Best Picture?

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has chosen Wall-E, an animated film, as Best Picture of the year. The actor in me is having a hard time with this. Yes, it's a good movie...maybe even a great one. But, it's not really "filmmaking", is it?

A lot of people are on the bandwagon hoping that Wall-E gets an Oscar nom in the Best Picture category as well. But, there is already a special category for animated films, and really, doesn't it do that category an injustice to assert that it is less important then Best Picture? Can't we elevate the category, and just except that animation is a completely different process?

Do we really want to make the critics awards and the Oscars a "what was the best time at the movies" category? As opposed to, oh, I don't know, surviving the curve balls, the unforeseen events that can and do shape a picture. When you lose the light, or the actor... when shots go un-shot. When a happy accident occurs, when actors playing off each other "in the moment" create something that wasn't there on paper? When a producer sits through dailies every damn day and has to make financial and artistic calls based on what they see. When a director, a DP, an editor, to name a few have to adjust daily, roll with the punches, and still have the vision to make a great film? With animated films, everything is predetermined. Every emotion, every tilt of the head is calculated. It's amazing, really, but it's not the same thing.

I dunno.

Sally Hawkins in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky

The L.A. critics did make some interesting choices, and kept the race alive for some. Including Sally Hawkins for Best Actress.
Nice choice, and she will be a shoe in for a Globe nom in Comedy. Still rooting for her.

Full list of LAFCA's picks are as listed below:

Picture: “Wall-E”
Runner-up: “The Dark Knight”

Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Runner-up: Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”

Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk”
Runner-up: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

Actress: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Runner-up: Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”

Supporting actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Runner-up: Eddie Marsan, “Happy-Go-Lucky”

Supporting actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Elegy”
Runner-up: Viola Davis, “Doubt”

Screenplay: Mike Leigh, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Runner-up: Charlie Kaufman, “Synecdoche, New York”

Foreign-language film: “Still Life”
Runner-up: “The Class”

Documentary: “Man on Wire”
Runner-up: “Waltz With Bashir”

Animation: “Waltz With Bashir”

Cinematography: Yu Lik Wai, “Still Life”
Runner-up: Anthony Dod Mantle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

Production design: Mark Friedberg, “Synecdoche, New York”
Runner-up: Nathan Crowley, “The Dark Knight”

Music/score: A.R. Rahman, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Runner-up: Alexandre Desplat, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

New Generation: Steve McQueen, “Hunger”

Douglas E. Edwards independent/experimental film/video: James Benning, “RR” and “Casting a Glance”

Thursday the Hollywood Foreign Press announces it's Golden Globe nominees. What unexpected mess will they create?