Now that it’s getting towards the end of the year, critics all over the world can begin to think about films that they – if not enjoy – make them look smart and clever and deep to all the ladies.

And that began in earnest over the weekend as the Los Angeles Film Critics Association named gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain as the best film of 2005. We’re not sure why the critics picked Brokeback Mountain, as no-doubt hilarious Steve Martin ‘Dad out of water’ family comedy sequel Cheaper By The Dozen 2 isn’t even out yet. Those critics’ll be kicking themselves by the end of the month, mark our words…

The Oscars are only 12 weeks away and, yes, you’re right to be so
heavily anticipating the event. Roughly tens of people all around the
world are looking at the films that win at other awards ceremonies in
case they influence the result of the Oscars. In that case, the hopes
of Brokeback Mountain are looking up.

Brokeback Mountain, the gay cowboy film directed by Ang Lee -
director of the ‘mostly rubbish except for the bit where he threw the
tank’ remake of Hulk and starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger has
been named best film of the year by the Los Angeles Film Critics
Association.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards are
usually seen as a good indication of how the Oscars will go: Sideways
was named last year’s best Los Angeles Film Critics Association film,
and went on to be nominated for five Oscars. In addition to the The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Brokeback Mountain also won the top prize at The Venice Film Festival in September.

Here, because we know you won’t be able to live without potential Oscar signposts, are the full results of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards. We’re good to you, you know.   

 Picture: Brokeback Mountain 

Actor: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote 

Actress: Vera Farmiga, Down to the Bone 

Supporting Actor: William Hurt, A History of Violence 

Supporting Actress: Catherine Keener, Capote, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Interpreter 

Director: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain 

Screenplay: Capote and The Squid and the Whale (tie) 

Foreign Language Film: Cache 

Documentary: Grizzly Man 

Production Design: 2046 

Animation: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit 

Score: Howl’s Moving Castle 

New Generation: Terrence Howard

Read more:

LA Critics back cowboy love story - BBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]