Los Angeles Film Critics go big for Call Me By Your Name, Shape of Water

 

Call Me By Your Name was the big winner at today’s Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards, earning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. It was one of only three films to win more than one award in a very spread the wealth year. The Shape of Water also won three awards; Best Cinematography, Best Actress and, interestingly enough Best Director in a tie with Guadagnino.

It was a very Oscar-friendly batch of winners this year, much more so than usual. Often LAFCA goes outside the box with little foreign-language acting winners or boosting the chance of something or someone little seen. Since 2000, all but three LAFCA Best Picture winners have gone on to Best Picture Oscar nominations and three have won (The Hurt Locker, Spotlight, and Moonlight). Crash is the last Best Picture winner to not earn any wins from either LAFCA or NYFCC. So that’s good for The Post?

The day was good and a much-needed resuscitation for The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Both films, strong critical hits, had been mysteriously absent from the first awards of the season, including the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. Moreso for TSOW, which actually won vs Three Billboards which had to settle for 2nd place three times.

Call Me By Your Name‘s Timothée Chalamet repeated his NYFCC Best Actor win, a major coup for the 21-year old actor. This win makes him the youngest actor ever to win both NY and LA (he also has two Breakthrough wins – from NBR and Gotham) and puts him front and center down the path as the Oscar frontrunner. James Franco was runner-up for The Disaster Artist. Best Actress winner Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) broke through the shared awards wealth to earn a the second win for her film. She won here before, for 2008’s Happy-Go-Lucky, but was snubbed at the Oscars. Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) became her film’s third runner-up placement of the day.

Willem Dafoe’s won his third critics’ win in a row for The Florida Project today. Last week he took the National Board of Review and New York Film Critics prizes for Supporting Actor and is very quickly becoming a J.K. Simmons type of dominate winner. Dafoe is also a previous winner with LAFCA, for Shadow of the Vampire. Lady Bird‘s Laurie Metcalf won Supporting Actress, her second win so far this season (she won NBR last week). Greta Gerwig won the group’s New Generation Award, Lady Bird‘s second win.

Jordan Peele’s screenplay for Get Out bested Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Dunkirk won Best Editing, besting runner-up I, Tonya and other favorites like Get Out and Baby Driver. This was Dunkirk‘s first solo category win of the early season.

Here is the full list of winners and runners-up of the 2017 Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards.

Best Picture
Winner: CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Runner-up: THE FLORIDA PROJECT

Best Director
Winners: Luca Guadagnino, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME and Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER (tie)
Runner-up: none

Best Actor
Winner: Best Actor: Timothée Chalamet, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
Runner-Up: James Franco, THE DISASTER ARTIST

Best Actress
Winner: Sally Hawkins, THE SHAPE OF WATER
Runner-up: Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Willem Dafoe, THE FLORIDA PROJECT
Runner-up: Sam Rockwell, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Laurie Metcalf, LADY BIRD
Runner-up: Mary J. Blige, MUDBOUND

Best Screenplay
Winner: Jordan Peele, GET OUT
Runner-up: Martin McDonaugh, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Best Cinematography
Winner: Dan Laustsen, THE SHAPE OF WATER
Runner-up: Roger Deakins, BLADE RUNNER 2049

Best Production Design
Winner: Dennis Gassner, BLADE RUNNER 2049
Runner-up: Paul D. Austerberry, THE SHAPE OF WATER

Best Editing
Winner: Lee Smith, DUNKIRK
Runner-up: Tatiana S. Riegel, I, TONYA

Best Music/Score
Winner: Johnny Greenwood, PHANTOM THREAD
Runner-up: Alexandre Desplat, THE SHAPE OF WATER

Best Foreign-Language Film
Winners: BPM and LOVELESS (tie)
Runner-up: none

Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
Winner: FACES PLACES
Runner-up: JANE

Best Animation
Winner: THE BREADWINNER
Runner-up: COCO

Douglas Edwards Experimental Film
PURGE THIS LAND, Lee Anne Schmitt

New Generation
Greta Gerwig, LADY BIRD

Founded in 1975, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) is comprised of Los Angeles-based, professional film critics working in the Los Angeles print and electronic media.

Each December, LAFCA members vote on the year’s Achievement Awards, honoring screen excellence on both sides of the camera. Plaques of recognition are presented to winners during LAFCA’s annual ceremony, held in mid-January.