My WAFCA Ballot -

The Washington Area Film Critics Association, which was foolish enough to induct me into its ranks years ago, released its nominees for its annual year-end awards yesterday; winners will be announced tomorrow. In the interest of transparency,* I figured I'd share my nominees and some thoughts on the choices with y'all. (I'll update this post Monday morning when the winners are announced.)

Update: Here are the winners. Big morning for La La Land. Can't say I'm surprised, even if I didn't think it's one of the top five films of the year; it's a crowd-pleaser. The winner I'm most disappointed in is Natalie Portman taking best actress for Jackie. She overacts in a sub-HBO docudrama. Whoopity do. End Update.

The way it works is that each critic submits a list with up to five nominees in each category. Choices are weighted, which is to say that your top choice gets more points than the last choice. Just FYI: Silence, Patriots Day, and Rogue One did not screen for us, hence their absence from my ballot.

OK, here's what I nominated in every category:

Best Film

Arrival
Hell or High Water
Hail, Caesar!
Love & Friendship
Weiner

Arrival and Hell or High Water are the two best films I've seen this year, and it's not particularly close. That being said, I really liked Hail, Caesar! and Love & Friendship as well; you'll see them pop up quite a bit in my ballot. That they were both entirely shut out is disappointing, but not surprising. If I could redo this entry, I might put The Witch in the five-hole.

Best Director

Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)
David McKenzie (Hell or High Water)
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (Hail, Caesar!)
Jeff Nichols (Loving)
Whit Stillman (Love & Friendship)

Best Actor

Joel Edgerton (Loving)
Denzel Washington (Fences)
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Chris Pine (Hell or High Water)
Ryan Gosling (La La Land)

Edgerton is low-key great in Loving: a bit shy, overwhelmed by the position he finds himself in. I imagine the Oscar race will come down to Denzel and Affleck, however. Gun to my head, Denzel probably ends up winning. He does a lot of actoring in Fences, you guys.

Best Actress

Amy Adams (Arrival)
Kate Beckinsale (Love & Friendship)
Jessica Chastain (Miss Sloane)
Ruth Negga (Loving)
Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch)

Beckinsale is delightful in Love & Friendship, and the fact that she (and the film) is not getting more love from awards-givers thus far is a real travesty.

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Tom Bennett (Love & Friendship)
Ben Foster (Hell or High Water)
Channing Tatum (Hail, Caesar!)
John Goodman (10 Cloverfield Lane)

Ali's to lose, and for good reason (he's the best thing about Moonlight by a wide margin). But Tom Bennett is hilarious in Love & Friendship and really, really deserves more attention.

Best Supporting Actress

Viola Davis (Fences)
Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
Scarlett Johannsson (Hail, Caesar!)
Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)
Abbey Lee (The Neon Demon)

Davis' to lose. I nominated Abbey Lee for the second straight year in this category (she is the blonde in Fury Road) because I think she really brings a special something to the big screen.

Best Acting Ensemble

Fences
Hell or High Water
Hail, Caesar!
Love & Friendship
Manchester by the Sea

Best Voice Performance

Liam Neeson (A Monster Calls)
Zootopia (Jason Bateman)
Art Parkinson (Kubo and the Two Strings)
Charlize Theron (Kubo and the Two Strings)
Albert Brooks (Finding Dory)

Best Motion Capture Performance

Liam Neeson (A Monster Calls)

Best Youth Performance

Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch)
Lewis MacDougall (A Monster Calls)
Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea)
Elle Fanning (The Neon Demon)
Art Parkinson (Kubo and the Two Strings)

The Witch's somewhat controversial closing scene (in which we learn what we're watching is actually a radicalization narrative) only really works because Taylor-Joy sells it so perfectly.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Arrival
Love & Friendship
A Monster Calls
Nocturnal Animals
Hacksaw Ridge

Best original Screenplay

Hell or High Water
Hail, Caesar!
Manchester by the Sea
La La Land
Kubo and the Two Strings

Best Animated Feature

Kubo and the Two Strings
Zootopia
Finding Dory
Moana
Trolls

Best Documentary

Weiner
Cameraperson
O.J. Made in America
De Palma
Life, Animated

Given that Anthony Weiner is directly responsible for defeating Hillary Clinton—no Weiner, no Comey Surprise; no Comey Surprise, no Trump in the White House—it would be remarkable if Weiner doesn't get an Oscar nomination.

Best Foreign Language Film

Elle
The Salesman
Toni Erdmann
Fire at Sea
Cameraperson

I hate this category. I don't actually like any of these movies.

Best Production Design

The Witch
Love & Friendship
Hail, Caesar!
Arrival
La La Land

The Witch deserves this award. It won't win this award, but it deserves it. They recreated a 17th century Pilgrim outpost with basically no money! C'mon.

Best Cinematography

Arrival
Hail, Caesar!
Hell or High Water
La La Land
Hacksaw Ridge

The category I most regret already. I'd drop La La Land and Hacksaw Ridge and sub in The Witch and Knight of Cups, if I could do it over again.

Best Editing

Arrival
Manchester by the Sea
Hail, Caesar!
Hacksaw Ridge
Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals is a bit of a mess, but the opening 35 minutes or so are almost unbearably tense, and I give the editing a lot of credit for maintaining that tension.

Best Original Score

The Neon Demon
The Witch
Arrival
La La Land
Nocturnal Animals

Pretty solid category, all in all. Considering that The Neon Demon is best understood as a two-hour music video, it'll be a shame when La La Land wins this category. Whatever, I'm just glad Neon Demon got the nomination.