18th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Award Nominations

After a slew of critics groups naming their best of the year earlier last week (AFI, Boston, New York, Los Angeles), it announced the late arrival of Kathryn Bigelow's every-other-award-contendor-killer, her true life military drama "Zero Dark Thirty." It is in full steam ahead as the late front-runner for Best Picture after "Argo" seemed impossible to top earlier in the fall.

Now with the arrival of this morning's 18th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, it's a nice reminder that a reputable comedy category is on its way with the Globes. With "Bernie," "Silver Linings Playbook," "Ted," "This Is 40" and "21 Jump Street" all nominated for Best Picture from the BFCA, it's a robust category and will make the Golden Globe nominations more interesting; however, they have the pesky inclusion of musical which "Les Miserables" can easily dominate.

Also a breath of fresh air is the association's inclusion of a separate action movie category where the likes of "The Dark Knight Rises," "Looper" and, most importantly, "Skyfall" can get some recognition.  The three all received nods for Best Action Movie next to superhero big-show "The Avengers." This also allowed Daniel Craig a nomination for Best Actor in an Action Movie next to co-star Judi Dench for a double-nomination in both Best Actress in an Action Movie and in the major category of Best Supporting Actress, which is a welcomed surprise along with Javier Bardem in the major Best Supporting Actor category. This is likely the most awards love "Skyfall" will receive this year.

Back to the main grind, "Lincoln" led the pack with a whopping 13 nominations, which beat out previous record-holder of "Black Swan" with 12 nominations. Yet the BFCA passed the love all around with several nominations for each major contendor. Joining "Lincoln" with a Best Picture nomination were "Argo," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Django Unchained," "Les Miserables," "Life of Pi," "The Master," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Zero Dark Thirty." There are eight locked with "Django" and "Moonrise" slots up for grabs with the potential of "The Sessions" or "Amour" sneaking in.

Narrowing down the ten, Best Director nominations went to six: Ben Affleck for "Argo," Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty," Tom Hooper for "Les Miserables," Ang Lee for "Life of Pi," David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook" and Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln."

Joining front-runner Daniel Day-Lewis for "Lincoln" in the Best Actor category were Bradley Cooper for "Silver Linings Playbook," Denzel Washington for "Flight," John Hawkes for "The Sessions," Hugh Jackman for "Les Miserables" and Joaquin Phoenix for "The Master." Since this is six total, it'll likely be between Hawkes and Phoenix for the fifth spot at the Oscars.

The Best Actress category included Jessica Chastain for "Zero Dark Thirty," Marion Cotillard for "Rust and Bone," Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook," Emmanuelle Riva for "Amour," Quvenzhane Wallis for "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and Naomi Watts for "The Impossible." Take out Watts, and you're looking at the Best Actress nominees at the Oscars.

Even "The Hunger Games" nabbed some love in the form of Lawrence getting another acting nomination for Best Actress in an Action Movie. Lawrence got double-nominated for "Silver Linings" in both Best Actress and Actress in a Comedy for three acting nods total.

Best Supporting Actor is a little more interesting, especially with Javier Bardem for "Skyfall" sneaking in alongside Matthew McConaughey for "Magic Mike," Tommy Lee Jones for "Lincoln," Alan Arkin for "Argo," Robert De Niro for "Silver Linings Playbook" and Philip Seymour Hoffman for "The Master." While it's still pretty fluid who might get in (Leonardo DiCaprio for "Django" is decidedly missing), Tommy Lee Jones is the front-runner here.

Judi Dench surprised with her aforementioned Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in "Skyfall," and joining her in the category was Helen Hunt for "The Sessions," Anne Hathaway for "Les Miserables," Amy Adams for "The Master," Sally Field for "Lincoln" and Ann Dowd for "Compliance." Again, take out Dench, and you're likely looking at this field for the Oscars.

The biggest question is whether the acting categories are locked down and prepped to snub "Skyfall" or if the mentions here will translate into Oscar love later on.

Check out the full list of nominations, and tune in to find out the winners of the 18th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards on Thursday, Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. on the CW.

New York Film Critics Circle Awards

After the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded David Fincher's "The Social Network" Best Picture yesterday, we now have the New York Film Critics Circle following suit by giving "The Social Network" the top prize.

Most notable behind this, though, was "The Kids Are All Right" which got three awards for Best Screenplay, Best Actress for Annette Bening and, the biggest shock of all, Mark Ruffalo for Best Supporting Actor. Nice to see considering the Critics' Choice Award nominations snubbed it earlier this afternoon.

Best Director went to David Fincher for "The Social Network."

Colin Firth in "The King's Speech" won for Best Actor while Melissa Leo in "The Fighter" won for Best Supporting Actress.

A huge surprise came in the category of Best Animated Film which went to "The Illusionist" over "Toy Story 3." Could this upset happen at the Oscars? Likely not, but it's good to see Sylvain Chomet's film getting recognition.

"Black Swan" won for Matthew Libatique's cinematography while "Carlos" won for Best Foreign Language Film.

Considering the New York Film Critics Circle awarded "The Hurt Locker" last year, I think for the Oscars everyone's eyes need to be set on "The Social Network" over the previously thought-to-be-frontrunner "The King's Speech."

"The Hurt Locker" Gets Recognized

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced their award winners tonight giving the award for Best Picture to "The Hurt Locker," the film I was worried would end up being the one critics forget. "Up in the Air" was the runner-up, the film that the National Board of Review gave Best Picture while mostly ignoring "The Hurt Locker."

"The Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow won for Best Director with Michael Haneke as runner-up with his Germany submission for Best Foreign Language Film to the Oscars, "The White Ribbon."

Jeff Bridges received the award for Best Actor for his performance in "Crazy Heart," which as yet to be released basically anywhere, with runner-up Colin Firth for "A Single Man," leaving George Clooney with nothing.

"Fantasic Mr. Fox" surprisingly beat "Up" for Animation while "The Cove" and "The Beaches of Agnes" tied for Best Documentary.

Yolande Moreau won Best Actress for "Seraphine" with Carey Mulligan as runner-up for "An Education." A potential award for "Precious" here was left out.

But making up for that was a win for Mo'Nique in Best Supporting Actress with runner-up Anna Kendrick of "Up in the Air."

Best Supporting Actor went to Christoph Waltz for his bizarre portrayal in "Inglourious Basterds."

So, it would appear that "The Hurt Locker" certainly hasn't been forgotten since its release way back in August, and thankfully so.

The complete list of winners from LAFCA can be seen here.

Next up after this is the nominations for The Golden Globe Awards which will be announced this Tuesday, December 15th. Stay tuned.