lct awards 2010: film results

Wrapping up coverage of my own pride and joy, the LCT Awards, I present to you the film categories.  (For previous write-ups on 2010's winners in Miniseries, Music, and TV categories, click away at your leisure.)  For those of you who hadn't already found out (I'm talking to you, handful of people who saw the big show this year!) it was Darren Aronofsky's opus Black Swan that took the top prize of the night, despite some very heavy competition from Pixar's Toy Story 3 - in fact, this was easily the toughest Best Picture decision I've had since Two Towers vs. Chicago back in 2002.  And it came as no surprise that brilliant auteur Aronofsky snatched up the corresponding Best Director trophy as well.

The acting prizes came with an array of difficulty, some shoo-ins while others were more hotly contested.  Though Natalie Portman walked away with the Oscar, the LCT for Best Actress ultimately came down to a trio of ladies - Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine), and Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), with the last of the three taking home the prize - after a long history with the awards... this was her sixth nomination without a win!  Lead Actor was an easier decision.  Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) was definitely my all-around favorite performance of the year, so biggest competitors Robert Duvall (Get Low), James Franco (127 Hours), and Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) had to settle for nominee status.  Melissa Leo's public "issues" didn't factor in at the LCTs either, as she handily took home the prize in Supporting Actress, though she faced a last-minute surge from Please Give's Ann Guilbert.  Finally, Best Supporting Actor was all locked up on underrated Sam Rockwell (Conviction), though Christian Bale (The Fighter) and Richard Jenkins (Eat Pray Love) were his most formidable fellows.

The rest of the categories were a smattering of surprises coupled with the usual suspects.  The Weepies continued their hot streak (they also picked up Best Group in the music categories) by edging Allison Krauss' "Lay My Burden Down" from Get Low in Best Original Song with their own song "Same Changes" (Morning Glory).  And the Original Score group was trounced by the instantly timeless efforts of John Powell in How to Train Your Dragon.  The screenplay prizes were split - with Adapted honoring the unbeatable Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network and the surprise victor Nicole Holofcener's Please Give - which edged out BP nominees Toy Story 3 and Blue Valentine for the win.  Finally, in a year with more than enough well-made documentaries, the prize went to Kimberly Reed's little-seen Prodigal Sons over toughest competitor Last Train Home.  See full results below (click to enlarge)...