Few awards shows have as strong a pedigree of mirroring the eventual Oscar nominees as the Critic's Choice Awards, the show by the critics, for the critics, and also probably some people who actually care what film critics have to say anymore.
While they don't always bat a thousand, it's hard to imagine a world in which this year's multiple nominees, which include The Artist, The Descendants, and The Help don't end up with pretty much the same list of nominations across the board come Academy Awards time. Drive I am perhaps a bit more skeptical about, just because the Academy has a notorious dislike for anything involving skull crushing and Albert Brooks, but nonetheless, it is nice to see one of my favorites for the year win nominations for categories like Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director.
In fact, I'm going to come right out and say that this Best Supporting Actor nominees list is the coolest goddamned Best Supporting Actor nominees list ever. Apart from including the wonderfully evil Brooks, it also includes Patton Oswalt for his remarkably sweet and funny turn in Young Adult, AND Andy Serkis, for his monkey simulating motion-capture performance in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I don't expect the Academy to respond in kind on either of these nominations, but dammit, it's pretty cool that somebody gave these guys the nod.
Check out the full list below, and start keeping mental tabs on which categories you think The Help will eventually win at the Oscars. Because it's going to win them all, you see. How could it not? It has white people curing racism! Then again, I suppose there is Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close to contend with. That has a precocious boy discovering the world AND 9/11-related healing! Talk about a ringer...
BEST PICTURE
- The Artist
- The Descendants
- Drive
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
- The Help
- Hugo
- Midnight in Paris
- Moneyball
- The Tree of Life
- War Horse
BEST ACTOR
- George Clooney - The Descendants
- Leonardo DiCaprio - J. Edgar
- Jean Dujardin - The Artist
- Michael Fassbender - Shame
- Ryan Gosling - Drive
- Brad Pitt - Moneyball
BEST ACTRESS
- Viola Davis - The Help
- Elizabeth Olsen - Martha Marcy May Marlene
- Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
- Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin
- Charlize Theron - Young Adult
- Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Kenneth Branagh - My Week With Marilyn
- Albert Brooks - Drive
- Nick Nolte - Warrior
- Patton Oswalt - Young Adult
- Christopher Plummer - Beginners
- Andrew Serkis - Rise of the Planet of the Apes
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Berenice Bejo - The Artist
- Jessica Chastain - The Help
- Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
- Carey Mulligan - Shame
- Octavia Spencer - The Help
- Shailene Woodley - The Descendants
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
- Asa Butterfield - Hugo
- Elle Fanning - Super 8
- Thomas Horn - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
- Ezra Miller - We Need to Talk About Kevin
- Saoirse Ronan - Hanna
- Shailene Woodley - The Descendants
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
- The Artist
- Bridesmaids
- The Descendants
- The Help
- The Ides of March
BEST DIRECTOR
- Stephen Daldry - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
- Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
- Alexander Payne - The Descendants
- Nicolas Winding Refn - Drive
- Martin Scorsese - Hugo
- Steven Spielberg - War Horse
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
- The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
- 50/50 - Will Reiser
- Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
- Win Win - Screenplay by Tom McCarthy, Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni
- Young Adult - Diablo Cody
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
- The Descendants - Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Eric Roth
- The Help - Tate Taylor
- Hugo - John Logan
- Moneyball - Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Story by Stan Chervin
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
- The Artist - Guillaume Schiffman
- Drive - Newton Thomas Sigel
- Hugo - Robert Richardson
- The Tree of Life - Emmanuel Lubezki
- War Horse - Janusz Kaminski
BEST ART DIRECTION
- The Artist - Production Designer: Laurence Bennett, Art Director: Gregory S. Hooper
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Production Designer: Stuart Craig, Set Decorator: Stephenie McMillan
- Hugo - Production Designer: Dante Ferretti, Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo
- The Tree of Life - Production Designer: Jack Fisk, Art Director: David Crank
- War Horse - Production Designer: Rick Carter, Set Decorator: Lee Sandales
BEST EDITING
- The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius and Anne-Sophie Bion
- Drive - Matthew Newman
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
- Hugo - Thelma Schoonmaker
- War Horse - Michael Kahn
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
- The Artist - Mark Bridges
- The Help - Sharen Davis
- Hugo - Sandy Powell
- Jane Eyre - Michael O’Connor
- My Week With Marilyn - Jill Taylor
BEST MAKEUP
- Albert Nobbs
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
- The Iron Lady
- J. Edgar
- My Week With Marilyn
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
- Hugo
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Super 8
- The Tree of Life
BEST SOUND
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
- Hugo
- Super 8
- The Tree of Life
- War Horse
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
BEST ACTION MOVIE
- Drive
- Fast Five
- Hanna
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Super 8
BEST COMEDY
- Bridesmaids
- Crazy, Stupid, Love
- Horrible Bosses
- Midnight in Paris
- The Muppets
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
- In Darkness
- Le Havre
- A Separation
- The Skin I Live In
- Where Do We Go Now
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
- Buck
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams
- George Harrison: Living in the Material World
- Page One: Inside the New York Times
- Project Nim
- Undefeated
BEST SCORE
- The Artist - Ludovic Bource
- Drive - Cliff Martinez
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
- Hugo - Howard Shore
- War Horse - John Williams
BEST SONG
- “Hello Hello” - performed by Elton John and Lady Gaga/written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin -Gnomeo & Juliet
- “Life’s a Happy Song” - performed by Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Walter/written by Bret McKenzie - The Muppets
- “The Living Proof” - performed by Mary J. Blige/written by Mary J. Blige, Thomas Newman and Harvey Mason, Jr. - The Help
- “Man or Muppet” - performed by Jason Segel and Walter/written by Bret McKenzie - The Muppets
- “Pictures in My Head” - performed by Kermit and the Muppets/written by Jeannie Lurie, Aris Archontis and Chen Neeman - The Muppets
Really hope that Serkis gets another nomination come February, he carried RotPotA (god damn that title's long).
The Help was GARBAGE who the hell walked away thinking, "you know what, that was an impressive piece of film-making" Arggghhhhh
P.S. Really happy to see Andy Serkis on that Supporting Actor list
Curious why Girl with the Dragon Tattoo didn't get more nominations.
On the bright side, The Muppets got three song noms!!! "Everything is great, everything is grand..." :)
Happy to see Hanna on there a couple of times.
I'm also surprised by the lack of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo up there, but Trent Reznor's score is there so all is right in the world.
Loving the Drive love.
But do the filmmakers have to be in the SAGs or WGAs to get nominated? Like where is Melancholia (Kirsten Dunst's Oscar-worthy performance, Best Cinematography) or Take Shelter (Michael Shannon's Oscar-worthy performance, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Cinematography), arguably two of the best movies released this year.
And why isn't Arrietty nominated for Best Animated Film? Puss In Boots, really? Is it because not enough people saw it, not released in US, or relegated to Foreign Films? But then Spirited Away won the Oscar a decade ago.
@AssInAss: Arietty isn't getting a US release until next year. It'll qualify under next year's banner.
I have seen barely any of this year's critical best. I missed my chance to watch Tree of Life and the smattering of more recent hits (Shame, The Artist etc.) haven't landed here in Ireland yet.
I've got me some movie watching to do.
@Alex said:
Damn, that sucks for US audiences (saw it in July in UK) and weird that Studio Ghibli wouldn't bring it forward for an Oscar push. One of the best films this year, bawled my eyes out at the ending.
As with many others, I am curious why there aren't more Dragon Tattoo nominations. Oh well, at least editing and Reznor get their nods. The opening credits should win a fucking award as well.
Nice list! Haven't seen Shame yet but I'm glad to see Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan get nominations. Hopefully Drive will be able to carry a good few of these nominations over to Oscar season
While I am glad to see Andrew Serkis anywhere on the list, I can't help but wonder how Caesar is a supporting character not a lead?
That's a pretty good list. Good to see some Drive love, and glad The Muppets is on there, too. I still need to check out Young Adult, the Descendants, and The Artist, but those look to deserve their nominations.
Drive deserves such acknowledgement; it's easily my favourite film of this year.
Drive should win most of the categories it is in
First thing I did was search for "The Muppets". Was not disappointed.
these are actually more meaningful than the Oscars.