CINEMA CRITICS JURY 2018

COLCOA is proud to partner with LAFCA for the COLCOA Critics Awards. The 2018 LAFCA Jury will give a Critics Award a Special Prize and a First Feature Award, by choosing among 30 new feature films in competition. 

Winners will be announced on Tuesday May 1st in the morning.

LAFCA is a professional organization of Los Angeles-based film critics working in the Los Angeles print and electronic media. Each year since its creation in 1975, LAFCA members honor outstanding cinematic achievements during their annual Achievement Awards ceremony in January. LAFCA also sponsors film events and donates funds to various Los Angeles film organizations. Since 2016, the president of the organization is Claudia Puig. 

2018 LAFCA CRITICS JURY

Lael Loewenstein

Lael Loewenstein recently marked her fourteenth year as a critic on Film Week, heard locally on NPR station KPCC. Her film reviews and features have appeared in Variety, DGA Quarterly, Time Out New York, USA Today, New York Daily News, and the Los Angeles Times. She has been a jury member and panelist at film festivals from Palm Springs to Sarajevo and served two terms as president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. A graduate of Wesleyan’s film program and UCLA’s critical studies program, she’s a lifelong Francophile who spent a year in Paris devouring baguettes and cinema.

Wade Major

Wade Major is a regular critic for NPR affiliate KPCC’s weekly FilmWeek program as well as host/producer of the longstanding DigiGods podcast and a Sr. Film Critic for CineGods.com. He has also been published in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News and has contributed to dozens of DVD and Blu-ray audio commentaries including James Ivory’s “Howards End,” Costa-Gavras’ “Amen,” Benoit Jacquot’s “La Desenchantée, and Claude Chabrol’s “The Swindle,” “Merci Pour le Chocolat” and “L’enfer.” He is a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) and holds a degree in Film and Television from UCLA.

Chuck Wilson

Chuck Wilson has been a freelance film critic for the LA Weekly and Village Voice for over 20 years and is a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. A freelance editor of books for children based on Disney and Pixar animated films, Chuck writes each year the Disney Year of Animation page-a-day calendar, published by Chronicle Books. Born in Florida, he lives in Silverlake with his dogs Janey and Wyatt, who gracefully suffer their master’s all-night writing habits.

PAST JURIES 

2017

Robert Abele
Jon Frosch
Mark Keiser
Bob Koehler
Luke E. Thompson
Ella Taylor

2016

Ann Lee Ellingson
John Oppenheimer
Claudia Puig
Chuck Wilson 

2015

Lael Loewenstein
Michael Nordine
Jean Oppenheimer
Alynda Wheat
Chuck Wilson

2014 

Andrew Barker
Tim Cogshell
Ann Lee Ellingson
Robert Koehler
Henry Sheehan
2013

Lael Loewenstein (PRESIDENT)
Justin Chang
Wade Major
Jean Oppenheimer
Chuck Wilson

2012

Christy Lemire (PRESIDENT)
Andrew Barker
Annlee Ellingson
Todd Gilchrist
Ella Taylor

2011

Peter Debruge (PRESIDENT)
David Ehrenstein
Mark Olsen
Justin Lowe
Henry Sheehan

2010

Jean Oppenheimer (PRESIDENT)
Tim Grierson
Sheri Linden
Wade Major
Brent Simon

2009

F.X. Feeney (PRESIDENT)
Peter Debruge
Andy Klein
Christy Lemire
Amy Nicholson

2008

Wade Major (PRESIDENT)
Scott Foundas
Mike Goodridge
Jean Oppenheimer
Claudia Puig