LOS ANGELES: British director Jonathan Glazer’s chilling Auschwitz-set drama, “The Zone of Interest,” has been named best film of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca).
The critics group, which announced its picks on Sunday night after a daylong meeting, also awarded prizes for Glazer’s direction and Mica Levi’s score. It selected Sandra Hüller, who stars in both “The Zone of Interest” and the French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall,” for one of its two lead performance awards.
Sandra Hüller in a scene from ‘The Zone of Interest.’ A24 IMAGE VIA AP
The critics, as they often do, deviated considerably from their East Coast counterpart, the New York Film Critics Circle. That group earlier named Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” the year’s best film.
The Lafca, which doesn’t delineate gender in its acting categories, gave all four of its acting awards to women.
In the lead acting category, the winners were Hüller and Emma Stone, the star of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein riff “Poor Things.” The supporting performance prizes went to Rachel McAdams for the Judy Blume adaptation “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret”; and to Da’Vine Joy Randolph, co-star of the boarding school comedy-drama “The Holdovers.”
Last year, “Tár” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” tied for the group’s top prize. This year’s awards will be handed out in a ceremony on January 13.
Here’s a full list of the picks by the Lafca:
Best Film: “The Zone of Interest”
Best Director: Jonathan Glazer, “The Zone of Interest”
Best Lead Performance: Sandra Hüller, “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest”; and Emma Stone, “Poor Things”
Best Supporting Performance: Rachel McAdams, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret”; and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”
Best Non-English Language Film: “Anatomy of a Fall”
New Generation Award: Celine Song, “Past Lives”
Best Screenplay: Andrew Haigh, “All of Us Strangers”
Best Documentary: “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros”
Best Animated Film: “The Boy and the Heron”
Best Editing: Laurent Sénéchal, “Anatomy of a Fall”
Best Production Design: Sarah Greenwood, “Barbie”
Best Score: Mica Levi, “The Zone of Interest,” with a recognition also of sound designer Johnnie Burn
Best Cinematography: Robbie Ryan, “Poor Things”
Douglas Edwards Experimental Film Prize: “Youth (Spring)”
Career Achievement Award: Agnieszka Holland