Michael Haneke’s Amour takes top prize at Los Angeles film critics awards

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This article titled “Michael Haneke’s Amour takes top prize at Los Angeles film critics awards” was written by Ben Child, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 10th December 2012 13.21 UTC

Michael Haneke’s Palme D’Or-winning drama Amour was named best picture at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards at the weekend.

Haneke’s film about an elderly French couple dealing with the aftermath of a series of debilitating strokes triumphed over Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, but it was still a good night for the period drama about an L Ron Hubbard-style cult leader. Anderson won best director, Joaquin Phoenix received best actor and Amy Adams took best supporting actress.

Silver Linings Playbook’s Jennifer Lawrence shared the best actress prize with Amour’s Emmanuelle Riva, while best supporting actor went to Beasts of the Southern Wild’s Dwight Henry, a baker who made his acting debut on Benh Zeitlin’s critically acclaimed tale of life on the Louisiana bayou. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association handed its best screenplay prize to Ben Affleck’s Argo and its best cinematography award to Skyfall’s Roger Deakins.

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Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow’s chronicle of the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden, had to be content with the prize for best editing, but it remains an early frontrunner for February’s Academy Awards. Last week the drama won best film prizes from the US’s National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle, and at the weekend it added accolades from the New York Film Critics Online and the Boston Society of Film Critics. Bigelow also picked up the best director prize from all four bodies.

Other frontrunners for the Oscar for best film include Argo, Tom Hooper musical Les Miserables and Steven Spielberg historical drama Lincoln, about the 16th president of the United States. Awards season predictions tracker GoldDerby also suggests that The Master, Amour, David O Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and – surprisingly – Sam Mendes’s Skyfall could all be in with a shout of a nomination.

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Nominees for the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards, two of the biggest awards ceremonies next to the Oscars, will be announced this week and could provide further indications of which films could triumph at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles on 26 February.

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