12/12/2006

Last Sunday night, the Los Angeles Film Critics gave four top LAFCA awards to Stephen Frears’ The Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andy Harries
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile] for Best Actress (Helen Mirren), Best Supporting Actor (Michael Sheen), Best Screenplay (Peter Morgan) and Best Music (Alexander Desplat who also won for The Painted Veil).

Paul Greengrass was voted Best Director for United 93 [+see also:
trailer
film profile], beating Clint Eastwood and his Letters From Iwo Jima. However, Eastwood’s second film based on the 1945 battle of Iwo Jima, after Flags of Our Fathers, was crowned Best Picture of the Year.

Other main awards went to Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), who shared the Best Actor award with Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland [+see also:
trailer
film profile]); Romanian actress Luminita Gheorghiu (The Death of Mr Lazarescu [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), who was preferred to US actress Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) in the category Best Supporting Actress; and German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Florian Henckel von Donners…
interview: Ulrich Muehe
film profile], voted Best Foreign Language Film.

Founded in 1975, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) is comprised of Los Angeles-based professional film critics working in the Los Angeles print and electronic media. The LAFCA awards are seen as early indicators for the Oscars, and their official annual ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on January 14, 2007.