Normally, I’m against critics’ groups bothering with nominations. Just cut the crap and give us your picks — you’re not that anticipated, after all.
But I’ll make an exception this year for the Chicago Film Critics Association, if only because it allows them to shine a light on some names that have been lost amid the consensus of critics’ prizes so far. There are some pleasantly left-field picks here, beginning with a co-leading six bids, Best Picture and Director included, for “Where the Wild Things Are.”
“A Serious Man” also makes the Best Picture cut, while “Precious” is a surprising omission. (Is it losing momentum?) Hearty cheers, too, for the mentions of Matt Damon (for the right film, this time) and — finally — “Bright Star”‘s Abbie Cornish and Greig Fraser. Still no Tilda Swinton, but I’m letting that one go.
Full list of nominees (props to AwardsDaily) after the cut.
BEST PICTURE
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“A Serious Man”
“Up in the Air”
“Where the Wild Things Are”
BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Joel and Ethan Coen, “A Serious Man”
Spike Jonze, “Where the Wild Things Are”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Matt Damon, “The Informant!”
Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”
Michael Stuhlbarg, “A Serious Man”
BEST ACTRESS
Abbie Cornish, “Bright Star”
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Maya Rudolph, “Away We Go”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Peter Capaldi, “In the Loop”
Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
Christian McKay, “Me and Orson Welles”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique, “Precious”
Julianne Moore, “A Single Man”
Natalie Portman, “Brothers”
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Away We Go”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“An Education”
“In the Loop”
“The Informant!”
“Up in the Air”
“Where the Wild Things Are”
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
“Broken Embraces”
“Red Cliff”
“Sin Nombre”
“Summer Hours”
“The White Ribbon”
BEST DOCUMENTARY
“Anvil!: The Story of Anvil”
“Capitalism: A Love Story”
“The Cove”
“Food, Inc.”
“Tyson”
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“Ponyo”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“Up”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Avatar”
“Bright Star”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Where the Wild Things Are”
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
“Avatar”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Informant!”
“Up”
“Where the Wild Things Are”
MOST PROMISING FILMMAKER
Neill Blomkamp, “District 9”
Scott Cooper, “Crazy Heart”
Cary Fukunaga, “Sin Nombre”
Duncan Jones, “Moon”
Marc Webb, “(500) Days of Summer”
MOST PROMISING PERFORMER
Sharlto Copley, “District 9”
Christian McKay, “Me and Orson Welles”
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Max Records, “Where the Wild Things Are”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Comments
35 responses to “‘Wild Things,’ ‘Up in the Air’ lead Chicago crix nods”
Nice to finally see some Bright Star and a director nod for Spike Jonze. Both are very well deserved.
I’m not sure being omitted from the Chicago Critics nominations factors into losing momentum for the Oscars. It’ll be there.
If it weren’t for the Firth snub, this would be my favorite list of the season.
Like you mentioned above, I can’t believe no one has gotten behind Tilda Swinton’s performance in Julia. Not a single critic’s group has even mentioned the BEST leading actress role of the year. It boggles my mind…
@Hardy: Oh, it’ll definitely be there. No question about that. I’m not really referring to this one (rather small) snub, but the film’s general precursor profile so far, which — the Mo’Nique Express aside — is lower than I was expecting when I predicted the film as our Oscar champ last month.
@Dylan: I didn’t even notice the Firth snub! And they actually nominated Moore … how bizarre.
@Jeff: She was the runner-up in the NYFCC voting. I think that’s as good as we’re going to get … unless the NSFC stick up for her. (It’s the kind of thing they might do.)
Glad to see that the kudos for District 9 are more properly placed with this list. (I’m not sure why it keeps getting screenplay attention, if only because of the improv nature of the film confuses matters.)
I’d have to disagree about not wanting to see nominations from critics groups, I prefer it to only getting the list of winners, especially in a year like this where some categories have turned into one-way streets. List after list of winners from critics groups where they all seemingly only cared for Mo’Nique and Waltz (as the prime example) really just makes all the groups seem exactly the same, like there’s no personality or uniqueness to them. Even if Chicago might pick the exact same winners as everyone else, at least by letting us see what other films and performances were among their favorites make them more interesting, especially when they pick some films that aren’t showing up everywhere (like Where the Wild Things Are).
This is easily the most interesting critics group so far.
Aspect Ratio: Agreed. Of course, you know they’ll end up picking the same winners as everyone else ;)
By the way, I do have to deduct some points for their slightly uninspired documentary and foreign-language lineups. “Broken Embraces?” C’mon, that’s autopilot voting … and I say that as an Almodovarite.
A nice little double nomination for Dave Eggers here. I can’t really decide whether I like either of his works, but I think it’s interesting that this is the first time we’ve really seen him land something.
I’d prefer to pretend those Away We Go nods didn’t happen. But you can’t have it all.
Frankly, for a second, I though Eggers was from Chicago, which is the only explanation for nominating both of his screenplays this year. WTWTA is a stretch. But Away We Go is a fucking crime. I try whenever possible to be civil and articulate when I talk about film, whether I like or dislike it. But Away We Go is such a prime example of the sort of twee, faux-quirky bullshit that people label as “indie” and “charming” that it loses all sense of charm. It’s all so forced and fake and proud of itself, it makes me honestly angry. It’s far and away my choice for the year’s worst film.
Adam said it so I don’t have to. Thanks, Adam.
(I won’t go quite as far as “the year’s worst film,” but…)
Other than the nominations for Inglourious Basterds, I quite like these nominations. Love the Where the Wild Things Are nominations and really glad to see Abbie Cornish and Greig Fraser on there.
The Cinematography nominees make a splendid pyramid.
Also, best critics group results of the year so far, even without knowing the winners.
Maybe scratch that list bit. I hadn’t seen the Toronto critics list yet. It’s a close call. Cage!
I agree with Adam. “Away We Go” will easily be among my bottom top 10 of the year.
(But I suspect that “Inglourious Basterds” will be too.)
Exactly, Jeff. How the critics and precursors keep ignoring Tilda Swinton’s performance is beyond my mind.
One of the best performances of the decade. Period.
Just curious, Guy, what would you say is the worst? Granted, I ain’t seen Transformers 2, but at least it knows it’s stupid (though Armond White’s comment about it reflecting our ambiguous relationship with technology as something we both love and fear is kind of interesting, if misguided in an Armond White sort of way).
The worst film I’ve seen this year, hands down, is “My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?”
(I was going to do a gathering of the year’s worst in my list next week, but suddenly I don’t feel like accentuating the negative. So there you have it.)
Fine choice. I’m much more of the type to point out absurd self-indulgence or potentially morally reprehensible work as the year’s worst than run-of-the-mill brainless shit. Except for The Cat in the Hat. I still have nightmares about that movie…it gives me the Jibblies.
For me, “My Son, My Son” takes the title by any criteria — it’s both brainless AND self-indulgent. Not to mention poorly crafted and astonishingly boring. Ticks all the boxes, really.
No Firth? No credibility.
That’s a bit reductive. Besides, there are some damn fine performances in that Best Actor lineup.
I quite like that Best Supporting Actor list. I think I’ll stick with those for my predictions until Oscar time.
^Word.
I’m digging these picks. I’m happy to see Maya Rudolph get mentioned here and there. She’s underrated, and should have had the Julia Roberts slot at the Globes.
The Informant! was a watchable failure of a movie. Best Actor nod is worthy, although Firth is worthier and was “robbed” (not like it matters much here); Best Adapted Screenplay is not.
The “most promising filmmaker” list made me pretty happy :)
Ok, Guy, you guilted me into admitting that there are lots of good choices this year for Best Actor.
Abbie Cornish – Yay!!! If she was to win the Chicago becomes my favourite American city
The Toronto choices rather puzzle me they name Hunger and that QT movie (he slighted Bright Star) but then give best actor to Nick Cage, its like they want to be unique as the rest of their acting choices are pretty mundane.
@ Nel (me!)
I think I confused posts with the above but just noticed the Capaldi nomination so it is a double Yay for Chicago.
Awesome. Where the Wild Things Are is a legitimately great film, and deserves better than it’s gotten. People expected a fun romp, and got a raw, intense meditation on what it means to be on the brink between childhood and adolescence. I guess I can’t blame them if they were disappointed, but what did they expect from Spike frickin’ Jonze?
I think it’s undeniable that “Precious” is losing momentum. It’s box-office performance hit the wall and it now feels, to me anyways, that it’s playing second-fiddle to “Up in the Air” and “The Hurt Locker”. Of course, it will still get a boatload of nominations and is a lock to make the Final 10.
Yeah, if people thought the Dreamgirls snub was “racist”, imagine the conspiracy theories if Precious were somehow snubbed :o.
Finally, a Natalie Portman mention!
Don’t let Swinton go yet. I really think enough scattered voices can slip her in contention. Let’s recall Tommy Lee Jones’ out of nowhere nomination pretty recently.
YES!! Go Wild Things!