Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, AAFCA, Phoenix, and Kansas Pick Their Winners

Little Women  was a hot commodity in the latest round of critics awards. The esteemed Boston Society of Film Critics and the relatively famous Chicago Film Critics Association and the actually very old Kansas City Film Critics have recently announced as have St Louis, Phoenix, and the AAFCA (African American Film Critics Association). Most of those groups found something to love in Greta Gerwig's period piece. Naturally the other usual suspects are accounted for again though The Irishman (which led with Parasite in early critics announcements) isn't particular beloved by today's roundup of associations and circles and societies winning no new Picture or Director prizes.

The winners and a few comments are after the jump...

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Once Upon a Time ... in more critics prizes!

by Nathaniel R

Pint sized big talent Julia Butters and Quentin Tarantino both won prizes recently for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

In the latest round up of critics prizes we have critics from the SouthEastern US, Las Vegas, Boston (online) and one of the two (or is it three now?) female critics organizations called "Women's Film Critic's Circle". Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Parasite pick up several more prizes as do Portrait of a Lady on Fire and... Harriet? 

Tomorrow one of the historically coolest and most discerning critics groups is naming their winners (Boston Society of Film Critics -- don't fail us!) but until that potentially exciting announcement here are the latest four associations to announce. The winners and a few comments are after the jump...

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"Everyone was nominated... except you!" Our annual SAG outrage!

by Nathaniel R

Alanna Ubach does a lot with very little screen time in "Bombshell" but she isn't part of the cast nomination

We'll keep doing these posts each year until the Screen Actors Guild does something about their most unfortunate awards rule. For those who are new to the awards game, please note: If you are a working actor lucky enough to wind up in a film nominated for "Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture," that doesn't mean you are included in the nomination; you have to have your own title card for that! What this means each year is that actors who aren't really famous yet, or don't have an aggressive agent, wind up left out of the official nomination even if they contributed immeasurably to the success of the film or were highly memorable in some small but defining way.

So who got the stealth snub in 2019, who otherwise had every reason to celebrate the nomination? Read on for the specific exclusions this year and the history of most embarrassing omissions from the past due this ruling...

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SAG Nominations

by Nathaniel R

It was a surprising morning at the SAG nominations with Bombshell coming in hot with 4 nominations (!!!) and Parasite becoming only the second foreign language film ever nominated for Oustanding Cast. In other news we saw the first chink in Netflix's considerable Oscar-seeking armor today as The Irishman and Marriage Story both arguably underperformed and Dolemite was shut out. (And, as always, we've investigated the "Cast" nominations to see who was left out.)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:

Christian Bale (“Ford v Ferrari”)

Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”)

Taron Egerton (“Rocketman”)

Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”)

In a surprising state of affairs -- though not as surprising if you remember that SAG nominations often skew “earlier” buzz than what’s happening in December, Taron Egerton, Leo DiCaprio, and Christian Bale are all accounted for rather than later openings like Robert DeNiro, Adam Sandler. Netflix push Eddie Murphy also failed to win them over...

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Critics Choice Award Nominations: "The Irishman and Little Women ... in Hollywood"

by Nathaniel R

The Critics Choice Association (previously known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association) has about 420 members. It's the largest critics organization in the US of which your host here is but 1 voice so dont blame him when the votes go all wrong and veer closer to Oscar prognostication than a reflection of the critical hive mind over the course of 2019. As with the industry voters who vote on Oscars, SAG, and Guild prizes, film critics tend to forget what they loved the first 9 months of the year and focus primarily on releases from October, November, and December. 

This year The Irishman leads the nominations with 14. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is close behind with 12 nods. Little Women takes position number three with 9 nominations. Herewith the nominees for 2019 in both film and television...

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