LAFCA awards date & Doris Day Lifetime Acheivement

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association announces it will vote to select its awards winners on Sunday December 11, and names Doris Day as this year’s career achievement honoree. Press release:

LOS ANGELES, OCTOBER 29, 2010 – Doris Day was selected to receive the Career Achievement Award, it was announced today by Brent Simon, President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA).

“Decades on from the main body of her work, Doris Day is still arguably the template to which Hollywood turns when trying to quantify and capture ‘girl-next-door’ appeal,” said Brent Simon. “Equally at home in snappish romantic comedies and more dramatic fare, Day was the biggest female star of the 1960s, giving a series of delightfully perceptive performances. LAFCA is thrilled to be able to honor her.”

Still one of the top box office performers of all time, Doris Day starred onscreen alongside some of the biggest male stars of her day, including Clark Gable, James Stewart, Cary Grant, Jack Lemmon, David Niven and of course Rock Hudson. Her screen credits include Calamity Jane, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Tunnel of Love, Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back and That Touch of Mink. Her career as a singer was just as impressive; indeed, Day received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award in 2008. She released more than two dozen albums, experiencing Billboard chart success and in 1957 winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Que Sera Sera,” which would become her signature tune. A passionate animal rights activist for several decades, Day just this year released an album of jazz standards and cover tunes produced by her late son, Terry Melcher, her first new material in more than four decades.

Winners for the 37th annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards will be selected at the LAFCA annual voting meeting on Sunday, December 11. The winners will be announced via Twitter (http://twitter.com/LAFilmCritics) in addition to issued press releases. The date for the annual LAFCA awards dinner is TBC.

This year, LAFCA inducted two new members into the Association: Annlee Ellingson and Betsy Sharkey.

Founded in 1975, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) is comprised of Los Angeles-based, professional film critics working in the Los Angeles print and electronic media. Each December, LAFCA members vote on the year’s Achievement Awards, honoring screen excellence on both sides of the camera. Plaques of recognition are then presented to winners during LAFCA’s annual awards ceremony, held in mid-January.

Aside from honoring each year’s outstanding cinematic achievements, LAFCA has also makes a point to look back and pay tribute to distinguished industry veterans with its annual Career Achievement Award, which is announced in October, as well as to look forward by spotlighting fresh, promising talent with its annual New Generation Award. In addition, over the past three decades, LAFCA has sponsored and hosted numerous film panels and events and donated funds to various Los Angeles film organizations, especially where film preservation was concerned. LAFCA members have also collectively been vocal about taking up causes they have felt passionate about, from drafting formal protests against censorship and colorization to lending their support to controversial films.

For more information, visit www.lafca.net and follow LAFCA via Twitter at @lafilmcritics (http://twitter.com/LAFilmCritics)