Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) Nominations

The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association revealed their nominations today and at first glance they seem pretty normal and expected but if you dig a bit deeper you’ll find some exciting nominations in the form of Scarlett Johansson in Best Actress (for Under the Skin), Andy Serkis in Best Supporting Actor (for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) Tilda Swinton in Best Supporting Actress (for Snowpiercer). Swinton has started this early critics season strongly, with mentions at the Boston Online Film Critics Society as well. Could it be a trend? Probably not, we see 2nd and 3rd tier critics groups make some risky choices that allow them to stand out amongst the crowd of critics groups who are really just trying to be Oscar predictors.

In Best Actor Steve Carell (Foxcatcher) was snubbed in favor of recent National Board of Review winner Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year) and Whiplash faired extremely well with the group, netting nominations for Best Film and Best Director (Damien Chazelle). The Grand Budapest Hotel received 5 nominations including Best Original Screenplay and Best Acting Ensemble. Birdman faired the best, with 11 nominations.

The list:

Best Film
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
Gone Girl
Selma
Whiplash

Best Director
Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)
Ava DuVernay (Selma)
David Fincher (Gone Girl)
Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Richard Linklater (Boyhood)

Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year)
Michael Keaton (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
David Oyelowo (Selma)
Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

Best Actress
Scarlett Johansson (Under the Skin)
Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

Best Supporting Actor
Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
Edward Norton (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
Andy Serkis (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)
J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year)
Laura Dern (Wild)
Emma Stone (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer)

Best Acting Ensemble
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Selma

Best Youth Performance
Ellar Coltrane (Boyhood)
Mackenzie Foy (Interstellar)
Jaeden Lieberher (St. Vincent)
Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Noah Wiseman (The Babadook)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
Graham Moore (The Imitation Game)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Inherent Vice)
Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything)
Nick Hornby (Wild)

Best Original Screenplay
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (The LEGO Movie)
Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The LEGO Movie

Best Documentary
Citizenfour
Jodorowsky’s Dune
Last Days in Vietnam
Life Itself
The Overnighters

Best Foreign Language Film
Force Majeure
Ida
Mommy
Two Days, One Night
Wild Tales

Best Art Direction
Production Designer: Kevin Thompson, Set Decorator: George DeTitta Jr., SDSA (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Production Designer: Adam Stockhausen, Set Decorator: Anna Pinnock (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Production Designer: Nathan Crowley, Set Decorator: Gary Fettis (Interstellar)
Production Designer: Dennis Gassner, Set Decorator: Anna Pinnock (Into the Woods)
Production Designer: Ondrej Nekvasil, Set Decorator: Beatrice Brentnerova (Snowpiercer)

Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Robert Yeoman, ASC (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Hoyte Van Hoytema, FSF, NSC (Interstellar)
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (Unbroken)
Daniel Landin, BSC (Under the Skin)

Best Editing
Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione, ACE (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Sandra Adair, ACE (Boyhood)
Kirk Baxter, ACE (Gone Girl)
Lee Smith, ACE (Interstellar)
Tom Cross (Whiplash)

Best Original Score
Antonio Sanchez (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (Gone Girl)
Hans Zimmer (Interstellar)
Jóhann Jóhannsson (The Theory of Everything)
Mica Levi (Under the Skin)

The Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, DC
Anita
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Kill the Messenger
Selma
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Totals:

Birdman – 11
Boyhood – 8
Gone Girl – 6
The Grand Budapest Hotel – 5
Interstellar – 5
Selma – 5
Whiplash – 5
The Theory of Everything – 4
Wild – 3
The Imitation Game – 2
Into the Woods – 2
A Most Violent Year – 2

The 2014 WAFCA Award WINNERS will be announced at 8AM ET on Monday, December 8, 2014.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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