The Broadcast Film Critics Association (of which I am a voting member) has announced the nominees for the 15th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards. The winners will be announced at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards live on Friday, January 15, 2009 at 9:00 PM ET/PT. The top grabbers represent two polar extremes. "Inglourious Basterds" and "Nine" each received ten nominations.
“Inglorious Basterds” reflects Tarantino’s genuine love of cinema, and his flair for working outside the mainstream and challenging conventions. “Nine,” on the other hand, rips off Fellini’s “8 ½” but without any sense of true affection for the film and without a shred of originality (unless you consider being this bad striking some sort of innovation). Also unworthy of best picture attention are “Invictus,” “Precious,” and “Avatar.” Fortunately, though, those weak entries are balanced by the presence of “A Serious Man,” “The Hurt Locker,” and “Up in the Air.” It's also a major disappointment to see that Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo" was shut out of the best animated category while such mediocre fare as "The Princess and the Frog" and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" were nominated. But it's not surprising since Disney (which distributes all the Miyazaki films in the U.S.) did not send awards screeners to the BFCA voting members -- probably because it wanted to reduce the competition for its onw entries of "The Princess and the Frog" and its Pixar release "Up." Such are the politics of Hollywood.
The San Diego Film Critics Society (which I also belong to) will be announcing its nominations and winners this week.
This year, the BCFA added seven new award categories: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Make up, and Best Sound. Plus, the screenwriting category has been broken back into Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay.
With 235 members, the BFCA is the largest film critics' organization in the United States and Canada. It represents television, radio and online critics.
NOMINEES FOR THE 15TH ANNUAL CRITICS' CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS
BEST PICTURE
“Avatar”
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Invictus”
“Nine”
“Precious”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up In The Air”
BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges - "Crazy Heart"
George Clooney - "Up In The Air"
Colin Firth - "A Single Man"
Morgan Freeman - "Invictus"
Viggo Mortensen - "The Road"
Jeremy Renner - "The Hurt Locker"
BEST ACTRESS
Emily Blunt - "The Young Victoria"
Sandra Bullock - "The Blind Side"
Carey Mulligan - "An Education"
Saoirse Ronan - "The Lovely Bones"
Gabourey Sidibe - "Precious"
Meryl Stre ep - "Julie & Julia"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon - "Invictus"
Woody Harrelson - "The Messenger"
Christian McKay - "Me And Orson Welles"
Alfred Molina - "An Education"
Stanley Tucci - "The Lovely Bones"
Christoph Waltz - "Inglourious Basterds"
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard - "Nine"
Vera Farmiga - "Up In The Air"
Anna Kendrick - "Up In The Air"
Mo'Nique - "Precious"
Julianne Moore - "A Single Man"
Samantha Morton - "The Messenger"
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Jae Head - "The Blind Side"
Bailee Madison - "Brothers"
Max Records - "Where The Wild Things Are"
Saoirse Ronan - "The Lovely Bones"
Kodi Smit-McPhee - "The Road"
BEST A CTING ENSEMBLE
"Inglourious Basterds"
"Nine"
"Precious"
"Star Trek"
"Up In The Air"
BEST DIRECTING
Kathryn Bigelow - "The Hurt Locker"
James Cameron - "Avatar"
Lee Daniels - "Precious"
Clint Eastwood - "Invictus"
Jason Reitman - "Up In The Air"
Quentin Tarantino - "Inglourious Basterds"
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Mark Boal - "The Hurt Locker"
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - "A Serious Man"
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber - "(500) Days Of Summer"
Bob Peterson, Peter Docter - "Up"
Quentin Tarantino - "Inglourious Basterds"
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach - "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell - "District 9"
Geoffrey Fletcher - "Precious"
Tom F ord, David Scearce - "A Single Man"
Nick Hornby - "An Education"
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner - "Up In The Air"
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Barry Ackroyd - "The Hurt Locker"
Dion Beebe - "Nine"
Mauro Fiore - "Avatar"
Andrew Lesnie - "The Lovely Bones"
Robert Richardson - "Inglourious Basterds"
BEST ART DIRECTION
Dan Bishop - "A Single Man"
Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg - "Avatar"
John Myhre, Gordon Sim - "Nine"
Naomi Shohan, George De Titta, Jr. - "The Lovely Bones"
David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds Wasco - "Inglourious Basterds"
BEST EDITING
Dana E. Glauberman - "Up In The Air"
Sally Menke - "Inglourious Basterds"
Bob Murawski, Chris Innis - "The Hurt Locker"
Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron - "Avatar"
Claire Simpson, Wyatt Smith - "Nine"
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Colleen Atwood - "Nine"
Janet Patterson - "Bright Star"
Sandy Powell - "The Young Victoria"
Anna Sheppard - "Inglourious Basterds"
Casey Storm - "Where The Wild Things Are"
BEST MAKEUP
"Avatar"
"District 9"
"Nine"
"The Road"
"Star Trek"
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
"Avatar"
"District 9"
"The Lovely Bones"
"Star Trek"
"2012"
BEST SOUND
"Avatar"
"District 9"
"The Hurt Locker"
"Nine"
"Star Trek"
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Princess And The Frog
Up
BEST ACTION MOVIE
"Avatar""
"District 9"
"The Hurt Locker"
"Inglourious Basterds"
"Star Trek"
BEST COMEDY
"(500) Days Of Summer"
"The Hangover"
"It's Complicated"
"The Proposal"
"Zombieland"
BEST PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
"Gifted Hands"
"Grey Gardens"
"Into The Storm"
"Taking Chance"
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"Broken Embraces"
"Coco Before Chanel"
"Red Cliff"
"Sin Nombre"
"The White Ribbon"
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
"Anvil"
"Capitalism: A Love Story"
"The Cove"
"Food, Inc."
"Michael Jackson's This Is It"
BEST SONG
"All Is Love" - Karen O, Nick Zinner - "Where The Wild Things Are"
"Almost There" - Randy Newman - "The Princess And The Frog"
"Cinema Italiano" - Maury Yeston - "Nine"
"(I Want To) Come Home" - Paul McCartney - "Everybody's Fine"
"The Weary Kind" - T Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham - "Crazy Heart"
BEST SCORE
Michael Giacchino - "Up"
Marvin Hamlisch - "The Informant!"
Randy Newman - "The Princess and the Frog"
Karen O, Carter Burwell - "Where The Wild Things Are"
Hans Zimmer - "Sherlock Holmes"
