‘Anora’ Named Best Film of 2024 by Los Angeles Film Critics

Sean Baker’s raucous film “Anora” has been named the best movie of 2024 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which announced its awards on Sunday. Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” took the runner-up spot.

“Anora” took three awards overall, also winning for actors Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov. Baker was also the runner-up in the directing and writing categories, edged out in director by exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof for “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and in screenplay by writer-director-actor Jesse Eisenberg for “A Real Pain.”

In the gender-neutral acting categories, the lead awards were swept by women and the supporting awards by men. Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Madison won the lead awards for “Hard Truths” and “Anora,” respectively, with Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres the runners-up for “The Substance” and “I’m Still Here.”

Supporting winners were Borisov for “Anora” and Kieran Culkin for “A Real Pain,” while the runners-up were Clarence Maclin for “Sing Sing” and Adam Pearson for “A Different Man.”

The animation award went to the Latvian film “Flow,” while the documentary prize went to the Israeli-Palestinian coproduction “No Other Land.” “All We Imagine As Light” was named the best film not in the English langauge, with “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” as runner-up.

The winner for editing was a tie between “Nickel Boys” and “September 5,” for production design “The Brutalist,” for cinematography “Nickel Boys” and for music/score “Challengers.”

On Tuesday, the other major regional critics group, the New York Film Critics Circle, named “The Brutalist” as its best film of the year.

The winner of the LAFCA best-film award has gone on to win the Oscar for Best Picture only 12 times in the 49 years the group has been voting. Four of those matches have come in the last nine years, with “Spotlight” in 2015, “Moonlight” in 2016, “Parasite” in 2019 and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” in 2022, though “Everything Everywhere” tied with “Tár” in that year’s voting.

Last year’s LAFCA winner was “The Zone of Interest,” with Oscar winner “Oppenheimer” being named runner-up by the critics group.

The list of winners and runners-up:

Best Film: “Anora”
Runner-up: “The Brutalist”

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

Best Lead Performance: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths” and Mikey Madison, “Anora”
Runners-up:  Demi Moore, “The Substance” and Fernanda Torres, “I’m Still Here”

Best Supporting Performance: 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 Film Not in the English Language: “All We Imagine As Light”
Runner-up: “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”

Best Documentary/Nonfiction: “No Other Land”
Runner-up: “Dahomey”

Best Animation: “Flow”
Runner-up: “Chicken for Linda”

Best Editing: (TIE) Nicholas Monsour, “Nickel Boys” and Hansjorg 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 Cinematography: Jomo Fray, “Nickel Boys”
Runner-up: Lol Crawley, “The Brutalist”

Douglas Edward Experimental Film Prize: “The Human Surge 3”

New Generation Award: Vera Drew, “The People’s Joker”

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