The Adorable Jacki Weaver, Sweetie (LAFCA Winner!)

Points to our friend Glenn for pointing this out. Here's Jacki Weaver's acceptance speech at the Australian Film Awards for Animal Kingdom -- introduced by her current co-star Cate Blanchett. The speech is so adorable we are just going to pretend that it was delivered to us in America via satellite for her Los Angeles Film Critics Association triumph and NBR win.



How ya feeling about her Oscar chances, now?  

RIPE!

Related articles

• Glenn FYC'ed her for an Oscar nomination right here in March!
• I wrote her up for "best in show" at Tribeca Film
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards

Los Angeles Critics (Social Network vs. Carlos)

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, now in their 35th year, hosted a battle between Carlos the Jackal and Mark Zuckerberg the punk. genius. billionaire. The Social Network co-founder won. But not without some concessions... including a tie.

Picture: The Social Network
[Runner up: Carlos]
Director: (tie) Olivier Assayas for Carlos and David Fincher for The Social Network
Actress: Kim Hye-Ja in Mother
[Runner up: Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone]
Actor: Colin Firth in The King's Speech
[Runner up: Edgar Ramirez in Carlos]

Supporting Actress: Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom *check out this acceptance speech*
[Runner up: Olivia Williams in Ghost Writer]
Supporting Actor Neils Arestrup in A Prophet
[Runner up: Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech]
Screenplay Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network
[Runner up: The King's Speech]
Cinematography Matthew Libatique for Black Swan
[Runner up: Roger Deakins for True Grit]
Music (tie) The Social Network and Alexandre Desplat The Ghost Writer
Production Design Guy Dyas for Inception
[runner up: The King's Speech]
Documentary Last Train Home
[Runner up: Exit Through the Gift Shop]
Experimental Jean Luc Godard's Film SocialismeForeign Film Carlos (France)
[Runner up: Mother (South Korea)]
Animated Film Toy Story 3
[Runner up: The Illusionist]
New Generation Lena Dunham for Tiny Furniture
Legacy of Cinema Award Serge Bromberg, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno, and the F.W. Murnau Foundation and Fernando Pena for the restoration of MetropolisCareer Achievement Paul Mazursky


The win for Jacki Weaver is good news for that fine Australian film.  They did a good thing, sweetie. Though Animal Kingdom was the first or near-first screener out, it didn't necessarily have a strong "watch me" hook for Academy voters who hadn't been paying attention to Sundance buzz. I've said ever since January that if people watch this movie, she'll be nominated. Simple as that. But you have to get the voters to watch. This vote of confidence from Los Angelenos can't hurt.

I'm also thrilled for Last Train Home which is my choice for Best Documentary of the Year ...unless Prodigal Sons counts as this year... I get so confused. I'm totally horrified that it didn't make Oscar's finalist list. Unless of course it wasn't eligible for some reason. It's so tough to track with docs and shorts and whatnot, these eligibility requirements and windows.


Finally, it's good to see LAFCA staying true to their own impulses with all the foreign film love. This group tends to not be as beholden to Oscar frontrunners as many other critics groups are. That said, I'm still unsure about how I feel about Carlos winning film prizes. I know it was released theatrically but wasn't it made as a TV miniseries?

ONE FINAL IMPORTANT NOTE: South Korea's Mother & France's A Prophet, which both won awards today with Los Angeles critics, represent flip sides of the same Oscar coin. Both were submitted for Oscar consideration last year in the foreign film category but were not released in Los Angeles theaters in 2009 rendering them ineligible for other Oscar nominations that year. They both received theatrical releases in 2010, and because of Oscar rules on that matter, only Mother is now eligible for Oscar consideration (in all categories EXCEPT foreign film since it had its shot last year). A Prophet, having been nominated in its only eligible category last year, is not eligible for any further consideration. Make sense?
*

Critics Awards Cometh. Swan vs. Network?

Ballots were due today for the BFCA "Critics Choice Awards" so you can be sure I did my share of handwringing before I sent it in. My god, you think you know what you want to vote for and you stare at the ballot and it's just >gah< indecision! (It doesn't help that you can only vote for 3 items in each category, 5 for best picture). Those nominations will be announced on Monday.

Tomorrow we'll be hearing from the LAFCA (who will begin announcing at 12:30 PST) -- who have the Academy's ear by way of proximity and major representative outlets--  and the New York Film Critics Online (not to be confused with the the ancient NYFCC which votes on Monday) and then we're off. Neither the critics awards nor the top ten lists will let up thereafter for at least the next month. If you're curious about what I'm predicting you can check out Gold Derby's roundup of pundits here. Other than Best Picture (The Social Network -duh.), predicting critics awards can be a bit like throwing darts. We hope there are lots of fun surprises this year.

In the past decade critics prizes have become both more plentiful and repetitive, with one film always the obvious champ. Even in years where you'd think there'd be a battle royale (like 2007's No Country For Old Men vs. There Will Be Blood) it never really goes ten rounds before one film K.O.s the other. It's less about critical battles than it used to be and more about declaring your allegiance to the hivemind. Which, if you stop to think about it, is exactly what online movie culture is about, with off-consensus critics being (virtually) burned at the stake if they dare to dislike [insert popular movie here]. Which is all a long way of saying that you'll hear the title The Social Network over and over again this season. As often as you heard The Hurt Locker last year probably.

But both are great films so I don't mi---Oh no. I've been assimilated, too. Noooooooooooo

I'm guessing that if we see any challenge to Fincher's Networking this year it'll be Aronofsky & Team Swan (still all the rage at the specialty box office). But how much of a fight do those crazy ballerinas have in them?


Care to make any predictions?