OSCARLAND: The Critics Choice Nominations

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The Broadcast Film Critics Association and their “Critics Choice” awards seem on the whole way too eager to please, desperate to have as many movies and stars in their tent (and on their CW awards telecast) as possible, with the wealth spread to 10 Best Picture nominees, 6 nominees in each major acting category, and throwaway awards like Best Actor In An Action Movie and Best SciFi/Horror Movie.  (Hey, it’s not like Asa Butterfield is getting nominated for Ender’s Game anywhere else.)  Yet when it comes to Best Picture, some attention has to be paid:  last year 8 of the Critics Choice nominees were on the Oscar list, and in 7 of the last 10 years, the group’s winner went on to take the Academy Award.  So while the full overstuffed list of nominees is here, the following are the Best Picture nominations:

AMERICAN HUSTLE

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS

DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

GRAVITY

HER

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

NEBRASKA

SAVING MR. BANKS

12 YEARS A SLAVE

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

No major surprises in that group, but Disney must be relieved that Saving Mr. Banks found a spot, while Harvey Weinstein can’t be happy that none of his major contenders–The Butler, August: Osage County, Fruitvale Station, Philomena or Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom–made the cut.  (Several of their stars do feature in the acting categories.)  The biggest and most welcome surprise elsewhere was the Best Actress nomination for Brie Larson and her brilliant work in Short Term 12.

Also worth noting:  12 Years a Slave and American Hustle tied for the most overall nominations with 13, buttressing the increasingly widespread sense that the Oscar race may boil down to those two as the major contenders.