More Precursors! Los Angeles Film Critics Awards & New York Film Critics Awards

Los Angeles Film Critics Awards:

To my surprise, the winner for the best picture was "Wall-E", Pixar's latest animated motion picture. It seems "Wall-E" is still a huge contender for the Academy Awards and could become the second animated film nominated for Best Picture (The first was "Beauty and the Beast" in 1991).

Other than that, "The Dark Knight" has been doing extremely well this Oscar season. It seems it may get a best picture nomination at this point. Sally Hawkins and "Happy-Go-Lucky" are back in the race after loosing some buzz. "Slumdog Millionaire" seems to be the frontrunner in the best achievement in directing category and may score some other technical award nominations as well (Score, Cinematography, Editing).

Winners:

Best Picture : WALL-E (Runner-Up : The Dark Knight)

Best Director : Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire (Runner-Up : Christopher Nolan - The Dark Knight)

Best Actor : Sean Penn - Milk (Runner-Up : Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler)

Best Actress : Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky (Runner-Up : Melissa Leo - Frozen River)

Best Supporting Actor : Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight (Runner-Up : Eddie Marsan - Happy-Go-Lucky)

Best Supporting Actress : Penelope Cruz - Vicky Christina Barcelona & Elegy (Runner-Up : Viola Davis - Doubt)

Best Screenplay : Mike Leigh - Happy-Go-Lucky (Runner-Up : Charlie Kaufman - Synecdoche, New York)

Best Foreign Language Film : Still Life (Runner-Up : The Class)

Best Documentary : Man on Wire (Runner-Up : Waltz With Bashir)Best Animation : Waltz With Bashir

Best Cinematography : Yu Lik Wai - Still Life (Runner-Up : Anthony Dod Mantle - Slumdog Millionaire)

Best Production Design : Mark Friedberg - Synecdoche, New York (Runner-Up : Nathan Crowley - The Dark Knight)

Best Music/Score : A.R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire (Runner-Up : Alexandre Desplat - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

New Generation : Steve McQueen - Hunger

Douglas E. Edwards independent/experimental film/video : James Benning - RR & Casting a Glance

New York Film Critics Awards:

"Milk" takes this precursor and seems to be this year's Oscars season biopic ("The Queen" in 2006, "Capote" in 2005) and Sean Penn seems to be the frontrunner for the best actor award. Josh Brolin is a serious contender for the best supporting actor award. Watch out Heath Ledger!

Other than that, "Happy-Go-Lucky"'s buzz seems to be growing with the recent precursors love. Penélope Cruz is the frontrunner for best supporting actress at this point.

Winners:

Best Film: Milk
Best Director: Mike Leigh - Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Actor: Sean Penn - Milk
Best Actress: Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky
Best Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin - Milk
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz - Vicky Christina Barcelona
Best Screenplay: Jenny Lumet - Rachel Getting Married
Best Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle - Slumdog Millionaire
Best Animated Film: WALL-E
Best Foreign Language Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Best First Film: Courtney Hunt - Frozen River

Loser: "Revolutionary Road" was completely left out, again. It seems that it isn't the contender that many were predicting. Let's wait for the Golden Globes to see what happens.