Critics Choice Nominations: "Fury Road" Leads and Category Fraud Refuses to Die.

Furiosa is coming to devour your Critics Choice AwardsThough I am a member of the BFCA, the organization behind the Critics Choice Awards, I can't say I'm often too pleased with their choices. Their penchant for attempting to predict the Oscars rather than voting based on earlier reviews continues to be the source of endless frustration. For example: everyone thought the SAG nominations were insane when they were announced but just a week later, the BFCA is repeating them despite lukewarm reviews (at best) for films like Trumbo. And though the reviews for Joy have been anything but great they gave it two major nominations, surely based on a year of Oscar expectations for it. Their difficulty in looking past mainstream pictures even in categories ripe for invasion from indies is also truly unfortunate (Tangerine and What We Do in the Shadows for example have 96% and 97% approval ratings from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and NONE of the BFCA's nominees for Best Comedy come anywhere close to those scores. Hell, Joy is currently at only 56% which is not good. And BFCA members are part of the Tomatometer so what does that tell you?

Unfortunately the members also embraced all the Category Fraud contenders in their studio preferred categories despite the BFCA endorsing a lead vote for Rooney Mara before voting began and somewhat suggesting that maybe Alicia Vikander didn't belong in supporting either. I understand from voting members of the OFCS that this exact situation preceded their vote. It's tough to root out Category Fraud when people have been so conditioned by the studios to believe that anything goes.

The complete list of nominees for film and television (with commentary is after the jump)

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Interview: Director Maxime Giroux on the Adult Romance of Canadian Oscar Submission 'Félix and Meira'

Jose here. In the sensitive romance, Félix and Meira, Hadas Yaron and Martin Dubreuil, play the title characters, two lovers who bond through their loneliness, but must struggle with their very different backgrounds, and the fact that she’s married to someone else. An insightful look at Montreal’s Hasidic community, the film is peculiar for its restraint and might be one of the most memorable romantic films in recent years. Director Maxime Giroux paints a unique portrait of people seeking connections that go beyond typical “movie love”. I spoke to him about the film’s origins, casting his leading lady, and being in the race for Oscar.

JOSE: At the beginning of the year I spoke to Luzer Twersky who told me the film originally was supposed to be a comedy. How did you end up with such a subdued romantic drama instead?

MAXIME GIROUX:It’s funny, when we started to imagine the movie, I’d just made a dark movie and I wanted to make a comedy. The more we talked about this community and understood it, the more obvious it became it would be difficult to make a comedy, because people like Luzer for instance, who leave the community, have a hard time making that decision. A comedy about that would not have been easy to make.

JOSE: He said instead what you ended up with was making the movie that best captured the Hasidic experience.

MAXIME GIROUX: He would know that better than me, I never lived in that community (laughs).

More after the jump...

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In the Heart of the Box Office

Ron Howard's new adventure on the high seas (based on the story that inspired Moby Dick) In the Heart of the Sea didn't manage to beat The Hunger Games, due mostly to the latter's much higher screen count. But regardless it's the final week of Katniss's reign. Next weekend the jedis, generals, droids, and wookies arrive surely stealing all the screens in our multiplex world.

If Chris & Tom survive this whaling adventure they get to play Marvel superheroes next

In Oscar-seeking land, Spotlight was off only 10% after a final expansion to 1089 screens so word of mouth is strong and the run will surely be leggy as it nabs more prizes at award ceremonies. The Big Short, inexplicably on only 8 screens despite multiplex-appeal (this is not a highbrow movie!) and tons of stars, packed its houses. Carol and The Danish Girl with tiny expansions are also doing solid if unspectacular business. If you've been dragging your feet on Bridge of Spies, Suffragette, Sicario, The Asssassin (and maybe even Room, Brooklyn, and Trumbo) get there this week -- they're likely to lose screens soon and unless Oscar curiousity catches on with the general public most of them won't be around much longer.

BOX OFFICE WIDE
(Dec 11th-13th)
01 Hunger Games 4 $11.3 (cum. $244.4)  Hunger Games & Oscar
02 In the Heart of the Sea $11 *new* 
03 The Good Dinosaur $10.4 (cum. $89.6) Review
04 Creed $10.1 (cum $79.3) Review & Oscar Chances
05 Krampus  $8 (cum. $28.1)
06 Spectre $4 (cum. $190.7) Review
07 The Night Before $3.9 (cum. $38.2)
08 The Peanuts Movie $2.6 (cum. $124.9) Peanuts Films
09 Spotlight $2.5 (cum. $20.3)  Podcast, From TIFF, SAG Ensemble
10 Brooklyn $1.9 (cum. $14.3)  Review, Ensemble, Podcast, Saoirse & Oscar

BOX OFFICE LIMITED
Excluding previously wides (Dec 11th-13th)
01 Trumbo $.8 554 screens (cum. $5.4) SAG Ensemble
02 The Big Short $.7 8 screens *NEW*  Review & SAG Ensemble
03 Chi-Raq $.5 285 screens (cum. $2.1) Podcast
04 Carol $.3 16 screens (cum $1.2) Reviewish, Podcast, Its Genius, Sketches
05 Legend  $.3 107 screens (cum. $1.3)
06 The Danish Girl   $.2 24 screens (cum. $.6) Interview
07 Macbeth  $.2 108 screens (cum. $.3) Review, Podcast
08 Room $.2 198 screens (cum. $4.1) Premiere, Podcast, FYC Jacob Tremblay
09 Youth $.1 17 screens (cum. $.2) Review, Podcast
10 Suffragette $.09 166 screens (cum. $4.5) Review, Carey Campaign

Dean O'Gorman (The Hobbit) plays Kirk Douglas in "Trumbo"

What did you see this weekend?
I finally caught up with Trumbo. I have no idea why it took me so long to see it since I do love my Hollywood history movies and celebrity impersonations (New Zealander Dean O'Gorman does a terrific Kirk Douglas for what it's worth! He was stupidly left out of the SAG Ensemble nomination). More on Trumbo soon since it's popping with SAG & Globe nominations.

Toronto ♥ Tom Hardy, "Carol" and "Phoenix"

The Film Experience loves Toronto. Not only is it home to the best festival, TIFF, but it's also full of Canadians and our own Amir Soltani. On top of those two pluses, the Toronto Film Critics Association includes great critics like Calum Marsh, Bill Chambers and Angelo Murrada (the latter two have guested on "Smackdowns" right here!). The TFCA was established in 1997 and gave their first Best Film prize to Atom Egoyan's brilliant movie The Sweet Hereafter. This year double prizes for Carol, Ex Machina, and Phoenix and a prize for Tom Hardy for playing double as the twin Krays in Legend.

Best Film Carol
Best Director Todd Haynes, Carol
Best Actress Nina Hoss, Phoenix
Best Actor Tom Hardy, Legend

This is the second year in a row that Tom Hardy has won TFCA's Best Actor prize. He took it last year for his solo act Locke. He really should attend their awards dinner as double-thanks. Or pop in on next year's live vote debate to put in his two cents about his successor.

Best Supporting Actress Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Best Supporting Actor Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Best Screenplay The Big Short, adapted by Charles Randolph & Adam McKay from the non-fiction book
Best First Film Ex Machina d. Alex Garland

Best Animated Film Shaun the Sheep Movie (Aardman) d. Mark Burton & Richard Starzak
Best Documentary Look of Silence d. Joshua Oppenheimer
Best Foreign Language Film Phoenix (Germany) d. Christian Petzold

Phoenix, one of the year's biggest foreign hits, took two prizes

The TFCA also hands out a Best Canadian Film prize but that one comes with nominations and is announced at their awards dinner. Here's hoping Closet Monster gets a nomination.