Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Washington announce their winners!

An important part of Oscar seaons, these "critic" awards seems to be very good indicators of Frontrunner status and usually gives us an idea of who will be winning or who will be nominated for the prestigious Oscar event at the end of the year. Here are the first batch (and probably the next important critic awards next to the NBR). 3 films reign very supreme. It seems like big "Oscar contenders" have dropped and given way to serious Oscar films like "There Will Be Blood," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfuly," and "No Country for Old Men".

BOSTON FILM CRITICS:
Best Picture: “No Country for Old Men”
Best Director: Julian Schnabel for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Best Actor: Frank Langella for “Starting Out in the Evening”
Best Actress: Marion Cotillard for “La Vie En Rose”
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem for “No Country for Old Men”
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan for “Gone Baby Gone”
Best Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Best Documentary: “Crazy Love”
Best Foreign-Language Film: “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Best New Filmmaker: Ben Affleck for “Gone Baby Gone”
Best Ensemble Cast: “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”

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NEW YORK FILM CRITICS ONLINE:
Best Picture (tie): “There Will Be Blood” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson for “There Will Be Blood”
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for “There Will Be Blood”
Best Actress: Julie Christie for “Away from Her”
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem for “No Country for Old Men”
Best Breakthrough Performer: Ellen Page for “Juno”
Best Directorial Debut: Sarah Polley for “Away from Her”
Best Ensemble Cast: “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”
Best Screenplay: Wes Anderson, Jason Swartzman, Roman Coppola for “The Darjeeling Limited”
Best Documentary: “Sicko”
Best Foreign-Language Film (tie): “Lives of Others” and “Persepolis”
Best Animated Feature: “Persepolis”
Best Cinematography: Robert Elsewit for “There Will Be Blood”
Best Film Music: John Greenwood for “There Will Be Blood”

Top Ten Films (alphabetical order):

1 Atonement (Focus Features)

2 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (THINKFilm)

3 The Darjeeling Limited (Fox Searchlight)

4 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax)

5 I'm Not There (The Weinstein Company)

6 Juno (Fox Searchlight)

7 Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.)

8 No Country for Old Men (Miramax)

9 Persepolis (Sony Pictures Classics)

10 Sweeney Todd (DreamWorks)

11.There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage)

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LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS:
Best Picture: “There Will Be Blood” (runner-up: “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”)

Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson for “There Will Be Blood” (runner-up Julian Schnabel for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”)

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for “There Will Be Blood” (runner-up Frank Langella for “Starting Out in the Evening”)

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard for “La Vie En Rose” (runner-up: Anamaria Marinca for “4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days”)

Best Supporting Actor: Vlad Ivanov for “4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days” (runner-up: Hal Holbrook for “Into the Wild”)

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan for “Gone Baby Gone” and “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” (runner-up: Cate Blanchett for “I’m Not There”)

Best Screenplay: Tamara Jenkins for “The Savages” (runner-up: Paul Thomas Anderson for “There Will Be Blood”)

Best Animated Feature (tie): “Ratatouille” and “Persopolis”

Best Documentary: “No End in Sight” (runner-up: “Sicko”)

Best Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (runner-up: Robert Elsewit for “There Will Be Blood”)

Best Production Design: Janusz Kaminski for “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (runner-up: Dante Feretti for “Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber from Fleet Streets”)

Best Music: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for “Once” (runner-up: John Greenwood for “There Will Be Blood”)

New Generation: Sarah Polley for “Away from Her”

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WASHINGTON DC CRITICS:
Best Picture: “No Country for Old Men”

Best Director: Ethan and Joel Coen for “No Country for Old Men”

Best Actor: George Clooney for “Michael Clayton”

Best Actress: Julie Christie for “Away from Her”

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem for “No Country for Old Men”

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan for “Gone Baby Gone and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead”Best

Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody for “Juno”

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin for “Charlie Wilson’s War”

Best Ensemble Cast: “No Country for Old Men”

Best Foreign-Language Film: “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”

Best Animated Film: “Ratatouille”

Best Documentary: “Sicko”

Best Art-Director: “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber from Fleet Street”

Best Breakthrough Performance: Ellen Page for “Juno”

Now what?

-Where is "Atonement" and "American Gnagster"? Too Brit for the critics? To violent?

-Best Picture now is really "No Country for Old Men" vs. "There Will Be Blood", with "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" as a big threat...if nominated.

-"Diving Bell" could be considered highest contender for Best Foriegn Language.

-"Ratatouille" is unstoppable for Animated Feature catagory.

-Clooney and Christie's dead Buzz is once more revived.

-Best Actress is now Christie vs. Cottilard.

-No "recent frontrunners" Amy Adams and Laura Linney in Best Actress.

-No Johnny Depp and not much "Sweeney Todd" or Tim Burton Love.

-Javier Bardem is a lock for a nomination and win, Holbrook is a big threat (Alan Arkin repeat?)

-Ellen Page's Breakthrough wins supports her Best Actress status.

-No Angelina or Kiera!

-So-called biggest contender Cate Blanchett ("I'm Not There") lost all but 1 tom Amy Ryan ("Gone Baby Gone")

-Surprising "tech" winners.

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