CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Film News: Chicago Film Critics Association Names ‘Moonlight’ as 2016 Best Picture
CHICAGO – The poignant identity film “Moonlight” was named the 2016 Best Picture by the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA), in an announcement on December 15th. The film also took home the Best Director (Barry Jenkins) and Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali) honors. “Manchester by the Sea” got the most honors, with four, from a voting survey of the CFCA.
’Moonlight,’ Honored as 2016 Best Picture by the Chicago Film Critics Association
Photo credit: A24
There were 17 categories of film excellence selected by the CFCA, including acting, directing, screenplay, production elements and score, plus documentary, animated and foreign language films. Two of the more unique categories are Most Promising Performer and Filmmaker, which honors outstanding newcomers. The CFCA honored Robert Eggers of “The Witch” for filmmaker, a testament to the association’s ability to find and nurture up-and-coming film artists. Lucas Hedges, of “Manchester by the Sea,” was Most Promising Performer.
Rounding out the rest of the major awards, Casey Affleck was honored as Best Actor for “Manchester by the Sea,” for his riveting performance about loss and pain. Natalie Portman was Best Actress for “Jackie,” by creating a powerful persona for the former first lady. Surprises included the Best Documentary category, with the seven hour multi-tiered “O.J.: Made in America” taking the honor, and the Best Animated Feature went to the overwhelmingly beautiful “Kubo and the Two Strings.”
The Chicago Film Critics Association is an organization that oversees many events in the Chicagoland area, including the Chicago Film Critics Awards, the Chicago Critics Film Festival and various film discussions and events around the city and surrounding suburbs. The complete list of 2016 honorees are as follows…
Best Picture
Moonlight
Best Director
Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best Actress
Natalie Portman, Jackie
Best Actor
Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
Best Supporting Actress
Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Best Original Screenplay
Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Handmaiden, Seo Kyung-Chung & Chan-wook Park
Best Foreign Language Film
The Handmaiden
Best Documentary
OJ: Made in America
Best Animated Feature
Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Art Direction/Production Design
The Handmaiden, Seong-hie Ryu
Best Cinematography
La La Land, Linus Sandgren
Best Editing
La La Land, Tom Cross
Best Original Score
Jackie, Mica Levi
Most Promising Performer
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Most Promising Filmmaker
Robert Eggers, The Witch
By PATRICK McDONALD |