Category: Precursors

Parasite must be the film of the year if so many demographic-based critics groups selected it as the year’s top film. Though, there’s nothing really (new) to see here. Award Tallies (4) Little Women, Parasite The Awards

The wheels of fortune are spinning in new directions as the season drags on. First, The Irishman was the clear frontrunner. Then Parasite. Now it’s 1917 and I suspect that might be the final trajectory for this year. That said, when a group picks Olivia Wilde for Best Director over Greta Gerwig, you have to…

The final award of the Toronto Film Critics Association is the Best Canadian Film award, presented at their annual celebration. It matches the winner of the Vancouver Film Critics. The Awards Best Canadian Film The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open Toronto Film Critics Association Data First Awards: 1997 (23)

With the exception of Jennifer Lopez, the NAACP has selected predominantly black artists and films for their annual Image Awards nominations. That’s to be expected since that’s the entire point of the Image Awards and they have largely picked out the most acclaimed films they could. Like the critics, they also didn’t seem to like…

When even the society of LGBTQ film critics goes for a film that doesn’t have a single LGBTQ character in it, you know it has to be popular. Parasite‘s win is a bit surprising. It’s dominance is quite shocking. Some of the winners are unexpected (Antonio Banderas and Song Kang-ho), but most of them are…

The Publicists Guild announced some of their nominations today, probably the bigger of all of their awards. It’s not surprising that these popular films would have been nominated. The Awards

The Vancouver film critics gave out their Canadian film awards yesterday, giving them out in even numbers across four films. Award Tallies (3) The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2) Anne at 13,000 ft., The Twentieth Century, White Lie The Awards

With more information at hand, the Denver Film Critics Society has made some unique choices, ignoring Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman in the major categories in favor of Jojo Rabbit and Little Women, neither of which had gotten nearly as much support. The Farewell also did incredibly well without a Best Film nomination. Award Tallies (6)…

This late in the game, each new critic group announcement is met with a collective sign as there’s nothing new under the sun. Award Tallies (4) Parasite (2) 1917, Uncut Gems The Awards

The Visual Effects Society is a great predictor of the Visual Effects Oscar. Typically, if you combine their main and supporting visual effects categories together, you get the eventual Oscar nominees. To that in, Alita: Battle Angel, The Lion King, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker come out the best here with the most…

Three major shocking omissions and a shocking inclusion make this year’s DGA nominations both indicative and unrepresentative. First, the omissions. Neither Greta Gerwig nor Todd Phillips made the DGA main line-up, which is both disheartening (Gerwig) and surprising (Phillips). In their place is Taika Waitit who no one thought would be a major player in…

The Producers Guild of America has been 80% in tune with the Academy’s selections over the years and this list makes perfect sense in that regard. Most of this year’s top films are nominated with Uncut Gems and Portrait of a Lady on Fire the only titles notably absent. You could drop Ford and Knives…

What to think about the British Academy’s selections this year? The first caveat we always have is any film that nominated in the British film categories should be taken with a grain of salt when it appears in the main categories. Rocketman and The Two Popes were likely over-represented in those major categories, especially considering…

This group had only four members last year. This year they have seven. There are some idiosyncratic choices here, but a lot of the key players in Oscar season are here. The poor showing of Little Women might have something to do with the men-only membership. Award Tallies (12) Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood…

While the rubber stamp has been used by countless groups this season, this is one of the large organizations of film critics out there, giving them a bit of clarity as larger bodies tend to gravitate towards more popular films and thus have a better chance of mirroring the Academy. Award Tallies (6) Parasite (2)…