L.A. film critics name Anora as Best Picture, The Brutalist as Runner-Up

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association aka LAFCA gathered over the weekend to name their award winners for 2024. This year, they chose Palme d’Or winner Anora as Best Picture, with The Brutalist coming in as the runner-up. Anora fared quite well overall with LAFCA, also taking home Lead Performance for Mikey Madison and runner-up recognition for Sean Baker’s direction and screenplay.

Check out LAFCA’s winners below:

Best Picture: 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 – Truths / Mikey Madison – Anora

Runners-Up: Demi Moore – The Substance / Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here

Best Supporting Performance: Yura Borisov – Anora / Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain

Runners-Up: Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing / Adam Pearson – A Different Man

Best Screenplay: A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg

Runner-Up: Anora – Sean Baker

Best Cinematography: Nickel Boys – Jomo Fray

Runner-Up: The Brutalist – Lol Crawley

Best Production Design: The Brutalist – Judy Becker

Runner-Up: Blitz – Adam Stockhausen

Best Editing: Nickel Boys – Nicholas Monsour

Runner-Up: September 5 – Hansjörg Weißbrich

Best Music Score: Challengers – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Runner-Up: Evil Does Not Exist – Eiko Ishibashi

Best Film Not in the English Language: All We Imagine as Light

Runner-Up: The Seed of the Sacred Pig

Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film: No Other Land

Runner-Up: Dahomey

Best Animation: Flow

Runner-Up: Chicken for Linda

In addition to these annual awards, LAFCA – which is comprised of approximately 60 members – also gave out honorary ones and special recognitions. For their New Generation Award, they went with Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker, while on the other side for Career Achievement they went with legendary genre director John Carpenter.

While LAFCA’s Best Picture winner rarely lines up with the actual Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards (it has only happened five times this century), Anora is in a good position to chalk up another match for LAFCA. Meanwhile, Keiran Culkin has been gaining traction for A Real Pain, while we’re all rooting for Demi Moore to land a much-deserved nomination for The Substance, which would be her first in a career that has spanned more than four decades.

Joining LAFCA with announcements this week will be the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, Chicago Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Online and more.

What do you think of this year’s LAFCA winners? Which do you see being major contenders at the Oscars?