Los Angeles Film Critics Name THE DESCENDANTS Best Picture Of 2011

The Los Angeles Film Critics announced Sunday the winners for the 2011 Awards with Alexander Payne's The Descendants starring George Clooney, beating out Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, but Malick did take the Best Director award over Payne and Martin Scorsese for Hugo.

Director Alexander Payne is no stranger to the Best Picture category as The Descendants is the seventh award from LAFCA. He previously won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay (shared) for Sideways, and Best Picture and Best Screenplay (shared) for About Schmidt, as well as sharing the New Generation award with writer Jim Taylor in 1999 for his work on Election and Citizen Ruth.

Other winners include Michael Fassbender for Best Actor for his four films this year (A Dangerous Method, Jane Eyre, Shame, X-Men: First Class), Christopher Plummer for his supporting role in Beginners, Chemical Brothers for their work on the Hanna soundtrack, and Rango took Best Animation movie award. Below is the complete list of Los Angeles Film Critics winners for 2011

The 37th annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards ceremony will take place on Friday, January 13 at the InterContinental, Los Angeles. Doris Day will receive the 2011 Career Achievement Award.


PICTURE: "The Descendants”
Runner-up: "The Tree of Life"

DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick, "The Tree of Life"
Runner-up: Martin Scorsese, "Hugo"


ACTOR: Michael Fassbender, "A Dangerous Method," "Jane Eyre," "Shame," "X-Men: First Class"
Runner-up: Michael Shannon, "Take Shelter"

ACTRESS: Yun Jung-hee, "Poetry"
Runner-up:  Kirsten Dunst, "Melancholia"


SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"
Runner-up: Patton Oswalt, "Young Adult"


SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jessica Chastain, "Coriolanus," "The Debt," "The Help," "Take Shelter," "Texas Killing Fields," "Tree of Life"
Runner-up: Janet McTeer, "Albert Nobbs"


SCREENPLAY: Asghar Farhadi, "A Separation"
Runner-up: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, "The Descendants"


ANIMATION: "Rango"
Runner-Up: "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn"


FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: "City of Life and Death"
Runner-up: "A Separation"


DOCUMENTARY / NON-FICTION FILM: "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"
Runner-up: "The Arbor"

NEW GENERATION: Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, Josh Mond, Elizabeth Olsen, "Martha Marcy May Marlene"


CINEMATOGRAPHY: Emmanuel Lubezki, "The Tree of Life"
Runner-up: Cao Yu, "City of Life and Death"


PRODUCTION DESIGN: Dante Ferretti, "Hugo"
Runner-up: Maria Djurkovic, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"


MUSIC/SCORE: The Chemical Brothers, “Hanna"
Runner-up: Cliff Martinez, “Drive"


DOUGLAS E. EDWARDS INDEPENDENT/EXPERIMENTAL FILM/VIDEO: “Spark of Being”

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Doris Day