Most of us here are members of the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association, so we take special pleasure in revealing the winners of the 2016 WAFCA Awards. Our group of fifty local critics chose Damien Chazelle's Hollywood musical La La Land as the Best Film of 2016. The film would go on to have a huge showing with six victories, including Best Director for Chazelle, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Editing.
The acting categories mostly went according to plan with Casey Affleck taking home Best Actor for Manchester by the Sea, and Natalie Portman winning Best Actress for Jackie. Viola Davis finally got Fences some love this season for her supporting performance, while Mahershala Ali continues to look like the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor.
Hell or High Water was a popular pick around here and was recognized for its Ensemble cast, while the somewhat controversial Elle bested Tony Erdmann for Best Foreign Language Film.
Mark Rylance won the inaugural Best Motion Capture Performance category for his incredible work on The BFG, beating out Liam Neeson for A Monster Calls and others. Laika's excellent Kubo and the Two Strings beat out some stiff competition for Best Animated Feature, which should give it a nice boost as the other guilds present their picks.
The full list of winners is below. For more on WAFCA you can check out our website here.
THE 2016 WAFCA AWARD WINNERS:
Best Film:
La La Land
Best Director:
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Best Actor:
Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Best Actress:
Natalie Portman (Jackie)
Best Supporting Actor:
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Best Supporting Actress:
Viola Davis (Fences)
Best Acting Ensemble:
Hell or High Water
Best Youth Performance:
Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea)
Best Voice Performance:
Liam Neeson (A Monster Calls)
Best Motion Capture Performance:
Mark Rylance (The BFG)
Best Original Screenplay:
Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Eric Heisserer, Based on the Story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang (Arrival)
Best Animated Feature:
Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Documentary:
13th
Best Foreign Language Film:
Elle
Best Production Design:
Production Designer: David Wasco; Set Decorator: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, SDSA (La La Land)
Best Cinematography:
Linus Sandgren, SFS (La La Land)
Best Editing:
Tom Cross, ACE (La La Land)
Best Original Score:
Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)
The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC:
Jackie
