Everyone's a winner!

The annual orgy of movie awards kicked into high gear this weekend with several major announcements, and it's not surprising that Brokeback Mountain received the most attention overall.

In the weekend's biggest announcement, Brokeback was voted Best Picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The runner-up was David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. Ang Lee won for best director, with Cronenberg as the runner-up.

They get no argument from me. There are still several films I need to see but those are currently my two favorites of the year.

Among the L.A. critics' other selections were Philip Seymour Hoffman as Best Actor for Capote (with Brokeback's Heath Ledger as runner-up), History of Violence's William Hurt as Best Supporting Actor (Frank Langella of Good Night, And Good Luck. as runner-up; neither actor is a real Oscar favorite yet) and Catherine Keener as Best Supporting Actress for her work in a quartet of films (although the org would've been wise to leave her nothing role in The Interpreter off their mention, and wiser still to opt for their runner-up, Junebug's Amy Adams, as the winner).

The oddball choice was Vera Farmiga as Best Actress for the very little seen indie Down to the Bone. Farmiga received an Indie Spirit nom last year (after the film's festival run) and won a prize at Sundance. I have little doubt her performance is excellent (I even blogged about her earlier this year) but the choice seems like a clear statement on the very weak field for lead actresses this year.

Then there was an announcement from the slightly less reputable Broadcast Film Critics Association, who go the nomination route and have many categories.

The six nominees selected in each acting category read like lists of top Oscar contenders, although among the missing are Eric Bana (Munich), Ralph Fiennes (The Constant Gardener), Naomi Watts (King Kong), Diane Keaton (The Family Stone) and Scarlett Johansson (Match Point). But having not seen most of those movies I can't say how surprising those omissions are. The double nominations for Terrence Howard are actually kind of nice. If any of the supporting actors from Crash have to be nominated it should be him.

They also nominate ten films for Best Picture, effectively creating their own "top ten" which is listed in alphabetical order:

Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Cinderella Man
The Constant Gardener
Crash
Good Night, and Good Luck.
King Kong
Memoirs of a Geisha
Munich
Walk the Line

If the voting was held a couple weeks later it wouldn't be surprising to see Memoirs of a Geisha off this list entirely. But it's basically all the major possibilities for Best Picture Oscar noms (minus maybe Syriana, Match Point and Mrs. Henderson Presents, maybe).

The American Film Institute's top ten list (selected by these people) is a little better, even though it still includes Crash:

(alphabetical order)
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Crash
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Good Night, and Good Luck.
A History of Violence
King Kong
Munich
The Squid and the Whale
Syriana

It's great to see Violence and Virgin in there.

AFI also released a TV top ten, which is notable mostly for its lack of Arrested Development (click the link above to see it). And Boston Film Critics and New York Online Film Critics made some picks too (yes, there's a critics group for nearly every city now). If you're really interested there are links to those here.

Tomorrow will bring yet another top ten (the delayed list from the National Board of Review along with the rest of their awards) and an announcement from the New York Film Critics. Then Golden Globe nominations on Tuesday.