"Incredibles 2" Earns its Title with 11 Annie Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The Annie Award nominations have been released with Disney totally and utterly dominant: Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks the Internet lead with 11 and 10 nominations respectively and even when the prizes don't involve animated films (such as with animated effects or animation work in live-action features) the nominations still lean heavily toward a Disney majority.

But all is not lost for non-Disney contenders hoping to win something at the Annies or to score one of those five coveted Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars. Into the Spider-Verse, Isle of Dogs, and Early Man have to be taken seriously as Oscar threats and though foreign animated productions never fare all that well at the very American-centric Annie Awards, Oscar is a different story and both Japan's Mirai and Hungary's Ruben Brandt Collector, scored two nominations with the animation guild. They were already looking like the two most likely foreign players to spoil the Oscar dreams of some big studio CG effort and this confirms it. The complete list of nominees is after the jump along with a few comments...

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Detroit Film Critics Relive "Eighth Grade" and Indulge in "Vice"

We don't cover every film critics organization at TFE now that there are around 40 of them and half of those are now doing nominations to go along with their winners (exhausting!) but given that your host here originally hails from the Motor City we feel a certain amount of affection. This year the 21 Detroit area or Detroit-connected critics went all in for the adorable summer sleeper hit Eighth Grade and the forthcoming political comedy Vice. Their winners were...

Film Eighth Grade
Director Adam McKay, Vice
Actress Toni Collette, Hereditary
Actor Ethan Hawke, First Reformed...

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BIFA ❤️ "The Favourite" 10 Times

by Nathaniel R

Best Supporting Actor Alessandro Nivola

The 21st annual British Independent Film Awards were held today in London with sexy Russell Tovey hosting and The Favourite winning *GULP* 10 awards (that has to be a record at BIFA, doesn't it?). But the most wonderful surprise news around these parts is the Best Handsome win -- excuse us, Best Supporting Actor win for Alessandro Nivola. We were certain that he'd make it through the whole season with no hardware for his (typically) excellent work in Disobedience but BIFA happily proved us wrong. Nivola is of course something of an honorary Brit since he's married to a very fine British actress (Emily Mortimer) and has often worked in British cinema. 

The BIFA winners and a few more notes after the jump...

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FYC Young Performer Award 2018

by Nathaniel R

Evan Rosado was just one of a handful of truly incredible child performances this year in "We the Animals"

Each year one of our award traditions here at The Film Experience is to help fellow BFCA members choose more wisely when it comes to the "Young Performer" category at the Critics Choice Movie Awards. We do this with a not-so-simple eligibility list. You see, our ballots don't come with lists of eligible choices so it's up to each member to think up a list and since the category gets no media coverage it's hard to think up choices on the spot so sometimes the nominations are quite lazy (You had a high profile child or teen role in a big studio film? You're nominated!). For instance this year, voters would be practically insane to skip Zain Al Rafee in Capernaum (only one of the best child performances ever) but given that that's within a foreign film hopeful that has yet to open in theaters (December 14th), voters ARE likely to be insane and skip him.

It takes a bit of research for the teen/young adult performances to see who is actually eligible. Given that we're apt to miss a couple of names, so do let us know if you don't see your favorite. The BFCA voting is about to begin so here are those cheat sheets to help them vote along with some trivia notes...

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NYFCC Obsesses Over Roma

The New York Film Critics Circle are one of the two most influential groups who pass out critics prizes (the other being their Los Angeles counterparts the LAFCA) during Oscar's preseason. Today the 40+ New York critics made their choices which involve multiple rounds of voting and discussions among the critics attending in the room. They were wild for Roma giving the Mexican black & white memoir the top prize and giving writer/director/producer/editor/director of photography Alfonso Cuarón two additional prizes with Best Director and Best Cinematography.

Their prizes went like so...

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NBR Loves "A Star is Born" and "Beale Street" but names "Green Book" Best of the Year

by Nathaniel R

Mahershala and Viggo are all dolled up and ready for awards shows

The National Board of Review announced its winners today for their January 8th gala at Cipriani 42nd Street. While NBR no longer signifies the kick-off to precursor season (with the Gotham and Spirit Awards announcing so early each year) they're still a significant bellwether or rather they're a bell ringing, alerting everyone that you can't hide from awards season; it is upon us! This year Green Book, A Star is Born, and If Beale Street Could Talk were their three obvious favorites, the only films to take multiple prizes.

THIS YEAR'S PRIZES, WHAT THEY MIGHT MEAN, AND SOME STATS AFTER THE JUMP...

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