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The 2017 WAFCA Awards
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association
Contact: press@wafca.com, Tim Gordon 202-374-3305
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December 8, 2017

'Get Out' Is In with D.C. Film Critics

Washington, D.C. — "Get Out" scared away the competition when The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) announced their top honorees for 2017 this morning. A smart, hair-raising satire about prejudice and race relations, "Get Out" won Best Film, as well as Best Original Screenplay for writer-director Jordan Peele's provocative script. Christopher Nolan claimed Best Director for his remarkably mounted, ceaselessly intense World War II thriller "Dunkirk."

WAFCA awarded Best Actor to Gary Oldman for his startlingly transformative portrayal of Winston Churchill in compelling historical drama "Darkest Hour." The film, set during Churchill's first term as Prime Minister in the critical early days of WWII, is carried by an unrecognizable Oldman's assured, multilayered performance.

For her searing turn as a grieving, unapologetically outspoken mother desperate for the local authorities to catch her daughter's killer, Frances McDormand nabbed the Best Actress award for the darkly comedic drama "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri." The film, directed by Martin McDonagh, was feted with two other acting honors. As a lonely, antagonistic police officer with far more dimension than initially meets the eye, Sam Rockwell was awarded Best Supporting Actor. The Best Acting Ensemble award also went to "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," co-starring Woody Harrelson, John Hawkes, Lucas Hedges, Abbie Cornish, Peter Dinklage, Caleb Landry Jones and Samara Weaving.

Best Supporting Actress was awarded to Laurie Metcalf, as a working-class mother struggling to see eye-to-eye with her headstrong teenage daughter, in truthful coming-of-age film "Lady Bird." For their thoughtful adaptation of author Hillary Jordan's acclaimed 2008 novel about the relationship between two families—one black, one white—living in the 1940s Jim Crow South, Dee Rees and Virgil Williams earned Best Adapted Screenplay accolades for "Mudbound."

Pixar's touching family adventure "Coco," set during Mexico's annual Day of the Dead celebration, was awarded Best Animated Feature. The film's star, 13-year-old Anthony Gonzalez, earned Best Voice Performance. For his intense turn as leader of the apes Caesar in "War for the Planet of the Apes," Andy Serkis claimed the award for Best Motion Capture Performance. Brooklynn Prince clenched the Best Youth Performance category for "The Florida Project."

Best Documentary kudos went to "Jane," a fascinating look at Jane Goodall's 1960s chimpanzee research in Tanzania. The film combines present-day interview segments with Goodall, now in her eighties, and never-before-seen 16mm footage of her experiences in Africa when she was in her twenties. "BPM (Beats Per Minute)," Robin Campillo's touching story of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 1990s France, took Best Foreign Language Film honors.

Denis Villeneuve's visionary sci-fi sequel "Blade Runner 2049" nearly swept the technical categories, taking home Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Original Score. Best Editing was awarded to "Baby Driver," a music-fueled heist picture directed by Edgar Wright where the rhythm of each scene is thrillingly cut to its soundtrack.

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC, given each year in honor of one of WAFCA's cherished late members, went to Steven Spielberg's journalism drama "The Post."

The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association comprises 52 DC-VA-MD-based film critics from television, radio, print and the Internet. Voting was conducted from December 5-7, 2017.

THE 2017 WAFCA AWARD WINNERS:

Best Film:
Get Out

Best Director:
Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk)

Best Actor:
Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)

Best Actress:
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

Best Supporting Actor:
Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

Best Supporting Actress:
Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird)

Best Acting Ensemble:
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Youth Performance:
Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project)

Best Voice Performance:
Anthony Gonzalez (Coco)

Best Motion Capture Performance:
Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes)

Best Original Screenplay:
Jordan Peele (Get Out)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Virgil Williams and Dee Rees (Mudbound)

Best Animated Feature:
Coco

Best Documentary:
Jane

Best Foreign Language Film:
BPM (Beats Per Minute)

Best Production Design:
Production Designer: Dennis Gassner;
Set Decorator: Alessandra Querzola (Blade Runner 2049)

Best Cinematography:
Roger A. Deakins, ASC, BSC (Blade Runner 2049)

Best Editing:
Paul Machliss, ACE; Jonathan Amos, ACE (Baby Driver)

Best Original Score:
Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch (Blade Runner 2049)

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC:
The Post



The 2017 WAFCA AWARD NOMINEES WERE:

Best Film:
Call Me by Your Name
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Director:
Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water)
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk)
Jordan Peele (Get Out)
Dee Rees (Mudbound)

Best Actor:
Timothée Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name)
Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread)
James Franco (The Disaster Artist)
Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out)
Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)

Best Actress:
Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water)
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Margot Robbie (I, Tonya)
Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird)
Meryl Streep (The Post)

Best Supporting Actor:
Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project)
Armie Hammer (Call Me by Your Name)
Jason Mitchell (Mudbound)
Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me by Your Name)

Best Supporting Actress:
Mary J. Blige (Mudbound)
Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip)
Holly Hunter (The Big Sick)
Allison Janney (I, Tonya)
Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird)

Best Acting Ensemble:
Dunkirk
It
Mudbound
The Post
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Youth Performance:
Dafne Keen (Logan)
Sophia Lillis (It)
Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project)
Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck)
Jacob Tremblay (Wonder)

Best Voice Performance:
Will Arnett (The LEGO Batman Movie)
Gael García Bernal (Coco)
Michael Cera (The LEGO Batman Movie)
Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
Anthony Gonzalez (Coco)

Best Motion Capture Performance:
Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes)
Dan Stevens (Beauty and the Beast)
Steve Zahn (War for the Planet of the Apes)
Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok)

Best Original Screenplay:
Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick)
Jordan Peele (Get Out)
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor (The Shape of Water)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Hampton Fancher & Michael Green, Story by Hampton Fancher (Blade Runner 2049)
James Ivory (Call Me by Your Name)
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber (The Disaster Artist)
Aaron Sorkin (Molly's Game)
Virgil Williams and Dee Rees (Mudbound)

Best Animated Feature:
The Breadwinner
Coco
Despicable Me 3
The LEGO Batman Movie
Loving Vincent

Best Documentary:
City of Ghosts
Faces Places
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
Jane
Step

Best Foreign Language Film:
BPM (Beats Per Minute)
First They Killed My Father
In the Fade
The Square
Thelma

Best Production Design:
Production Designer: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decorator: Katie Spencer (Beauty and the Beast)
Production Designer: Dennis Gassner; Set Decorator: Alessandra Querzola (Blade Runner 2049)
Production Designer: Nathan Crowley; Supervising Set Decorator: Gary Fettis (Dunkirk)
Production Designer: Paul Denham Austerberry; Set Decorators: Shane Vieau, Jeff Melvin (The Shape of Water)
Production Designer: Aline Bonetto; Set Decorator: Anna Lynch-Robinson (Wonder Woman)

Best Cinematography:
Roger A. Deakins, ASC, BSC (Blade Runner 2049)
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me by Your Name)
Hoyte Van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, NSC (Dunkirk)
Rachel Morrison, ASC (Mudbound)
Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF (The Shape of Water)

Best Editing:
Paul Machliss, ACE; Jonathan Amos, ACE (Baby Driver)
Joe Walker, ACE (Blade Runner 2049)
Lee Smith, ACE (Dunkirk)
Gregory Plotkin (Get Out)
Sidney Wolinsky, ACE (The Shape of Water)

Best Original Score:
Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch (Blade Runner 2049)
Michael Giacchino (Coco)
Hans Zimmer (Dunkirk)
Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water)
Carter Burwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC:
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
Last Flag Flying
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House
Spider-Man: Homecoming
The Post
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