Los Angeles Critics Love Iwo Jima

Letters From Iwo Jima has landed another award. The film was the first to gain recognition in this 2006 award season when the National Board of Review awarded them Best Film last week. Now Clint Eastwood’s war movie is getting top honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Here comes the Oscar buzz.

Sunday night the group selected Letters from Iwo Jima as the year’s best film, with the incredibly boring Princess Diana humping movie The Queen coming in second place. The bad news is that even though the incredibly overrated The Queen didn’t win Best Picture, it did end up getting the most awards, with wins for Best Actress Helen Mirren, Best Supporting Actor Michael Sheen, Screenwriter Peter Morgan, and Alexandre Desplat for best music.

Best Director went to the very deserving Paul Greengrass for his brilliant 9/11 movie United 93. Second place fell to Clint for Iwo Jima.

Best Actor ended up in a tie. Sacha Baron Cohen for Borat and Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland share the honor. You know what? Cohen deserves it. Whatever you think of the film, there’s no denying that he’s taken total commitment to his character to an entirely new level, and he’s doing it, not on some controlled soundstage, but out wandering around in the street with a chicken. That’s real acting folks.

A full breakdown of Lost Angeles Film Critics Association 2006 winners is below. Awards will be handed out at a banquet held January 14th.

Best Picture - Letters from Iwo Jima

Best Director - Paul Greengrass, United 93