You would not believe the sheer volume of critics awards that are about to come at you. For our purposes, the most important critics are: the New York Film Critics, the National Board of Review, the Los Angeles Film Critics, the National Society of Film Critics, the AFI’s Top Ten and the Broadcast Film Critics. You could maybe add Chicago and Boston if you wanted to. The other groups mostly serve to form a critical consensus but these really are the big ones. As they come in, there will be a certain point where people stop caring. I can’t really tell when that point happens but jokes will be made at the expense of the smaller groups because by then it will seem like everyone and their brother and their mother had critics awards to announce. Essentially these groups are all pretty much the same people rescrambled in a different order.
Either way, this weekend, believe it or not, Los Angeles makes their big statement. Last year they opted, as did New York and the National Society, not to award the best reviewed film of the year, 12 Years a Slave, going instead for a tie between Gravity and Her. They stepped outside the box a bit with James Franco for Spring Breakers… remember that? Bruce Dern won Best Actor while Cate Blanchett won Best Actress.
This year, there will be some speculation, I’m sure, as to which direction they will go. I would expect them to go for Birdman, Boyhood or something outside the consensus, like Under the Skin or even something foreign, like Ida. You just never know how those wacky voting members will go.
Tomorrow, the Boston Critics Online announce their awards. Sunday, LAFCA and Boston, plus New York Film Critics online. Monday the AFI announces. After that, the bigger announcements of the SAG awards and the Golden Globes. We will be putting up a contest for LAFCA and AFI in just a little while.
In the meantime, here is a great rundown of the coming awards from Maverick’s Movies:
Saturday, December 6th- Washington DC Area Film Critics Award Nominations
Sunday, December 7th – Los Angeles Film Critics Awards
Sunday, December 7th- British Independent Film Awards
Sunday, December 7th- Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
Sunday, December 7th- New York Film Critics Online Awards
Monday, December 8th- AFI Top 10 List Announced
Monday, December 8th- Washington DC Area Film Critics Awards
Monday, December 8th- Online Film Critics Society Nominations
Wednesday, December 10th – SAG Awards Nominations Announced at 6 AM PT
Thursday, December 11 – Golden Globe Nominations Announced at 5 AM PT
Friday, December 12- Detroit Film Critics Society Nominees
Friday, December 12- African American Film Critics Association Awards
Sunday, December 14th- San Francisco Film Critics Awards
Sunday, December 14th- Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards
Monday, December 15th – Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Nominations
Monday, December 15th- Online Film Critics Society Awards
Monday, December 15th- Chicago Film Critics Awards
Monday, December 15th- Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Awards
Tuesday, December 16th- Toronto Film Critics Awards
Wednesday, December 17th- Black Reel Award Nominations
Thursday, December 18th- Utah Film Critics Awards
Friday, December 19th- Detroit Film Critics Society Awards
Friday, December 19th- Florida Film Critics Society Awards
I’ll keep updating as I learn more.
San diego yes usually makes surprise choices. DC usually makes choices close to oscar noms so it’ll be interesting to see who they choose today
I like Reno’s list. 🙂 *waves*
Thanks Al!
Reno, yeah, I was thinking, who’s “Roar”?. Anyway, welcome back. 🙂
Oops, wrong username on my previous post, the one with the Gravatar seen here, I was at LAX & the Katy Perry song was playing, & I hate that song (or subconsciously love it, yikes!)
Oops, wrong username on my previous post
fixed! wb, Reno!
I really could see LA going with Scarlett Johannson for Under the Skin, or Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night (which will really give her a boost). Maybe Anne Dorval or Gugu Mbatha-Raw for both Belle & Beyond the Lights. Their actress choices are generally a little more off-beat.
Actor I’m going with Steve Carell for Foxcatcher. J.K. Simmons/Whiplash for supporting actor. Patricia Arquette for supporting actress.
Inherent Vice for best picture and P.T. Anderson for best director. They LOVE him.
Steve, yw! I believe #7 refers to a film by German painter and photographer Sigmar Polke shown at a MoMA retrospective on the man, so not seeing that one anytime soon. One of a handful of critics I’ve consistently favored since I started paying attention to reviews; incredibly depressing that he’s not writing for a major outlet, however every year he manages to include something that causes me heartburn — last year it was LEVIATHAN (’12), let’s see if the trend continues.
Love Hoberman’s list! (Thanks, Bryce)
Now there’s an “in your face” if I ever saw one. Any list that contains Godard, PTAs Pynchon, Robin Wright/The Congress, Cronenberg and Die Farbe, not to mention a TV series and a boxed set? The man’s on a mission.
Last year he named Gravity, then pulled the rug out with the rest of his list.
Bloody hell! J Hoberman’s Top 10 is here!!! I can’t even…words fail me.
1. GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE
2. INHERENT VICE
3. IDA
4. THE AMERICANS (TV)
5. UNDER THE SKIN
6. THE MARX BROTHERS TV COLLECTION
7. DIE FARBE
8. SNOWPIERCER
9. THE CONGRESS
10. MAPS TO THE STARS
I just love the LA Film Critics Association! Of the larger critics organization, they have shown the most balls in choosing their top categories.
In 1985 they awarded Terry Gilliam’s absolutely briliiant “Brazil” the Best Film of that year . . . a movie that is timeless, profound, extremely relevant, powerful . . . and was a fantastical science fiction film with humor (remember Jim Broadbent pulling back Katherine Helmond’s skin in the facelift scene?) and horror (remember the doll-face ending?). When LAFC did THAT, I knew that they were a group I would pay attention to for years to come. And I have.
Of the minor critics organizations, I have to say that I always look forward to San Diego Film Critics and San Francisco Film Critics choices. No, I’m not from California, but these two organizations seem to always choose awards that I think are inspiring: Tilda Swinton (“We Need to Talk About Kevin”), Michael Shannon (“Take Shelter”), Vanessa Redgrave (“Coriolanus” and “Anonymous”) to name but a few.
What will LAFC choose this year? I really hope they go out on a limb and choose something different. I think “Boyhood” will get its fair share of “Bests” this year, but I would like to see them stretch a little beyond that box . . . how about Colin Firth for “The Railway Man” and Tilda Swinton in “Snowpiercer” for starters?
I’m picking Cotillard and Spall for LA. I wouldn’t be surprised at Inherent Vice and Inarritu winning. Danny, your last comment about the mumbler cracked me up. Thanks.
You know what this awards season needs to push it over the top? Ryan Gosling. Where is that handsome, talented mumbler?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, screw Christmas! Awards season is the gift that keeps on giving. This week is probably going to cause me to lose my mind but I’m so excited. Almost every day we get awards or nominations! Now I’ve got award show parties to plan!
Hi guys, my first post for the season, Oscar & Christmas seasons, & coincidentally I’m here in tinsel town LA, the center of it all! I did pay pilgrimage to the Dolby & Mann Chinese theaters, no star sightings there but I did see Tom Bergeron later in the Grove.
OK, so, by fave pics by far:
1. Interstellar
2. Birdman
3. Whiplash
4. Boyhood
5. Gone Girl
6. Night crawler
7. Fury
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel
9. Guardians of the Galaxy
Still lots to see though, Selma, Unbroken, Imitation Game, A Most Violent Year, foreign languages & docs. The movie that disappointed was The Theory of Everything, I felt everything was superficial, that despite the title, they didn’t let us in on his theories, even on his atheism, I just found it really uninteresting, A Beautiful Mind 2.0 but less interesting. I saw this before Interstellar & what I missed in Theory, I found them all in Interstellar, another mind blowing discombobulating experience for me just like Inception, yeah Christopher Nolan is God’s gift to me! When I went to Mann’s Chinese Theater the tour guide there mentioned how Nolan screened Interstellar there multiple times just to get the right specs for IMAX. Brilliant, cerebral, absolutely fantastic, I hope it gets more love come January than what it’s getting now. Whiplash was a huge surprise, it gripped my heart from the opening beats & did not relent til the end credits. And Birdman or: the Michael Keaton biopic starring Michael Keaton is without a doubt amazing in all aspects.
My picks for the top awards:
Director: Nolan
Actor: Michael Keaton
Actress: Rosamund Pike
Supp Actor: JK Simmons
Supp Actress: Patricia Arquette
Selma has been withheld from the Sag Nominating Committee. I know ’cause I’m on it. Same with Interstellar. We’ve obviously gotten invites to a few screenings of them along the way, but nothing in the way of screeners. Don’t know what’s up with Paramount.
“Is there any film like that this year, that you already know of? Somehow the screeners haven’t gone out, or the studio is keeping it under wraps until tomorrow, or something?”
I’ve read reports that Selma may not have been able to get SAG screeners out in time. Not sure if this is true or not.
I’ve read reports that Selma may not have been able to get SAG screeners out in time.
I too have it on good authority that SELMA screeners won’t be ready till mid-December.
pseudo-cinephilic/quasi-fanboyistic Empire magazine put together a rather respectable Top 50
Here’s their Top 10
1. BOYHOOD
2. NIGHTCRAWLER
3. WOLF OF WALL STREET
4. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
5. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
6. EDGE OF TOMORROW
7. GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
8. WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS
9. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
10. HER
And the rest http://www.empireonline.com/features/50-best-films-2014/
I AM SUPER FREAKING EXCITED!!!!!
Sasha – you know how every year after these, some of us here point to one of the snubbed films coming out at the end of the year and say “Oh, well, they probably haven’t seen _______ yet” ?
Is there any film like that this year, that you already know of? Somehow the screeners haven’t gone out, or the studio is keeping it under wraps until tomorrow, or something?
I just want to head off the “No one has actually seen Selma” or “No way they saw American Sniper” people at the pass……..
LCBASEBALL22 : GO ‘HAWKS!
Holy crap – are critics groups breeding? not getting much done this weekend I can see.
LA is gonna go Inherent Vice or Nightcrawler and a foreign film actress in Lead, either Anne or one of the women from Ida.
Holy cow. GIRLHOOD. GIRLHOOD. GIRLHOOD!!
How in the world am I supposed to come up with a Top 50? My favorite year since 2011?
GIRLHOOD. PALO ALTO. WE ARE THE BEST!
Let’s not forget that the Utah Film Critics are a bunch of racist hillbillies and ought to be shot at dawn, and that the entire fucking internet ought to latch onto tiny, flippant, insignificant words and phrases and condemn those who wrote them and all associated with them until the end of time.
“Sasha…why is FURY not on your list of BP when NBR included FURY in their top 10 BP list?”
Probably because A) the NBR is a joke of an organization that tends to put several crappy movies like The Bucket List and The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty on their top 10 each year, B) because Fury has no chance in hell of getting anywhere near the Oscars whatsoever (aside from a few tech categories MAYBE) and C) because this is the time of year to be whittling DOWN the list, not tacking random names onto it.
LCBaseball22: As a Philadelphian, I sure hope the Eagles make a mess of the former champs. 🙂 Speaking of which, Sasha, any idea why Philadelphia doesn’t announce critics awards yearly? Seems strange for such a big city whereas places like Iowa and Indiana announce every year.
Anywho, I think Los Angeles will go with the obvious pick of Boyhood or Inherent Vice since they’ve been very kind (for good reason) to PTA in the past. I’m really hoping Birdman takes best film from one of the holy trinity (NYFCC, LAFCA, NSFC) since it’s far and away my top film of the year so far.
Sasha…why is FURY not on your list of BP when NBR included FURY in their top 10 BP list?
Sasha…why is FURY not on your list of BP when NBR included FURY in their top 10 BP list?
I’ve been wondering about Fury all year actually. Ironically Fury is sort of on the level of (though better than) Unbroken. It was named by the NBR so that Brad Pitt and Angelina would both be at their awards show – that will probably be a pattern throughout the season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fury didn’t make it into the Globes noms for that reason…
OMG, I might as well just make this site my homepage for the next two months then.
Sasha. . Thank you for the list.
Should be fun. I’ve been trying to get in Boston Online, but haven’t heard back about applying. Anyone have any ideas? @hoglundan
LOL, along with watching the Seahawks run over the Eagles this weekend I am looking forward to this, though moreso looking forward to the AFI Top 10 on Monday.
It’s all this stuff I like WAY BETTER than Christmas. These are my presents. Awards season. Boo-ya!! 🙂