12 Things We Learned From the Oscar Nominations

Happy Christmas Oscar Nomination Day! Herewith quick observations on the 91st Academy Award nominations.

10 THINGS WE LEARNED (OR RELEARNED) FROM THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS

Cuarón with the first of his many wins this year1. All the times that Alfonso Cuarón made his (plentiful) Best Director acceptance speeches about Marina & Yalitza as the "heart" of his film, really paid off. Voters were paying attention, even if only subconsciously and both actresses were nominated in volatile fifth spots in their categories.

2. It's tough to snag a "lone" Oscar nomination for your movie if you're a non-legendary actor. Timothée Chalamet and Glenn Close and Willem Dafoe were all working at that this year and the one that dropped out was Chalamet for Beautiful Boy. He'll be legendary one day but he just became really famous last year and the film had no other boosts to keep him in the conversation...

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"Roma" is the not so surprising superstar of the 1st annual LEJA Awards

We told you back in December about a new critics organization LEJA (Latino Entertainment Journalists Association) and they've announced their first year's worth of awards winners. Roma leads with TEN wins (nine proper plus a special award for Yalitza Aparacio as "Breakout," despite the fact that she also won Best Actress). The only other multiple winners were Black Panther (3), If Beale Street Could Talk (3), A Star is Born (2), and Into the Spider-Verse (2). They've mostly they avoided category fraud except in the messy Best Supporting Actor category where they rubberstamped Mahershala Ali. But we'll forgive that since they honored Bradley Cooper as Best Actor and he's been weirdly denied wins all season despite his multiple threat sucess with A Star is Born. The full list of LEJA winners is after the jump.

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Critics Choice Movie Awards Live Blog

by Nathaniel R

7:30 It took me 15 minutes to find a live stream but I unfortunately found it just in time to see a frankly hideous video mix which used this strange early photoshop spotlight effect on movie clips so the actors were lit up and everything else was blacked out. Taye Diggs was introduced as a 'chocolatey heartthrob'. He launched into a musical performance which was........ ........   ........... ........ .........Yes, Taye Diggs is very handsome!

7:32 Lady Gaga wins Best Song for "Shallow". Who knew Peter Farrelly was such a fan, giving her a standing ovation. She thanks Bradley Cooper profusely and smartly talks about his transformation into Jackson Maine (we need people to talk about this amazing performance.  "I was mesmerized both for myself and my character" Wait, they're different people? Kidding.

7:38 Best Young Actor or Actress goes to Elsie Fisher with reaction shots from Thomasin McKenzie and Amandla Stenberg, who both seem unfussed about losing, already pros they are.

As someone who has anxiety, it's exciting to be on this stage right now.

Tee hee. Sadly, though Elsie throws up a peace hand sign, she doesn't say "Gucci" but 'Peace and love, y'all'...

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Austin moves to "Beale St." and AWFJ loves "Roma"

by Nathaniel R

How many critics groups are left? We honestly lose track!

Today we're looking at two more. First is the Austin Film Critics Association who were the only group brave enough in 2006 to step away from Helen Mirren's inexplicable steamroll for The Queen in a Best Actress year that was insane with great options (their iconoclastic choice that year: Ellen Page in Hard Candy). This year though they haven't strayed very far from consensus except that they gave Roma only one prize (!).

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists also announced their prizes which are an exact carbon copy, down the line, of critical consensus leaders, so it's a good thing they have several unusual categories, too. Here are the results...

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Dorian Awards Favor 'The Favourite'

by Murtada Elfadl

The Favourite lived up to its title with GALECA’s Dorian Award voters, who named the audacious historical romp Film of the Year and bestowed its star, Olivia Colman, with the Film Performance of the Year—Actress tiara for her funny and heartbreaking turn as Queen Anne. Two results that we suspect will be popular with The Film Experience community. The movie talso scored Screenplay of the Year honors for Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara.

However for the three other acting awards for film, The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics followed the critical consensus. Ethan Hawke in First Reformed, Regina King in If Beale Street Could Talk and Richard E Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, added another award to their heavy mantles. Roma and Alfonso Cuaron continued their dominance of the critics awards by winning Foreign Language Film of the Year and Best Director.

GALECA’s unique categories made space for films that have not been recognized widely...

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