Category: Precursors
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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…
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Precursor: 9th Detroit Critics Nominations (2015)
This is, to date, the most idiosyncratic set of nominations we’ve seen. Brooklyn has its best showing to date, but when a significant portion of the nominees selected aren’t going to compete very well at the Oscars, this list can be taken merely as it is: a group of critics’ choices, not a group of…
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Precursor: 73rd Golden Globe Nominations (2015)
Nominations were announced by America Ferrera, Chloe Grace Moretz, Angela Bassett, Dennis Quaid. After much waiting and surfing to find the final list (since the Globes website still hasn’t posted the nominations), I finally have a complete list. Below are my comments on the nominations. Comments on nominations so far: Animated Feature: this seems to…
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Precursor: 22nd Screen Actors Guild Nominations (2015)
In a very uncharacteristic move, the Screen Actors Guild has gone so far away from the current Oscar narrative that either they will redefine the competition or they’ll be thought entirely irrelevant. Harvey Weinstein’s influence is clear with both the Woman in Gold nomination and the category fraud of Rooney Mara. Trumbo did surprisingly well,…
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Oscar Preview: Precursor Winners & Losers, Week 2
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 flood of precursors has been with some of the big names in criticism weighing in with their…
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Precursor: 14th DC Critics Awards (2015)
Another victory for Spotlight gives the film a strong edge at an Oscar nomination. However, Mad Max: Fury Road earned more awards than any other film, giving it a nice boost. Leonardo DiCaprio’s prize will help him towards Oscar and Saoirse Ronan is quietly becoming the actress to beat. Award Tallies (3) Mad Max: Fury…
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Precursor: 19th Online Critics Nominations (2015)
The Online Film Critics have presented its annual semi-eclectic list of nominees, with several frontrunners peppered with occasional niche choices that may not get very far with Oscar. Carol, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian get significant boosts as does the category frauds of Rooney Mara and Alicia Vikander. Nominations Tallies (6) Carol, Sicario…
