Washington DC Critics (WAFCA) love Parasite; Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig win screenplay awards

Erik Anderson December 8, 2019

Parasite triumphed with three wins when The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) announced their top honorees for 2019 this evening. A darkly comedic South Korean thriller of class warfare from filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, Parasite won Best Film and Best Director, as well as Best Foreign Language Film.

WAFCA awarded Best Actor to Adam Driver for his poignant turn as a father navigating the tricky, often painful complexities of divorce in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, while Best Actress went to Lupita Nyong’o for her gripping dual roles in Jordan Peele’s socially relevant horror film Us. Best Supporting Actor was awarded to Brad Pitt for his magnetic performance as a dedicated stuntman living in 1969 Los Angeles in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Best Supporting Actress went to Jennifer Lopez, a compelling standout as a seasoned stripper in Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers.

Best Acting Ensemble accolades were awarded to Rian Johnson’s sharply written murder-mystery Knives Out, co-starring Ana de Armas, Toni Collette, Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Don Johnson, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, Christopher Plummer and Michael Shannon.

Best Original Screenplay honors went to Noah Baumbach for his deeply human Marriage Story, while Best Adapted Screenplay was awarded to Greta Gerwig for her freshly envisioned adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

Josh Cooley’s Toy Story 4 earned Best Animated Feature honors, while Tony Hale’s irresistible work as a plastic spork named Forky won Best Voice Performance. For the second consecutive year, Josh Brolin claimed the award for Best Motion Capture Performance for his intense turn as villain Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, following last year’s Avengers: Infinity War. Roman Griffin Davis clinched the Best Youth Performance category for his sensitive and endearing work as a young boy growing up in Nazi Germany in Taika Waititi’s satire Jojo Rabbit.

Best Documentary kudos went to Apollo 11, Todd Douglas Miller’s mesmerizing look at the fateful 1969 spaceflight wherein the first men walked on the moon. The picture is compiled solely from archival footage, including never-before-seen 70 mm film.

In technical categories, Best Production Design went to the immersive, Manson-era Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Best Editing was awarded to car-racing drama Ford v Ferrari, Best Original Score was given to Us, and Best Cinematography went to riveting WWI drama 1917, told entirely through elaborately orchestrated camera movements and impressive long takes.

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC, given each year in honor of one of WAFCA’s cherished late members, went to Scott Z. Burns’ The Report.

The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association comprises 64 DC-VA-MD-based film critics from television, radio, print and the Internet. Voting was conducted from December 6-December 8, 2019.

The 2019 Washington DC Area Film Critics Association winners:

Best Film:
Parasite

Best Director:
Bong Joon-ho (Parasite)

Best Actor:
Adam Driver (Marriage Story)

Best Actress:
Lupita Nyong’o (Us)

Best Supporting Actor:
Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)

Best Supporting Actress:
Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers)

Best Acting Ensemble:
Knives Out

Best Youth Performance:
Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit)

Best Voice Performance:
Tony Hale (Toy Story 4)

Best Motion Capture Performance:
Josh Brolin (Avengers: Endgame)

Best Original Screenplay:
Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Greta Gerwig; Based on the Novel by Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)

Best Animated Feature:
Toy Story 4

Best Documentary:
Apollo 11

Best Foreign Language Film:
Parasite

Best Production Design:
Production Designer: Barbara Ling; Set Decorator: Nancy Haigh (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)

Best Cinematography:
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (1917)

Best Editing:
Michael McCusker, ACE and Andrew Buckland (Ford v Ferrari)

Best Original Score:
Michael Abels (Us)

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC:
The Report

Full list of nominees:

Best Film:
1917
The Irishman
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Parasite

Best Director:
Greta Gerwig (Little Women)
Bong Joon-ho (Parasite)
Sam Mendes (1917)
Martin Scorsese (The Irishman)
Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)

Best Actor:
Robert De Niro (The Irishman)
Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)
Adam Driver (Marriage Story)
Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)
Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems)

Best Actress:
Awkwafina (The Farewell)
Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story)
Lupita Nyong’o (Us)
Saoirse Ronan (Little Women)
Renée Zellweger (Judy)

Best Supporting Actor:
Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood)
Jonathan Majors (The Last Black Man in San Francisco)
Al Pacino (The Irishman)
Joe Pesci (The Irishman)
Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)

Best Supporting Actress:
Laura Dern (Marriage Story)
Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit)
Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers)
Florence Pugh (Little Women)
Zhao Shuzhen (The Farewell)

Best Acting Ensemble:
The Irishman
Knives Out
Little Women
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Parasite

Best Youth Performance:
Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)
Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit)
Shahadi Wright Joseph (Us)
Noah Jupe (Honey Boy)
Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit)

Best Voice Performance:
Kristen Bell (Frozen II)
Billy Eichner (The Lion King)
Tony Hale (Toy Story 4)
Tom Hanks (Toy Story 4)
Annie Potts (Toy Story 4)

Best Motion Capture Performance:
Josh Brolin (Avengers: Endgame)
Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel)

Best Original Screenplay:
Rian Johnson (Knives Out)
Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story)
Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)
Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won (Parasite)
Jordan Peele (Us)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster; Inspired by the Article “Can You Say … Hero?” by Tom Junod (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood)
Taika Waititi; Based on the Book “Caging Skies” by Christine Leunens (Jojo Rabbit)
Todd Phillips & Scott Silver (Joker)
Greta Gerwig; Based on the Novel by Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)
Steven Zaillian (The Irishman)

Best Animated Feature:
Frozen II
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Klaus
Missing Link
Toy Story 4

Best Documentary:
American Factory
Apollo 11
For Sama
Honeyland
One Child Nation

Best Foreign Language Film:
Atlantics
Monos
Pain and Glory
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Best Production Design:
Production Designer: Dennis Gassner; Set Decorator: Lee Sandales (1917)
Production Designer: Ra Vincent; Set Decorator: Nora Sopková (Jojo Rabbit)
Production Designer: Jess Gonchor; Set Decorator: Claire Kaufman (Little Women)
Production Designer: Barbara Ling; Set Decorator: Nancy Haigh (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)
Production Designer: Lee Ha-jun (Parasite)

Best Cinematography:
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (1917)
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC (The Irishman)
Jarin Blaschke (The Lighthouse)
Robert Richardson, ASC (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)
Drew Daniels (Waves)

Best Editing:
Lee Smith, ACE (1917)
Michael McCusker, ACE and Andrew Buckland (Ford v Ferrari)
Thelma Schoonmaker, ACE (The Irishman)
Fred Raskin, ACE (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood)
Yang Jin-mo (Parasite)

Best Original Score:
Thomas Newman (1917)
Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker)
Alexandre Desplat (Little Women)
Randy Newman (Marriage Story)
Michael Abels (Us)

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC:
Long Shot
The Report – WINNER

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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.