Category: Precursors
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Precursor: 19th Toronto Critics – Canadian Film (2015)
After announcing their nominations and then their winners, there was one prize left to award and it went as follows. It will have zero impact on the Oscars. The Awards Best Canadian Film The Forbidden Room Toronto Film Critics Association Data First Awards: 1997 (19)
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Precursor: 27th Producers Guild Nominations (2015)
There’s about to be an explosion on the internet based on three major exclusions from this year’s PGA nominations. This will be led by Star Wars: The Force Awakens fans who will discover that their film is NOT among the PGA Best Picture nominees even though everyone felt fairly certain it would be here. That…
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Precursor: 20th Art Directors Guild Nominations (2015)
What to make of these nominations? The period category has a number of surprises including the omissions of both Carol and Brooklyn. It should come as little surprise that Crimson Peak showed up, but if The Danish Girl, why not those other more quaintly crafted pieces? Another entry not here that should have been considering…
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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 6
As the precursor awards continue unabated until Oscar night, I’m going to be providing a weekly update highlighting the films that have won and lost momentum through the precursor awards (and in some cases other outside influences). With only the National Society of Film Critics revealing their selections by the time I had to get…
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Precursor: 55th American Cinema Editors Nominations (2015)
The American Cinema Editors have announced their nominees for the best edited films of the year. Once again, small, deliberately paced films are largely forgotten while big action spectacles are given prominent placement. They split out comedy editing because of the different constraints. Maybe it’s time to pull action films out into their own category.…
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Precursor: 50th National Society of Film Critics Awards (2015)
Another award for Spotlight carried without its director, who almost won the balloting, but failed to appear on a majority of ballots. Other than that, this group’s appreciation for Creed is a bit surprising and the closeness of the races is evinced by the fact that only three categories had a hefty number of points…
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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 5
As the precursor awards continue unabated until Oscar night, I’m going to be providing a weekly update highlighting the films that have won and lost momentum through the precursor awards (and in some cases other outside influences). A smattering of stragglers have polished off their choices in the last week, but the critics section of…
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Precursor: 9th Houston Critics Nominations (2015)
I’m not sure when these were announced as the Houston Film Critics website is one of the most poorly controlled sites any critics organization uses. I found these by happenstance while looking at their list on IMDb. As to the nominees themselves, there are few insights here other than the horrid tendency to classify co-lead…
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Precursor: 19th Florida Critics Awards (2015)
Chalk up another win for the post-apocalyptic critics’ fave Mad Max: Fury Road. This list looks an awful lot like a lot of other lists lately, just structured slightly differently. There’s nothing inherently good or bad about that, just more of the same. Award Tallies (4) Mad Max: Fury Road (2) Love & Mercy, Spotlight…
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Precursor: 16th Vancouver Critics Awards (2015)
The Vancouver Critics have named their list of the best films of 2015. They will reveal their awards for the best in Canadian films at their awards in January. The status quo was restored with Spotlight winning Best Picture and Mad Max: Fury Road taking Best Director. The most unusual thing about this list is…
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Precursor: 15th Phoenix Critics Awards (2015)
Spotlight picks up another Best Picture win from the Phoenix Film Critics, but does so with only Best Ensemble to go with it. Taking Best Director is Ridley Scott with his first win since the National Board of Review at the top of the season. The rest of the selections, with the exception of Best…
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Precursor: 14th Utah Critics Awards (2015)
Utah Critics love their genre films, awarding only The Revenant, Room and Creed in the main categories with the runners-up all largely hailing from genres other than Academy-friendly dramas. While there weren’t many really unusual selections, two stick out. The first is Rose Byrne’s win for Spy, a movie I wholeheartedly support. The second is…
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Precursor: 19th Florida Critics Nominations (2015)
Topping another set of nominations, Carol edged out Mad Max: Fury Road by one nomination. Ex Machina and Spotlight did fairly well. One of the few critics groups to announce after Star Wars: The Force Awakens released gave it three nominations, but only in the tech categories (plus a Best Breakthrough nomination). There are really…
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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 4
As the precursor awards continue unabated until Oscar night, I’m going to be providing a weekly update highlighting the films that have won and lost momentum through the precursor awards (and in some cases other outside influences). The critics awards deluge is now over with only a small handful left to announce. This means that…
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Precursor: 49th Kansas City Critics Awards (2015)
Another prize for Mad Max: Fury Road, so far the only film to be giving Spotlight a run for its money this season. More love for DiCaprio proving the studio should have screened it sooner and he might have had a much larger consensus. Michael Shannon and Alicia Vikander are also proving formidable, but which…
