The Vancouver Film Critics Circle has picked its 2006 winners, which were announced yesterday.
Among them are Children of Men (above, with Clive Owen) as best film — the second time a North American critics' group has chosen Alfonso Cuarón's dystopic drama as the top picture of 2006 (the Central Ohio film critics also went for it) — Cuarón as best director, and veteran Alan Arkin as best supporting actor for his bigoted, drug-addicted, but oh-so-loving grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine.
Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren took best acting honors for, respectively, The Last King of Scotland and The Queen. Cate Blanchett was the best supporting actress for Notes on a Scandal.
In the Canadian film categories, the best picture award went to Charles Binamé's Maurice Richard / The Rocket, a Quebecois production about the obstacles faced by the mid-20th-century Francophone hockey player (played by Roy Dupuis, above) in a mostly anglophone hockey world. However, the best director was Reg Harkema for Monkey Warfare, a socio-psychological comedy about two down-and-out, middle-aged bohemians who are befriended by a fiery young woman.
Monkey Warfare also came out on top in two other categories: best actor in a Canadian film, Don McKellar, and best supporting actress in a Canadian film, Nadia Litz.
Julie Christie was one of the nominees in the best actress in a Canadian film category for her role as a woman losing her mind to Alzheimer's in Sarah Polley's well-received feature-film debut Away from Her, but the winner was Carrie-Anne Moss (above) for her performance as the mother of a boy whose best friend is a human-eating zombie in Fido, a comedy thriller that was also voted best film made in British Columbia.
And finally, a North American critics' group has had the good sense to pick Pedro Almodóvar's Volver as the best foreign-language film of the year.