Indiana, Dallas and the Online Film Critics Society Choose Best of 2014

More regional groups today, all of which are more legit film critics than any member of the BFCA. Indiana became the first to like Reese Witherspoon for Best Actress, and Ralph Fiennes in Best Actor (could he actually get a last minute surge on the coattails of all the Budapest love?)

INDIANA FILM JOURNALISTS

Film: Boyhood
Animated: The Lego Movie
Foreign-Language: Two Days, One Night
Documentary: Life Itself
Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Adapted Screenplay: Whiplash
Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Actor: Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year
Supporting Actor: JK Simmons, Whiplash
Score: Under the Skin

Dallas went gaga for Birdman, but also liked Reese in Best Actress. Otherwise, not a lot of surprises there.

DALLAS FT. WORTH CRITICS

Picture: Birdman
Director: Alejandro Innaritu, Birdman
Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Wild
S. Actor: JK Simmons, Whiplash
S. Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Foreign-Language: Force Majeure
Screenplay: Birdman
Documentary: Citizenfour
Animated: The Lego Movie
Cinematography: Birdman
Score: Interstellar

Finally, the Online Film Critics Society went nuts for Budapest, actually giving it Best Picture, which is a nice change of pace from Boyhood and Birdman. And chalk up another win for Rosamund Pike as well. But all this Budapest stuff is entirely about perception- I don't think this would even be happening if the Golden Globe and SAG nominations last week hadn't confirmed that it was okay to still like something that came out way back in March. Critics are such sheep.

ONLINE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY

Picture: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Animated: The Lego Movie
Foreign-Language: Two Days, One Night
Dcumentary: Life Itself
Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Actress: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
S. Actor: Edward Norton, Birdman
S. Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Adapted Screenplay: Gone Girl
Editing: Birdman
Cinematography: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Critics Choice Award Nominations go to 'Budapest' and 'Birdman'

I have to confess, of all the awards bodies I kind of hate the BFCA the most. These are the Broadcast Film Critics Association, although they shouldn't be calling themselves "critics" since most of them are bloggers, entertainment reporters, people who talk about movies on E! (not kidding) and pretty much anyone can get in. It's a joke to think of these guys as critics. It's the People's Choice Awards of so-called critics (they even have categories like Best Action Movie, etc). But they're a bigger group, they have a televised awards show, and their only goal is to consider themselves Oscar predictors, so their nominations' sole purpose is in trying to match up with what the Academy might do. I'm not even convinced they vote on what they think is actually good. But Budapest continues its resurgence here with 11 nominations, as you can see.

BEST PICTURE
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Nightcrawler
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Whiplash

BEST ACTOR

Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman
David Oyelowo – Selma
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

BEST ACTRESS

Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Josh Brolin – Inherent Vice
Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods
Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS

Ellar Coltrane – Boyhood
Ansel Elgort – The Fault in Our Stars
Mackenzie Foy – Interstellar
Jaeden Lieberher – St. Vincent
Tony Revolori – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Quvenzhane Wallis – Annie

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Into the Woods
Selma

BEST DIRECTOR

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro G. Inarritu – Birdman
Angelina Jolie – Unbroken
Richard Linklater – Boyhood

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler
Whiplash

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Gone Girl
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Wild

BEST CINEMATOGRAPY

Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Interstellar
Mr. Turner
Unbroken

BEST ART DIRECTION

Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Snowpiercer

BEST EDITING

Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
Interstellar
Whiplash

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr. Turner

BEST HAIR & MAKEUP

Foxcatcher
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Into the Woods
Maleficent

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie

BEST ACTION MOVIE

American Sniper
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Fury
Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE

Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Tom Cruise – Edge of Tomorrow
Chris Evans – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Brad Pitt – Fury
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE

Emily Blunt – Edge of Tomorrow
Scarlett Johansson – Lucy
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Zoe Saldana – Guardians of the Galaxy
Shailene Woodley – Divergent

BEST COMEDY

Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
St. Vincent
Top Five
22 Jump Street

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY

Jon Favreau – Chef
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Bill Murray – St. Vincent
Chris Rock – Top Five
Channing Tatum – 22 Jump Street

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

Rose Byrne – Neighbors
Rosario Dawson – Top Five
Melissa McCarthy – St. Vincent
Jenny Slate – Obvious Child
Kristen Wiig – The Skeleton Twins

BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE

The Babadook
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
Snowpiercer
Under the Skin

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Force Majeure
Ida
Leviathan
Two Days, One Night
Wild Tales

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Citizenfour
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
Jodorowsky’s Dune
Last Days in Vietnam
Life Itself
The Overnighters

BEST SONG

Big Eyes – Lana Del Rey – Big Eyes
Everything Is Awesome – Jo Li and the Lonely Island – The Lego Movie
Glory – Common/John Legend – Selma
Lost Stars – Keira Knightley – Begin Again
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

BEST SCORE

The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
Gone Girl
Birdman
Interstellar

The fact that this group is the one that chose to resurrect Unbroken (a move that did NOT get good reviews) tells me they've turned into bigger star fuckers than the Hollywood Foreign Press. That's embarrassing. Other than that, Foxcatcher did very poorly, which means Steve Carell and that film are still on the bubble, and I guess I shouldn't shut my eyes anymore to Jennifer Aniston's possible Oscar nomination (gulp) for a movie no one has seen. But the precursor combo of SAG, GG and BFCA is a powerful one, and very few actors miss with Oscar after having hit all three. It does happen, but she'd be one of the few. It still seems unimaginable to me though. There's usually one or two movies on their BP list that don't translate to Oscar- this year I'm thinking it could be Nightcrawler and hopefully Unbroken. The BFCA awards take place on January 15th.

Kansas City Critics like 'Birdman,' Rosamund Pike; San Francisco Goes for 'Boyhood'

Two more regional critics groups weighed in today, and only one of them did anything interesting. Kansas City basically went for Birdman everywhere, but they also gave Gone Girl's Rosamund Pike her first Best Actress prize, and refreshingly rewarded Obvious Child (!) with Adapted Screenplay.

Kansas City Film Critics Winners

Animated: The Lego Movie
Documentary: Citizenfour
Foreign Language Film: Ida
SF/Fantasy/Horror Film: The Babadook
Adapted Screenplay: Obvious Child
Original Screenplay: Birdman
Sup. Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Sup. Actor: Edward Norton, Birdman
Actress: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Best Picture: Birdman

Meanwhile, San Francisco did virtually nothing interesting, anointing Boyhood and the expected acting winners right down the line, aside from Edward Norton, who won twice today- meh. Looks like the creative Oscar picks this year are going to come from the technical categories, unless they decide to buck the trend somewhere (Best Actor, perhaps? I still think there's a chance Michael Keaton won't necessarily win out in the end there).

San Francisco Film Critics

Best Picture:“Boyhood”
Best Director: Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
Best Original Screenplay:“Birdman”
Best Adapted Screenplay:“Inherent Vice”
Best Actor: Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”
Best Supporting Actor: Edward Norton, “Birdman”
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
Best Animated Feature:“The Lego Movie”
Best Foreign Language Film:“Ida”
Best Documentary:“Citizenfour”
Best Cinematography:“Ida”
Best Production Design:“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Best Film Editing:“Boyhood”

BOX OFFICE 12/12-12/14: 'Exodus' Tops 'Hunger Games' For #1

The Moses epic Exodus: Gods and Kings topped Mockingjay to claim the top spot this weekend, but with a $140 million budget, it's $24.5 million gross isn't really all that impressive. Add that to the dreadful reviews and a less than stellar B- Cinemascore and it's unlikely this will turn into much of a hit. The other new release this week was Chris Rock's Top Five, which opened wide but in less than 1000 theaters, pulling in just $7 million despite glowing critical praise (90% on Rotten Tomatoes).

Mockingjay sits at No. 2, earning another $13 million for a new domestic total of $277 million and counting- it looks like a 50/50 shot that it will overtake Guardians of the Galaxy's $332 million total to wear the crown of the year's biggest movie. Other holdovers in the top five slots were kiddie flicks Big Hero 6 and Penguins of Madagascar, both of which held well this weekend, but will be served with direct competition soon when the live action family flicks Annie and Night at the Museum 3 are released in the next couple weeks.

Top 5:

Exodus: Gods and Kings- $24.5 million
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1- $13.2 million
Penguins of Madagascar- $7.3 million
Top Five- $7.2 million
Big Hero 6- $6.1 million

In limited release, Wild is expanding quickly and doing well, now in 116 theaters to bring in $1.6 million, while Inherent Vice opened on five screens for a $65k PTA- not bad but with no real awards buzz and divisive reviews, can probably not expect to reach an audience wider than the most die hard Anderson fans. Next week the final Hobbit movie finally reaches the big screen, as well as Annie and Night at the Museum, all of them huge releases, so you can expect a big rest of December at the box office, when Oscar movies and family friendly fare are all vying for attention during the holiday weeks.

TRAILER #2: "Inherent Vice"

Even though it's getting some pretty divisive reviews, I still think this looks awesome and I can't wait to see it. PT Anderson's latest did just land a Golden Globe nod for Joaquin Phoenix as Best Actor in a Comedy- the movie's coming out in limited release tomorrow but will be expanding later on. Some are saying it's already on its way to being a cult classic for stoners.

'Birdman,' 'Boyhood' and 'Imitation Game' Lead the 2014 Golden Globe Nominations

The Hollywood Foreign Press weighed in today and essentially seemed to rubber stamp the expected heavyweights (Birdman led with 7 noms, Boyhood and Imitation right behind it with 5), giving a little more of a boost to some other films coming up on the outside, particularly The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was nominated for Picture, Director, Actor and Screenplay. The big showing for the Wes Anderson hit helps its visibility a lot going forward, as we'll have to see if the coming guilds remember it fondly as well (like SAG did yesterday). The thing about the HFPA is that there is no direct overlap with industry voters, this is simply the taste of under 90 foreign journalists, but lately they seem to be trying to make their selections in order to be taken a little more seriously, and an example of that today shows in the total shutout of Angelina Jolie and Unbroken, while they embraced Selma in Picture, Director and Actor, helping that film quite a bit after it's poor SAG showing yesterday.

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Pride
St. Vincent

Best Director
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay, Selma
David Fincher, Gone Girl
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Best Actress - Drama
Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Actor - Drama
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nighcrawler
David Oyelowo, Selma
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress - Comedy
Amy Adams, Big Eyes
Emily Blunt, Into the Woods
Helen Mirren, The Hundred Foot Journey
Julianne Moore, Maps to the Stars
Quvenzhané Wallis, Annie

Best Actor - Comedy/Musical
Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Bill Murray, St. Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix, Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz, Big Eyes

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year
Kiera Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Screenplay
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gone Girl
Birdman
Boyhood
The Imitation Game

Best Foreign Film
Force Majeure
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Ida
Leviathan
Tangerine Manderin

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
Book of Life
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Boxtrolls
The Lego Movie

Best Original Score
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
Gone Girl
Birdman
Interstellar

Best Original Song
"Big Eyes" – Big Eyes (Lana Del Ray)
"Glory" – Selma (John Legend, COmmon)
"Mercy Is" – Noah (Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye)
"Opportunity" – Annie
"Yellow Flicker Beat" – The Hunger Games, Mockingjy Pt 1 (Lorde)

There were some typically wacky Globes choices in here (10-year-old Wallis for Annie? Really?), but the fact that they nominated Gone Girl in Director and Screenplay is pretty cool, and overall I'd say their nominees this year are fairly respectable. I still wouldn't read anything into Jake Gyllenhaal and Jennifer Aniston showing up again- those two remain long shots for Oscar noms, because they're in small films that few will see (it's easier to court the tiny HFPA group than the actor's branch of the Academy), but they do have some precursor support behind them to try for a bigger campaign if they wanted to (I'm sure Aniston will). Frankly, I think that ever since the Hollywood Foreign Press was publicly roasted by Ricky Gervais for nominating The Tourist a few years ago, it's put them off their usual celebrity worship reputation and that explains the Jolie rejection here- these guys are obviously trying to change their image. But hey, that's a good thing- why should she be recognized for making a shitty movie just because they want her to come to their awards ceremony? If she's only as good a director as she is an actress (ahem) no one should really be nominating her for anything. The Globes are taking place Jan 11th on NBC.

TRAILER: "Mad Max: Fury Road"

A new look at next year's Mad Max movie with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. I'm noticing all the excessive CG in this one, that's a little worrying. The original two Mad Max movies were these low budget, bare, gritty and brutal action flicks- but then the third one became all about the extravagant sets and you could tell the Hollywood money kind of dwarfed the essence of the originals. Now, I'm worried this one could do the same thing (George Miller's the same guy who's done all three, but we saw how he could get carried away before). It's coming out next summer.

TRAILER: "Inside Out"

The trailer for Pixar's new movie Inside Out is here- at least it looks a lot more ambitious than anything they've done in long time (not another sequel to one of their old favorites). It's also from the the director of Up, so maybe there's some hope for this one. Based on this look at it though, it's hard for me to see how they make a full length feature out of it, but they must have something.

2014 Screen Actor's Guild Nominations

Well, finally we get our first industry/guild awards group, or in other words, one that actually matters. It matters because the guilds have major overlap with the Academy, unlike critics awards, and the guilds are going to tell us for sure which movies and actors are popular within the industry and which ones aren't. Birdman leads with four nominations, but right behind it with three each are Boyhood, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything. Theory was the big surprise here, getting into Ensemble (or SAG's equivalent of Best Picture) despite the minimal cast, which shows that love for the film is very strong. Stronger than I had anticipated, similar to what happened with Dallas Buyers Club last year. A big snub was the total shutout of Selma, which is expected to factor in heavily at the Oscars this year, but the film was not finished in time for the studio to send out screeners to the SAG nominating committee, which has pretty much doomed every single late release in the last few years (last year it was Wolf of Wall Street, which went on to get five Oscar nominations, including Leo Dicaprio and Jonah HIll for acting). I think Selma will make a comeback with the Golden Globe nominations tomorrow- if it doesn't, then it might be in some trouble.

Ensemble

Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything

Actor in a Leading Role

Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Female Actor in a Leading Role

Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Actor in a Supporting Role

Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Naomi Watts, St. Vincent

Another surprise (a happy one for me) was Grand Budapest Hotel making it into Ensemble, a possible sign that this may finally be the year a Wes Anderson movie cracks the Oscar Best Picture race. Also, the vast majority of SAG nominees go on to receive Oscar nods every year, save for maybe one or two in each category. Looking over this list it's pretty obvious which ones will likely be left out for someone else, starting with Jennifer Aniston in Cake. Aniston is a big star, and TV actors make up a lot of SAG's membership. To me, that's the reason she got into a weak Best Actress field, which is shocking enough on its own, but I'd be flabbergasted if she made it into the Oscar field for such a poorly received film, no matter how hard she campaigns. Other likely non-Oscar contenders will be Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts and Robert Duvall, because those films are all considered to be non-entities in the Oscar race, so look for them to be replaced with other names. But everyone else looks pretty set to me. We'll see if they solidify with tomorrow's Golden Globes announcement.

"Selma," "Get On Up" and "Dear White People" Lead the NAACP Image Nominees

The nominations for the NAACP Image Awards for film were announced today, and unsurprisingly, Selma led the charge, as it's expected to be a heavy Oscar favorite as well. It may be worth taking note that British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw is having quite the breakout year with lead roles in Belle and Beyond the Lights, and just won the BIFA the other day for Belle.

Outstanding Motion Picture
• “Belle”
• “Beyond The Lights”
• “Dear White People”
• “Get On Up”
• “Selma”

Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
• Chadwick Boseman – “Get On Up”
• David Oyelowo – “Selma”
• Denzel Washington – “The Equalizer”
• Idris Elba – “No Good Deed”
• Nate Parker – “Beyond The Lights”

Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
• Gugu Mbatha-Raw – “Belle”
• Quvenzhané Wallis – “Annie”
• Taraji P. Henson – “No Good Deed”
• Tessa Thompson – “Dear White People”
• Viola Davis – “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby”

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
• André Holland – “Selma”
• Cedric the Entertainer – “Top Five”
• Common – “Selma”
• Danny Glover – “Beyond The Lights”
• Wendell Pierce – “Selma”

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
• Carmen Ejogo – “Selma”
• Jill Scott – “Get On Up”
• Octavia Spencer – “Get On Up”
• Oprah Winfrey – “Selma”
• Viola Davis – “Get On Up”

Outstanding Independent Motion Picture
• “Belle”
• “Dear White People”
• “Half of a Yellow Sun”
• “JIMI: All Is By My Side”
• “Life of a King”

Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture
• Chris Rock – “Top Five”
• Justin Simien – “Dear White People”
• Margaret Nagle – “The Good Lie”
• Misan Sagay – “Belle”
• Richard Wenk – “The Equalizer”

Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture
• Amma Asante – “Belle”
• Antoine Fuqua – “The Equalizer”
• Ava DuVernay – “Selma”
• Gina Prince-Bythewood – “Beyond The Lights”
• John Ridley – “JIMI: All Is By My Side”

TRAILER: "Still Alice"

You know, Still Alice already came out in limited release, and yet the trailer for the movie is arriving just now. I don't know what that's about, but here's a look at the film if you're interested. I was not a big fan of this movie, but the consensus seems to be that Julianne Moore is the default frontrunner for Best Actress for it, mostly based on the incredibly weak competition in that category this year. I love Julianne Moore, but this would be entirely a career award if she wins. The film just isn't that great, any way you look at it.

TRAILER: "The Last 5 Years"

Anna Kendrick seems to be carving out a niche for herself as the go to actress for modern movie musicals, doesn't she? This is another one, based on the play and co-starring theater actor Jeremy Jordan. It's coming out next year and unlike most trailers for these things, the fact that it's a musical is front and center, with several songs showcased. What do you think?