Awards Season 2024: Critics' Choice Awards Nominations

This afternoon (Wednesday 13th December), the film nominations for the 29th Annual Critics Choice Awards were announced. 

Here are a selection of their nominees:

Best Picture

American Fiction

Barbie

The Color Purple

The Holdovers

Killers Of The Flower Moon

Maestro

Oppenheimer

Past Lives

Poor Things

Saltburn

Best Director

Bradley Cooper (Maestro)

Greta Gerwig (Barbie)

Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)

Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)

Alexander Payne (The Holdovers)

Martin Scorsese (Killers Of The Flower Moon)

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper (Maestro)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers Of The Flower Moon)

Colman Domingo (Rustin)

Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)

Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)

Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)

Best Actress

Lily Gladstone (Killers Of The Flower Moon)

Sandra Hüller (Anatomy Of A Fall)

Greta Lee (Past Lives)

Carey Mulligan (Maestro)

Margot Robbie (Barbie)

Emma Stone (Poor Things)

Best Supporting Actor

Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction)

Robert De Niro (Killers Of The Flower Moon)

Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)

Ryan Gosling (Barbie)

Charles Melton (May December)

Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)

Best Supporting Actress

Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer)

Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple)

America Ferrera (Barbie)

Jodie Foster (Nyad)

Julianne Moore (May December)

Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

A full list of nominees can be found here. 

Barbie leads the field with a record-breaking 18 nominations (surpassing last year's record-breaking haul of 14 by Everything Everywhere All At Once; Barbie received nominations in 16 of the 21 film categories and- as with the Golden Globes- snagged three Best Original Song nods). Oppenheimer and Poor Things are second, with 13 nods apiece, and Killers Of The Flower Moon in third with 12 nominations. 

The 29th Critics' Choice Awards will be handed out on Sunday 14th January 2024. Broadcast on The CW, Chelsea Handler will return for hosting duties for the second year running. 

Congratulations to all nominees!

Awards season takes a brief pause over the Christmas period, with the Golden Globes ceremony our next stop, on 7th January 2024.

Awards Season 2024: Golden Globes Nominations

Today (Monday 11th December 2023) saw the announcement of the nominees for the 81st Golden Globe Awards, awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Actors Cedric The Entertainer (Barbershop, Madagascar, The Soul Man) and Wilmer Valderrama (That 70's Show, NCIS, Party Monster) made the nominations announcement.  

As longtime readers of the blog will be aware, the HFPA split their awards, giving certain categories for both Drama and Musical or Comedy, rather than just going for the out-and-out drama as most awards tend to do.

Below is a selection of the film nominees: 

Best Picture - Drama

Anatomy Of A Fall

Killers Of The Flower Moon

Maestro

Oppenheimer

Past Lives

The Zone Of Interest

Best Picture - Musical or Comedy

Air

American Fiction

Barbie

The Holdovers

May December

Poor Things

Best Director

Bradley Cooper (Maestro)

Greta Gerwig (Barbie)

Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)

Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)

Martin Scorsese (Killers Of The Flower Moon)

Celine Song (Past Lives)

Best Actor - Drama

Bradley Cooper (Maestro)

Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers Of The Flower Moon)

Colman Domingo (Rustin)

Barry Keoghan (Saltburn)

Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)

Andrew Scott (All Of Us Strangers)

Best Actor - Musical or Comedy

Nicolas Cage (Dream Scenario)

Timothée Chalamet (Wonka)

Matt Damon (Air)

Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)

Joaquin Phoenix (Beau Is Afraid)

Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)

Best Actress - Drama

Annette Bening (Nyad)

Lily Gladstone (Killers Of The Flower Moon)

Sandra Hüller (Anatomy Of A Fall)

Greta Lee (Past Lives)

Carey Mulligan (Maestro)

Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla)

Best Actress - Musical or Comedy

Fantasia Barrino (The Color Purple)

Jennifer Lawrence (No Hard Feelings)

Natalie Portman (May December)

Alma Pöysti (Fallen Leaves)

Margot Robbie (Barbie)

Emma Stone (Poor Things)

Best Supporting Actor

Willem Dafoe (Poor Things)

Robert De Niro (Killers Of The Flower Moon)

Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)

Ryan Gosling (Barbie)

Charles Melton (May December)

Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)

Best Supporting Actress

Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer)

Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple)

Jodie Foster (Nyad)

Julianne Moore (May December)

Rosamund Pike (Saltburn)

Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

A full list of nominees can be found here.

Barbie gets a whopping nine nominations (with three nods in the Best Original Song category) with Oppenheimer in second place with eight. Killers Of The Flower Moon and Poor Things have seven apiece.  

The HFPA have announced a couple of changes to the awards; whilst they aren't going down the route of gender-neutral categories, each acting category now has six nominees (instead of five, as has been in the past). They have also introduced two new awards- Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy or Television and Cinematic and Box Office Achievement (which has such diverse nominees as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and John Wick: Chapter 4)

The Golden Globes will be handed out in a ceremony on Sunday 7th January 2024, to be broadcast live on CBS (who have taken over from NBC as the Globes' network home). No host has been announced as yet.

Congratulations to all nominees!

So, next up on the awards season trail, and our last stop before the Christmas holidays, will be the Critics' Choice Awards who will announce their nominees this coming Wednesday (13th December 2024)

Awards Season 2024: Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

Well, this snuck up on me (as the actress said to the bishop). 

Life has properly got in the way and I didn't realise that Awards Season 2024 had officially begun. But it has, so I'm playing just a little bit of catch-up. 

Today (Tuesday 5th December) saw the announcement of the nominees for the 39th Independent Spirit Awards. The nominations were announced by Joel Kim Booster (Fire Island, Big Mouth, Psychosexual) and Natalie Morales (The Little Things, No Hard Feelings, Santa Clarita Diet). 

You will no doubt be aware by now that these awards recognise films made wholly or partly outside the traditional studio system. Last year, the eligibility budget was raised to $30 million dollars, and gender-neutral acting categories were introduced. 

Below is a selection of nominations:

Best Feature

All Of Us Strangers

American Fiction

May December

Passages

Past Lives

We Grown Now

Best Director

Andrew Haigh (All Of Us Strangers)

Todd Haynes (May December)

William Oldroyd (Eileen)

Celine Song (Past Lives)

Ira Sachs (Passages)

Best Lead Performance

Jessica Chastain (Memory)

Greta Lee (Past Lives)

Trace Lysette (Monica)

Natalie Portman (May December)

Judy Reyes (Birth/Rebirth)

Franz Rogowski (Passages)

Andrew Scott (All Of Us Strangers)

Teyana Taylor (A Thousand And One)

Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)

Teo Yoo (Past Lives)

Best Supporting Performance

Erika Alexander (American Fiction)

Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction)

Noah Galvin (Theater Camp)

Anne Hathaway (Eileen)

Glenn Howerton (BlackBerry)

Marin Ireland (Eileen)

Charles Melton (May December)

Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

Catalina Saavedra (Rotting In The Sun)

Ben Whishaw (Passages)

A full list of nominees can be found here.

Past Lives (a romantic drama about two childhood friends [Greta Lee and Teo Yoo] who reunite twenty years after one of them emigrates from South Korea to Canada), American Fiction (a comedy-drama in which a frustrated Black novelist [Jeffrey Wright] uses a pen-name to write an outrageous "Black" book as a joke, only to find it being critically lauded), and May December (a drama in which a married couple's [Julianne Moore and Charles Melton] controversial relationship begins to buckle when an actress [Natalie Portman] meets them to do some research for a film about their lives) lead the pack with five nominations apiece.

Passages (a controversial drama where a gay couple [Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw] find their relationship in crisis when one begins an affair with a woman) and The Holdovers (a comedy-drama where a history teacher [Paul Giamatti] at a remote school is forced to remain on campus over Christmas with a troubled student who has nowhere to go) received four each.

The 39th Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony will take place at the usual Santa Monica beachside tent on 24th February 2024, hosted by Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live, Human Resources, The Big Sick).

Congratulations to all the nominees!

As I didn't get a chance to do my usual "For Your Consideration" post, I'm going to include the important dates here. So, the timetable for the rest of the major awards in 2024 is as follows:

Golden Globes

Nominations announced: 11th December 2023

Awards ceremony: 7th January 2024

Critics' Choice Award

Nominations announced: 13th December 2023

Awards ceremony: 14th January 2024

Directors' Guild Of America (DGA) Award

Nominations announced: 10th January 2024

Awards ceremony: 17th February 2024

Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards

Nominations announced: 10th January 2024

Awards ceremony: 24th February 2024

Producers' Guild Of America (PGA) Award

Nominations announced: 12th January 2024

Awards ceremony: 25th February 2024

BAFTA Film Awards

Nominations announced: 18th January 2024

Awards ceremony: 18th February 2024

Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzies)

Nominations announced: 22nd January 2024

Awards ceremony: 9th March 2024

Academy Awards (Oscars)

Nominations announced: 23rd January 2024

Awards ceremony: 10th March 2024 (hosted by Jimmy Kimmel)

Let the fun begin!