Broadcast Film Critics: Black Swan Shows True Grit

The BFCA have revealed their "Critics Choice" nominees and Black Swan looms like an evil tutu'ed shadow over the competition with a record breaking 12 nominations. True Grit and The King's Speech were second with 11 nominations each, indicating that the BFCA voters really do like the films they've just seen the most. The BFCA has long been known (and celebrated and reviled) as being obsessed with predicting the Oscars. It's a curious character quirk for an awards body that ought to be concerned with establishing its own voice and one that would be a smidgeon more respectable, even as pure punditry, if they'd only limit their acting categories to 5 nominees like the Oscars do. When individual pundits are judged on their predictive power, they aren't allowed extras, you know? But ah well.

Running the gamut from beloved to respected to entirely snubbed

 The top ten films are as follows:

• 127 Hours
• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The King's Speech
• The Social Network
• The Town
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit
• Winter's Bone

Did not make it all the way: The films racking up the highest nomination tallies outside of the Best Picture field were The Kids Are All Right and Alice in Wonderland (with 4 noms a piece).

Proving once again that comedies have tough treks to awards glory outside of the Globes, you'll notice that none (apart from an animated film) are mentioned. Though the BFCA are 16 years old, there is only one year to accurately compare their listings to the Academy in terms of Best Picture. Last year they chose Nine and Invictus in their top ten; Oscar passed on both. If the same stats hold true this year, two of those 10 above will drop away in 42 days when the Oscar nominations are announced. (Perhaps The Kids Are All Right, or Another Year will step in. Perhaps not... maybe the BFCA will go 9/10 or even *gasp* 10/10 this year.)

Curiously the BFCA field of nominees is only four-wide in four different craft categories? I can't figure why. Don't want to hog the entire blog with each and every category so the full nomination list with much opinionated commentary (and snubbing notes) is after the jump.

BEST ACTRESS

Annette Bening – “The Kids Are All Right”

Nicole Kidman – “Rabbit Hole”

Jennifer Lawrence – “Winter’s Bone”

Natalie Portman – “Black Swan”

Noomi Rapace – “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”

Michelle Williams – “Blue Valentine”

• This list is a bit more unruly as is this category in 2010. The four women most often predicted for Oscar are present but the other two (Noomi & Michelle) are important campaign gets. There's no Lesley Manville for Another Year (bad news for her) no Julianne Moore (she'll be in the Globe lineup I expect) and no Tilda Swinton for I Am Love... who has been picking up a smidgeon of renewed buzz again lately.
  
  Trivia note: This is Nicole Kidman's 7th nomination with BFCA (including ensemble citations) making her one of their very top performers in their 16 year history.

BEST ACTOR

Jeff Bridges – “True Grit”

Robert Duvall – “Get Low”

Jesse Eisenberg – “The Social Network”

Colin Firth – “The King’s Speech”

James Franco – “127 Hours”

Ryan Gosling – “Blue Valentine”

• No surprises here but... F*** yeah, Ryan Gosling. This is every pundits top six for Oscar. But obviously Oscar restrains itself to five. So who is out? I'm assuming Franco & Firth are quite safe. But the other four... I could see any snub (yes even Bridges or Eisenberg) and any get. I'm so pleased for Gosling who is smashingly good in that movie. What'cha think?

Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), the captain of True Grit's ship.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams – “The Fighter”

Helena Bonham Carter – “The King’s Speech”

Mila Kunis – “Black Swan”

Melissa Leo – “The Fighter”

Hailee Steinfeld – “True Grit”

Jacki Weaver – “Animal Kingdom”

• In the past couple of weeks the Supporting Actress category has seemed to be in major flux but we may be experiencing The Great Settling as it were. (The Mila Kunis nod is the only mild surprise. She's fun and totally sexy in the movie but I don't understand it as "great acting"... would've much preferred Barbara Hershey.) I still think we need the Golden Globes tomorrow to be sure about this lineup.
  
  P.S. Hailee Steinfeld is the lead of True Grit, no ifs ands or buts. She's in every scene. She drives the story. She narrates. She even gets in on the action. It's so silly to call her supporting but whatever. Awards season makes people do dumb things.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTORChristian Bale – “The Fighter”

Andrew Garfield – “The Social Network”

Jeremy Renner – “The Town”

Sam Rockwell – “Conviction”

Mark Ruffalo – “The Kids Are All Right”

Geoffrey Rush – “The King’s Speech”

• The only surprise here, if you can call it that, is the lack of a Bill Murray citation. But otherwise all of these men are expected to be actual threats for Oscar nominations next month. Obviously AMPAS might change it up a bit. 

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS

Elle Fanning – “Somewhere”

Jennifer Lawrence – “Winter’s Bone”

Chloe Grace Moretz – “Let Me In”

Chloe Grace Moretz – “Kick-Ass”

Kodi Smit-McPhee – “Let Me In”

Hailee Steinfeld – “True Grit”

• This category disappoints me as I knew it would as it usually only settles around whichever young performers are the most famous. But that said, I think it's pretty inexcusable in a list of six not to include Josh Hutcherson (who is mildly famous) from The Kids Are All Right who was so perfect at conveying the film's coming of age catalyst need as well as in his differentiating his relationship with all five of his co-stars since his relationship to each was quite different.
  
  Low profile snubees also include Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank), James Frecheville (Animal Kingdom) and Faith Wladyka (Blue Valentine).
  
  Perhaps Lawrence is the defacto winner but I didn't vote for her myself, primarily because I didn't even think of her as eligible (it's "under 21" which she is... but since she's so close to 21 she didn't even occur to me when voting. Oops).

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

The Fighter

The Kids Are All Right

The King’s Speech

The Social Network

The Town

• I'm on board with these choices apart from The Town, which I don't understand as "great ensemble acting" but only as good cast of recognizable faces performing their roles adequately (some) to well (many) all the way to superbly (Renner). Having watched The King's Speech a second time recently, I think I've been a bit rough on it in terms of hating its presence in these ensemble categories. The supporting cast is quite delectable actually. But knowing the way ensemble votes tend to go I'm assuming that if they win, it'd only be because of the trio which is why I have a problem with it as an "ensemble". The Kids Are All Right should obviously win this prize but I have no illusion that it will.

BEST DIRECTOR

Darren Aronofsky – “Black Swan”

Danny Boyle – “127 Hours”

Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – “True Grit”

David Fincher – “The Social Network”

Tom Hooper – “The King’s Speech”

Christopher Nolan – “Inception”

• Oscar's expected nominees list absent the Coen Bros. I believe True Grit would not be in the running for 11 nominations had it opened a couple of months ago. This is an example of a film really benefitting from its last minute berth. Since I often bitch about the reverse (films which are doomed by December glut releasing) I thought it was worth noting when it really works. Maybe I'll be in the minority but I just don't think it's top tier Coen Bros at all. But it's good enough with a few super sharp moments and a strong finish to be an exciting last watch before turning in your ballot. Ending well is so important.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

“Another Year” – Mike Leigh

“Black Swan” – Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin

“The Fighter” – Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson (Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson)

“Inception” – Christopher Nolan

“The Kids Are All Right” – Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg

“The King’s Speech” – David Seidler

• One of these will have to fall off with Oscar. That looks to be Black Swan, which is more often lauded for its visuals and performances than its story or dialogue.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

“127 Hours” – Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle

“The Social Network” – Aaron Sorkin

“The Town” – Ben Affleck, Peter Craig and Sheldon Turner

“Toy Story 3” – Michael Arndt (Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich)

“True Grit” – Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

“Winter’s Bone” – Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini

• Again, you have to jettison something for Oscar. I'm guessing we lose The Town. And I still hope that Oscar voters throw a surprise in here, like The Ghost Writer or Rabbit Hole. You can imagine that The Social Network will hog many #1 spots on AMPAS ballots. When there's a steamrolling #1, that opens up the field to upsets, given the unique way that Oscar tallies votes, discarding the ballot after calculating its #1 (if you're #1 choice is counted on the first round, your ballot is gone... which means that true passion for something other than Aaron Sorkin's highly verbal instant classic, will count since those ballots won't be discarded immediately as they fill the other 4 slots.)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

“127 Hours” – Anthony Dod Mantle

“Black Swan” – Matthew Libatique

“Inception” – Wally Pfister

“The King’s Speech” – Danny Cohen

“True Grit” – Roger Deakins

• These nominations are getting really repetitive, eh? But these are some talented men.

BEST ART DIRECTION

“Alice in Wonderland” – Stefan Dechant

“Black Swan” – Therese DePrez and Tora Peterson

“Inception” – Guy Hendrix Dyas

“The King’s Speech” – Netty Chapman

“True Grit” – Jess Gonchor and Nancy Haigh

• Glad to see Black Swan here though I am horrified by the nomination for Alice in Wonderland. That film was so ugly and busy on so many levels. I like the handsome sets and costumes of The King's Speech quite a lot but it is, in some very noticeable ways, striving to be nominated in all these craft categories. It's always presenting itself like "look how pretty I am... like a twee diorama. Did you notice the wallpaper?! Yeah, we thought that was a great touch"

BEST EDITING

“127 Hours” – Jon Harris

“Black Swan” – Andrew Weisblum

“Inception” – Lee Smith

“The Social Network” – Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

• Why only 4 nominations? It's a mystery. I expect these are all easy gets for Oscar noms, too. But what else? 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

“Alice in Wonderland” – Colleen Atwood

“Black Swan” – Amy Westcott

“The King’s Speech” – Jenny Beavan

“True Grit” – Mary Zophres

• Black Swan was on my ballot and I was among the first pundits to suggest it could find its way to Oscar in this category -- knowing that it would have the performative element, and not just ballerinas rehearsing and sexing. I'm disappointed, though that there's no imagination left for a 5th and less high profile nominee. What about Made in Dagenham or Tilda's duds in I am Love. Or even all those espionage sleek corporate power looks in Inception. People are so literal about costume design which is why you almost only ever seen very period films and / or royalty porn hogging this category each year.

BEST MAKEUP

Alice in Wonderland

Black Swan

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

True Grit

• I can't figure why Harry Potter is here. Which new characters were there makeup wise? The makeup in True Grit is fun -- Barry Pepper and Josh Brolin are so hideous in that movie so you know the make up team had to work hard.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Alice in Wonderland

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Inception

Tron: Legacy

• No Scott Pilgrim. Oh, my fellow voters... you bore me. Alice in Wonderland is U-G-L-Y. Why do people like it? ARGH.

BEST SOUND
127 Hours

Black Swan

Inception

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

• Oscar list? I love the sound work in The Social Network but I worry that it might be a little artful for Oscar if you know what I mean. They prefer the loud explosive movies. Movies which attempt to use sound in interesting or authentic or mood-shifting ways, don't always fare well.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Despicable Me

How to Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

Tangled

Toy Story 3

• No surprises there though Oscar's 3-wide field is still hard to read beyond the toys and dragons. Will Tangled (old school retro choice), The Illusionist (sublime artful choice) or Despicable Me (populist choice) win that crucial third spot?

BEST ACTION MOVIE

Inception

Kick-Ass

Red

The Town

Unstoppable

• No Scott Pilgrim again? sigh.

BEST COMEDY

Cyrus

Date Night

Easy A

Get Him to the Greek

I Love You Phillip Morris

The Other Guys

• No Scott Pilgrim? Trivia: It received a higher BFCA rating at the time of its premiere "80" than all but one of their nominated comedies (strangely Easy A was the top reviewed). No Kids Are All Right?

Entirely Snubbed Films That Were Rated "80" or Higher by BFCA (i.e. higher than some of their actual nominees)
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Shutter Island and The Ghost Writer

BEST PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

The Pacific

Temple Grandin

You Don’t Know Jack

• I abstain from this category each year as I never know what's eligible and I generally haven't seen any of them since I am cinema focused. Hasn't Temple Grandin been winning prizes for like 15 months now?

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Biutiful

I Am Love

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

• Why only 3 nominees?

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Inside Job

Restrepo

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

The Tillman Story

Waiting for Superman

• Really? You just went for Oscar frontrunners even here? (Barring Joan Rivers). They couldn't have made a point of nominating something like Catfish? That would have been an exciting move.

BEST SONG

“I See the Light” – performed by Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi/written by Alan Menken & Glenn Slater – Tangled

“If I Rise” – performed by Dido and A.R. Rahman/music by A.R. Rahman/lyrics by Dido Armstrong and Rollo Armstrong – 127 Hours

“Shine” – performed and written by John Legend – Waiting for Superman

“We Belong Together” – performed and written by Randy Newman – Toy Story 3

“You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me Yet” – performed by Cher/written by Diane Warren – Burlesque

• Can I just say, nothing against Dido and A.R. Rahman who I've enjoyed before. "If I Rise" is so dull. Now that I actually vote in a major organization I'm realizing why campaigning is so important. In categories like this it's really hard to know what's eligible unless the films present those songs to you. Some films send out CDs and some don't. I received the music to all of these so they were obviously campaigning.

BEST SCORE

“Black Swan” – Clint Mansell

“Inception” – Hans Zimmer

“The King’s Speech” – Alexandre Desplat

“The Social Network” – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

“True Grit” – Carter Burwell

• Disappointed that they went with Desplat's The King's Speech rather than his superior work on The Ghost Writer but then you have to remember... the voters are thinking Oscar. Still, in this category, I'd be surprised to see much Oscar similarity. Oscar is notoriously stingy with previously unnominated composers and this list contains four of them: Mansell, Reznor, Ross, Burwell. So, this list will never transfer without some adjustment to Oscar.

There you go. Your verdict on this year's pool of film nominations? Or would you rather just wait for the Golden Globes tomorrow.

Critics Awards Cometh. Swan vs. Network?

Ballots were due today for the BFCA "Critics Choice Awards" so you can be sure I did my share of handwringing before I sent it in. My god, you think you know what you want to vote for and you stare at the ballot and it's just >gah< indecision! (It doesn't help that you can only vote for 3 items in each category, 5 for best picture). Those nominations will be announced on Monday.

Tomorrow we'll be hearing from the LAFCA (who will begin announcing at 12:30 PST) -- who have the Academy's ear by way of proximity and major representative outlets--  and the New York Film Critics Online (not to be confused with the the ancient NYFCC which votes on Monday) and then we're off. Neither the critics awards nor the top ten lists will let up thereafter for at least the next month. If you're curious about what I'm predicting you can check out Gold Derby's roundup of pundits here. Other than Best Picture (The Social Network -duh.), predicting critics awards can be a bit like throwing darts. We hope there are lots of fun surprises this year.

In the past decade critics prizes have become both more plentiful and repetitive, with one film always the obvious champ. Even in years where you'd think there'd be a battle royale (like 2007's No Country For Old Men vs. There Will Be Blood) it never really goes ten rounds before one film K.O.s the other. It's less about critical battles than it used to be and more about declaring your allegiance to the hivemind. Which, if you stop to think about it, is exactly what online movie culture is about, with off-consensus critics being (virtually) burned at the stake if they dare to dislike [insert popular movie here]. Which is all a long way of saying that you'll hear the title The Social Network over and over again this season. As often as you heard The Hurt Locker last year probably.

But both are great films so I don't mi---Oh no. I've been assimilated, too. Noooooooooooo

I'm guessing that if we see any challenge to Fincher's Networking this year it'll be Aronofsky & Team Swan (still all the rage at the specialty box office). But how much of a fight do those crazy ballerinas have in them?


Care to make any predictions?

Future Awards Dates & Unmentioned Actors (Thus Far)

Just a heads up to all of you who like to play along in the Oscar race. Here are the next big dates. And just for fun, I've illustrated with the pictures of 14 of the most prominent players who seemed like they might catch fire (at some recent point) but who have still not been mentioned at all in the first handful of acting citations... not even at the Satellites. I've updated the actor, actress, supp actress, and supp actor charts with the latest wins and nominations.

Which do you find most surprising? Really at least a handful of these people should have surfaced by now if they were going to surface at all, don't you think? But perhaps it's too early to worry. A Globe, BFCA and SAG nomination can be quite a match for lighting Oscar fire. Stay tuned.

Key red = scheduled big deals *  gray = last year's announcement was on this date.

• Sun 12/12 New York Film Critics Online
• Sun 12/12 Los Angeles Film Critics Association
• Mon 12/13 New York Film Critics Circle 
• Mon 12/13 BFCA Nominations 
• Tues 12/14: GOLDEN GLOBE Nominations
• Thurs 12/16: Dallas / Ft Worth Critics
• Thurs 12/16: Chicago Film Critics Association
• Thurs 12/16: Detroit Film Critics Society
• Thurs 12/16: SAG Nominations
• Sat 12/18: Utah Film Critics  
• Fri 12/27: Online Film Critics Society
• Mon 1/3: National Society of Film Critics
• Tues 1/4: Producers Guild & Writers Guild Feature Nominations
• Mon 1/10: Director's Guild Nominations (Feature Films)
• Sat 1/15: BFCA Awards Ceremony
• Sun 1/16: Golden Globe Awards Ceremony
• Sun 1/23: Cesar Nominations (France) 
• Tues 1/25 OSCAR NOMINATIONS 
• Sun 1/30: SAG Awards Ceremony

Oscar Prediction Revisions. Plus: Screener Land.

The Oscar charts are now fully updated for November. Peruse and report back! For any of you leaving for the holiday early Happy Thanksgiving!

Can The Way Back get a makeup nom
for all those wounds, sunburns and
life-threatening health issues?

So here's a momentary giving of thanks: I'm truly grateful for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences no matter how often I grouse about their choices. The Oscar race is fun. Plain and simple.

Here is the prediction chart index...
I'd love some feedback on the male acting prizes, in particular. I don't think it's so clear yet in either category though we have two handfuls of "likely" players.


Gold Derby recently released a list of which screeners have arrived in the mail for voters. This is the first year I've been receiving them with regularity thanks to the BFCA membership but I have been mysteriously denied The Karate Kid. Hmmmm. You can add 127 Hours, Greenberg, Let Me In, Stone, Made in Dagenham, Inside Job and Black Swan to that list of movies that have gone out to voters. As usual the studios are cutting it close. Are all the studios hoping that theirs are the last films screened before voting? Voting for the BFCA, for example, kicks off on December 6th. That's but two weeks away.

I've yet to screen: Barney's Version, Biutiful, Black Swan, Burlesque, The Fighter, Frankie & Alice, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1, How Do You Know, The King's Speech, The Illusionist, Love and Other Drugs, Rabbit Hole, Somewhere, The Town, The Tourist and True Grit. The list above will clue you in immediately as to why festival trips are so crucial. Otherwise you get months behind. So that's roughly 1 a day for me before voting. Can I do it?

It's more complicated than it sounds ...though these are good problems to have. (One mustn't bitch about having too many potentially good movies to see.) First one has to align the screenings -- I already had to cancel 2 of those 16 to see the 1 press screening of Burlesque. Now, this might seem like a foolish choice but it's CHER. So shut it, haters! Then there's the not so small matter of my actual life (not without boring uncinematic demands), plus the very not small matter of writing about the same movies (an even larger chunk of time), interviews (Tilda where are uuuuu?), plus the other 2010 movies like documentaries, foreign film submissions, random arthouse things (Claire Denis's White Material has opened. I must make time.) Thankfully after the BFCA voting I'll have another 3 weeks before my own hand-made awards show begins with which to fill in any holes. But in short: I-N-S-A-N-I-T-Y.

Most of the people in the awards game from journalists to bloggers to publicists to golden hopefuls won't be getting much sleep until late February. Here we go.

Say What, Bullock?

omg you guys -- I totally forgot about this caption contest. I am such a scatterbrain. But since Kathryn Bigelow and Sandra Bullock are still big stories, I thought 'better late than never'. There were a lot of Oscar jokes in your captions for this photo of Bullock and Bigelow at the BFCA awards so in the end I couldn't name any of them winner.

I have to give two runner up honorable mentions for 'obscure podcast joke reference' (Jim T) and 'meanest entry' (Tia)
























[drumroll] and the winner is Ian, with the simplest but funniest joke.


Oh, you know that Kathryn Bigelow is getting all sorts of questionable offers like this lately. Choose wisely Queen of Directors.
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Golden Globe Predictions & BFCA Fashions

I'm doubling up because aren't predictions and fashion rundowns fall on the same level of disposable fun. They're both instantly irrelevant pleasures: the reality of the winners will render predictions obsolete in mere hours, and tonight red carpet's will be totally "in the now" as opposed to 'soooooo two days ago!'. Plus, I'm scrubbing the apartment for a Golden Globes party tonight and time is short. Are you hosting a party or attending one?

Golden Globe Predictions
Drama: Up in the Air (?????)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Sexy Locker
I know that people have stopped doubting The Hurt Locker as a potential Oscar Best Picture winner but for whatever reason I still can't buy it as a big winner there or especially here. Even though I love it. It's too small and tightly wound when awards bodies generally prefer big and roomy (i.e. bloated with hot air). Then again, nothing else really feels like a slam dunk. The only win that would surprise is Precious. I think Avatar, Basterds and The Sexy Locker -- yeah, I renamed it. Deal -- are all more than robust possibilities. If there's ever going to be another tie at the Globes wouldn't it be great fun, if it was tonight?

• BFCA Best Dressed
  Zoe Saldana reminded that she wasn't uptight Lt. Uhura in Star Trek or nature girl Neytiri in Avatar, but a rising movie starlet. She was one of the only stars to take a fashion risk. It's fun, flirty and just weird enough (is that plastic wrap?) to be memorable. Winning always looks good on people but at least Sandra Bullock's basic black had some fun detailing (patterns, fringe). Diane Kruger isn't exactly a movie star (yet) but she plays on on the movie screen. And almost played one on the red carpet, too. All this needed was better choices in hair and makeup to really sell the glamour.
  

Comedy: (500) Days of Summer
Animated Film: Up
Actress (Drama): Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Actress (Comedy): Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
I still think the Oscar will end the season in Meryl's hands on account of momentum (27 years of it... but especially the past 3) but the media will definitely try and tip the scales towards Bullock, because that's how they do. Once you're this far into the season the performances matter far less than the stardom and the campaign. The performances and films become abstractions. Essentially they're the limos which have driven to the curb of awards season, and dumped the star on the red carpet. The rest is up to them. This is a long way of saying that usually when the media gets too involved [sigh. Crash over Brokeback] they don't use their powers for good... they just use them to create drama where there doesn't need to be any. They have to sell papers, magazines and page views. I enjoy Sandra Bullock, I really do. But she doesn't need to be an Oscar winner, for a charming but inconsequential performance. The Blind Side has been more than rewarding enough for her at this point.

Actor (Drama): Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Actor (Comedy): Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
Ever since they decided to release Crazy Heart, Bridges was finally going to win his Oscar. So why not all the other prizes, too? As for JGL. Why not? it's a weird category. Could be anyone and if any awards body is least resistant to young thespians, it's the Globes. I'm just going for broke.

Supporting Actor: Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, Precious
I keep making this Harrelson prediction and it keeps biting me in the ass. Waltz may be a true sweeper but I keep thinking that somebody somewhere is going to tilt for Hollywood stardom and maybe it'll be the Globes who are far more likely to surprise in their acting categories than other awards shows are. In fact, I don't really think Mo'Nique is safe either. If the Globes want some of their rising starlet flashiness, they could easily crown Anna Kendrick.

• BFCA Boredom
  Why did everyone play it so safe fashion wise. It was a night of seeing stars wear things we've seen them wear before (Emily Blunt loves the silvery sleek, Marion Cotillard loves the mermaid dresses) or basic white, black and red (Heather Graham, lovely as always). Of these dresses, Julianne Moore's is the most risky but its sculptural beauty only worked from certain angles. Botched Opportunity: Kristen Bell was at a movie star event and should've been trying to look like a movie star rather than a TV star since she's trying to make the transition.
  

Foreign Film: A Prophet (France)
Screenplay: Up in the Air
Song: "Winter" Brothers
TV Drama: Mad Men; Actor: Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Actress: Anna Paquin, True Blood
TV Mini: Grey Gardens; Actor: Brendan Gleeson, Into the Storm; Actress: Drew Barrymore, Grey Gardens
TV Comedy: Glee; Actor: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Actress: Courtney Cox, Cougar Town
TV Supporting Actor: Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother; Supporting Actress: Jane Lynch, Glee

• BFCA - Worst Dressed
  Jena Malone & Carey Mulligan need several big meals before the Oscars. Slimming black when you need to eat might not be the best idea. The fussy flourishes don't help much. I still don't understand what Saoirse Ronan was wearing but at least she provided some of the only color of the evening (that wasn't red). Note to Abbie Cornish and her stylist: When someone is not nominated but they are invited anyway (presumably as "forgive us!", the best revenge is to look sensational and hit the best dressed list, not show up looking like you're attending a boring business event... even if that's exactly what it is.
  

The Golden Globe predictions above are not preferences though in several cases they overlap. On the TV front, since I rarely talk about it, I'm really hoping for a surprise win for January Jones in Mad Men (who doesn't get enough credit for that difficult-to-play character). And much as I delight in Glee I really think Modern Family absolutely deserves Best Comedy. I almost can't believe what an exquisite comic jewel it is week after week. It's got everything: brilliant writing, superb comic timing and great laughs per minute ratio.

Who are you rooting for tonight at the Golden Globes? What do you expect to see happen?

Say What Sandra / Bigelow?

Amuse us. Give dialogue or a caption to this paparazzi shot of Director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and Sandra Bullock at last night's "Critics Choice" award show.


I'll repost on Tuesday with the winning entry.
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BFCA Live-Blogging, God Cheno Help Me

8:24 The "arrivals" special (VH-1 bitches) is about to begin. What does it mean that I'm slightly more excited for the pizza that's on its way. The website tells me that Zahidur is on his way with it right now. In truth, I'm more excited than I usually am due to Cheno (née Kristin Chenoweth). Are you watching? Even if I wasn't addicted to awards shows I would watch it for her. She's like sunshine and baby kittens and ice cream all at once.

<-- Even when she's crying, like when she won the EMMY, she's all those things. The Cuteness! It goes to eleven.

8:31 Zahidur was kind of a jerk. We tip well and he still didn't feel it was enough? What the F? You know... I do not understand why I am forced to watch the Jonas Bros when I tune in to a movie awards show? What the F do they have to do with the movies? Oh, I get it. The Shirley Temple tribute ringlet curls on his forehead.

8:36 Anna Kendrick claims that George Clooney is not intimidating to work with. I believe her.

8:41 Fashion Police Break!


Don't you think Marion Cotillard should probably quit with the mermaid thing? She already won the Oscar dressed as one. And Saoirse's dress is so old lady but then a little too busy to be in homage to The Golden Girls. And you better save that bizness till the SAG Awards anyway when Betty White is honored. I hope everyone comes in caftans. And I better see a cheesecake platter on every table.

8:49 Ohmygod. They've even coached their red carpet people to act like the BFCA doesn't matter unless it's reflecting the Oscars. I'm so deeply ashamed. Stand for yourselves, fellow media peeps! Stop announcing your own irrelevancy in the face of *THE OSCARS* Be your own game and people will be more into you.

8:57 I edited this out of the last podcast but Joe Reid begged James Cameron to cut his hair or be mistaken for an old lesbian:

TOO LATE.

Cuz this is ladies night... oh, what a night!

Zoe Saldana apparently loves the older women! And plastic dresses.

9:04 "Look at this dress!" Hee. But this opening host song's 'funny' lyrics are not really worthy of TONY winning Cheno. But that ending "Nancy, is it really that complicated? I don't think so" was pretty funny. I'll give them that.

9:12 The Ensemble goes to Inglourious Basterds. Diane Kruger announces that Quentin Tarantino "rocks".

9: 13 Kristen Bell looked pissed. What's that about?

9:15 OMG how awkward was that reference to helping the quake victims in Haiti. Poor Tobey Maguire gettin' that duty 'And now...' Supporting Actress: MO'NIQUE in Precious. Referencing her husband's reaction to the script

Mama, don't judge it. Just be it and leave it on the floor... I love you, Daddy.

I am thrilled that Mo'Nique won, I love those rhinestones on steroids round her neck. But I am so absolutely creeped out when married couples call each other any variation of mamma and daddy. It's not right!

9:25 Best Action Movie -- those are actually some good nominees -- Avatar. Duh. Meryl Streep looks confused. Apparently she hasn't been to Pandora. It's complicated.

9:29 Best Animated Feature Up. So far no surprises. I love the theme to Up. It might be my favorite thing about the movie. Okay. I think that was kind of an uncharitable acceptance speech. He couldn't mention how brilliant some of his competitors were? Or did I miss that while I was typing. If so I take it back. But I don't think I missed it. And really: Coraline... Fantastic Mr. Fox. That's some damn fine celluloid, mister Docter winner.

9:39 oy... a plastic surgery joke? Poor Kristen Bell. She had to deliver it. That's why she looked so pissed earlier. Best Young Actor goes to Saoirse Ronan


9:43 A tribute to John Hughes. The best part of it is Amy Poehler & John Krasinski's Pretty in Pink garb. hee. There was kind of a funny joke in there about the "each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basketcase, a princess and a criminal" speech. It involved cuts to people in the audience to illustrate each type (Meryl Streep being the punchline for "a criminal") but nobody got the joke because the delivery and editing was so slow. It played like technical difficulties rather than as a joke. Too bad. Super fast delivery and editing and the Streep punchline woulda worked.

9:55 Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz. Nice acceptance speech. Humble and all about the choices that led to Inglourious Basterds.

How much do you want to bet Quentin is thinking about Kristin
Chenoweth's little piggies at this very moment in the broadcast?

9:57 I find it that Inglourious Basterds are seated across from A Single Man's team. Julianne Moore (love the sculptural dress though it's not so great, seated) seems to find Kristin Chenoweth funny. So: good taste Julianne. Kristin is working hard but the material is a bit rough.

10:00 Sarah Silverman cracks me up. Great gay joke. Best Comedy to The Hangover. Lame. (500) Days of Summer was a hundred times better.

10:15 Oops. I fell asleep. Best Song "Weary Kind" Ryan Bingham is so sexy. And I love that there's two Ryan Binghams in play this year (see also: Up in the Air)

10:20 Er... they just gave out all the technical prizes at once. Bad form! I don't like it when people pretend that cinematography is not as important as directing and writing and whatnot. It went like so: Avatar = cinematography, editing, art direction, sound, visual effects; District 9 = makeup; Young Victoria = costumes; Grey Gardens = TV movie; The Cove = documentary; Broken Embraces = Foreign Film; Up = best score.

10:21 My goodness. Claire Danes really hits her "T"s. Such elocution. Best Adapted Screenplay Up in the Air. Best Original Screenplay Inglourious Basterds. They're really churning out the awards. Tarantino's speech is good so you get the end, when he reveals that screenplay awards are because of actors.

These guys know. My material is not easy. It's hard. I cannot have dumb actors do my dialogue. I've tried it and it was a disaster. So I want to thank my lovely actors for taking my words and singing my song and doing my poetry. God bless you.

So cool. I love that he finally accepts that he's a terrible actor. Notice he was not in Basterds, f'ing it up.

10:34 MERYL STREEP (!) presenting Kevin Bacon with a prize for something. It has something to do with Bacon's charities. I have trouble concentrating because it's Streep and this has been a really long day and I ate too much pizza. Damn you Zahidur!


10:43 I am filled with joy that Best Director is for Kathryn Bigelow. I am proud to say that I've been backing her since Near Dark in the 80s and I am totally willing to scootch over and let everyone else join the bandwagon. There's plenty of room and it's about freaking time, people.

10:48 Vera Farmiga is presenting Best Actor which is perfect because she brings out great things from her leading men. Best Actor Jeff Bridges. Bridges got his director's name wrong but good save, there Jeff. God I love this man. But in the background I think it's very important to note this historic event.

I'm sorry Diane Kruger but I have to.


An actress EATS at an awards show. That made me almost as happy as the existence of Kristin 'sunshine+kittens+icecream' Chenoweth.

11:03 Best Actress Meryl Streep & Sandra Bullock. Yes, another tie. How does this happen? Is it fixed. Second year in a row with a best actress tie?

The Tie. The Superstars. The Kiss

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Both times, Meryl Streep is involved? But that was HILARIOUS. Because both of these women are. For those who couldn't see, they circled each other warily, Sandra shouted "bullshit" and then they kissed! So, so funny. And as we have grown accustomed to expecting, Meryl's speech was divine. She even bitched that her husband was "GOLFING!" ha ha.

11:16 Mark Boal (screenwriter) accepts Best Picture for The Hurt Locker. Love that movie. And can we just talk about what no one talks about here. The cast and crew are smokin'. I'm just sad that Anthony Mackie wasn't there. But I'm just going to start calling it The Sexy Locker.

And Cheno signs off claiming she's going to head backstage to make out with Sandra Bullock. And I'm signing off, too. But I'm hoping to make out with Kathryn Bigelow and Jeremy Renner instead.


*

BFCA Predictions.

I'll start live-blogging in one hour. But I'm guessing it's going to be an Avatar-friendly night with occasionally confusing spread-the-wealthisms. Are you waiting impatiently by the TV or did you forget it was on? Let's publish my bound-to-be-terribly-wrong guesswork. I've never claimed to be good at predicting precursor prizes. Especially precursor prizes that are themselves attempting to predict future Oscar prizes in this confusing year.

<--- One thing is certain: Kevin Bacon will be honored and Kristin Chenoweth will host.

My predictions
Pic: James Cameron's Avatar and Dir: Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker... because I don't think they'll be able to resist the press angle of proposing to that divorced duo. On the other hand they could still honor both of them by giving Action Film Avatar... so maybe they'll go with Up in the Air... or Basterds for Best Picture? Otherwise, let's say Actress: Meryl Streep (or will they stiff her because she didn't show last year and coronate Sandra Bullock for the press attention?) Actor: Jeff Bridges Supporting Actress: Monique (although they may always want to shock here because some members of the BFCA aren't exactly sweet on her) Supp Actor: Woody Harrelson Ensemble & Screenplay: Inglourious Basterds Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air Cinematography Avatar Art Direction Avatar Editing The Hurt Locker Costume Design: Inglourious Basterds Makeup: District 9 (Perhaps Avatar will sweep but for the life of me I can't figure out how it even got a nomination in this category. These are computer animated figures. They aren't actually wearing blue makeup with glittery freckles, you know? I promise to repeat myself and bitch about this if it somehow wins this category) Visual Effects Avatar Sound: Avatar Animated Feature: Up Comedy: (500) Days of Summer Television Movie Grey Gardens Foreign Language Film Sin Nombre (god, actually I have no idea) Documentary The Cove Song: The Weary Kind Score: Up

Fantastic Mr. Link

This is so cute. Wes Anderson thanks the National Board of Review for his special achievement prize for Fantastic Mr. Fox. Be warned: This will only make you love the movie more.



Vulture Harvey Weinstein spanks Matthew Goode (not literally)
In Contention Kris Tapley writes a thorough memo to Academy voters. Good stuff.
Cinematical the revolving doors on the upcoming thriller The Tourist. Currently Jolie & Depp star and von Donnersmarck directs but... ya never know
Movie|Line Outrage, the closeted gay politician expose doc, snubbed at GLAAD Awards
GLAAD Awards see their nominees for best of film & tv (with a gay positive slant)
Awards Daily Which films and performances will win the BFCA prizes this Friday? There are very few sure things

and finally...
Best Week Ever interviews Kristin Chenoweth who is prepping to host the BFCA "critics choice" awards this Friday. Yes, she will be doing movie spoofs. Here's one clue to your left. And I love this bit.

Michelle: Do you have a big musical number?
Kristin: I’d be a liar if I said I probably wasn’t going to sing, but I don’t know what I can say. It’s gonna be different from anything they’ve ever had.
Michelle: I loved you on Glee.
Kristin: Thank you. (Ed. Note: She said this phrase with more sincerity than anyone has ever said it previously.)

I'll be live-blogging the awards, which will be broadcast on VH-1 on Friday evening. Come and play with me (and Kristin).
*

What's your latest hunch...

... regarding the Oscar nominations? I think I need to update my predictions. Although there's always a danger in taking late breaking buzz too seriously given how many ballots have long since been filled out.

P.S. I will be live blogging the BFCA Awards on Friday night. Be here if you can for the virtual party.

BFCA Goes Wild For Nine, Basterds and Avatar

I am shocked to report that my new membership did not singlehandedly or significantly increase their taste levels, he said sarcastically. A few of the following nominations are hard to justify qualitatively speaking but you can't always get what you want. Again Oscar punditry combined with 'I just unwrapped this gift' excitement seem to have replaced careful consideration of what the year had to offer. But then it does appear as if only about 15 movies truly existed this year. In fact six movies Inglourious Basterds, Nine, Avatar, Up in the Air, The Hurt Locker, Precious and The Lovely Bones account for 48% of all the nominations. Crazy.

Am I just grumpy because they think The Lovely Bones (6 nominations) is better looking and The Blind Side (2 nominations) better acted than the exquisite Bright Star (1 nomination only)? I find those two judgment calls totally unsupportable. The abundant nominations for the garish and messy Bones is actually the weirdest thing here. It's current RT score is 40%... not the sort of critical approval that generally makes you a major awards contender. They even like its visual effects more than most of the movies that the Academy has pushed forward in the f/x semifinals. It's got as many nominations as District 9 which people (generally speaking mind you) love a whole lot more. Is this because Bones spent so long being presumed-to-be a major contender? I'd be shocked if it's Oscar nomination tally goes beyond three nominations and I'm guessing it'll be less than that.

Best Picture

Avatar
* An Education
* The Hurt Locker
* Inglourious Basterds
* Invictus
* Nine
* Precious
* A Serious Man
* Up
* Up In The Air

• Yes, those are my current exact predictions for the Best Picture Oscar nominees. Not intentional! Or maybe it is on the BFCA's part. Heh.

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 Streep, Julie & Julia

• Er... I realize Saoirse has a lot of fans in these parts. And I do consider myself one of them. I think she has a huge exciting career ahead and those eyes are just spectacular on camera. But a Best Actress nomination for this? (sigh) I weep for Tilda Swinton and Abbie Cornish who were dealing with very complex characterization. Now, art is its own reward so it's not like they aren't rewarded for and haven't rewarded us with their work. But still. It'd be nice if physical awards sometimes lined up with the intangibles.

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

• Tucci was way better in Julie & Julia. That is all.

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

• This is a good shock. The BFCA normally supports category fraud so I'm happy to see Cotillard appear here where she belongs (Yes, I voted for her)

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

• This is a good lineup but the inclusion of Jae Head who plays "SJ" in The Blind Side is... well, it's like a weird graft onto a movie list from a laugh track sitcom. One of the people I voted for did not make it: Edie Martin in Bright Star. Such a natural onscreen.

Acting Ensemble

Inglourious Basterds
* Nine
* Precious
* Star Trek
* Up In The Air

• Why do some categories have four nominees, some have five and most have six?

Director

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker * 
James Cameron, Avatar * 
Lee Daniels, Precious *
Clint Eastwood, Invictus *
Jason Reitman, Up In The Air * 
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

• I think that's your Oscar lineup minus Eastwood of all people.

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”

Adapted Screenplay
Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach Fantastic Mr. Fox *
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell District 9 *
Geoffrey Fletcher Precious *
Tom Ford, David Scearce A Single Man *
Nick Hornby An Education *
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner Up In The Air

Cinematography
Barry Ackroyd, The Hurt Locker *
Dion Beebe, Nine *
Mauro Fiore, Avatar * 
Andrew Lesnie, The Lovely Bones *
Robert Richardson, Inglourious Basterds

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

• I'm really not trying to be upset about The Lovely Bones but it's not working. Even the art direction bugged me. It felt like it was trying so hard to be 1960s!, rather than looking lived in and organic.

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

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

Makeup
Avatar
* District 9
* Nine
* The Road
* Star Trek

Visual Effects
Avatar
* District 9
* The Lovely Bones
* Star Trek
* 2012

• With five nominees I was hoping to see at least one that wasn't totally CGI. Didn't Where the Wild Things Are just look incredible?

Sound

Avatar
* District 9
* The Hurt Locker
* Nine
* Star Trek

Animated Feature
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
* Coraline
* Fantastic Mr. Fox
* Princess And The Frog
* Up

Action
Avatar
* District 9
* The Hurt Locker
* Inglourious Basterds
* Star Trek

Comedy

(500) Days Of Summer
* The Hangover
* It’s Complicated
* The Proposal
* Zombieland

TV Movie
Gifted Hands
* Grey Gardens
* Into The Storm
* Taking Chance

Foreign Language Film
Broken Embraces
* Coco Before Chanel
* Red Cliff
* Sin Nombre
* The White Ribbon

Documentary Feature
Anvil! The Story of Anvil *
Capitalism: A Love Story
* The Cove
* Food, Inc.
* Michael Jackson’s This Is It

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

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

It's so true! Especially during awards season

Most shocking total shut-out: The Last Station (not even Helen Mirren!!!). There was also zero love for early birds like Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Cheri (not even in costumes) or Public Enemies

Well? Speak up.

*

Red Carpet Lineup (Awards Show Edition)

It's that time of year. You're probably back at the gym trying to lose the holiday weight gain but the movie stars just get their cardio on red carpets for the next six weeks. So herewith, some gowns from the BFCA show and the People's Choice --and yes it's the last time I'll be mentioning "People's Choice". [sigh] People... they're always making the wrong ones!

images by way of @ JAMD

Anne Hathaway, who is a smart smart girl, was the princess of the ball in white -- she even referenced her Princess Diaries days in her speech. Don't think she doesn't know how much Oscar loves the princesses. Queen Latifah is always fun and Kate Hudson is always (no comment) but I include them to show that the color palette of the People's Choice Awards is very loud as if these mythical united People continually need to see bright colors to stay interested. Ooh, look...Shiny! Meanwhile, the critics and media types at the BFCA are treated to a solemn area of creams, whites, greys and blacks. Coincidence? I think not. Consider Dakota Fanning's color coding...


But back to the line-up.

Diane Lane is hot. I normally think it's silly how people imagine that actors can't handle seeing their husbands and wives kiss other people onscreen. It's such a "well, duh" part of their job who could be offended / jealous over it? It's like marrying a vampire and complaining about the bloodlust. But with Diane Lane and Josh Brolin, I always find myself wondering. When your spouse is married to someone else in the public consciousness (Diane has been romantically entangled with Richard Gere three times onscreen and she presents him with awards and they're always kissy kissy) might that be a little weird?

<-- Bassett in 1995, during her short but great movie peak.

Another weird thing: Angela Bassett's career. I know she's 50 and only actresses named Meryl Streep are allowed regular leading movie roles past that age. But should she really have to settle for running on ER's exhaust fumes? It makes me so crazy. Finally... Angelina Jolie is a goddess. And knows it. Hey, wait a second, why is Anne Hathaway here twice? Answer: She was smart enough to wear a two sided dress. Therefore you must see her from several angles to fully appreciate. Several angles means more air time and more magazine photos. Savvy girl, that one.