Now It's A Race

The LA Film critics have named their top of the year.  After previous top critical choices were The Artist and Hugo, they've gone with The Descendants.  So it looks like there's no consensus favorite, which may make the Oscars more interesting.

The winners:

Film:  The Descendants
Director: Terrence Malick (The Tree Of Life)
Actress:  Yun Jung-Hee (Poetry)
Actor:  Michael Fassbender (bunch of films)
Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain (bunch of films)
Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginners)
Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi (A Separation)
Foreign Film: City Of Life And Death
Production Design:  Dante Ferretti (Hugo)
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubeski (The Tree Of Life)
Score: The Chemical Brothers (Hanna)
Documentary: Cave Of Forgotten Dreams
Animated Film: Rango

Some decent choices, some wronghead ones.  But once again, I'm holding off until I post my film wrap-up some time next month when I've had a chance to catch up with the December releases.

Meanwhile, the American Film Institute has put out its award selections:

AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR

Bridesmaids
The Descendants
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo
J. Edgar
Midnight In Paris
Moneyball
The Tree Of Life
War Horse

I guess this is as good a list as any to figure where the Oscar nominations will come from (though what is J. Edgar doing there?).