• The week started off with “How to Train Your Dragon” predictably dominating the slate of Annie Award nominations.
• Kris sat down with Leonardo DiCaprio and got Martin Scorsese on the phone for a large two–part piece on the actor and his impressive year.
• He also caught up with actor Ed Harris to talk “The Way Back” and director Peter Weir.
• It was good and bad news for The Weinstein Company as “Blue Valentine” won its ratings appeal with the MPAA, while “The King’s Speech”‘s was shot down.
The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association will officially announce its winners tomorrow (after releasing a list of nominees yesterday), but we’ve got them for you in advance at The Circuit.
David Fincher’s “The Social Network” took the Film/Director/Screenplay trifecta, while Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” was the big winner over all, taking four awards including Best Original Screenplay.
Also notable was Melissa Leo and Christian Bale’s wins in the supporting categories, a one-two punch for “The Fighter” that could well be reflected by the Academy in a couple of months. Meanwhile, “The Town” has taken its second ensemble award (along with last week’s National Board of Review honor). Could this all be prelude to a SAG ensemble nod and, eventually, a Best Picture nomination? I’m thinking yes.
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]
• A little movie called “Avatar” premiered. This week’s Oscar Talk tucked into the film.
• As “The Lovely Bones” faces a frosty critical welcome, this week’s Off the Carpet column went to bat for the film.
• We interviewed a quartet of young actors making strides this year: Abbie Cornish, Saoirse Ronan, Ben Foster and Bryce Dallas Howard.
• In The Long Shot, we examined the animation race — and stood up for under-the-radar contender “Mary & Max.”
Um, okay. So the list of nominations for the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association were announced this morning. The group’s official website notes that the winners will be announced tomorrow (so…why bother with day-before nominees?). And now The Wrap is reporting (sans attribution — so I guess via press release) that the winners are as follows:
Best Film
“Up in the Air”
Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Best Actor
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Best Actress
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
(more after the jump)
The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association has kicked off the critics’ kudos season with a most uninspired list of nominations. I say uninspired because, aside from a random nomination for Maya Rudolph in the lead actress category, there doesn’t seem to be a single damn original bone in the group’s body.
“Up in the Air” led the way with 8 nominations and is pretty much on track to be the critics’ darling of the year, while “Precious” and “The Hurt Locker” each landed 7 each. I imagine a similar tally will be attributed to those films when the Oscar nominees are announced. Which raises the question: Are the D.C. critics trying to emulate AMPAS here? I never follow them closely, not beyond the requisite announcement posts each year (I tend to get REALLY burned out on all the critics’ awards, frankly).
But seriously. They had to see more than 33 films this year, right? Because out of 70 possible nominees, that’s how many films were spread across the field. Kind of sad, really.
Check out the full list of nominees after the jump. And the group’s list of winners last year here.
I was totally out to lunch on this today. “Slumdog Millionaire” continues to dominate while Heath Ledger wins his second award (after that AFI gong earlier in the week). “Doubt” pulls down another ensemble win while truly astounding group performances from films such as “Synecdoche, New York,” “Gomorrah” and, indeed, “Slumdog Millionaire” continue to be ignored. And Mickey Rourke picks up his first critics’ citation.
The winners:
Best Film: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
Best Ensemble: “Doubt”
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt, “Rachel Getting Married”
Best Breakthrough Performance: Dev Patel, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet, “Rachel Getting Married”
Best Animated Feature: “WALL-E”
Best Foreign Language Film: “Let The Right One In”
Best Documentary: “Man On Wire”
Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Sasha Stone has some historical perspective over at Awards Daily.