Category: Precursors
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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…
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Precursor: 10th St. Louis Critics Awards (2015)
In spite of the down-ballot collapse of Spotlight, it continues to take prize after prize as Best Picture. This is evinced by the fact that the St. Louis critics gave the film their top prize. Seemingly a new trend is emerging with Tom McCarthy picking up companion Best Director prizes, which he hasn’t been successful…
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Precursor: 16th Vancouver Critics Nominations (2015)
Vancouver announced their nominees a week earlier than expected. The Revenant was the top nominee, scoring three citations including Best Picture and Director along with Best Actor. Without tech awards, Mad Max: Fury Road only managed two. Vancouver also gives out prizes for Canadian films. On that side, Room, which scored only two in the…
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Precursor: 5th Nevada Critics Awards (2015)
In the wee hours of this morning, another group announced. The awards were divvied out mainly to three films, Best Film winner Spotlight, which wasn’t the best directed film. That honor went to The Revenant, which was also the best shot film with two of the best performances. Ex Machina also performed well. Is this…
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Precursor: 19th Las Vegas Critics Awards (2015)
Another win for Spotlight along with three other awards, including a rare win for director Tom McCarthy. Mad Max: Fury Road took mostly tech awards to tie Spotlight for most prizes while many of the other selections have become standard for this season resulting in no genuine surprises. Award Tallies (4) Mad Max: Fury Road,…
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Precursor: 28th Chicago Critics Awards (2015)
A huge night for George Miller as his reboot of Mad Max: Fury Road commanded five awards from Chicago, one of its best totals so far this year. Apart from Best Picture and Best Director, the film also scored three tech awards. Leonardo DiCaprio gets one of the major prizes that should push him towards…
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Precursor: 11th Austin Critics Awards (2015)
This season has been back-and-forth with various films taking turns in the lead and being shafted. Here, Carol‘s back in the lead and The Hateful Eight performs the best to date as does Anomalisa. Meanwhile, The Revenant scores only two nominations. Strangely, Trumbo has only two nominations, one of which is for Best Picture. Award…
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Precursor: 49th Kansas City Critics Nominations (2015)
Kansas City has added nominations to this year’s proceedings, with Sicario topping the nomination count, a first for the drug war drama. Ex Machina pulls into a tie with other awards seasons favorites Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant. Steve Jobs has its best performance so far with three nominations, just not one for…
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Precursor: 15th American Film Institute (2015)
Although it has yet to unspool except for a handful of Hollywood and press screenings, Star Wars: The Force Awakens earns a spot on the annual list of the best American films. If you don’t see your favorite film on the list, remember that these are American films only. That means no Brooklyn or 45…
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Precursor: 15th Phoenix Critics Nominations (2015)
Tied for the most nominations, Spotlight finally gets the bounty it has been denied so far this year and Mad Max: Fury Road continues to do well. Often one of the best precursors to the Academy Awards, Phoenix has changed their nominations to only list 3 in many categories, which doesn’t help prognosticators much. Still,…
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Precursor: 36th London Critics Nominations (2015)
Although 45 Years has the most overall nominations, a significant factor needs to be taken into account. Two of its nominations come from British/Irish-only categories, unique to London’s critics. Several films have that distinction. To signify those and what their actual nomination counts should be, I’ve put (*) next to each with their actual total…
