The Washington D.C. critics had some fun with their awards at the
nominations stage, throwing in such offbeat mentions as Baz Luhrmann for Best Director, with Joaquin Phoenix, James Franco and Scarlett Johansson among the acting nominees. Their list of winners, however, is rather more conventional. “12 Years a Slave” leads the pack with six awards, including Best Film, Actor, Supporting Actress and Ensemble, while they also plumped for fellow Oscar frontrunner “Gravity,” handing it Best Director and a pair of technical awards.
All four acting awards all went to the current Oscar favorites — Jared Leto, always a strong contender, really seems to have taken ownership of that position this last week. Somewhat more unusual choices were Tye Sheridan (beating Adele Exarchopoulos) for Best Youth Performance, while Belgian Oscar threat “The Broken Circle Breakdown” defeated “Blue is the Warmest Color” in the foreign-language race. As for that odd Best Portrayal of Washington category, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” won, probably denying “White House Down” its one shot at awards glory this season. Which, well, fine. But why have goofy awards if you’re not going to have fun with them?
Full list of winners below:
Best Film: “12 Years a Slave”
Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, “Gravity” Spike Jonze
Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Best Acting Ensemble: “12 Years a Slave”
Best Youth Performance: Tye Sheridan, “Mud”
Best Adapted Screenplay: John Ridley, “12 Years a Slave”
Best Original Screenplay: Spike Jonze, “Her”
Best Foreign Language Film: “The Broken Circle Breakdown”
Best Animated Feature: “Frozen”
Best Documentary: “Blackfish”
Best Art Direction: Catherine Martin, “The Great Gatsby”
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Gravity”
Best Editing: Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger, “Gravity”
Best Original Score: Hans Zimmer, “12 Years a Slave”
The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, D.C.: “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”
