One More Before Tomorrow

And just one more group to keep an eye on before the Golden Globe Nominations go out tomorrow. Here we have the nominations for the 15th Annual Broadcast Film Critics Awards, otherwise known as the Critics' Choice Awards. "Inglourious Basterds" and "Nine" nabbed the top spots with ten nominations each.

The ten films selected for the Best Picture nominations were "An Education," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Invictus," "Nine," "Precious," "A Serious Man," "Up," "Up in the Air," and yes, "Avatar." Seems like a pretty solid bunch and reasonable for what award buzz has already been churning out for predictions.

The nominees for Best Actor were Jeff Bridges for "Crazy Heart," George Clooney for "Up in the Air," Colin Firth for "A Single Man," Morgan Freeman for "Invictus," Viggo Mortensen for "The Road," and as a nice addition, Jeremy Renner for "The Hurt Locker."

For Best Actress was Emily Blunt for "The Young Victoria," Sandra Bullock for "The Blind Side," Carey Mulligan for "An Education," Saoirse Ronan for "The Lovely Bones," Gabourey Sidibe for "Precious," and Meryl Streep for "Julie & Julia."

Best Supporting Actor nominations went to Matt Damon for "Invictus," Woody Harrelson for "The Messenger," Christian McKay for "Me and Orson Welles," Alfred Molina for "An Education," Stanley Tucci for "The Lovely Bones," and Christoph Waltz for "Inglourious Basterds."

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress were Marion Cotillard for "Nine," Vera Farmiga and also Anna Kendrick for "Up in the Air," Julianne Moore for "A Single Man," Samantha Morton for "The Messenger," and, of course, Mo'Nique for "Precious."

Best Animated Picture nominees were "The Princess and the Frog," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," "Up," and "Coraline."

This award show also has the categories of Best Comedy and Best Action Movie.

The nominees for the former were "District 9," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Star Trek," and "Avatar," all of which are arguably in heated competition. Looks like we just had a whole lot of great action movies this year.

The nominees for the latter category were "The Proposal," "It's Complicated," "Zombieland," "The Hangover," and "(500) Days of Summer." This year turned out to be a lesser year for poignant comedies.

The most interesting category to look at here is Best Directing. I believe these nominations give us a clear indicator of what we'll be seeing for the Academy Awards. The list included Kathryn Bigelow for "The Hurt Locker," Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds," James Cameron for "Avatar," Clint Eastwood for "Invictus," Jason Reitman for "Up in the Air," and Lee Daniels for "Precious."

It's going to be an interesting award season, and hopefully one that turns out to be less predictable than years' past. It looks like there are some solid contenders, and many more present than the five that are allowed to fit into the Best Picture slots at the Oscars.

For the complete list of nominees, go here.

And tune in late tomorrow for the Golden Globe Award nominations when things really start to heat up.