lct awards 2010: film results
Wrapping up coverage of my own pride and joy, the LCT Awards, I present to you the film categories. (For previous write-ups on 2010’s winners in Miniseries, Music, and TV categories, click away at your leisure.) For those of you who hadn’t already found out (I’m talking to you, handful of people who saw the big show this year!) it was Darren Aronofsky’s opus Black Swan that took the top prize of the night, despite some very heavy competition from Pixar’s Toy Story 3 – in fact, this was easily the toughest Best Picture decision I’ve had since Two Towers vs. Chicago back in 2002. And it came as no surprise that brilliant auteur Aronofsky snatched up the corresponding Best Director trophy as well.
The acting prizes came with an array of difficulty, some shoo-ins while others were more hotly contested. Though Natalie Portman walked away with the Oscar, the LCT for Best Actress ultimately came down to a trio of ladies – Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), and Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), with the last of the three taking home the prize – after a long history with the awards… this was her sixth nomination without a win! Lead Actor was an easier decision. Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) was definitely my all-around favorite performance of the year, so biggest competitors Robert Duvall (Get Low), James Franco (127 Hours), and Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) had to settle for nominee status. Melissa Leo’s public “issues” didn’t factor in at the LCTs either, as she handily took home the prize in Supporting Actress, though she faced a last-minute surge from Please Give‘s Ann Guilbert. Finally, Best Supporting Actor was all locked up on underrated Sam Rockwell (Conviction), though Christian Bale (The Fighter) and Richard Jenkins (Eat Pray Love) were his most formidable fellows.
The rest of the categories were a smattering of surprises coupled with the usual suspects. The Weepies continued their hot streak (they also picked up Best Group in the music categories) by edging Allison Krauss’ “Lay My Burden Down” from Get Low in Best Original Song with their own song “Same Changes” (Morning Glory). And the Original Score group was trounced by the instantly timeless efforts of John Powell in How to Train Your Dragon. The screenplay prizes were split – with Adapted honoring the unbeatable Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network and the surprise victor Nicole Holofcener’s Please Give – which edged out BP nominees Toy Story 3 and Blue Valentine for the win. Finally, in a year with more than enough well-made documentaries, the prize went to Kimberly Reed’s little-seen Prodigal Sons over toughest competitor Last Train Home. See full results below (click to enlarge)…
best of 2010: tops in TV
lct awards 2010: TV results
Amidst the recaps, predictions, and reviewing hoopla of Oscars 2010, I figured I’d continue announcing the winners from my very own little awards show, the LCT Awards. Having taken place last Thursday, I’m bringing part three of the winners to you. (Feel free to review with the TV Movie/Miniseries and Music results.) It proved a big night for two shows in particular – one coming into its own as a superb comedy and the other coming late in the game with a swan song surge. But in the end, it was the comedy, at its finest hour in the second half of season two, Parks and Recreation that bested the wonderfully addictive football drama Friday Night Lights for the top prize of Best Show.
The acting winners proved (mostly) no-brainers. In the Lead Actress category, a notoriously difficult one for me to choose annually, it came down to a showdown between last year’s winner and still comedy MVP Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation), a top-10 all-time favorite actress of mine Laura Linney (The Big C), and the backbone of the team Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights), with Britton taking down the competition. Lead Actor seemed all locked up for six-time nominee (and loser) John Krasinski (The Office), but the dream of a long-awaited win was dashed by Kyle Chandler’s effortless performance as Coach Taylor in Friday Night Lights. The supporting categories became much more straightforward for choosing winners. Merritt Wever excelled as the impressive scene-stealer in the wonderfully written Showtime series Nurse Jackie – her biggest competition came from the comedically masterful Sofia Vergara (Modern Family). And Nick Offerman’s portrayal of gruff Ron Swanson (Parks and Recreation) was too tough to pass up, though co-star Chris Pratt came awfully close.
oops! oscar predictions!
I know I’m terrible for waiting this long, but it truly slipped my mind! Here are my hurried Oscar predictions for the night…
Best Picture – The King’s Speech
Best Director – Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)
Best Lead Actress – Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Best Lead Actor – Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
Best Supporting Actress – Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Best Supporting Actor – Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Best Original Screenplay – The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay – The Social Network
Best Foreign Film – Incendies
Best Costume Design – The King’s Speech
Best Cinematography – True Grit
Best Art Direction – The King’s Speech
Best Film Editing – The King’s Speech
Best Visual Effects – Inception
Best Makeup – The Wolfman
Best Original Score – The King’s Speech
Best Sound Mixing – Inception
Best Sound Editing – Inception
Best Original Song – “We Belong Together” (Toy Story 3)
Best Animated Feature – Toy Story 3
Best Documentary Feature – Wasteland
Best Documentary Short – Strangers No More
Best Animated Short – Madagascar, A Journey Diary
Best Live Action Short – Na Wewe
bloggers’ choice awards 2010: the WINNERS
Well the polls have closed, and with the Academy Awards arriving in just a few hours, it seems only fitting we slide in with the Bloggers’ Choice Awards winners before the blessed event. After a mock-Academy ballot procedure to settle on nominees and a couple weeks of voting for winners, we have our finalized list of honorees. While Black Swan led the win count with eight trophies, The Social Network‘s second-place finish with five included the top honor…
lct awards 2010: MUSIC results
The LCT Awards results continue with the seven music categories. Taking home the big award of the night – but missing out on any other wins (they were also nominated in Best Group) – was indie band April Smith and the Great Picture Show. Record of the Year was named the group’s peppy ditty “Colors,” beating out some stiff competition from nominees “F**k You” by Cee Lo Green, “Telephone” by Lady Gaga and Beyonce, “When My Time Comes” by Dawes, and “Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart” by Alicia Keys.”
In the rest of the categories, Lady Gaga repeated her win last year with a consecutive trophy for Album of the Year for The Fame Monster, edging out Maroon 5’s Hands All Over and Robyn’s Body Talk Pt. 1. Best Male Artist was a landslide victory for R&B master Cee Lo Green, destroying the competition with the littlest of surges from fellow nominees Brandon Flowers and Taio Cruz. Best Female Artist was a big toughie, but Lady Gaga – and a slew of mainstream cohorts including Katy Perry and Alicia Keys – was toppled by Europop superstar Robyn, though gospel songstress Patty Griffin proved the biggest competition. And in Best Group, Album of the Year nominees The Weepies pulled off a victory over April Smith and Co., leaving indie bands Dawes and The Lower 48, as well as three-time nominee in this category Maroon 5, in the dust. Full results below (click to enlarge)…
last chance to vote in the mock oscar poll!
Hello all – a reminder to all of you readers out there: if you haven’t voted in the mock Oscar ballot poll yet, you have until midnight tonight to do so! The winners will be announced tomorrow prior to the Oscar telecast. If you want your voice heard for this first-ever Bloggers’ Choice Awards, then cast away!
lct awards 2010: MINISERIES/TV MOVIE results
Let the barrage of results posts begin! (Okay, so it’ll probably be kept to four total, so don’t be too worried.) The LCT Awards winners have officially been announced as of about 9:15 tonight, so it’s free to expose the truth to the rest of you out there on the world wide web. We’ll start with the group of categories that began the night, the TV Movie/Miniseries grouping. It seemed that goodwill from “prequel” to The Queen only helped The Special Relationship to topple its own HBO competitors (You Don’t Know Jack, The Pacific, Stuart a Life Backwards, Temple Grandin) in the Best TV Movie or Miniseries category. It was officially named the best of the year, in a field that was almost exclusively limited to HBO and PBS (and sometimes co-BBC) effors – why don’t the networks make telefilms anymore?
As far as the acting categories, it should come as no shock that I’m on the Claire Danes bandwagon – and it truly was head and shoulders above any potential competition in the Lead Actress category. She toppled her closest rivals, Emma‘s title star Romola Garai and the quaint Return to Cranford spinster Judi Dench. The Lead Actor category proved a more difficult choice, with Michael Sheen’s return as Tony Blair in The Special Relationship and Al Pacino’s dead-on Dr. Kevorkian in You Don’t Know Jack losing out to Tom Hardy’s troubled homeless person in Stuart, A Life Backwards. Michael Gambon had Supporting Actor all locked up, as his portrayal of Mr. Woodhouse in Emma bested the closest competition, John Goodman’s turn as friend to “Dr. Death” in You Don’t Know Jack. And it was impeccable nuance and poise (and that fantastic voice work) that won Hope Davis the Supporting Actress award for The Special Relationship, over co-star Helen McCrory and heavy competition with You Don’t Know Jack gals Susan Sarandon and Brenda Vaccaro. Full results below (click to enlarge)…
mock oscar poll (bloggers’ choice): PICK THE WINNERS!
The votes have been tallied! After finalizing the mock Oscar ballot poll that I conducted, the nominees have been decided upon, and it’s time to choose your winners. Through the lengthy process of following Academy procedures for tabulating, we were left with a few surprises. Leading the nomination count pack was Black Swan with a sizable 11 nods, followed by The Fighter, The King’s Speech, andThe Social Network with eight apiece. As far as big surprises go, the biggest came with frontrunner The King’s Speech missing out on a Best Picture and Best Lead Actor nod. In addition, True Grit‘s haul was reduced from 10 to two in our balloting poll. Academy favoriteBiutiful got nixed altogether, and confusion over its true status led Toy Story 3 to miss out on a screenplay nomination (How to Train Your Dragon led TS3 five to three). And there was a bloodbath courtesy of Burlesque in the Original Song category – you guys love your Christina/Cher! So let’s get to the nominations – and don’t forget to pick your winners!
best of 2010: take part in OSCAR-style ballot poll!
Hello all! I’m opening the invitation to a poll I’m running to any and all that would like to participate! I’m going to attempt to tally the votes of you wonderful readers and bloggers through an official balloting system, and we’re going to use Oscar’s method of bringing forth nominations (that really complicated mess of a system that I will try my best to fully understand and use appropriately). So head on over to the poll to vote in any or all of the categories – your votes are much appreciated and much needed! The announcement of the results will be made the week prior to the Oscars, when the poll closes.
Journalistic Skepticism 