One Battle After Another was named best picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which voted Sunday this year’s best films, performances and technical achievements.
The Secret Agent was the runner-up, and also nabbed the award for best film not in the English language.
In addition, Paul Thomas Anderson won best director for One Battle After Another, with Ryan Coogler as the runner-up for Sinners.
For best lead performance, Ethan Hawke and Rose Byrne won for Blue Moon and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, respectively, and for best supporting performance, Stellan Skarsgård and Teyana Taylor won for Sentimental Value and One Battle After Another, respectively.
Best cinematography was the first award revealed on Sunday, with Adolpho Veloso for Train Dreams being named the winner. Hannah Beachler later won best production design for Sinners, and Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie won best editing for Marty Supreme.
As for best animation, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain took home the award, while KPop Demon Hunters was the runner-up.
In addition, the critics group said it will give a Special Citation to Judy Kim of Gardena Cinema, “a historic 800-seat, single-screen movie palace that has operated as an independent cinema and beacon of community since the Kim family took ownership in 1976.”
The association previously announced in October that filmmaker and screenwriter Philip Kaufman as the recipient of this year’s Career Achievement Award. “Intrepid doesn’t even begin to describe a director who, among his many considerable achievements, gave Indiana Jones his first assignment and inspired the NC-17 rating,” said LAFCA president Robert Abele of Kaufman.
“A criminally underappreciated director, Philip Kaufman could never be pigeonholed, from his early days absorbing the independent spirit of homegrown DIY-ers and the European New Wave, to his cool, vivid command of genre in the ’70s, followed by a handful of uncompromising historical epics, including The Right Stuff and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, that belied anybody’s notion that American filmmakers couldn’t be versatile, intelligent and entertaining about big ideas,” Abele continued. “The L.A. Film Critics Association is immensely proud to be honoring this dyed-in-the-wool iconoclast.”
Last year, Anora was voted best picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
Most years, the organization’s choice for best picture garners an Oscar nomination for the night’s top prize. This was true last year, when Anora earned the LAFCA trophy for best picture and then went on to receive an Oscar nod for best picture and ultimately took home the Academy Award. For the fourth year in a row, the L.A. Film Critics Association Awards will feature gender-neutral acting categories.
A list of this year’s winners follows.
Best Picture
Winner: One Battle After Another
Runner-up: The Secret Agent
Best Director
Winner: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Best Lead Performance
Winner: Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Runner-up: Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme, and Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best Supporting Performance
Winner: Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value, and Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Runner-up: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value, and Andrew Scott, Blue Moon
Best Screenplay
Winner: Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Runner-up: Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby
Best Documentary/Nonfiction
Winner: My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow
Runner-up: The Perfect Neighbor
Best Cinematography
Winner: Adolpho Veloso, Train Dreams
Runner-up: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners
Best Music/Score
Winner: Kangding Ray, Sirāt
Runner-up: Ludwig Göransson, Sinners
Best Production Design
Winner: Hannah Beachler, Sinners
Runner-up: Tamara Deverell, Frankenstein
Best Editing
Winner: Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Runner-up: Andy Jurgensen, One Battle After Another
Best Animation
Winner: Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Runner-up: KPop Demon Hunters
Best Film Not in the English Language
Winner: The Secret Agent
Runner-up: It Was Just an Accident
Douglas Edwards Experimental Film Prize
Winner: Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude
Douglas Edwards Experimental Film Special Award
Winner: Thom Andersen
New Generation
Winner: Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby
