
Runner-up: Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea

Non-English Language Film: The Handmaiden
Runners-up: Elle and Toni Erdmann (tie)

Animated Feature: Kubo and the Two Strings
Runners-up: Moana and Zootopia (tie)

Documentary Feature: Cameraperson
Runner -up: Weiner

Original Score: La La Land
Runner -up: Arrival

Cinematography: Linus Sandgren, La La Land
Runner -up: Bradford Young, Arrival

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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