If they made a biopic of the BFCA it would be called 12 Years a Pundit... er, excuse me. 19 Years a Pundit. The BFCA (of which, full disclosure, I am a member) is in its 19th year of Oscar prognostication movie awardage and this year we've fallen hard for 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle both of which won three acting nominations and 10 additional nominations each. The "Critics Choice" list is the last big set we'll get before Oscar sounds off in one month's time.
BEST PICTURE
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Saving Mr. Banks
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
OR: Hilariously, The Ten Films on Everyone's Oscar Best Picture Chart. Oh, BFCA... you never fail to put punditry first! The most interesting note is that no Weinstein Co pictures are on their prediction list. We discussed this on the podcast... but could this really happen come Oscar nomination morning. It'd be very unusual. I still think Philomena and/or Fruitvale Station could surprise.
BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale – American Hustle
Bruce Dern – Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave
Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips
Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford – All Is Lost
Six noinees and no room for Oscar Isaac or Michael B Jordan? It's not a happy year for breakthrough performers when it comes to awardage. I got chastised by readers for having Joaquin Phoenix completely outside my top ten Best Actor chart for Her, but that's not looking so crazy now is it? If he couldn't score here... Also on the outside looking in: Leonardo DiCaprio who isn't nominated here but is nominated in Comedy (though his film isn't, go figure)
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Judi Dench – Philomena
Brie Larson – Short Term 12
Meryl Streep – August: Osage County
Emma Thompson – Saving Mr. Banks
Major win for Brie Larson (yes, I voted for her) but once again the BFCA's field of six is intended to cover their bases in cases someone scores a surprise nomination. I guess that someone this year is Brie Larson which I totally dig. Nevertheless it's more than likely what we thought originally: the Oscar shortlist in Best Actress will be the oldest on average of all time.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips
Daniel Bruhl – Rush
Bradley Cooper – American Hustle
Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave
James Gandolfini – Enough Said
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
Six nominations, 33% of which are leading roles (Hi Brühl & Abdi, your movies are complete parallel two hander narratives from beginning to end but you're not famous enough to be a "lead")... this looks like your Oscar list minus one. But who gets the drop? Seems tight, right?
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Scarlett Johansson – Her
Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts – August: Osage County
June Squibb – Nebraska
Oprah Winfrey – Lee Daniels’ The Butler
People get pissed at me for not wanting voice-only performances nominated for prizes (maybe special citations, sure) because they're not "full" performances. But then they reduce them to 'supporting" themselves because, presumably, they're not full performances so who is being hypocritical exactly? P.S. This is your Oscar list minus Scarlett Johansson, the gorgeous sexy amusing smart three dimensional voice in question
One final note on the actors. 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle both won 3 acting nominations leaving out one of their principle quartet: Sarah Paulson and Amy Adams respectively. Shame because both women are great in their movies and if you're going to go that hog wild for one movie...
snubbed within their brilliant quartet
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Asa Butterfield – Ender’s Game
Adele Exarchopoulos – Blue Is the Warmest Color
Liam James – The Way Way Back
Sophie Nelisse – The Book Thief
Tye Sheridan – Mud
The laziest set of nominees possible. Just go with leads of movies you watched! And I even tried to help them with that big chart of eligibility. But there's no way that half of these performers are more deserving than Kaitlyn Dever (Short Term 12), Israel Broussard (The Bling Ring), or Onata Aprile (What Maisie Knew)... and yes that was my exact ballot. Also why is this list only 5 wide when the others are 6 wide? Is it because there's no Oscar category to boast about how well you predicted it?
I've said this before but they need to lower the age restrictions on this category to under 18. Because, frankly, it's offputting to have the sexually explicit Blue is the Warmest Color competing with these other child-centric films.
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
American Hustle
August: Osage County
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Nebraska
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
I like to bitch about my own group's lack of discernment but this is an improvement on SAG's list of the same.
BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity
Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips
Spike Jonze – Her
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
David O. Russell – American Hustle
Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street
They're doing pretty good with these Oscar predictions, yes?
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Eric Singer and David O. Russell – American Hustle
Woody Allen – Blue Jasmine
Spike Jonze – Her
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – Inside Llewyn Davis
Bob Nelson – Nebraska
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Tracy Letts – August: Osage County
Richard Linklater & Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke – Before Midnight
Billy Ray – Captain Phillips
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope – Philomena
John Ridley – 12 Years a Slave
Terence Winter – The Wolf of Wall Street
Possibly Irrelevant Rant: I am so mad at the year 2002 for hopelessly screwing up perceptions of Adapted vs Original. That was the year that Gangs of New York and My Big Fat Greek Wedding both cheated suddenly pretending they weren't adapted works despite long histories of promoting themselves as such. Soon it had all broken down and people just put themselves anywhere. Now all pre-existing character movies are "adapted" which is dumb. If the Before films are "adapted" screenplays than so is Blue Jasmine since it uses the Bernie Madoff scandal fused with A Streetcar Named Desire as its springboard. [/Rant]
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki – Gravity
Bruno Delbonnel – Inside Llewyn Davis
Phedon Papamichael – Nebraska
Roger Deakins – Prisoners
Sean Bobbitt – 12 Years a Slave
This could quite possibly be the Oscar list and it's a good one... though I'm assuming Phedon Papamichael is vulnerable since he's never been Oscar nominated and Nebraska has been mostly thriving on its performances in the media.
BEST ART DIRECTION
Andy Nicholson (Production Designer), Rosie Goodwin (Set Decorator) – Gravity
Catherine Martin (Production Designer), Beverley Dunn (Set Decorator) – The Great Gatsby
K.K. Barrett (Production Designer), Gene Serdena (Set Decorator) – Her
Dan Hennah (Production Designer), Ra Vincent (Set Decorator) – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Adam Stockhausen (Production Designer), Alice Baker (Set Decorator) – 12 Years a Slave
BEST EDITING
Alan Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers – American Hustle
Christopher Rouse – Captain Phillips
Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger – Gravity
Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill – Rush
Joe Walker – 12 Years a Slave
Thelma Schoonmaker – The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Michael Wilkinson – American Hustle
Catherine Martin – The Great Gatsby
Bob Buck, Lesley Burkes-Harding, Ann Maskrey, Richard Taylor – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Daniel Orlandi – Saving Mr. Banks
Patricia Norris – 12 Years a Slave
BEST MAKEUP
American Hustle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Lee Daniels’ The Butler
Rush
12 Years a Slave
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
Star Trek into Darkness
I care a lot about these categories but the BFCA doesn't since we don't air them live. So I wonder why we cover them? I think streamlining is the way to go because if you don't care, you shouldn't be in the game.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Frozen
Monsters University
The Wind Rises
This MIGHT be your Oscar list though I think Ernest & Celestine will make it IF the new rules where the voters aren't required to see the movies doesn't torpedo their chances... and it might.
BEST ACTION MOVIE
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Iron Man 3
Lone Survivor
Rush
Star Trek into Darkness
BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Henry Cavill – Man of Steel
Robert Downey Jr. – Iron Man 3
Brad Pitt – World War Z
Mark Wahlberg – Lone Survivor
BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Evangeline Lilly – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Gwyneth Paltrow – Iron Man 3
BEST COMEDY
American Hustle
Enough Said
The Heat
This Is the End
The Way Way Back
The World’s End
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Christian Bale – American Hustle
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
James Gandolfini – Enough Said
Simon Pegg – The World’s End
Sam Rockwell – The Way Way Back
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Amy Adams – American Hustle
Sandra Bullock – The Heat
Greta Gerwig – Frances Ha
Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Enough Said
Melissa McCarthy – The Heat
BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
The Conjuring
Gravity
Star Trek into Darkness
World War Z
Look! Up in the sky! It's Category Confusion
I admit I abstained in some of these categories even though I love voting on prizes. When you make this many divisions it starts feeling like the Golden Satellites (this is not how anyone should want to feel) and it starts to make not a lot of internal sense -- as in with Gravity which is a sci-fi film, but not an action film except that Sandra Bullock is giving an action performance. Same deal with Wolf of Wall Street: It's a Best Film but not a Best Comedy but Leonardo is a Best Comedy Actor but not a Best Actor.
Um....
For all the complaints people have about the Golden Globes comedy division at least you can't be nominated in two different TYPES of categories. If there is a Best Comedy doesn't Best Picture have to be called Best Drama?
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Blue Is the Warmest Color (France)
The Great Beauty (Italy)
The Hunt (Denmark)
The Past (Iran)
Wadjda (Saudi Arabia)
I knew Blue is the Warmest Color would make it being so high profile. Occasionaly the BFCA will ignore what's Oscar eligible. But only under very very specific circumstances like this spaghetti eating cunnilingus loving one.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Act of Killing
Blackfish
Stories We Tell
Tim’s Vermeer
20 Feet from Stardom
I voted for The Missing Picture which is an incredible work of memoir (like Stories We Tell) but I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it missed the cut since it isn't Oscar eligible any longer in this particular category.
BEST SONG
Atlas – Coldplay – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Happy – Pharrell Williams – Despicable Me 2
Let It Go – Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez – Frozen
Ordinary Love – U2 – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Please Mr. Kennedy – Justin Timberlake/Oscar Isaac/Adam Driver – Inside Llewyn Davis
Young and Beautiful – Lana Del Rey – The Great Gatsby
BEST SCORE
Steven Price – Gravity
Arcade Fire – Her
Thomas Newman – Saving Mr. Banks
Hans Zimmer – 12 Years a Slave
Why are there only 4 nominees for score but 6 for song? BFCA you make-a-no-sense!