BEST FILM
The Artist
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
BEST ACTOR
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter
BEST ACTRESS
Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Terence Malick, The Tree of Life
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
The Interrupters
Nostalgia for the Light
Project Nim
Surviving Progress
BEST SCREENPLAY
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants
Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Separation
Poetry
The Kid with a Bike
Except for Supporting Actress, they echo the Critics trends so far almost exactly.
Vancouver Film Critics have Canadian categories, but Sasha didn’t include it for some reason. In fact, Michelle Williams got a second nomination from them in the CDN category for Take This Waltz.
Also, Golden Ram I don’t know if you live in Vancouver but if you do, all of these films have been released around the same time it did in the US.
I haven’t seen Shame yet, but from as much as I’ve read, and seen of the all the trailers, I’m sure hoping that Fassbender and Mulligan receive Oscar nominations and wins. They must have both given truly brave performances.
Up against the Hollywood establishment, and the clout of the box office stars, it’s usually who you know and not what you know.
Perhaps we will be surprised this year.
LOL. She did…AWFUL! She’s overrated and a better world this performance wouldn’t be even close for a nomination. Did you see the other contenders? Than you know what I’m talking about.
Now see Viola Davis wasn’t awful in The Help. In fact she did a pretty decent interpration of what she was given to work with. The quality of the performance isn’t determined just by the actor but mainly by the screenplay. You can only do so much with a character that really was unexplored and sacrificed to three more interesting actors, Spencer, Chastain and to a limited degree Sissy Spacek. Someone had to balance the “inmates let loose from the asylum” and that’s what Davis does. She’s the anchor, a rather lack lustre anchor but the anchor for the others to shine. The director had a clear vision here and I think that Taylor got what he wanted. He was able to keep Davis’s character in check and keep your interest by throwing three intereting characters at you at different times to keep the film from becoming boredom extraordinaire. You almost forget that Emma Stone is in the film at all because like Davis Stone is regulated to a one note performance as well.
Also, there are seven other Canadian categories we ought not to overlook…
http://screenonscreen.blogspot.com/2012/01/vancouver-film-critics-circle.html
What I mean is…for the most part, few of these films are Canadian!!!
Technically, The Kid with a Bike isn’t a foreign language film here…;)
Where is Clooney in all of this?
On a sidenote I think if either Rooney Mara or Charlize Theron can squeeze into the fifth spot, it will be a fight for the death.
So good list without the awful Viola Davis.
Oops, sorry, somebody else already wrote the same thing, I didn’t see that!
In response to one of the comments earlier, not counting the docs and foreign films, every one of these films has played or is currently playing commercially in Vancouver, with the exception of The Iron Lady which opens soon. Not that it matters as critics receive screeners anyway as someone else posted.
Thank God! No Hugo, War Horse, Clooney or The Help. Its good to see a more narrow list.
Im sad with Tilda Swinton not nominated though
Gee, War Horse and Hugo not nominated for Best Picture, how did that happen?
Where is Charlize Theron in Young Adult??? this is one of the most brave terrific performance of the year, i don’t know if it was screnned yet in Canada, if it was this is so unfair, she is one of the most deserving, im getting tired of some so we have one who get nominated every damn year they decided to put her in the front runners months ago if not a year before watching the screenings?? why, oh well because it’s her that’s it that how it goes, and then we got that mediocre performance of Close, seriously if Close will get the 5th spot for that horrible movie and medicore performance over Theron performance in Young Adult, i will not watch the ceremony it will lost all credibilty.
Yessss Shailene Woodley!
All of those besides the foreign ones (and I’m not sure about all the documentaries) have played or are playing in Vancouver except for The Iron Lady, I saw most of them. The Artist has been playing for a while, Beginners and Take Shelter were both here a while back.
The Artist!!! USA!!!
No, wait?
Saw the Artist last week, enjoyable for a few minutes, but overall I am not understanding the hype. Story was commonplace and wasn’t even executed that well. Descendants all the way!
Strange that Scorsese is up for Best Director but Hugo not nominated for Best Picture. Vice versa for The Descendants.
hopefully the winners list looks like this :
picture – tree of life
director – terrence malick
actor – michael shannon
actress – meryl streep
supporting actor – albert brooks
supporting actress – jessica chastain
screenplay – moneyball
documentary – project nim
foreign language – poetry
@GoldenRam, I saw ‘Tree of Life’ in Vancouver…
@Blue Since when is ‘The Artist’ an American Film? It’s a French film.
GoldenRam, ‘The Artist’ is playing in Vancouver for a few weeks at Fifth Avenue and International Village. I am even going to see it tomorrow.
‘Take Shelter’ was blink-and-you-miss-it. I saw it on the marquee at Granville 7 and the next thing that I knew, it was gone.
@GoldenRam: Beginners played in June and Take Shelter in October – you have to be quick on your feet in Vancouver; blink, and you miss. No Separation, yet, sadly.
“I love how the Canadian film critics only choose American films.” Harsh. I love how Canadian choose films based on quality, not on the flag stitched to its ass.
Seems strange they don’t have a Canadian Film category
Just saying….I was actually shocked when my friends couldn’t find a theater that plays Artist in…New York! There are only 2 screens apparently playing it now. Can a movie really win a BP with a $5 mill domestic BO? And it won’t screen in Vancouver or Central Ohio anytime soon. Neither will Take Shelter or Beginners.
I agree, I would substitute Mulligan for McCarthy. Also interesting that The Help is not among the nominees.
GoldenRam: the local PR firms handling the respective studios would have been sure to invite these voting critics to press screenings and/or send them DVD screeners, regardless of when the films are opening commercially in the Vancouver area.
Pretty sure none of these films have played in Vancouver…
Good to see that there is still some love for Olsen out there…(though I have given up hope on her oscar prospects weeks ago)…
Ditto!
They do have one Canadian nominee, though: Surviving Progress.
And Plummer sorta counts. (I’ll take what we can get!)
I love how the Canadian film critics only choose American films.
Where are Brad Pitt and Tilda Swinton?
Pretty good overall, right?
yay Melissa ! Get that nomination girl!
Have to disagree with McCarthy over Mulligan.