Oklahoma & Phoenix & The Supporting Actress Traffic Jam

The Artist, Albert Brooks, Michelle Williams and The Tree of Life's cinematography continue to assert dominance in the regional critics prizes as two more circles & societies weigh in. How long until we have 60 US critics organizations, one for each state plus a handful of redundant consolidating regional groups and another handful of national groups?

11 perfs by 9 women have divvied up Critics Supporting Actress prizes in North America

Meanwhile Supporting Actress --which is a real clusterf*** to predict with 6 women doing superbly in precursors and 2 more super lauded performances waiting eagerly for a miracle stumble from one of those 6 -- continues to be a total free for all among critics groups as I've illustrated with this map of the prizes thus far... so exciting! Would that more races would inspire this much healthy difference of opinion, art being subjective and all.

I've been discussing the Best Supporting Actress race with other pundits recently and I'm finding it amusing how "obvious" everyone claims it is despite no one agreeing on who is out front or who gets dumped. How then, can it be obvious? Even the statistics don't solve this equation as will be noted after the jump...

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OFCS Nominations: The Drive of Life

The Online Film Critics Society is the latest group to chime in with their nominations for the best of 2011. They'll announce the winners on January 2nd but because they're a big group we deigned to feature their nominees this year. As in most years there are a couple of eyebrow raising choices (I really can't handle Editing and Screenplay nominations for We Need To Talk About Kevin! Shoot me now... with bow and arrow if you must.) but their Best Cinematography list is just... well, we should only pray we get an Oscar field that beautiful, that acclaimed, that challenging, that perfect, that War Horse evading.

The Tree of Life led their field of contenders with seven nominations including two for acting (Brad Pitt was honored there,  not for Moneyball) with Drive in hot pursuit with six. And for what seems like the first time in ages, Martha Marcy May Marlene was not left out in the cold, picking up three nominations including Original Screenplay for Sean Durkin (recently interviewed).

Full list of nominations with a few thoughts after the jump.

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Utah Picks "Drive", Black Film Critics Love "Pariah", And More...

Well, look at that!

Critics group finally veered off the three well paved roads of Best Picture honors (The Artist, The Descendants and The Tree of Life were the only previous films named "Best Picture" by a US critics group. No, the NBR is not a critics group). Utah named Drive the Best Picture of 2011 and the Black Film Critics Circle went for The Help. 

Their love for the film which earned two additional prizes also broke up the clean sweep by The Tree of Life in cinematography. Emmanuel Lubezki's god like talents are truly majestic (and have been jaw dropping for a long time prior to The Tree of Life) but it's nice to see another artistic photographic achievement honored, in this case Newton Thomas Sigel's evocative night time cityscapes and theatrically dreamy interiors. Sigel has done rich work before, particularly on X2: X-Men United and Three Kings, but nothing as fine as his work on Drive. He's never been honored by his own guild or Oscar so hopefully that'll happen for him this year since he's done his best work ever.

Consider this prize a wee detour as there are more honors to come for Lubezki, though, surely. Lubezki might actually win the Oscar this year... though I'm trying not to hope for it too emphatically as Oscar has a way of ignoring his genius.

Full list of Utah's prizes and two more critics groups after the jump...

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London Critics Love: A Separation, Drive, Tinker Tailor

The London Film Critics will not name their winners, as far as I can tell, until a ceremony on January 19th. I wonder if that's correct? Do they really have enough clout to get celebrities to show without winning in advance? (That's how most critics organizations get celebrities at their events. They come specifically to receive awards they've already won). But here are their nominees. It's good news for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Drive which led the nominations with six each including Best Film. A Separation also did really well as it continues to build momentum. It's just so sad that it didn't get an earlier and harder push. It should've been in the Best Picture discussion and lord knows it's about time we had an instant foreign language classic in the Best Picture discussion again. Remember when that was happening regularly for a few years about ten yeras back.

I don't want to keep you or myself -- I have things to type up -- but how about these actress categories? It's like one amazing woman after another.

ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Kirsten Dunst - Melancholia (interview... not on this film)
Anna Paquin - Margaret *
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady 
Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin 
Michelle Williams - My Week With Marilyn

* NYC readers should note that Margaret, which has been causing such a no screeners / no campaign year-end critical fuss is reopening at Cinema Village on December 23rd. That theater is microscopic so expect sell-outs. I can't say whether I'll end up on #TeamMargaret or not but I appreciate the chance to see it before I publish my lists.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Sareh Bayat - A Separation
Jessica Chastain - The Help 
Vanessa Redgrave - Coriolanus
Octavia Spencer - The Help 
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom INTERVIEW

BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Olivia Colman - The Iron Lady & Tyrannosaur INTERVIEW
Carey Mulligan - Drive  &  Shame 
Vanessa Redgrave - Anonymous & Coriolanus
Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin
Rachel Weisz - The Deep Blue Sea

I've never quite understood British Award groups tendencies to have specifically British prizes. Can't we just assume they'll prefer the Brits and be as patriotic as other countries in their homegrown awards? The Oscars don't have a "Best American Actress" category. The London Critics regular "Best Actress" category is two American blondes who were once teen star co-stars, a Canadian/New Zealander, a Jersey Girl (that'd be Streep) and a Scottish alien goddess. 

It's Michelle/Marilyn for Dallas, Florida, Vegas and Chicago

The critical map continues to unfold with only three films scoring repeatedly: The Artist, The Descendants and The Tree of Life. All of them recently picking up another "best of year" prize. I had expected Hugo to feature more prominently after its high profile NBR win but that hasn't come to pass. But isn't it awfully nice to see a year with three major critical players even if you don't much like one of them (for me that's The Descendants). In short: Death to sweeps!

Michelle Williams is dominating the critics awards

While she's not quite a sweeper Michelle Williams is going to be on a lot of airplanes if she intends to attend all of these critics ceremonies that plan to honor her work in My Week With Marilyn! After the jump prizes from... Chicago and St. Louis who both just announced, Dallas Ft Worth, Florida, and Las Vegas (which I missed last week oopsie).

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