Introducing the Smackdown Panel for '57

Are you enjoying our super-sized Supporting Actress Smackdown season? We've already discussed 1947, 1981, and 2002. We normally only do 4 episodes but we're super-sizing things this summer so there's lots more to come. It's our own niche movie-loving way of trying to alleviate your (and our) anxiety, depression, exhaustion, during this tumultous time of righteous protests, pandemic sheltering, and treasonous manchild in the White House. Up next 1957

THE NOMINEES

• Hope Lange (Peyton Place)
• Carolyn Jones (The Bachelor Party)
• Miyoshi Umeki (Sayonara)
• Elsa Lanchester (Witness for the Prosecution)
• Diane Varsi (Peyton Place)

Get to watching those four films when you need a break from the real world! Send in your ballots once you've screened 'em with "1957" in the subject line. But please only vote on the movies you've seen.

PLEASE WELCOME OUR NEXT PANEL ... 

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The prizes literally never stop... NSFC, GLAAD, NAACP and more

As per usual we've fallen a bit behind in the awardage department so we're doing a massive post right now to catch up. Here are the latest critics groups to announce their awards as well as nominations from two civil rights organizations, GLAAD and the NAACP...

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Still more prizes...

Why were critics so uncritical of Toy Story 4's retreading?

Yes, people are still giving out prizes. We don’t say this facetiously since we haven’t even given out ours yet (still cramming in screenings!) but both the Team Experience Awards (voted on by our whole team sans me -- they don’t let me vote!) and the Film Bitch Awards (yours truly's own long-running prizes) are coming in the next week or two. But until the guild awards start en masse this week (whilst Academy members vote on the Oscar nominations) here are the five latest industry or critics groups to announce. We only wish that there were more variety since Parasite, Bong Joon Ho, Adam Driver, Brad Pitt, Apollo 11, and Toy Story 4 continually to dominate their categories with stampede like force. The only category where the groups disagreed en masse (this week at least) was Best Actress; Ronan, Nyong'o, Zellweger, and Johansson all picked up another prize. And Best Supporting Actress was dominated by Florence Pugh in this week's roundup which is a bit different than earlier in the critics awards season where it was always Dern vs Lopez. 

The latest prizes after the jump...

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"The Irishman" leads the nominations from the Online Film Critics Society

The OFCS was founded back in 1997 just as film criticism was exploding on the web but still disrespected by old media. Since their founding 22 years ago there is less reason for their existence (all critics are primarily "online film critics" these days) but we've always liked them because the taste level is consistent. Let's start with their nominees and move on to other winners from other associations, at home and abroad.

OFCS
(Online Film Critics Society)

Best Picture

• 1917 
• The Irishman 
• Jojo Rabbit 
• Knives Out 
• Marriage Story 
• Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood
• Parasite
• Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
• Uncut Gems 
• Us

Best Animated Feature...

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Every weekend means... yet more prizes.

by Nathaniel R

Some of these were announced during the week but the weekend is when we catch up. In today's lineup: The Satellies (who went Ford V Ferrari crazy), The Black Film Critics Circle, plus Dublin and  Nevada critics. There's also a second organization from Phoenix listed. At first we were stunned because the only cities with two critics orgs that we can think of off the top of our heads so far are New York, Los Angeles (major media hubs both), and Boston... all, notably, places with very elite and long-lived film critics orgs that are difficult to be accepted into. Thus a second upstart group forms usually with "online" in the title (back in the early Aughts when print vs web was still sort of a thing). That 'online' designation makes less and less sense these days so some critics organizations who originally had it have been rebranding (all critics are now online critics with every former major print publication having long since moved to the web). Is Phoenix a sign that all major metropoles* will have two or three critics organizations by, say, 2025? Will critics organizations eventually outnumber the actual industry guilds that make the movies (if they don't already).

But I digress. In this weekend's roundup, Marriage Story comes out on top but we also want to talk about Texas in general because it's, shall we say, curious when it comes to film critics awards...

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