I should’ve posted this long ago, but the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards dinner was earlier this week, Monday evening at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, and it went swimmingly — smoothly produced, briskly paced and engaging all the way around. Special commendation on this front goes to Lael Loewenstein, group president. The full list of winners can be accessed here, but Wallâ–ªE was the Best Picture winner, a first for an animated film.
I’ll perhaps sprinkle in a few more items from the event this week, but it’s worth sharing that Best Actor winner Sean Penn — who was a no-show at the Golden Globes the night prior to the LAFCA event — gave a very funny, warm acceptance speech, and told an anecdote about his Mystic River director Clint Eastwood. Penn said he was sitting two feet away from the filmmaker at the recently concluded Palm Springs International Film Festival when it was remarked upon that Slumdog Millionaire‘s Freida Pinto — also present at both events — was very beautiful. Penn observed that she looked like Eastwood’s wife’s younger sister, at which point the 78-year-old screen legend leaned over and whispered mischievously, “That’s what I’m trying to put together!” Swears Penn: “True story, that’s what he said!”