L.A. crix push Vera into mix

Start your engines. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced its awards yesterday (click on the post title for the list), and the big splash is the naming of Vera Farmiga (left) as best actress for Down to the Bone. I've never heard of her or the film, and no prognosticator has tossed about her name, but she is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, so this isn't completely out of the blue. Otherwise, Brokeback Mountain has the early mandate, with best picture and director and a runner-up award for Heath Ledger (behind PSH). Catherine Keener grabbed supporting actress via that critics awards loophole: she had four movies out this year, so she won for omnipresence -- Capote (a minimal, crap role), The Ballad of Jack & Rose (haven't seen it), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (not bad), and The Interpreter (a throwaway role). Don't get me wrong, I love Keener, but come on. Where were the awards for Lovely & Amazing, when she had something to work with? Also, a strong showing for A History of Violence, which took runner-ups for picture/director and won supporting actor for William Hurt, who's onscreen for five ridiculous minutes. And Grizzly Man, cut from the Oscar shortlist, took best documentary. Several biggies were shut out: Walk the Line, L.A.'s own Crash, and the three that haven't been released but people are buzzing about anyway -- Munich, King Kong, Memoirs of a Geisha. Take that, PR spin doctors.