Broadcast Film Critics Association Nominations

For better or for worse, the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) try to predict the Oscars. They may not be even doing it on purpose, but year in and year out their nominations and even winners reflect what's going to happen at the Oscars a few months from now. But they are still known for going outside the box (see last year's broad support for nearly Oscar-snubbed Drive). From first look, there doesn't seem to be anything like that this year unless you count the 7 nominations garnered by Skyfall. More surprising has to be the relatively low nomination count for critic-favorite and current Oscar front-runner Zero Dark Thirty with only 5 nominations. If there was one more thing to say is that the number of nominations is just crazy. Do we really need to set aside acting wins for Comedy/Action films? What is this the MTV Movie Awards or something? More comments and a full list of nominations below...

Best Picture
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Master
Les Misérables
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Slowly, but surely the list of films for Oscar is coalescing into these ten films. Foreign film Amour may play "spoiler" later on, but I'd be shocked if anything else gets in. Lincoln leads with 13 nominations followed by Les Misérables with 11 and Silver Linings Playbook with 10.  As I mentioned above, Zero Dark Thirty only managed 5 nominations, but then Django Unchained only got 2. Both may have been hampered by their very late releases though.

Best Director
Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Tom Hooper, Les Misérables
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

I'm still thinking Wes Anderson, Benh Zeitlin, or Michael Haneke could also get in for Oscars, but as you can see with the names already listed here, this category is stacked (isn't it every year though?).

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Actress
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Solid boosts for some of the actresses that needed more attention this awards season namely Cotillard and Watts. It's also good for Riva and Wallis who are both probably going up against the age factor. This is not good news though for Rachel Weisz or my dark horse pick Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Argo
Javier Bardem, Skyfall
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike

That's two acting nominations for Skyfall with both Bardem and Dench (see below) getting in. Could mean something or nothing, but they really were the heart of the movie. But as solid (and kind of fun actually) as this list is, I kind of wished they had gone more outside the box. Ezra Miller? Dwight Henry? I figure Christoph Waltz or Leonardo DiCaprio could figure for Oscars.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, The Master
Judi Dench, Skyfall
Ann Dowd, Compliance
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Best Young Actor/Actress
Elle Fanning, Ginger & Rosa
Kara Hayward, Moonrise Kingdom
Tom Holland, The Impossible
Logan Lerman, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Suraj Sharma, Life of Pi
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

I haven't seen Ginger & Rosa or The Impossible yet, but I 100% agree on the other nominations. If I had to nitpick, I would say Jared Gilman should also be nominated. And I was going to say how upset I am that Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) isn't getting any love, but he's actually too old!

More nominations after the jump...
Best Acting Ensemble
Argo
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Misérables
Lincoln
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook

A part of me was expecting Cloud Atlas to show up here or my dark horse pick of The Avengers, but all of these make sense to me also.

Best Original Screenplay
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
John Gatins, Flight
Rian Johnson, Looper
Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty

Best Adapted Screenplay
Chris Terrio, Argo
David Magee, Life of Pi
Tony Kushner, Lincoln
Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Nothing too unexpected in the screenplay categories. I'm a bit sad about Anna Karenina's increasing irrelevance this awards season, but sometimes that's how ti goes. Also a bit surprise not to see Les Misérables or Beasts of the Southern Wild in the Adapted category. I'm really hoping that Looper and Perks of Being a Wallflower can go all the way though.

Best Cinematography
Life Of Pi
Les Misérables
Lincoln
The Master
Skyfall

Best Art Direction
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln

Best Editing
Argo
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Costume Design
Anna Karenina
Cloud Atlas
The Hobbit
Les Misérables
Lincoln

Best Makeup
Cloud Atlas
The Hobbit
Les Misérables
Lincoln

Best Visual Effects
The Avengers
Cloud Atlas
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hobbit
Life of Pi

It's the first of three nominations for The Avengers! Yay! Now I'm not expecting Picture/Director/Screenplay or anything of that sort for this film. In fact, that would be pretty ridiculous actually, BUT if that film doesn't get at least ONE Oscar nomination (Visual Fx) I will HULK SMASK EVERYTHING.

Best Song
"For You," Act of Valor
"Learn Me Right," Brave
"Skyfall," Skyfall
"Still Alive," Paul Williams Still Alive
"Suddenly," Les Misérables

Best Score
Argo
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Master
Moonrise Kingdom

Best Animated Feature
Brave
Frankenweenie
Madagascar 3
ParaNorman
Rise of the Guardians
Wreck-It Ralph

I've already said elsewhere that I'm on Team ParaNorman for this award come Oscar time, but it was a pretty good year for studio animation wasn't it?

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour
The Intouchables
A Royal Affair
Rust & Bone

Best Documentary Feature
Bully
The Central Park Five
The Imposter
The Queen of Versailles
Searching for Sugar Man
West of Memphis

Best Action Movie
The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
Looper
Skyfall

It's fun to note that the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score from this lot is The Dark Knight Rises with 87% which shows you the quality of these "action" films. I am surprised though that they didn't include The Hunger Games here especially with their love with Jennifer Lawrence (nominated three times this year!).

Best Actor in an Action Movie
Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Rises
Daniel Craig, Skyfall
Robert Downey Jr., The Avengers
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Looper
Jake Gyllenhaal, End of Watch

Nothing against Bale but... really? I also think Downey's work in The Avengers wasn't the strongest one, but he is definitely the biggest name so there you go. And even though I'm not a big fan of Prometheus, I am a big fan of what Michael Fassbender did in the film. Where's the love? And I wouldn't have minded a special citation for Andrew Garfield's bum.

Best Actress in an Action Movie
Emily Blunt, Looper
Gina Carano, Haywire
Judi Dench, Skyfall
Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises
Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games

Best Comedy Movie
Bernie
Silver Linings Playbook
Ted
This Is 40
21 Jump Street

Best Actor in a Comedy Movie
Jack Black, Bernie
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Paul Rudd, This Is 40
Channing Tatum, 21 Jump Street
Mark Wahlberg, Ted

Best Actress in a Comedy Movie
Mila Kunis, Ted
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Shirley MacLaine, Bernie
Leslie Mann, This Is 40
Rebel Wilson, Pitch Perfect

Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie
The Cabin in the Woods
Looper
Prometheus

CABIN IN THE WOODS! CABIN IN THE WOODS! CABIN IN THE WOODS! That is all.