Thank you so much for following along as we selected our winners and runners-up for this year. You can see our complete results here: www.lafca.net/Years/2025.php

Happy LAFCA Voting Day, aka One Ballot After Another.

Good morning. In about two hours, we will begin this year's awards voting. However, there is one prize that we have already announced: Our Career Achievement recipient will be Philip Kaufman. www.lafca.net/pressRelease...

Extremely honored to be invited on @vox.com's excellent Today, Explained podcast to discuss some of the ideas on my Substack post about #KPopDemonHunters. Vox's explanatory journalism has been a major inspiration for my newsletter, so this meant a lot to me. open.spotify.com/episode/62wW...

Day 1 of Meiko Kaji (梶芽衣子) at Beyond Fest was insane. I recorded the entire Q&A with her and Jen Yamato and put it on YouTube for you. youtu.be/rVFcM-O-Ua0 Apologies for the quality, I have an older phone and my seat was near the back. I've got more, but it'll have to wait.

Jenny Han on 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' series finale and why Belly had to go to Paris

The Varsity Squad is back at the Draft Table, and this time they're in the 21st Century! '00s SPORTS mini-MEGA Drafted by @lindaholmes.bsky.social, @jenyamato.bsky.social, @thefienprint.bsky.social, & @sepinwall.bsky.social Listen everywhere! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

ICYMI One of podcasting's great traditions continued, as @sepinwall.bsky.social, @thefienprint.bsky.social, @lindaholmes.bsky.social, & @jenyamato.bsky.social joined the Draft Table to competitively / collaboratively rank the 13 best SPORTS films from the 2000s! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

And coming August... 2000s SPORTS mini-MEGA with @sepinwall.bsky.social, @thefienprint.bsky.social, @lindaholmes.bsky.social, & @jenyamato.bsky.social

Watched OVERCOMPENSATING and had an unexpected existential crisis. Read about how Benny’s own journey is such a familiar story for any queer person going to college — no matter what generation you’re in. Read via new issue of the DIASPORA newsletter! thisisdiaspora.substack.com/p/overcompen...

Fantastic #BleakWeek selection 👏

Disney’s latest live-action remake recycles several of the same gags, camera shots & needle drops from 2002’s animated LILO & STITCH without adding enough new to the mix. Newcomer Maia Kealoha is the biggest reason to give this far less nuanced rework a spin: www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Such a brilliant conceit at the heart of this film. I too am still mulling over the heady brew of fucking, despair, paranoia and growing old. #Cronenberg #TheShrouds #filmsky

Death and how we live with loss is such a personal, nebulous, tricky thing. Cronenberg’s The Shrouds manages to be at once haunting and erotic, a morbidly funny meditation on grief that burrows deep and stays there. Still thinking about it weeks later. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

She’s sold millions of books, amassed 1M TikTok followers, and is about to release her 14th novel #KingofEnvy, all just 5 years after making her publishing debut. Still, bestselling romance author Ana Huang tells me: “If my mother ever read one of my spicy scenes, I don’t think I’d ever recover” 🌶️🧨📚

What in the cursed camcorder just showed up at my door (and should I hit play)? #BringHerBack #A24

“Facing pressure to scrub its website of diversity and inclusion references, a Japanese American National Museum leader says the museum will ‘scrub nothing.’” 🔥

A reminder that if the government can send migrants to a prison camp without any due process, it can send U.S. citizens there, too. I know because this happened to me and my family in 1942.

All-in for the Bernthalaissance

Rami Malek is a STEM vigilante Bourne out for justice in The Amateur, the latest in a current run of “men at work” action yarns. By-the-numbers with a few fun surprises, but between this and The Accountant 2, at least, we get 2x the Jon Bernthal this month www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

We join our colleagues in @nsfc.bsky.social, @nyfcc.bsky.social and @bsfc.bsky.social in condemning the attack on NO OTHER LAND co-director Hamdan Ballal.

Finally (finally!!) watching this terrific show and NONE of y'all told me Gambit is just hanging out in crop tops all the time?! Wtf is up w/ my algorithm and also how dare @jowrotethis.bsky.social @jenyamato.bsky.social @marcbernardin.bsky.social @germainlussier.bsky.social not tell me about it

Great film writing is essential for film lovers to better understand the films they love so much. And great film writing should be well compensated. You can't have a stable of brilliant minds on gig-economy salaries. You can exploit talent only so long before it leaves. Pay. The. Writers.

Belated SXSW appreciation post! It was an honor to join @aishaharris.bsky.social & @timgrierson.bsky.social on the 2025 Documentary Feature jury, awarding our jury prize to Benjamin Flaherty’s SHUFFLE and special jury awards to THE PYTHON HUNT & REMAINING NATIVE. Great films, fascinating subjects.

Part 2: Our winners have now been announced. It was a very fun deliberation discussing some very good documentaries.

A nice SXSW story from 10 years ago today. I was wandering by the “Bates Motel” pop-up and spotted @jenyamato.bsky.social, whom I only knew of from Twitter. “Hey, are you Jen Yamato?” I asked. “Yes,” she replied, and asked who I was. I introduced myself, that I was up from San Antonio. 1/

Very sad to hear of David Ehrenstein’s passing. He was always a delight to chat with, and erudite indeed.

Yessss it was such a pleasure watching some really interesting docs and serving with Tim and Jen on the Documentary Feature jury. Catch me on the ground this weekend at my first SXSW in quite some time!

Happy to say I'll be serving on the Documentary Feature jury at @sxsw.com with @aishaharris.bsky.social and @jenyamato.bsky.social. (Also, it's my first SXSW: If you see me around Austin, say hi.)

JUSTIN YOU ABSOLUTE MANIAC best Oscars menu to date 10/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ @justincchang.bsky.social

Give The Monkey marketing team a raise

"I mean, it’s insane what he’s saying." Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham, the co-directors of NO OTHER LAND, have thoughts about Trump's Gaza plan. @indiefocus.bsky.social spoke to them about the Oscars, self-distribution and what they see as a longer project of activism. www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

apnews.com/article/suga... Oscar-nominated documentary exposes horrifying truths about Indigenous residential schools in Canada

Bridget Jones has done some ludicrous things on the big screen (the stint in a Thai prison; the silly paternity mystery), but #MadAboutTheBoy is her least ridiculous/most moving chapter, and the best of the sequels. A good popcorn cry going streaming in the US. www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

At last night’s LAFCA Awards, ANORA director Sean Baker read the letter he sent to FANGORIA in 1988, praising Chuck Russell’s THE BLOB. What happened next inspired him to pursue filmmaking. Great things happen when you write to The Postal Zone!

Taking over the @lafilmcritics.bsky.social IG tonight for our 50th anniversary awards gala ✨ go follow!

HEART EYES: a winking rom-com slasher that chops up genre tropes with satirical glee. Nails a tonal blend that’s hard to get right, with charismatic leads in Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt. Love a fake dating trope done well 😍 My review for @washingtonpost.com: www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...

Seeing #BarbAndStarGoToVistaDelMar last night *in a theater* with a crowd primed to celebrate its comic genius restored my shimmer. Lovely to see Josh Greenbaum, Annie Mumolo & Steve Saklad touched by the earned praise. @lafilmcritics.bsky.social @jenyamato.bsky.social @katiewalshstx.bsky.social

In 2021, Kristen Wiig & Annie Mumolo’s sublime BFF fantasia #BarbAndStarGoToVistaDelMar saw its theatrical release cancelled due to COVID. Last night director Josh Greenbaum channeled Edgar’s prayer introducing its first Q&A screening to a full house at the Egyptian w/ @lafilmcritics.bsky.social 🦐✨🌴

We pulled off the first Q&A screening of BARB AND STAR tonight at the Egyptian. Best communal theater experience in ages, we cackled, we cheered, we got on our feet for Annie Mumolo…

A cast and crew mini-reunion at tonight’s Los Angeles Film Critics Association screening of BARB AND STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR: line producer Jonathan McCoy, singer Richard Cheese, director Josh Greenbaum, actor and co-writer Annie Mumolo, production designer Steve Saklad, actor Ian Gomez.

Thanks so much to @lafilmcritics.bsky.social and the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood for tonight's fabulous sold out screening of BARB & STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR!

+1 on David Osit’s #Sundance premiere PREDATORS. A riveting, surprising, and sensitive docu-interrogation of TO CATCH A PREDATOR and its cultural footprint that asks challenging questions of its audience, and us as consumers of true crime entertainment, unafraid of sitting in the unease.

Thank you Mark Olsen for spotlighting our screening! Join me and @jenyamato.bsky.social for BARB AND STAR at the Egyptian next week! www.egyptiantheatre.com/series/lafca...

Seagull in the sand. Can you hear my prayer? Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar (I’m pretty sure) skipped playing in many theaters because of the pandemic. However, @lafilmcritics.bsky.social are giving you (in LA) the chance to see it on the big screen. Trish would want you to support this.

Please see Hard Truths even though it was SOMEHOW nominated for nothing today. It’s so incredibly good, and so funny, until you realise you stopped laughing and started crying but can’t quite pinpoint when. The entire cast is wonderful (put Michele Austin in everything, please. & Tuwaine Barrett?!)

I know some folks feel a kind of way about Clarence Machlin not getting a supporting acting nomination, but I’m low key happy he got a writing nomination and is “Academy Award nominee Clarence Machlin” regardless.

insane Oscar nomination snubs (out of things I thought realistically had a chance to get one): - CHALLENGERS for Best Score - NICKEL BOYS for Best Cinematography - Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Best Actress

Horror belongs at the Oscars! Demi belongs at the Oscars! Independent animation belongs at the Oscars! Powerful docs belong at the Oscars! It has been a fun morning!