LAFCA Votes Anora Best Picture

Mikey Madison in Anora.
Credit: Neon

Anora is pulling ahead in the 2024 film award race. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted the Sean Baker comedy Best Picture for its 50th annual awards. The group also awarded Best Leading Performance for the film's star Mikey Madison who shared the honor with Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Mike Leigh's Hard Truths. Anora had won in the Best Picture award from the Boston Society of Film Critics earlier the same day (Dec. 8). Madison was also named Best Actress by the Beantown reviewers. The LA scribes present their performance awards in gender-free categories. Anora's Yura Borisov and A Real Pain's Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Performances. Culkin is emerging as the front runner for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, having also won the NYFCC and NBR awards. (Note: Unlike the other award-dispensers previously documented in this blog, the LA group included their runners-up).

A list of the 50th Los Angeles Film Critics Association winners follows:

Best Picture
Anora
Runner-up: The Brutalist

Best Director
Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Runner-up: Sean Baker, Anora

Best Leading Performances
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths; and Mikey Madison, Anora
Runners-up: Demi Moore, The Substance; and Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

Best Supporting Performances
Yura Borisov, Anora; and Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Runners-up: Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing; and Adam Pearson, A Different Man

Best Screenplay
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Runner-up: Sean Baker, Anora

Best Cinematography
Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
Runner-up: Lol Crawley, The Brutalist

Best Editing
Tie: Nicholas Monsour, Nickel Boys; and Hansjörg Weißbrich, September 5

Best Production Design
Judy Becker, The Brutalist
Runner-up: Adam Stockhausen, Blitz

Best Music Score
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers
Runner-up: Eiko Ishibashi, Evil Does Not Exist

Best Animation
Flow
Runner-up: Chicken for Linda

Best Film Not in English Language
All We Imagine as Light
Runner-up: The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
No Other Land
Runner-up: Dahomey

New Generation Award
Vera Drew, The People’s Joker

Douglas Edwards Experimental Film Prize
Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge 3

Career Achievement Award
John Carpenter