Simply because of geography, the Los Angeles Film Critics is probably the most influential group. The awards here, however, were the quirkiest of the three, with a split of sorts between “The Social Network” and this year’s cinephile cause celebre, “Carlos,” which may well be shut out of the Oscars altogether for a number of reasons. Though a shorter cut of the reportedly action-packed-yet-thoughtful multi-lingual French film about the real-life left-wing terrorist of the 1970s has been playing to general plaudits, a 5.5 hour television version of the film by Olivier Assayas has had shorter but successful engagements here at the American Cinematheque and is much on the mind of many of us film geeks (I just blew another chance to watch it all in a theater and I’m not happy about it.)

Assayas and “Network” director David Fincher tied while Fincher’s movie won Best Picture with “Carlos” as the runner up and also the Best Foreign Film winner. Aaron Sorkin won for his “Social” screenplay while Colin Firth won best actor for “The King’s Speech,” the first runner-up in the category was Edgar Rameriz for playing Carlos, yet another real life person.  Kim Hye-Ja from the cinephile-approved Korean thriller “Mother” and Niels Arestrup from France’s violent “A Prophet” won in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor categories. While those awards are unlikely to be replicated by the Oscars, Jacki Weaver’s hopes for a possible Oscar nomination and even a win for the Australian critical and festival hit, “Animal Kingdom,” are looking up ever more with another Best Supporting Actress award. The LAFC site has the complete list of winners.

Not long before that award, the Boston Critics had their say. It was closer to a clean sweep for “Social Network” with Jessie Eisenberg picking up another Best Actor award and more laurels for David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin. Natalie Portman’s and Christian Bales’s already near certain Oscar nominations got slightly more certain with her win for Best Actress for “Black Swan” and his for Best Supporting Actor in “The Fighter.” A less expected winner in Boston for supporting actress was Juliette Lewis for a reportedly very brief, but apparently memorable, role in “Conviction.”  You can see the complete list of winners at the Boston Film Critics’ site.

The New York Online Film Critics — not to be confused with the dead-tree and TV/Radio critics, whose awards are still to come — also gave the Best Picture, Direction, and screenplay awards to “Social Network,” though they spread the acting love around elsewhere. Natalie Portman picked up another win for Best Actress while James Franco entered the fray with his highly touted role in another fact-based film, “127 Hours.” Intriguingly, the Massachusetts-centric “The Fighter” did much better in NYC with yet another supporting actor award to Christian Bale and also a well-deserved nod to Melissa Leo (“Frozen River“), who plays Bale’s dysfunctionally loving mom in the film. You can see the complete list of winners at Awards Daily.

Finally, the American Film Institute has given its awards, which are essentially a top 10 list. Seeing as the Oscar nominations are also going to be in that form, it might not be a complete and total reach to think there might be some similarities between the two lists. The AFI selections are as follows (forgive the all caps formatting from AFI):

AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR

BLACK SWAN

THE FIGHTER

INCEPTION

THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

127 HOURS

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

THE TOWN

TOY STORY 3

TRUE GRIT

WINTER’S BONE

AFI SPECIAL AWARDS­

THE KING’S SPEECH

WAITING FOR SUPERMAN

My strong hunch is that, if you want to see what the Oscar nominations will look like, first add “The King’s Speech” to the top list because for the academy’s love of classy films about wealthy and powerful Brits. Then, remove either “The Town” or “True Grit” because of the Academy’s traditional anti-genre bias/middle-brow snobbery, or “Winter’s Bone” because of its bias against low budget indies without big name stars. I think “Inception” will get in simply to avoid a fan-driven ‘net poop storm of massive proportions if a Christopher Nolan movie is once again not included.

Finally, I don’t usually cover TV here on PH, but since I’ve got them and it’s definitely of interest to me and most of you, the television choices of AFI. Another big cable TV win. Really, as someone who grew up largely disdaining television — I remember when it really was a vast wasteland with a few teeny-tiny oases — it pains me to admit that most of the really good new cinematic writing I’ve seen over the last several years has been on the ol’ idiot box.

AFI TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR

THE BIG C

BOARDWALK EMPIRE

BREAKING BAD

GLEE

MAD MEN

MODERN FAMILY

THE PACIFIC

TEMPLE GRANDIN

30 ROCK

THE WALKING DEAD

UPDATE: The New York Film Critics Circle awards came out just a little bit ago, and made it a clean sweep for “The Social Network” for Best Picture. That wasn’t the only news because the other awards were different from what we’ve been seeing. “The Kids Are All Right” got a big boost as did Annette Bening, Colin Firth, and Mark Ruffalo for — not, for a change, Christian Bale. I might follow up with that a bit tomorrow.

I will say I can’t get over the fact that Armond White is actually the chair of this group. A guy who makes his living attacking other film critics in a maddeningly pretentious and sometimes downright idiotic manner — and whose writing is often completely hideous and unreadable — having a position on a film critics’ group is just strange. Still, the slightly contrarian cast of this group of awards could perhaps his influence.

At 27, if Eisenberg does wins for his thoroughly on-target performance, he’ll be the youngest winner in that category yet, beating 29 year-old Adrien Brody for “The Pianist.” Still, he’ll likely be facing stiff competition from 50 year-old Colin Firth (“The King’s Speech”), 70 something Robert Duvall (“Get Low“), 30 something co-host James Franco (“127 Hours“) and, perhaps, 60 something Jeff Bridges (“True Grit,” a bit less stiff since he won last year and Oscar likes to spread the love around).

The Best Actress prize was equally interesting. Lesley Manville won for her extraordinary work in the upcoming “Another Year.” I’ve seen (and will be reviewing here), the latest from Mike Leigh. There’s no doubt that Manville did an absolutely remarkable job but her supremely needy, depressed, alcoholic character is often irritating to the point of distraction, on purpose. It hits closer to home because I think most of have known or have actually been (hopefully temporarily) people very much like her. Still, sometimes people tend to blame actors for playing characters they dislike or are made uncomfortable by. Regardless, she’s been noticed. At the press day, I half-jokingly suggested to Ms. Manville that she should work on her American accent.

Another heretofore far from world-famed actress who might consider studying up on U.S. dialects is Australian veteran performer Jacki Weaver. She was nominated for her magnetically squirm-inducing crime grandma in the effective thriller, “Animal Kingdom.” It’s the first time she’s been in a film to make a splash stateside since Peter Weir’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock” back before Jesse Eisenberg and James Franco were yet born.

Christian Bale is definitely looking like an Oscar contender with his Best Supporting Actor win for “The Fighter.” “Toy Story 3” won a very predictable Best Animated Feature prize and writer Chris Sparling won a far less predictable Best Original Screenplay award for the ultra-claustrophobic Ryan Reynolds showpiece, “Buried”

Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman,” which seems to be spearheading a campaign to make education a hotter political issue than it’s been recently, took the Best Documentary prize. Could Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) be on his way to another Best Documentary Oscar? Very possibly, though the documentary category is historically weird and iffy. In his favor: this is a traditional documentary and not, essentially, a “concert” film.

The Best Foreign Film winner is the French Cannes award winner, “Of Gods and Men.” It’s another winner with a certain amount of topical appeal as it deals with the issue of fundamentalism from the point of view of Christian monks.

Several films are notable by their almost complete absence, including “The King’s Speech,” “127 Hours” and possible dark horse, “True Grit.” (All three were in the group’s annual Top 10, however.) “The Black Swan,” which has been getting huge word of mouth where I live, anyhow, failed to even make that list. A complete list of the awards is below.

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Best Film: The Social Network

Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network

Best Actress: Lesley Manville, Another Year

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress: Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Foreign Language Film: Of Gods and Men

Best Documentary: Waiting for “Superman”

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Best Ensemble Cast: The Town

Breakthrough Performance: Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone

Best Directorial Debut: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, Restrepo

Spotlight Award: Sylvain Chomet and Jacques Tati, The Illusionist

Best Original Screenplay: Chris Sparling, Buried

Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

Special Filmmaking Achievement Award: Sofia Coppola for writing, directing, and producing Somewhere

William K. Everson Film History Award: Leonard Maltin

NBR Freedom of Expression: Fair Game, Conviction, Howl

Production Design Award: Dante Ferretti, Shutter Island

Ten Best Films (in alphabetical order)
Another Year
The Fighter
Hereafter
Inception
The King’s Speech
Shutter Island
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Five Best Foreign-Language Films (in alphabetical order)
I Am Love
Incendies
Life, Above All
Soul Kitchen
White Material

Five Best Documentaries (in alphabetical order)
A Film Unfinished
Inside Job
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
Restrepo
The Tillman Story

Top Ten Independent Films (in alphabetical order)
Animal Kingdom
Buried
Fish Tank
The Ghost Writer
Greenberg
Let Me In
Monsters
Please Give
Somewhere
Youth in Revolt

* James Cameron apparently won’t be directing the latest iteration of legend of Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Instead, he’ll spend the next few years doing the inevitable: “Avatar 2” and “Avatar 3.” Apparently, the commitment now is partially in return for Fox making a large donation to green causes Cameron supports.

* Christopher Nolan gave Geoff Boucher the title of the next Batman installment “The Dark Knight Rises” — not very inspiring. Having previously eliminated Mr. Freeze as the film’s big bad, he also eliminated the Riddler. That leaves Catwoman, the Penguin, and…Man-Bat?

* New Zealand Prime Minister John Keys announced today that the “The Hobbit” will, in fact, be staying in New Zealand. Yup, the leader of an entire nation announced a movie deal today. And you thought the cinema was a frivolous pastime. As expected, there were some legislative changes and remember those tax rebates that NZ Finance Minister Gerry Brownlee assured a reporter were not being negotiated? Well, some tax rebates were thrown in to sweeten the pot for Warners as well as some legislative changes. (H/t AICN)

* Schindler-esque humanitarian hero Paul Rusesabagina, who was portrayed by Don Cheadle in 2004’s Oscar-nominated “Hotel Rwanda,” is under legal threat in Rwanda on charges of “funding terrorism.” The allegation is because of his connection to opposition figure Victoire Ingabire, who is being held on suspicion of setting up some kind of armed resistance to the Rwandan government. Considering the crappy human rights record of the current Rwandan regime, I think it’s safe to say that Mr. Rusesabagina is once again facing off against the bad guys. Best of luck to him. (H/t The Wrap.)

* Matt Damon is doing a bit of damage control today for earlier remarks which made it sound as if he was none too happy not to be kept in the loop about the Jason Bourne-less “The Bourne Legacy.” I have absolutely no doubt that we bloggers did exaggerate the whole thing, but I’ve never seen a celebrity “badgered” at a roundtable yet. I have seen inane questions and some autograph requests, however.

Anyhow, it appears that Damon is really quite happy about the whole thing, as it leaves the door open for another Bourne film reteaming him and director Paul Greengrass. Also making progress: the Liberace film costarring Michael Douglas as the famed pianistic showman and directed by Steven Soderbergh, with Damon as Liberace’s long time lover. (Despite being one of the most flamboyantly flamboyant figures in the history of popular culture, Liberace remained in a sequin-encrusted closet his entire life.)

* More news from down-under. The critically acclaimed crime thriller “Animal Kingdom” has swept the nominations for the Australian equivalent of the Oscars. My colleague, Jason Zingale, found himself in the critical minority and wasn’t too pleased with the film. I personally thought that portions of it were overly somber, but on the whole I’m rooting for it anyway. Whatever it’s problems, it’s a very solid debut for writer-director David Michôd and I thought the last third was absolutely riveting. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing an actual Oscar-nomination for Jacki Weaver as well for her role as a crime family matriarch who’s maternal instincts take some fascinating turns.

* And, speaking of Australia, an Aussie site ran an apparently false now-deleted story relating to a gay sex plotline in the planned “Alien” prequel. Cinematical’s Eric D. Snider mines the subject for some rather amusing homosexual panic driven humor. Also at Cinematical, behold the Batman-Cat.

* “Hereafter” writer Peter Morgan — who also penned “The Queen,” the outstanding “The Damned United,” and “Frost/Nixon” — gave an unusually compelling and candid flip-cam interview to Anne Thompson. Blogging about the interview, Movieline’s S.T. Vansairdale alleges Morgan is “ready to throw director Clint Eastwood under the bus,” which might excite readers with nastier dispositions but is not at all the impression I got. That’ll show Morgan for being honest with the press.

* Are we really supposed to care who will make a movie based on the Ouija board? How about “Cutting Board: The Movie”?

* Darren Aronofsky’s movie of Max Barry’s “Machine Men” will be a cyborg tale and is drawn from a novel that’s currently only available on the interwebs on a page-per-day basis.

* I hated almost all hair bands at the time, so — much as I love a good musical — I’m not exactly chomping at the bit for the film version of “Rock of Ages.” Somehow, possibly adding Tom Cruise to the mix as a bartender does nothing for me. He may pour again, but will he ever really reign?

The action flick, about mercenaries hired ostensibly to overthrow a repressive Latin American regime, relied on the very sound box office logic that if one or two super-macho action stars could lead to reasonably dependable ticket sales even when well past their physical peak, eight very grown-up action stars (counting two superstar cameos) was more or less a sure thing. More or less as predicted by everyone, the bloody R-rated actioner earned just over an estimated $35 million for Lions Gate. So says the mighty Box Office Mojo weekend chart.

Also, while Julia Roberts is substantially younger than Stallone, the early forties are not young in actress years. Her many female fans, and the fans of the popular memoir, “Eat Pray Love,” embraced that maturity to the tune of an estimated $23.7 million for Sony. The studio spent a perhaps excessive $60 million on the flick, though the film clearly needed a star like Roberts to open like this, so her reported $10 million salary was probably worth it for the studio.

Sony had a decent weekend overall, with last weekend’s #1 film, “The Other Guys” suffering an average drop of just under 50% and earning an estimated $18 million in third place. Warner’s very leggy “Inception” held firm with an estimated $11.37 million getting into fourth place in its fifth week.

Then we have “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” The Pilgrim reception is inducing nasty flashbacks of past would be “viral” successes with its estimated $10.525 million. The film may well do better over the long run as it’s already a huge cult success, if you think about it, and the international numbers could always be different. Being “big in Japan” has certainly saved a lot of bands, why not Mr. Pilgrim?

However, it cost a not-tiny $60 million (including various credits and rebates for the Toronto-based films, says Anthony D’Allesandro) and was pretty much the talk of the Internet film geek sites for most of the summer. It also reportedly has done very well with the people who’ve actually seen it, both anecdotally and, according to Anthony D’Allesandro, according to Cinemascore. It should have done a lot better.

Behold the power of the Internet…to make fans bored with a movie before it comes out, while still leaving non-fans out in the cold.  More about this in a post to come later in the week, after the “actuals” come out. I will say I thought “Scott Pilgrim” would beat “Kick-Ass” as it theoretically should appeal to a wider audience, except that the superhero jet-black comedy actually made about $19 million on its below-expectations opening. As the man said, no one knows anything.

Meanwhile in limited release, the second highest per-screen average went to a decent opening for the intriguing Aussie crime thriller “Animal Kingdom” and “Get Low.” The folksy melodrama — which didn’t make me or anyone else in the audience I saw it with laugh much but some insist on calling a comedy drama — continues to get reasonably high at the box office despite my poor review and my delayed write-up of the press conference with charming stars/acting legends Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek, which I promise you’ll be seeing before much longer. I truly don’t see the appeal, but Oscar hopes are growing for this one. More on limited releases, as usual, at Indiewire.