Critical Kudos Continue: Kansas, San Francisco, Dallas, OFCS
Monday, December 15, 2014 at 9:13AM (We interrupt your Missi experience this morning to bring you more awards news. Missi returns this afternoon for two final posts.)
The Film Critic (a monolith) floats in his room this month contemplatively, aging rapidly before our eyes. A difficult choice faces him/her: Birdman or Boyhood? After the jump see which cities chose what and which categories they're allowing themselves to have a little fun with...
KANSAS CITY
In the end for Kansas City critics in this scenairo, though Boyhood won two key prizes that it's getting Biblically familiar with of late, they were Riggan Thompson fans through and through and squawked their fandom proudly giving four prizes to Fox Searchlight's Best Picture hopeful Birdman. The KCFCC is one of the nation's oldest film critics groups, with their first Best Picture prize dating all the way back to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). They're the first venerable critics org* this season to venture outside of Boyhood for top honors.
Best Actress appears to be the one category where critics groups are allowing themselves wiggle room performance wise. Moore & Cotillard have had the most wins but they're not the only two cited and so many other categories apparently have but two eligible names whichever city you happen to be in.
Film Birdman
Director Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Actress Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting Actor Edward Norton, Birdman
Adapted Screenplay Obvious Child
Original Screenplay Birdman
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Documentary Citizen Four
Vince Koehler Award (honoring sci-fi/fantasy/horror): The Babadook
SAN FRANCISCO
The San Francisco Film Critics Circle is just 12 years old and their Best Picture prizes are usually right along with the status quo but few a few contrarian years in the mid Aughts. So this year they went with nearly all the usual suspects (or the standard top alternate) in their categories
Film Boyhood
Director Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Actress Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting Actor Edward Norton, Birdman
Adapted Screenplay Inherent Vice
Original Screenplay Birdman
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Documentary Citizen Four
Cinematography Ida
Editing Boyhood
Production Design Grand Budapest Hotel
Foreign Film Ida
Special Citation The One I Love
Marlon Riggs Award (Courage and Innovation in Bay Area) Joel Shepard, programmer of the Yerba Buena Center for Arts in San Francisco
DALLAS/FORT WORTH
The Dallas Forth Worth Film Critics Association is 21 years old now so at least they predated the rush of "every city must have two organizations!"
Film Birdman
Top Ten In Order:
- Birdman
- Boyhood
- The Imitation Game
- The Theory of Everything
- Grand Budapest Hotel
- Whiplash
- Gone Girl
- Selma
- Wild
- Nightcrawler
Director Alejandro Inarritu, Birdman
Actress Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Documentary Citizen Four
Cinematography Birdman
Foreign Film Force Majeure
Russell Smith Award (Low Budget / Cutting Edge) Boyhood
ONLINE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY
Finally there really quite amazing list of nominees (DAT BEST ACTRESS CATEGORY -YUM!) that Glenn covered last week here has resulted in a few mild surprises... the main gist of which is that someone finally went with The Grand Budapest Hotel for something other than 'runner up' citations.
Film Grand Budapest Hotel
Director Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Actress Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting Actor Edward Norton, Birdman
Adapted Screenplay Gone Girl
Original Screenplay Grand Budapest Hotel
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Foreign Film Two Days One Night
Documentary Life Itself
Cinematography Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Non-US Release (non competitive top ten category)
- 71 (my review... such a good movie. I guess they're waiting for Jack O'Connell to get more famous before they release it?)
- 10,000 km
- Entre Nós
- Han Gong-Ju
- Hard to be a God
- The Look of Silence
- The Salt of the Earth
- What We Do in the Shadows
- Timbuktu
- The Tribe
* A lot sites tend to lump in the NBR with critics groups. It is important to know that it is not a critics group but a civilian organization.
Reader Comments (16)
Is Julianne not quite running away with this like everyone's been saying? She's still the frontrunner, but it seems the lack of respect for the movie's other assets may be slowing her down.
Bruno - i dont think regional critics mean anything in terms of Oscar wins, only nomination heat. which is why it's nice when they venture outside the Oscar coronation. I mean Julianne really doesn't need an award from Kansas, you know? But it's nice for Rosamund i'm sure.
It's interesting how these are in lockstep for Actor and Supporting Actress though. I'm just paranoid because I want Moore to win so bad. Witherspoon, Pike, and especially Cotillard are fantastic in their roles too and deserve their goods.
Bruno -- I think Moore has nothing to worry about. Jones is too mild, Pike too cold, Witherspoon too previously awarded for a film people are being weird about, Cotillard too foreign, Aniston too the nominations the honor. It's a uniquely open window for her to sail to a win which we know is very very hard for 50something actresses. Probably helps that she's still "the foxiest bitch in the world."
The San Diego Film Critics have also announced their nominees!
http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/nightcrawler-leads-san-diego-film-critics-nominations
Did only Patricia give a supporting performance this year.
George P -- i refuse to look. TFE must stick by its win only stance now that there are 30+ regional groups wanting attention (and acting like they're entitled to even more of it than LA & NY get ferchrissakes)
If its good enough for LA & NY it should be good enough for the rest of the country! ;)
Mark -- yes, all films were populated only by men in supporting roles this year except Patty.
People are being weird about Wild, aren't they? I'm becoming something of a Vallee fan in pure directorial terms. Wild was great, and I have no idea why it and Dern aren't getting more buzz.
I also have doubts any one performance would be considered good enough to overtake Moore, but memories of Away from Her (Alzheimer's vehicle where frontrunner is overtaken near the last moment) and The Blind Side (America's sweetheart gets awarded for a very good but not year's-best performance, AHEM, Jennifer Aniston) remain fresh in the mind.
Could it happen.
It is great that Keaton is gathering consensus. I have yet to see Redmayne, Cooper and Isaac, but as of right now I am loving him for Best Actor.
Nathaniel, just a small comment: As KC is my hometown, I wish to gently remind everyone that Kansas City is referring to the city in Missouri, not Kansas. And probably most of the critics are from Missouri media. (There is a Kansas City, Kansas, across the river, but it is about 10 blocks long.)
Bruno -- i understand the fear, trust, but i wouldn't worry too much. Blind Side had MASSIVE SUCCESS (one of the biggest hits of all time led by a female star) as well as Sandra's charisma dialed up to 11. Cake provides neither of those thing for Aniston. It's a low key performance in a movie that will be very lucky to gross anything north of like $7 million and it'll only get to that big of an amount if it gets an Oscar nomination.
brookesboy - NOTED. added the word "city". oops.
Bruno- I agree. I expected so much more for Wild, what with momentum and all...
Re: the Online Film Critics's "non-US release," The Salt of the Earth is out in theaters at this very moment!
I don't think anyone should be worried about Julianne...
Jones and Pike are not performances that say "give me an award!" in a way that would override them being relative newcomers to the awards circuit, and thus not "due" for anything.
Aniston, like Nathaniel said, does not have any of the things Bullock had going for her. Her film is really small and emotional but not in your face, and not going to be anywhere near the box office behemoth The Blind Side was. Plus, Sandy was having an amazing year with The Proposal as well which added to the momentum.
The only person that could give Julianne a run for her money is Reese, who I think would be frontrunner this year if she had only been nominated for Walk the Line but didn't win. But, she's won before, and her win has grown a sort of "oh...maybe too soon?" status (not close enough in years, a la Sally Field or Swank to miss that), and on top of that, Wild for some reason is not really being embraced passed Reese's performance.
I really think the stars have aligned this year for Julianne's Oscar gold, and it makes me very happy because so many times on this site I had read how we'd have to settle for her being Oscar-less and it made me very sad. Get that trophy, Juli!
* Meant to add that Sandy seemed to be rewarded as well for being a continuous presence at the box office over the years, and a wonderful comedic actress. Jennifer Aniston is not as well received in that regard. I think we all can agree that most would think of Sandy as the stronger actress, even before Oscar talk for either one. Plus, Jen is thought of more as a TV actress still. At least for me. That's where she really made her mark, with Friends. She might make money in films but they're almost all forgettable Hollywood duds.
Hair and Makeup short list announced. Let's get some love for Spider-Man 2.