In the last 24 hours, two major groups have announced their nominations for some of the film awards of the season — the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Add to that Film Independent Spirit Awards, and the landscape is shaping up.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, of which I am a voting member, will announce our winners next Tuesday.
More on the nominations after the jump.
The Golden Globes are the more widely recognized, if not respected, of the awards. Nominations for Best Picture (drama) include: Argo, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty — all fairly deserving and even predictable selections. The SAGs don’t present best picture, though their de facto equivalent is outstanding ensemble cast: Argo and Lincoln repeat, plus Les Miserables, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Silver Linings Playbook. Those last three, plus Moonrise Kingdom and Salmon Fishing in Yemen, round of the Globes’ best picture (musical or comedy) list.
Of course, Best Exotic and Silver Linings are among the handful of godawful films I walked out of this year before they were over, largely because they were such inauthentic, smugly “artsy” attempts at being cute and heartwarming. Hotel bordered on racist in its treatment of “the mysterious subcontinent of India,” and SLP simply features terrible performances delivered with puppy-dog eyes. If either one wins anything, shoot me. (No, don’t.) (My reviews of Django, Les Miz and more will be out in the coming weeks.)
The Spirit Awards target less mainstream movies (though not exclusively); best feature nominees are Beasts of the Southern Wild, Bernie, Keep the Lights On, Moonrise Kingdom and SLP (really?!? REALLY!?!).
Best actor awards are also fairly predictable, though not necessarily indicative of Oscar victory: The Globes nominate in two categories, meaning half the nominees at least will be left out in the cold. Once again, though, terrible performances compete alongside great ones.
Here are the nominated performances from all three groups.
Globes — Actor (drama): Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln, Richard Gere, Arbitrage, John Hawkes, The Sessions, Joaquin Phoenix, The Master (another overrated novelty picture), Denzel Washington, Flight.
Globes — Actor (comedy): Jack Black, Bernie (deserved!), Bradley Cooper, SLP (definitely NOT!). Hugh Jackman, Les Miz, Ewen McGregor, Salmon Fishing, Bill Murray, Hyde Park on Hudson (see my review tomorrow).
SAG — Actor: Day-Lewis, Hawkes, Washington, Cooper, Jackman.
Spirit — Actor: Hawkes, Black, Cooper, Thure Lindhardt, Keep the Lights On, Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe, Wendell Pierce, Four.
Globes — Actress (drama): Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty, Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone, Helen Mirren, Hitchcock, Naomi Watts, The Impossible, Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea.
Globes — Actress (comedy): Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing, Judi Dench, Best Exotic, Jennifer Lawrence, SLP, Maggie Smith, Quartet, Meryl Streep, Hope Springs.
SAG — Actress: Chastain, Cotillard, Mirren, Watts, Lawrence.
Spirit — Actress: Linda Cardellini, Return, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Middle of Nowhere, Quvenzhane Wallis, Beast of the Southern Wild, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Smashed, Lawrence.
Globes — Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, Argo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master, Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln, Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained.
SAG — Supporting Actor: Arkin, Hoffman, Jones, Javier Bardem (playing the gay supervillain), Skyfall, Robert DeNiro, SLP.
Spirit — Supporting Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike (I know!), David Oyelowo, Middle of Nowhere, Michael Pena, End of Watch, Sam Rockwell, Seven Psychopaths, Bruce Willis, Moonrise Kingdom.
Globes — Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, The Master, Sally Field, Lincoln, Anne Hathaway, Les Miz, Helen Hunt, The Sessions, Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy (a strong performances in an underrated, gay-interest film)
SAG — Supporting Actress: Field, Hathaway, Hunt, Kidman, Maggie Smith, Best Exotic.
Spirit — Supporting Actress: Hunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, Your Sister’s Sister, Ann Dowd, Compliance, Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice, Lorraine Toussaint, Middle of Nowhere.