Critics Prizes, Round 6

by Nathaniel R

We had quite a lull of no new awards during the holidays but it's started up again so it's time to update the scorecard. Though sometimes we see a galling conformity in Best Picture prizes this year groups have been a smidgeon (a tiny smidgeon) more 'spread the wealth' adventurous with a total of 13 films winning at least 1 top prize from 30 groups announcing thus far.  That's a much wider spread of favourites than we're seeing in the depressingly conformist read of the other "top" categories...

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Linker by the Dozen

• Fangoria "Romero was right" wonderful piece on modern life, resonant horror, and zombie movies
• The Telegraph Jamie Dornan, who had such a great onscreen year, says 2021 was actually the hardest year of his life
• Gr8ter Days Joan Copeland, sister of Arthur Miller has passed away at age 99

Eyes Wide Shut, new animated films, and several "best of" lists are after the jump...

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"No Way Home" and Oscar Dreams. Or, When advocacy goes wrong...

by Nathaniel R

There are some that argue that Oscar pundits shouldn't be critics or vice versa. Prognostication and film criticism both require analytical skills but they're different jobs. The lines get murkier when it comes to advocacy. Each media outlet produces more Oscar coverage than we have ever had in the past. It's subversively hilarious that as Oscar ratings have steadily dwindled in the era of splintering audiences, discussion and analysis of the awards race is noisier and more populated each year! Yet, if the proliferation of film critics organizations has taught us anything it's that if you get enough film types in a room to talk "Best"... they will immediately, whether consciously or not, begin to equate Best with Oscars. That's how successful the Oscars have been as a name brand and institution. You can see it in the prizes given each year in the precursor awards and how eagerly space is handed over to presumed Oscar hopefuls that don't really need the boost. Even while the same journalists and outlets, who vote on the preliminary prizes, regularly bemoan that 'Oscars never get it right'. Advocacy doesn't equal prognostication but it looks too much like it at times.

Into this mess of adjacent but not always compatible agendas, comes the superhero blockbuster. In this case, Spider-Man: No Way Home which is suddenly getting the "nominate it for Best Picture!" discussion...

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Critics Round 5: 'Dog' still has the power but 'CODA' and 'Mass' pick up a little love

UPDATED 3:55 PM For those who've been playing along with the seemingly neverending critics awards, in the Best Picture battle so far we've got:

11 for Power of the Dog (Philadelphia, NY Online, Boston Online, Chicago, SEFCA, which just more than doubled its total this week via Florida, OAFCC, Utah, Phoenix, Dublin, and Dallas)
3 for Drive My Car (NYFCC, LAFCA, Boston)
3 for Licorice Pizza (Atlanta, St Louis, NBR)
2 for Belfast (DC, Las Vegas)
1 each for: Cyrano (Detroit), Dune (Sunset Circle), The Green Night (Portland), The Lost Daughter (Gothams), Belfast (DC)

...and now King Richard (BFCC), Mass (IFJA) and CODA (Nevada)

Despite three first-time wins this week, we've hit the Power of the Dog coasting wave -- this happens each season. If one film hasn't thoroughly dominated in the early rounds something will by the midway point. There's another dozen or so orgs left (it's so hard to keep track these days with 30+...or are we at 40+ orgs now?) groups. So it's unlikely that Power of the Dog will be dethroned. Until the televised awards that is which are annual reminders that critics awards only tell about a third of the story, half at max.

The complete awards from the 9 latest critics groups to announce (Black Film Critics Circle, Nevada, Florida, Online Association For Female Critics, Utah, Indiana, Dallas/Ft Worth, Phoenix, and Dublin) are after the jump... 

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Regional Critics Round 4: "The Green Knight" joins the 'Best Film' fray

by Nathaniel R

Previously in the overcrowded circus that is precursor awards, we've had three wins for Power of the Dog (Philadelphia, NY Online, and Boston Online), three for Japan's Drive My Car (NYFCC, LAFCA, and Boston). two wins for Licorice Pizza (Atlanta and NBR), and one each for Cyrano (Detroit), Dune (Sunset Circle), The Lost Daughter (Gothams) and Belfast (DC). 

We got only one "new" Best Picture winner (The Green Knight!) from the latest batch of six critips groups: Chicago, Portland, St Louis, Las Vegas, Southeastern Film Critics, Las Vegas, and the Women Film Critics Circle. You can see the selections from all of those groups after the jump...

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