Online Film Critics Society announces its nominations.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013 at 9:45PM It's Tim, here to discuss the Online Film Critics Society nominations. A day late, admittedly, but these sorts of lapses will happen in this rampant crush of critics group awards.. Anyway, as one of the Team Experience members who happens to be in the OFCS myself, it falls naturally to me to make a big darn deal about this particular announcement.
And in all immodesty, it's one of the more interesting sets of titles that has shown up this year. We were just complaining about groups like the AFI using their awards as nothing but Oscar predictions, were we not? There's certainly not much of that going on here, at least not at the nomination stage - in fairness, I fully expect that the winners will be part of the great Gravity and 12 Years a Slave love-in (and Her, if the group at large ever receives screener DVDs) - with some titles that have received absolutely no attention elsewhere and likely won't again. And that's what year-end awards and lists are about, to my mind: not commemorating the same three movies and two performances as everybody else, but passing around names of things that you really should have seen, it's so great.
This year also finds the OFCS made the jump from a traditional five nominees to a new-fashioned ten. We all undoubtedly have opinions on such matters; some of us, unfortunately, are prevented for reasons of professional ethics from communicating those opinions in public.
The nomination leaders include 12 Years a Slave with 8, and Her and Inside Llewyn Davis at six each (surprisingly, The Wind Rises, with 5, ends up ahead of Gravity's 4).
Nomination leader "12 Years a Slave"
The full list is below the jump.
Best Picture
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Before Midnight
Blue Is the Warmest Color
Drug War
Gravity
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Short Term 12
The Wind Rises
Best Animated Feature
Despicable Me 2
From Up on Poppy Hill
Frozen
Monsters University
The Wind Rises
Best Film Not in the English Language
Blue Is the Warmest Color
Drug War
Museum Hours
Wadjda
The Wind Rises
Museum Hours
Best Documentary
56 Up
The Act of Killing
At Berkeley
Blackfish
Stories We Tell
Best Director
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – Inside Llewyn Davis
Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity
Spike Jonze – Her
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
Hayao Miyazaki – The Wind Rises
Best Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave
Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips
Oscar Isaac – Inside Llewyn Davis
Mads Mikkelsen – The Hunt
Joaquin Phoenix – Her
Best Actress
Amy Adams – American Hustle
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy – Before Midnight
Adèle Exarchopoulos – Blue Is the Warmest Color
Brie Larsen – Short Term 12
Brie Larsen in "Short Term 12"
Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips
Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey – Mud
Sam Rockwell – The Way, Way Back
Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine
Scarlett Johansson – Her
Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
Léa Seydoux – Blue Is the Warmest Color
Best Original Screenplay
American Hustle
Blue Jasmine
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Museum Hours
Best Adapted Screenplay
12 Years a Slave
Before Midnight
In the House
Short Term 12
The Wind Rises
The Wind Rises
Best Editing
12 Years a Slave
Drug War
Gravity
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Best Cinematography
12 Years a Slave
The Grandmaster
Gravity
The Great Beauty
Inside Llewyn Davis
OFCS, film critics
Reader Comments (13)
The leading and supporting actress nominees are the bee's knees.
These are terrific nominations. They even included Mads Mikkelsen.
Once again no love for Frances Ha. I know that there are lots of films each awards season that get left in the dust, but this saddens me more than I can say.
Great lists. Were you given screeners for Wolf and AOC?
Neither, and virtually nobody had the opportunity to see Wolf at screenings, either. I'm not sure what percentage of the OFCS membership managed to see August, though it was surely higher. I think I can say without breaking any rules that at least one-fifth of the members had to see a movie for it to be eligible.
"Short Term 12" did AMAZINGLY with the San Diego critics
Since when is Museum Hours not in the English language? The version I saw was definitely in English.
They sure loved The Wind Rises. And yey - some love for Mads Mikkelsen.
Any other year and I believe Mads would have received a Best Actor nom. Heck his performance is better than Bardem's Biutiful.
It's pretty much impossible that another awards body could come up with a cooler, more principled and adventurous set of nominees.
Oh man I'd kill for those to be the actual nominees on Oscar morning. Switch out Sally Hawkins for Shailene Woodley and we are set!
Nice to see some different nominations, and to see the love for Before Midnight and Short Term 12. Shouldn't the Before Sunrise script be under original and not adapted screenplay?
These look amazing. The best actor and actress categories are spot on. I'm very very impressed with their best actor line-up - easily the most interesting category of the year. I keep changing my mind about who deserves to be rewarded but ultimately it was a fantastic year for acting. Made me feel like cinema is in good shape.
HOWEVER, about best actress
I love Adele's performance, really really love it but I'm not sold on her nomination or her actually deserving one. American critics are fascinated by French actresses. They're very intuitive, passionate and sensual. They speak french and take off their clothes and deliver very raw emotional performances. They have full lips that are hard to look away from. So any time a French actress delivers an internationally acclaimed performance - typically first noted in Cannes - which gives it all a more artsy profile, everyone screams oscar.
I maintain that Adele's performance is as good as Kechiche framed it out to be. If you watch the movie carefully you notice that even though she is emotionally raw and captivating, her performance is a series of genius director choices. I think, in the same movie, Seydoux does more with her role. It's hard for me to accept that this is a performance that deserves to be rewarded over the skillful master work by someone like Blanchett or Dench. We've talked enough about Blanchett but consider Dench. Her role is that of an ordinary woman. No sensuality, no real grand moments, no overwhelming passionate drama. But she infuses it with so much sensitivity and gentle emotion that it feels from within. Her eyes speak so much. She even modified her voice in the subtlest of ways.
The oscars and awards in general should reward talent and skill. I'm not sure how reward Adele over Dench or Blanchett is different from rewarding Lawrence over Riva and Chastain last year except that the former is in a better movie by a much better director.
Tony T- The performance was raved at Cannes beyond American critics.
One of the more telling things of BITWC is that people seem fascinated by people who like the film, like French films, like French actresses, etc. It's a great performance. The end.
And honestly, your 2012-2013 actress comparisons are off. Lawrence was a supporting role. She was the scene stealer. It was not her story in the slightest. I would say Adele has just as much weight to her performance as Riva, Blanchett, and Chastain (Not seen Dench). Her story, her micro-expressions, her having to carry the movie of her life.