I have to say, this year’s list of awards nominees from the Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association is even more uninspired and Oscar-guessing than last year’s slate. But they kick off the critics’ awards circuit nevertheless.
Winners will be announced Monday, but I imagine “The Social Network,” which racked up a field-leading eight nominations, will be declared Best Film and continue to be rather dominant as the critics’ darling of the year. The Oscar question, however, is whether the critics can force the issue like they did last year.
Or is there just not a sexy enough narrative as 2009’s battle of the exes to get it there?
You know what I think. But anyway, head on over to The Circuit to see what they’re springing for in the nation’s capital.
[Photo: Columbia Pictures]
Comments
71 responses to “D.C. critics apparently saw only 33 films this year”
The Hurt Locker was not in my top twenty, but it was a hell of a lot better than Avatar, so I was okay with it.
red_wine, OK. I guess I just remember being bombarded by Slumdog, a lot. And I thought the critics awards were higher on it. I think it was the fall festival circuit/BAFTA/GG wins that got me wary of it by Oscar time. That said, I really enjoyed Slumdog as sweeping entertainment.
Inglorious Bastereds >>>>>>>>>>>>>> THL and what`s-his-face winning Script over Tarantino was unforgivable. I like Top Gun like the next guy and THL was Top Gun without jetts. Same cocky newcomer gets to save the day, butts heads with more conservative superior. Been there done that. And aren`t robots responsible for bomb defusing in real life? Yep. So THL win is actually another win for fantasy genre. Nice.
I don’t get how people are saying these more Oscar predictions than they are actual choices. They didn’t nominate The King’s Speech, but nominated John Hawkes. No respectable pundit would make those predictions right now.
Why I people so angry about awards being “predictable”? Isn’t it what they are supposed to be, ideally? Meaning shouldn’t they reward the deserving, stand-out candidates instead of pleasing a bunch of people online with supposed randomness?
” Past recipients of this unfortunate honor include Up in the Air, The Aviator, There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine, Brokeback Mountain, Lost in Translation, The Insider, and Saving Private Ryan.”
Save for two films, your taste is really not that good.
” Meaning shouldn’t they reward the deserving, stand-out candidates ”
Thats debatable. I’m sure many people here might want to disagree that these are the “deserving” or “stand-out” candidates this year.
This is very off-topic, but Tangled topped the weekend box-office, which great except for the fact that it has a 26o million dollar budget! I had no idea about this. Is anyone else as shocked by that cost as I am?
260*
Julian: What power do I have to maintain TKS’s frontrunner status? I’m stating a fact: it’s the frontrunner. Academy members lost their shit for that film. They really liked TSN but they loved TKS. It’s not about me so don’t try to MAKE it about me.
I expected early on for Eisenberg to DOMINATE the critics awards. It’s not a hard call to make. I mean, I’m aware of factors working against him, but if you love the film, you probably love Eisenberg’s performance. It’s a package deal.
Shia LaBeouf gives a better performance in Wall Street 2 than Eisenberg in TSN. He deserves an Oscar nomination.
Rashad, anything to back that claim up? Cause I really can’t say that I see the same thing.
People shouldn’t be comparing The King’s Speech vs. The Social Network to last year’s Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker duel. Yes, The Social Network is likely to be the critical darling that The Hurt Locker was last year, but more importantly is that The King’s Speech is no Avatar. Avatar is the kind of film that rarely triumphs at the Oscars, whereas The King’s Speech is the kind of film they gobble up. That’s going to make an enormous difference, no matter how many critics awards The Social Network gets.
Drew, since the project has been around for a decade at least the budget is not surprising. Wasn’t it originally started in traditional animation and then scrapped to make it computer generated?
If The Social Network wins the SAG ensemble award, PGA and DGA then a win for Best Picture is almost a certainty. But we don’t know yet.
That’s a Director’s roundtable I would really like to see/read about come Oscar nominee time…
@Kris…you should know better than to hedge bets on AMPAS screening reactions. Saying they went insane King’s Speech. So what? It doesn’t mean anything.
I think Daveylow is absolutely right. Until the guild awards start rolling in (PGA/DGA/SAG/WGA and the all important ACE Eddie), we know very little about which direction the Oscar winds are blowing.
“Avatar is the kind of film that rarely triumphs at the Oscars, whereas The King’s Speech is the kind of film they gobble up. ”
I really don’t see that. I think that sci-fi angle (and it is a very important angle, I admit) aside, thematically Avatar is just as close to recent Oscar Winners as King’s Speech is. Arguably closer. Again I’m concentrating on last two decades’ worth of winners.
I know we’re in a completely different Oscar era, but ‘The King’s Speech’ feels, to me, like a possible ‘Chariots of Fire’ win.
i.e., something very period and very British that goes over extremely well with audiences/middlebrow critics/most Oscar voters, etc..