Category: Precursors
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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…
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Precursor: 9th Detroit Critics Awards (2015)
The first of several incoming groups today, Spotlight finally received a large share of awards with Liev Schrieber representing the cast outside of the Ensemble category. Still, Tom McCarthy couldn’t beat out George Miller for Best Director. Award Tallies (4) Spotlight (2) The Danish Girl The Awards
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Precursor: 19th Toronto Critics Awards (2015)
Carol may have taken Best Picture and Best Director from the Toronto critics (who apparently live-tweeted their winners last night, but didn’t post until today), but it’s the wins for Shaun the Sheep Movie, Tom Hardy and Nina Hoss that are a bit surprising. None of these individuals or films have had much luck with…
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Precursor: 24th Southeastern Critics Awards (2015)
Getting a jump on their usual announcement schedule, the Southeastern Film Critics pushed their awards out a week early. The results show Spotlight once again taking a Best Picture prize without a Best Director win. George Miller continues to rack up such trophies. Bryan Cranston earns his first actual award of the season. Award Tallies…
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Precursor: 20th San Diego Critics Awards (2015)
More good news for Mad Max: Fury Road, which secured another Best Picture prize along with Best Director, Best Editing and Best Visual Effects. Leonardo DiCaprio makes another appearance at the top of a list as does Brie Larson who hasn’t gotten that much attention lately. It’s clear this group loved genre pics with Mad…
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Precursor: 23rd Dallas Area Critics Awards (2015)
The Revenant had a smashing day at the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association taking four awards, but coming in second behind Spotlight which won two. Dallas-Fort Worth is the only group that announce ranked lists of most categories. The only real surprise was The Revenant topping The Hateful Eight for Music Score and even that…
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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 3
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 bounty of awards have come out in the last week with the Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe…
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Precursor: 28th Chicago Critics Nominations (2015)
Mad Max continues its Hoovering of the precursor nominations and awards with another leading 7 nominations from the Chicago critics. Carol, which came in second and was also a Best Picture nominee, failed to pick up a nod for Rooney Mara or for the screenplay, both of which would have put it above Max in…
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Precursor: 21st Broadcast Critics Nominations (2015)
The Critics Choice awards nominations have been announced. This is the last of the major televised pre-Oscar awards groups. It’s noteworthy that this is the only major group that gives out genre-specific awards. As such, several of the top nominees (including Mad Max‘s 13) need to be taken with a grain of salt. To help…
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Precursor: 7th Indiana Critics Awards (2015)
Best Film runner-up Room earned the most prizes (in a tie with Spotlight) with the Indiana journalist taking both acting prizes and the award for Adapted Screenplay. This is the best the film has fared so far among critics. Spotlight won another Best Film award and captured Best Original Screenplay and a first for Mark…
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Precursor: 14th San Francisco Critics Awards (2015)
San Francisco gave its Best Picture award to Spotlight but gave it no other award. Best Director winner Mad Max: Fury Road took three prizes while Brooklyn and Love & Mercy took two each. Although they double-nommed Paul Dano, he only received one award in the lead category. Award Tallies (3) Mad Max: Fury Road…
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Precursor: 19th Online Critics Awards (2015)
The Online Film Critics Society announced their winners today. Mad Max: Fury Road won big while Carol came in second delivering both lead actresses awards with Rooney Mara unfortunately relegated to support after more members nominated it there than in lead. The only unusual selection they made was Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina, which hasn’t…
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Precursor: 10th St. Louis Critics Nominations (2015)
Summer blockbusters dominated the awards nominations for the St. Louis Film Critics Association with Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian topping all other films. Tied for third, Carol was apparently well acted, well written, well directed and well photographed, but not one of the best pictures of the year, a rather bizarre outcome. The…
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Precursor: 20th San Diego Critics Nominations (2015)
While Mad Max: Fury Road had a great day, the big stories were the strong performances of Ex Machina, Brooklyn, The Martian and Room, which haven’t been performing nearly as well as this all season. Room has bee doing well, just not this well. Spotlight continues to pick up a handful of mentions, but not…
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Precursor: 14th San Francisco Critics Nominations (2015)
This group often has idiosyncratic choices and there are certainly several here that the Academy is unlikely to replicate. Love & Mercy is one of those films. The film hasn’t been playing nearly as well as it does here where it comes in second to Carol, which is an Oscar contender. Brooklyn has one of…
