Critics’ choices or Oscar predictions? BFCA announces nominations

“The single most accurate precursor to the Oscars….“. If ever it was more blatantly clear what the Broadcast Film Critics Association is actually trying to do each year, it was today when they made their nominations for the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards public. The list is filled with the usual suspects, with hardly a suprise in sight.

Perhaps the biggest snub is Amy Adams in the Best Actress category, her place taken by Short Term 12‘s Brie Larson, who keeps on popping up at these critics awards. Those predicting Adams will likely think twice now, especially since the BFCA nominated her film 13 times (tied with 12 Years A Slave), albeit a few of those were in the irrelevant Comedy categories. In fact, all three of her co-stars were nominated, including Bradley Cooper who has been more miss than hit so far with the critics.
Elsewhere, Scarlett Johansson pulled out a surprise nod in the Best Supporting Actress category for Her, probably burying any hope Octavia Spencer still had for her role in Fruitvale Station. Johansson’s voice performance has gathered her a few nominations left and right, and it’s probably one of the more riskier (if one can say that about the BFCA) choices.
Another interesting miss is Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf Of Wall Street, being passed over in favor of Christian Bale in American Hustle. The ‘underseen’ argument can’t be used here, because his film was nominated in Picture and Director. Or was this just the BFCA prognosticating it to be strong enough by January 16th to get those nods, but not DiCaprio?
Elsewhere, the only thing really of note is perhaps Dallas Buyers Club making it into the Best Picture lineup, and the absence of any Harvey Weinstein backed film in the same category. Otherwise, these tell us virtually nothing, in part because of the six-nominee nomination fields in the big categories. Most of us have whittled most categories down to six or seven by now…..

Discuss these nominations with us on our forums.

BEST PICTURE
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Saving Mr. Banks
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuarón – Gravity
Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips
Spike Jonze – Her
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
David O. Russell – American Hustle
Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale – American Hustle
Bruce Dern – Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave
Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips
Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford – All Is Lost

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Judi Dench – Philomena
Brie Larson – Short Term 12
Meryl Streep – August: Osage County
Emma Thompson – Saving Mr. Banks

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips
Daniel Brühl – Rush
Bradley Cooper – American Hustle
Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave
James Gandolfini – Enough Said
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Scarlett Johansson – Her
Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts – August: Osage County
June Squibb – Nebraska
Oprah Winfrey – Lee Daniels’ The Butler

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Asa Butterfield – Ender’s Game
Adèle Exarchopoulos – Blue Is the Warmest Color
Liam James – The Way Way Back
Sophie Nélisse – The Book Thief
Tye Sheridan – Mud

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
American Hustle
August: Osage County
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Nebraska
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
August: Osage County
Before Midnight
Captain Phillips
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
American Hustle
Blue Jasmine
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska

BEST ART DIRECTION
Gravity
The Great Gatsby
Her
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
12 Years a Slave

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Prisoners
12 Years a Slave

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
American Hustle
The Great Gatsby
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Saving Mr. Banks
12 Years a Slave

BEST EDITING
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Rush
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST MAKEUP
American Hustle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Rush
12 Years a Slave

BEST SCORE
Gravity
Her
Saving Mr. Banks
12 Years a Slave

BEST SONG
Atlas from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Happy from Despicable Me 2
Let It Go from Frozen
Ordinary Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Please Mr. Kennedy from Inside Llewyn Davis
Young and Beautiful from The Great Gatsby

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Star Trek into Darkness

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Frozen
Monsters University
The Wind Rises

BEST ACTION MOVIE
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Iron Man 3
Lone Survivor
Rush
Star Trek into Darkness

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Henry Cavill – Man of Steel
Robert Downey Jr. – Iron Man 3
Brad Pitt – World War Z
Mark Wahlberg – Lone Survivor

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Evangeline Lilly – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Gwyneth Paltrow – Iron Man 3

BEST COMEDY
American Hustle
Enough Said
The Heat
This Is the End
The Way Way Back
The World’s End

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Christian Bale – American Hustle
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
James Gandolfini – Enough Said
Simon Pegg – The World’s End
Sam Rockwell – The Way Way Back

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Amy Adams – American Hustle
Sandra Bullock – The Heat
Greta Gerwig – Frances Ha
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Enough Said
Melissa McCarthy – The Heat

BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
The Conjuring
Gravity
Star Trek into Darkness
World War Z

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Blue Is the Warmest Color
The Great Beauty
The Hunt
The Past
Wadjda

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Act of Killing
Blackfish
Stories We Tell
Tim’s Vermeer
20 Feet from Stardom