Category: Precursors

The Grammy nominations have released and, to no one’s surprise, it’s heavy on 2014 films with only two Compilation Soundtrack nominations from 2015 and none from Score Soundtrack. The good news is that the Song nominees are predominantly 2015 entries, though they aren’t your typical Oscar competitors, so it may not be very instructive in…

Rack up another award for Spotlight, muted by a Best Director win for Todd Haynes and Carol. Charlotte Rampling gets more attention, as do Mark Rylance and Kristen Stewart. Paul Dano gets another win in lead actor, tying with Leonardo DiCaprio, his first award of the season. Award Tallies (2) Carol, Spotlight The Awards

What is shaping up to be a battle between Spotlight and Mad Max: Fury Road at the critics awards has earned Spotlight another top prize, taking more awards than it has so far. Rooney Mara gets gerrymandered in support in spite of being the co-lead of her film, while Mark Rylance picks up another trophy.…

Winning one other award, Spotlight came out on top of this year’s L.A. Film Critics Awards, with Mad Max: Fury Road as runner-up and three other prizes of its own. Michael Fassbender gets some love, as does Charlotte Rampling. Rampling needs the attention to get an Oscar nomination, Fassbender doesn’t. Michael Shannon and Alicia Vikander…

The DC Film Critics have bestowed their nominations with Carol and Mad Max: Fury Road earning the most nominations with 7 each, including the gerrymandered Rooney Mara in support for her co-lead role. Brooklyn had a good day, as did The Revenant, which hadn’t gotten a lot of love before today. Spotlight got a Best…

Another critics group has been topped by Mad Max: Fury Road. We’ll have to wait to see if there’s a trend. Notably absent are The Revenant, Joy, and The Hateful Eight, all major awards players that screened late in the game. They may be able to overcome these issues, but the early-year competition might be…

The New York Film Critics Circle have announced their annual awards with Carol dominating the proceedings with four awards including Best Picture, Director and Screenplay. No other film scored more than one award. Of note is that Michael Keaton was bumped to lead for Spotlight even though he’s being campaigned in support. Kristen Stewart manages…

In spite of a website showing that their nominations announcement would be made tomorrow, they’ve announced early. As usual, the International Press Academy doesn’t know how to stick to their own rules. As to the nominations? Well, they are like Golden Globes nominations back before the Globes got serious about selecting the best films of…

NBR’s predilection towards Warner Bros. continues unabated with Mad Max: Fury Road taking the top spot on their annual Best Of list. The film gets a sizable boost from the exposure, as does The Martian and Sylvester Stallone for Creed. Award Tallies (3) The Martian (2) The Hateful Eight, Room The Awards

Once-dominant DreamWorks suffered an embarrassing defeat at the Annie Awards securing a meager 3 nominations for its sole entry this year. This may be the first time in awhile they haven’t shown up at the Oscars. Pixar is back in force with a total of 24 nominations in the feature film categories with Inside Out…

Todd Haynes’ film about a lesbian couple fighting against social mores, Carol, earns the top spot in the nomination tally for this year’s Spirit Awards. That’s all thanks to the double Best Female Lead nomination for Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, a feat Harvey Weinstein didn’t seem inclined to want happening. Beasts of No Nation…

What irritates me about this is that it’s a week earlier than my educated guess, largely because when I went to PGA’s website, I couldn’t find the information. Yet, here they are, a week earlier than expected. Regardless, the nominations are an interesting lot with Amy and The Look of Silence being the only ones…

Tomorrow, Film Independent will announce its nominations for the annual Spirit Awards, a recognition of the best indie films released in 2015. With that, Oscar season will have officially begun and, after Thanksgiving, will begin snowballing through December, January and February culminating with the Oscars on Feb. 28. To get you prepared, I’ve put together…