The Neon Demon | Through the Shattered Lens

It wasn’t just the Los Angeles Film Critics who announced their picks for the best of 2016 today! The Atlanta Film Critics Society also had their say.

Who won?

Find out below!

BEST FILM – LA LA LAND

BEST DIRECTOR – Damien Chazelle, LA LA LAND

BEST ACTOR – Casey Affleck, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

BEST ACTRESS – Annette Bening, 20TH CENTURY WOMEN

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – Mahershala Ali, MOONLIGHT

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – Lily Gladstone, CERTAIN WOMEN

BEST ENSEMBLE – Cast of AMERICAN HONEY

BEST ANIMATED FILM – KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM – 13TH

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM – TONI ERDMANN

BEST SCREENPLAY – Kenneth Lonergan, MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

BEST SCORE – Cliff Martinez, THE NEON DEMON

BEST SONG – “Drive It Like You Stole It” from SING STREET

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – Linus Sandgren, LA LA LAND

BEST EDITING – Tom Cross, LA LA LAND

EMPIRE OF THE SOUTH AWARD (Best Motion Picture Filmed in GA) – HIDDEN FIGURES

The winners of this year’s Cannes Film Festival have just been announced!

As I look over these winners and think about the rather muted reviews that came out of Cannes this year, I have to ask: Is it just me or is 2016 shaping up to be a fairly blah year for the movies?

I mean, just think about last year at this time. Everyone at the Cannes Film Festival was excited over Carol. People were still talking about how much they loved Brooklyn and End of The Tour at Sundance. Both Mad Max: Fury Road and Ex Machina were playing in theaters. Inside Out was on the verge of being released and people were whispering that Straight Outta Compton might actually be a great movie. There was a lot to be excited about!

This year, however, it’s just like, “Who cares?” Even the excitement that some people have for Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation and Martin Scorsese’s Silence feels more obligatory than sincere.

(Did Sasha Stone go to Cannes this year? I know I could check the Awards Daily web site but, as of late, reading Awards Daily has become almost as tedious as reading the Daily Kos. But I mention Stone specifically because she epitomizes something that I’ve noticed about almost all of the big names in the online film community. They are currently more concerned with bitching about this meaningless and stupid election than in talking about movies. Even when they do talk about movies, it’s always in relation to this election. BLEH! Political situations are only temporary. Movies are forever.)

Anyway, just from what I did hear back from Cannes, I’m looking forward to seeing Personal Shopper, Elle, The Neon Demon, Toni Edrmann, and American Honey. I doubt I’ll get a chance to see the Palme D’or winner because it’s a Ken Loach film and Ken Loach films rarely get much distribution in the U.S.

In fact, when Ken Loach won the Palme d’Or (and this is his second time to win), he immediately started trending on twitter. In the UK, he was trending because people were saying, “Ken Loach won!” In the US, he was trending because everyone who is not a member of Film Twitter was saying, “Who is Ken Loach and who does he play for?”

(As for how this will affect the upcoming Oscar race, it probably won’t. With the exception of the year that Tree of Life won the Palme d’Or and then went on to to score a best picture nomination, Cannes is usually ignored by the Oscar voters.)

Anyway, here’s the winners!

COMPETITION

Palme d’Or: “I, Daniel Blake” (Ken Loach, U.K.)

Grand Prix: “It’s Only the End of the World” (Xavier Dolan, Canada-France)

Director (tie): Olivier Assayas, “Personal Shopper” (France), and Cristian Mungiu, “Graduation” (Romania)

Actor: Shahab Hosseini, “The Salesman” (Iran)

Actress: Jaclyn Jose, “Ma ‘Rosa” (Philippines)

Jury Prize: Andrea Arnold, “American Honey” (U.K.-U.S.)

Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, “The Salesman” (Iran)