Category: Precursors

In another split ballot, Birdman takes the top prize while Richard Linklater takes the prize for directing. None of these awards are terribly surprising in the current gamut of awards so far announced. Award Tallies (2) Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Interstellar, Whiplash The Awards Best Picture Birdman (RU: Boyhood) Best Animated

When an organization gives it’s Best Film Prize to the film it also recognizes as the best film made in their own city, you can disregard the result. That it matches other groups is somewhat circumstantial. Award Tallies (4) Boyhood (3) Nightcrawler (2) Birdman The Awards Best Film Boyhood Best Animated Film

There isn’t a lot of overlap in categories from Utah with most films taking only a single award versus the four for Birdman, which continues to perform well with the regional critics. Award Tallies (4) Birdman The Awards Best Film Birdman (RU: The Imitation Game) Best Animated Feature

Gone Girl nabs two awards from Nevada while Birdman is shut out completely and Boyhood has a token award for Youth Performance. Many of these names we’ve seen bandied about as potential Oscar nominees, so there aren’t any real surprises. Award Tallies (3) Nightcrawler (2) Gone Girl, Interstellar The Awards Best Film Gone Girl Best…

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s backstage seriocomedy dominated the Las Vegas critics awards taking home seven, a huge tally for a single film. The rest of the selections were on par with other recent results, though Guardians of the Galaxy winning a costume design award is a bit unusual, even for critics. Award Tallies (7) Birdman (2)…

A most dominant day for Boyhood, which reigned supreme with Detroit critics taking four prizes. Their results consist of largely the same names that have been showing up all season. The three-way tie in the ensemble category gives us our first major victory for Guardians of the Galaxy, a dark horse contender for a Best…

Restricting their nominations to 3 per category creates a shortlist of potential Oscar contenders that could be insightful into what critics want when it comes to Oscar recognition. While there are several films that could also have been included, we may be seeing the best case minimum scenario in several categories. Nominations Tallies (8) Birdman…

Even if you exclude the two nominations for British Films-only categories, Mr. Turner did better on average than most other films. With Mr. Turner widely available in the UK, but not in the U.S., this may explain why it’s done so well with London. Either that, or there’s a British bias, which is also possible.…

Chicago is carrying forward the Boyhood narrative that’s dominating precursor season, but as The Social Network, L.A. Confidential and others proved, dominance with the critics does not mean dominance with the Academy. There aren’t any major surprises here. Award Tallies (3) Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Whiplash (2) Birdman The Awards

Apart from Boyhood, Toronto spread its love among several films, few of which were new selections among precursors. The Lunchbox was a surprising first feature selection while The Overnighters beat out one of the Oscar frontrunners. They will announce their Best Canadian Film award on December 14 and this year, they have a surprisingly dense…

Keira Knightley secures her first precursor win for The Imitation Game, the lone true surprise among the more recognizable categories. Documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me is a bit unusual for a selection, but not one that has me scratching my head. Award Tallies (6) Birdman (3) Gone Girl, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2) Edge…

For the second year running, San Francisco announced their nominations at the same time as their awards, making things look more favorable to Birdman in nomination count, but giving Boyhood more prizes. As precursor season wears on, the number of unique selections dwindle, but they are one of the few groups that have given quite…

Indiana couldn’t find any new ground to break, so they introduced a new award for motion capture/vocal performance and gave it to Andy Serkis (because who else are you going to give it to or nominate?). Their selections were mostly in line with what other groups have done with Locke and St. Vincent doing better…

San Diego loves Nightcrawler, which nearly swept every category in which it was nominated, taking home a precursor-dominant seven awards, including Best Picture, Director and Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal) with additional praise for long-shot Oscar contender Rene Russo. Award Tallies (7) Nightcrawler The Awards Best Picture Nightcrawler Best Animated Film