Battle Wins Again at the LAFCA

Teyana Taylor in One Battle After Another.
Credit: Warner Brothers

One Battle After Another continues to dominate the pre-Oscar film Award season, winning three awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association including Best Picture, Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson and Best Supporting Performance for Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills, a violent revolutionary. Battle has already won the top award from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review. The LA critics met on Dec. 7 to vote for their 51st awards. 

The gender-neutral Leading Performance Awards went to Ethan Hawke of Blue Moon and Rose Byrne of If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You, who also won Best Actress from the New York Film Critics and the NBR. The LAFCA began gender-neutral acting categories four years ago with the top two vote-getters declared winners regardless of their sex. (The Drama Desk does that too.) In the Supporting Acting category, the winning pair were Taylor and Stellan Skarsgård of Sentimental Value. 

Battle's dominance with the critics' groups is not a guarantee of an Oscar win. LA Confidential and The Social Network similarly took the top three critics' prizes as well as the Best Picture slot from the National Society of Film Critics, but ultimately lost the top Oscar. Schindler's List is the only film to win all four critics' awards and the Oscar.

A complete list of winners follows:

Battle Dominates Early Film Awards

Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another,
Best Picture winner for the NYFCC, NBR
and Gotham Awards.

Film award season is upon us and One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson's action epic of a former radical (Leonardo DiCaprio) rescuing his daughter from a right-wing nut job (Sean Penn), is dominating the field, winning Best Picture and several other awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and the Gotham Awards. Benicio Del Toro who plays a martial arts instructor and underground activist who aides DiCaprio's character, was named Best Supporting Actor by both the NYFCC and NBR. Rose Byrne won Best Actress from both of those groups for If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (which is also my choice for Best Title of the Decade.) 

The Gotham Awards were announced Mon., the NYFCC on Tues. and the the NBR on Wed. I have not been as excited about the movie awards this year as in past seasons. I used to obsessively keep track of all the eligible films I'd seen and where I'd seen them. Maybe I'll do that this year, but it's looking like Battle is the top film and I wasn't crazy about it. The direction was excellent, Anderson keeps the suspense tight and the action sequences were skillfully edited and shot, but the theme left me cold. Anderson appears to be condemning political extremism of all kinds. DiCaprio plays a former resistance fighter whose daughter is kidnapped by racist Army officer Sean Penn. DiCaprio's character appears to be an innocent caught between two extremes. The left-wing radical underground army he was allied with resorts to extreme violence to achieve its ends. His lover, played by Teyana Taylor, is a horrible person, abandoning their daughter and the cause when she is caught. Penn's forces are equally heinous, representing not only the current cruel immigration policies of the Trump administration, but also a cultish, deep-state powerful network of bigots called the Christmas Adventurers. 

I didn't sympathize with any of the characters except Del Toro's activist who is the only one who doesn't resort to violence to help his community. Having said that, I didn't find his performance exciting enough to warrant all these Supporting Actor prizes. I didn't really get the point of the film, except to film people getting shot and chasing each other across the desert.

Hamnet is the only other film getting major award buzz and it's not even been mentioned by these early accolade dispensers. (Still haven't seen it, but I plan to.) I did catch Wicked: For Good yesterday in 3-D and 4-DX at the Union Square theater. The seats moved while Cynthia Erivo was flying her broom, so that was fun and we were sprinkled with water during the cyclone scenes. It will probably garner a few Golden Globe nods. 

A breakdown of the winners follows:

Anora Wins Big at the Film Independent Spirit Awards

Mikey Madison of Anora at the
Film Independent Spirit Awards

Anora continues to dominate the last-minute rush of awards season, winning big at the 40th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards presented on Feb. 22. The comedy about a Brooklyn exotic dancer marrying the son of a Russian oligarch had similar big wins at the Critics Choice, PGA, DGA, WGA and BAFTA awards. At the Indies, Anora was voted Best Feature, Best Director and Lead Performance by Mike Madison in the title role. The Indies performance categories are gender-neutral. Kieran Culkin continued his preeminence in the supporting category for A Real Pain. His director and co-star Jesse Eisenberg won for Best Screenplay. The SAG Awards presented tonight will be the last major film awards ceremony before the Oscars on next week on March 2. Aidy Bryant hosted the event.

A complete list of winners follows:

Conclave Surprise at the BAFTAs

Ralph Fiennes in Conclave.

In a surprise win, Conclave was named Best Picture and Best British Picture at the BAFTA awards presented on Sun., Feb. 16 in London, further complicating the Oscar race. Conclave and The Brutalist tied for most wins with four each. Brutalist took Best Actor for Adrien Brody and Bet Director for Brady Corbet. In another surprise, Mikey Madison took Best Actress for Anora which has moved to the head of the pre-Oscar pack, after scoring big wins at the Critics Choice, DGA, PGA and WGA awards. Kieran Culkin was not present to accept his Best Supporting Actor Award for A Real Pain. His co-star and director Jesse Eisenberg who also won for Best Original Screenplay, explained he was staying with a sick family member. Zoe Saldana added another Best Supporting Actress prize for Emila Perez to her collection. Former Doctor Who David Tennant hosted and made a few Donald Trump jokes about his hair in his opening monologue. A few of these quips were edited out of the BBC Broadcast (the three-hour show was pre-taped and an edited, two-hour version was shown.) The complete version is available on YouTube.

Critics Choice Awards Spread the Wealth

Anora is suddenly at the front of the pack
thanks to wins at the Critics Choice, DGA and PGA

Anora, Wicked, Emilia Perez, and The Substance were among the top winners at the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards held Fri. Feb. 7 in Los Angeles after two postponements due to wildfires in the area. No one picture dominated the proceedings, throwing the race for the Oscars even further into disarray with no clear frontrunner before the big night on March 2. Anora unexpectedly won Best Picture though it lost in all of its other categories. The comedy about an escort marrying the son of a Russian oligarch suddenly leapt to the head of the Oscar pack since it also won the top prize at the PGA Awards and its director Sean Baker won at the DGA Awards, both presented the next day on Feb. 8. Wicked's John Chu was named best directed by the Critics Choice though he was not nominated by the DGA or the Oscars. Emilia Perez took awards for Best Foreign-Language Film, Supporting Actress Zoe Saldana, and Best Song. The French-made, set-in-Mexico film has been embroiled in controversy since anti-black and Muslim tweets by its transgender star Karla Sofia Gascon have surfaced. The Substance won for Best Actress Demi Moore, Original Screenplay and Make-up. Best Supporting Actor Kieran Culkin of A Real Pain was not present since he is rehearsing Glengarry Glen Ross for Broadway in NYC.  Adrien Brody of The Brutalist was named Best Actor.

Host Chelsea Handler opened the show by paying tribute to LA first responders, a sampling of whom were special guests at the ceremony. In the TV categories, FX's Shogun dominated with four wins while Hacks won three.

State of the 2024 Film Awards Race

Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain is
the only sure-thing front runner
for the 2024 Oscars.

This year I have not seen as many Oscar contenders as last year. With the summer of Barbieheimer in 2023, there were two clear front-runners for the top awards (Barbie and Oppenheimer). This year, we've only got Glicked--Gladiator 2 and Wicked--as top blockbusters and Gladiator 2 is receiving only lukewarm praise. Neither is a lock for the Oscar Best Picture. Wicked might triumph on the strength of its box office, but several independent critics' darlings who have who scribblers' awards could sneak in. These include Anora, The Brutalist, Emilia Perez, 

The acting categories are almost all wide open. The only candidate who seems to have the Oscar all wrapped up is Best Supporting Actor front-runner Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain. The Succession star has won a majority of pre-Oscar awards and nominations and is this year's Da'vine Joy Randolph whose Supporting Actress performance in The Holdovers totally dominated the 2024 field. Lead actor is a four-way race between Adrian Brody (The Brutalist), Timothee Chamalant (A Total Unknown), Coleman Domingo (Sing Sing), and Ralph Fiennes (Conclave). Best actress probable nominees include Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Marianne Jean-Bapiste (Hard Truths), Angelina Jolie (Maria), Mikey Madison (Arona), and Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Perez). The Supporting Actresses include Ariana Grande (Wicked, in the supporting field to avoid competition with Erivo), Isabella Rosellini (Conclave), Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson) and Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez). Although Rosellini's possible nomination is a mystery to me. I didn't think she was that impactful.

Still to come are the SAG and BAFTA nominees and the National Society of Film Critics which always goes their own way.

Below is a list of potential 2024 award-winning films I've seen so far and a breakdown of winners and nominees (so far). I have not included every single regional critics award because I have a life. In recent years the number of such movie reviewers' groups has proliferated to a ridiculous extent. It seems every major city in the US has one and some have two (one for traditional media and the other for online scribes.) Maybe I will get to including more of them eventually.

Conclave and Wicked Top Critics Choice List

Ralph Fiennes in Conclave
Credit: Focus Features

Conclave and Wicked topped the list of nominees for the Critics Choice Award film categories with 11 each. Dune Part 2 and Emilia Perez followed with 10 each. The 30th annual Critics Choice Awards will be presented on Jan. 12 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Chelsea Handler will repeat her hosting duties from last year and the show will be broadcast on E! The nominations for Best Picture, Actor and Actress were announced on Dec. 12 on the Today Show by host Carson Daly. Formerly known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Critics Choice Association, like the Golden Globes, also give out TV honors. Those nominations were announced last week with Shogun leading the list with six. Abbott Elementary, Disclaimer, Hacks, The Diplomat, The Penguin and What We Do in the Shadows followed with four nods each.

I'm grateful that Marianne Jean-Baptiste of Hard Truths and Danielle Deadwyler of The Piano Lesson were not snubbed here are they were for the Golden Globes. Unlike last year when Oppenheimer and Barbie were clear front-runners, the race for film awards is wide open, so it's difficult to predict winners.

A complete list of the film nominees follows:

Washington for Wicked

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande
in Wicked.
Credit: Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures

The Washington DC Area Film Critics Association voted Wicked Best Picture during its annual voting meeting to chose the top cinema efforts of 2024. The musical based on the still-running Broadway hit about the early days of the witches of Oz also won Best Picture from the National Board of Review and is a front-runner for the upcoming Oscar noms. Mikey Madison of Anora was named Best Actress. She also won top honors from the LA and Boston critics. Coleman Domingo of Sing Sing, who already won at the Gotham Awards, took Best Actor. Best Supporting Actor Kieran Culkin of A Real Pain continued his winning ways, having previous taken the NBR, NY Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics. Danielle Deadwyler of The Piano Lesson was voted Best Supporting Actress. 

A complete list of winners and nominees follows:

LAFCA Votes Anora Best Picture

Mikey Madison in Anora.
Credit: Neon

Anora is pulling ahead in the 2024 film award race. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted the Sean Baker comedy Best Picture for its 50th annual awards. The group also awarded Best Leading Performance for the film's star Mikey Madison who shared the honor with Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Mike Leigh's Hard Truths. Anora had won in the Best Picture award from the Boston Society of Film Critics earlier the same day (Dec. 8). Madison was also named Best Actress by the Beantown reviewers. The LA scribes present their performance awards in gender-free categories. Anora's Yura Borisov and A Real Pain's Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Performances. Culkin is emerging as the front runner for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, having also won the NYFCC and NBR awards. (Note: Unlike the other award-dispensers previously documented in this blog, the LA group included their runners-up).

A list of the 50th Los Angeles Film Critics Association winners follows:

Beantown Scribes Choose Anora Best Pic

Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madson in
Anora, Boston critics' choice for Best Picture

The 2024 film award sweepstakes just blew wide open. The Boston Society of Film Critics parted ways from their New York counterparts and the National Board of Review by voting Anora, the comedy about a sex worker hitching up with the son of a Russian oligarch, Best Picture Actress, and Best Director and Original Screenplay (both Sean Baker). The New York Film Critics Circle chose The Brutalist best and the NBR went with Wicked. Both groups voted the directors of best their top choice as best of the year. This widens the field for Hollywood's Biggest Prize, the Oscars. (Note: The Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association will also announce their winners today. More in separate blog posts.)

The Boston scribes' acting choices also did not match up with those of the NYFCC or the NBR. The Beantown acting champs are: Actor: Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown; Actress: Mikey Madison, Anora; Supp. Actor: Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown; Supp. Actress; Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson. (We did catch The Piano Lesson on Netflix. Deadwyler was fabulous and I hope she get more recognition since she was robbed of an Oscar nom for Till.)

A complete list of winners follows:

NYFCC Names The Brutalist Best

Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones in
The Brutalist.

Film award season has begun. The New York Film Critics Circle, the earliest of the reviewers' organization and the oldest--this is their 90th awards--met on Dec. 3 to vote for their choices for the best work of 2024. The Brutalist, Brady Corbet's epic film about a Hungarian-Jewish architect fleeing post-World War II Europe for America, was named Best Picture and won Best Actor for Adrien Brody. 

Marianne Jean-Bapiste was voted Best Actress for her performance as a woman suffering from depression and anger issues in Mike Leigh's Hard Truths. Carol Kane won Best Supporting Actress as a retired music teacher studying for her long-denied Bat Mitzvah and developing an attraction for a troubled cantor who was her former student in Between the Temples. Kieran Culkin was named Best Supporting Actor as a man touring Poland with his cousin to reconnect with their roots in A Real Pain.

Nickel Boys, based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, won for Best Director and Cinematography. Annie Baker's Janet Planet was elected Best First Film. The awards will be presented at a dinner on Jan. 8.

The group did not announce runners-up. Many of the winning films have not be released commercially yet.

SAG and DGA Noms; More Short Films on Oscar Short List

Annette Benning and Jodie Foster's
Oscar chances for Nyad increased with
their GG and SAG nominations.
Credit: Kimberley French/Netflix

More Film Award Season News: The SAG and DGA noms came out and I have squeezed in more short films from the Oscar shortlist. There were a few surprises on the SAG list. Annette Benning and Jodie Foster of Nyad snuck onto the list which surprised me. Now I have to watch it. Luckily it's on Netflix. The cast of May December was shut out and Willem Dafoe of Poor Things was nominated but not Marc Ruffalo from the same picture. Sandra Huller was snubbed in both leading and supporting categories for Anatomy of a Fall and Zone of Interest. I'm thrilled that the The Gilded Age cast was nominated for Best Ensemble in a Drama Series though they will probably lose to Succession. Also thrilled Colman Domingo was nominated for Rustin. Bradley Cooper copped a SAG nomination, but did not get a DGA nod. The tide seemed to have turned against Maestro for some reason. If the Critics Choice Awards also go for Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer and Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon, SAG might follow suit and the Oscars will too. 

Boston and DC Crix Chose Holdovers and American Fiction as Best Pix

Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Paul Giamatti, and
Dominic Sessa in
The Holdovers

The 2023 film award season continues to spread the wealth among a variety of pix, making this year's Oscar nominations harder to predict. The Boston Society of Film Critics and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association voted for their awards on Sun. Dec. 10 (same day as the Los Angeles Film Critics Association) and went in two directions. The Beantown scribes chose The Holdovers, Alexander Payne's comedy-drama about a misanthropic school teacher spending the holidays with a rebellious student and the school's cook, as best picture. The DC critics went for American Fiction, first-time director-writer Cord Jefferson's satire about an African-American novelist. Da'Vine Joy Randolph who plays the cook in Holdovers, continued her dominance of the Supporting Actress category, winning from both groups.  

Killers of the Flower Moon took top prizes from the NY Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review, while Zone of Interest won the Best Picture slot from the Los Angeles reviewers.

Bruce Dern, the SAG Awards, and GG/NYFCC Aftershocks

Bruce Dern in Nebraska

Saw Nebraska last night. Touching little movie. Don't think Bruce Dern has a chance for the Oscar, since it's not a very showy role. But he might get the SAG tonight because the actors' union sometimes votes for those older performers such as Gloria Stuart in Titanic and Ruby Dee in American Gangster. Likewise James Gandolfini could be a surprise posthumous winner for Supporting Actor for Enough Said but Jared Leto will probably continue his winning ways for Dallas Buyers Club.

Speaking of Leto, he caught some heat for not being sufficiently supportive of the transgender and HIV community in his Golden Globes acceptance speech as did Matthew McConaughey. Likewise, Cate Blanchett was blasted for making a Judy Garland joke, Julia Louis Dreyfuss for making electronic cigarette smoking appear glamorous in a comedy bit with hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and Cecil B. DeMille Award winner Woody Allen was dissed by Mia and Ronan Farrow on Twitter. That's why the GGs are becoming more and more popular than the Oscars. The stars get drunk and you never know what they're going to say.

Oscar Noms: Snubs Are the Big News

Snubbed: Robert Redford in All Is Lost

The big news with this morning's Oscar noms is who wasn't on the list: Robert Redford, Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, and Oprah Winfrey. It turns out Redford didn't want to push for a nomination and so did no campaigning and there were no industry screenings or Q&As with the star, so it's not so surprising that Christian Bale got his slot. That Best Actor race looks to be the most interesting with Redford out of the picture and not as much enthuiasm for the other sentimental favorite Bruce Dern, that leaves Leonardo DiCaprio, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Matthew McConaughey. DiCaprio and McConaughey won at the GGs (the Hollywood Foreign Press Assoc. splits their leading categories between comedy and drama) and Ejiofor seems to be losing steam. The Academy will probably honor 12 Years a Slave with the Best Picture Award. It might actually be DiCaprio since he's grown into such a solid actor (particularly in Revolutionary Road and The Aviator). In Wolf of Wall Street, he does all kinds of crazy stuff and has those long monologues which are great for clips. Jared Leto will definitely win for Dallas Buyers Club, so voters may feel they don;t need to vote for McConaughey (drag beats losing weight). Cate Blanchett is also a lock for Best Actress.

Awards Season Update: GGs, BAFTA noms, NSFC

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler once again prove
they should be the hosts of everything

American Hustle gained more zeitgest/street cred last night at the Golden Globes by winning Best Picture (Comedy or Musical), Actress in a Comedy, and Supporting Actress. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association split the difference with the other awards by giving 12 Years a Slave Best Picture (Drama), Gravity Best Director, and Her Best Screenplay. Once again Tina Fey and Amy Poehler proved they should be the hosts of everything. BTW, I started watching Parks and Recreation on Netflix and it's a really funny show. I'm glad Poehler won her category.

Highlights included Jacqueline Bisset taking forever to get to the stage and Emma Thompson tossing her high heels away to rip open the Screenplay envelope. (Aside from the HBO ones, does anybody watch these cable TV-movies like the one Bisset won for? I don't even know when they're on.)

Here's the updated list of film award nominees and winners including GG winners, BAFTA nominees, and the National Society of Film Critics Awards. The NSFC always goes their own way and chose Inside Llewyn Davis for Picture, Actor and Director. The Coen Brothers usually charm the critics, but not Oscar voters unless there is a lot of violence (Fargo, No Country for Old Men).

Picture:
12 Years a Slave (AAFCA, AFI, bafta, BOS, CFCA, GG, is, NYFO, pga, WAFCA)
All Is Lost (is)
American Hustle (AFI, bafta, cc, GG, NYFCC, pga)
Blue Jasmine (pga)
Captain Phillips (AFI, bafta, cc, gg, pga)

Dallas Buyers Club (cc, pga)

Frances Ha (is)
Fruitvale Station (AFI)
Gravity (AFI, bafta, cc, gg, LAFCA--tie, pga)
Her (AFI, cc, DET, gg, LAFCA--tie, NBR, pga, SD)
Inside Llewyn Davis (AFI, cc, gg, GOTH, is, NSFC)
Nebraska (AFI, cc, gg, is, pga)
Philomena (bafta, gg)
Rush (gg)
Saving Mr. Banks (AFI, cc, pga)
The Wolf of Wall Street (AFI, cc, gg,pga)

Golden Globe Predictions

For whatever it's worth, here are my Golden Globe predictions for tonight:

Picture Drama: 12 Years a Slave

Picture Comedy: American Hustle

Actor Drama: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave

Actress Drama: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Actor Comedy: Bruce Dern, Nebraska

Actress Comedy: Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Screenplay: American Hustle

Foreign Language: Blue Is the Warmest Color

Animated Film: Frozen

TV Series, Drama: Breaking Bad

TV Series Comedy: Girls

TV Movie or Mini Series: Behind the Candelabra

Actor, TV Drama Series: Kevin Spacey, House of Cards

Actress, TV Drama Series: Taylor Schilling, Orange Is the New Black

Actor, TV Comedy: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Actress, TV Comedy: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

Actor, TV Movie: Michael Douglas, Behind the Candelabra

Actress: TV Movie: Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven

Supporting Actor, TV Series or Movie: Jon Voight, Ray Donovan

Supporting Actress, TV Series or Movie: Hayden Panettierre, Nashville

Award Season Update

The cast of American Hustle

Updates for the film awards season tally include the nominees for the Critics Choice (cc) and the Producers Guild Awards (pga), and the winners of the Chicago Film Critics Association awards (CFCA). On the zeitgeist, American Hustle is gaining ground over 12 Years a Slave and Gravity and could be a surprise winner. The Golden Globes are next Sun, Jan. 12, followed by the Critics Choice and the Oscar nominations on Jan. 16 and the SAG Awards on Jan. 18. 

Picture:
12 Years a Slave (AAFCA, AFI, BOS, CFCA, gg, is, NYFO, pga, WAFCA)
All Is Lost (is)
American Hustle (AFI, cc, gg, NYFCC, pga)
Blue Jasmine (pga)
Captain Phillips (AFI, cc, gg, pga)

Dallas Buyers Club (cc, pga)

Frances Ha (is)
Fruitvale Station (AFI)
Gravity (AFI, cc, gg, LAFCA--tie, pga)
Her (AFI, cc, DET, gg, LAFCA--tie, NBR, pga, SD)
Inside Llewyn Davis (AFI, cc, gg, GOTH, is)
Nebraska (AFI, cc, gg, is, pga)
Philomena (gg)
Rush (gg)
Saving Mr. Banks (AFI, cc, pga)
The Wolf of Wall Street (AFI, cc, gg,pga)

Film Awards Season Overview: 'Gravity' vs. '12 Years a Slave'

Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in
12 Years a Slave

The film award season has already started and the battle lines are drawn: 12 Years a Slave and Gravity are the main contenders for Best Picture, with Her a possible spoiler. I can't believe Gravity is actually a possibility to take the top Oscar. Special effects, OK. Maybe even Best Director. But the Best Picture Award over the masterful 12 Years? My partner points out that Gravity is an "up" picture (no pun intended) with Sandra Bullock triumphing over adversity in the end (just like Tom Hanks in Capt. Phillips and Robert Redford in All Is Lost). Yes, Chiwetel Ejiofor does escape from his bondage at the end of 12 Years, but the film is so dark and uncompromising in its depiction of a national disgrace many would rather forget, it may be bypassed.

BAFTA Noms Honor Affleck, Snub Spielberg

John Goodman, Alan Arkin, and Ben Affleck in Argo

It's the day before the Oscar nominations and we have the final major nominations before the big announcement: the BAFTAs which are the British equivalent of the Oscars, and the Directors Guild nominations. The major surprises were the BAFTAs including Ben Affleck as both best actor and director for Argo and snubbing Spielberg, though Lincoln got the most nominations from the Brits. Affleck's best actor nod is his only one for performing while he's received directing nominations from the Globes, Critics Choice and DGA.

The BAFTA also include a separate category for Best British Film but since I'm not including foreign films in the other tallying, I won't tally that here. It sounds sort of like a consolation prize, like the Critics Choice Awards including Best Comedy Film and Best Action Film. Les Miz is nominated for both Best FIlm and Best British Film. The other nominees are Anna Karenina (the only major award recognition for the Tom Stoppard adaptation of Tolstoy), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Seven Psychopaths, and Skyfall. In addition to BAFTAs and DGAs, we've added the Online FIlm Critics Society winners.

Picture: Argo (AFI, bafta; cc, gg, OFCS, pga, SD)
Amour (LAFCA, NSFC)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (AFI, cc, is, pga)
Bernie (is)
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (gg)
The Dark Knight Rises (AFI)
Django Unchained (AFI, cc, gg, pga)
Keep the Lights On (is)
Les Miserables (AFI, bafta, cc, gg, pga)
Life of Pi (AFI, bafta, cc, gg, LV, pga)
Lincoln (AFI, bafta, cc, DFW, gg, pga)
The Master (cc, SF)
Moonrise Kingdom (AFI, cc, gg, is, pga)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (gg)
Silver Linings Playbook (AFI, cc, DET, gg, is, pga)
Skyfall (pga)
Zero Dark Thirty (AFI, bafta, Bos, CHI, cc, DC, gg, NBR, NYFCC, NYO, pga)