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.
The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC
- Loving
- Jason Bourne
- Snowden
- Miss Sloane
- Jackie
*Transparency and the need for #content, that is.