Hugo and The Artist most nominated at 17th BFCA Awards

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" was one of a very few films added to the awards circuit by the BFCA.

"War Horse" was another one of those (un)expected nominees.

The BFCA Awards, more popularly known as the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, decided that this year was not the year to change it up. They usually don’t though. With a 10-nominee listing for movies and 6 nominees apiece for the acting and directing categories, the BFCAs usually provide that one hopeful/forgotten/unexpected nominee while still staying well within the bounds of expected nominees. In very expected fashion, Hugo and The Artist lead all nominees with 11 each. There are a few surprises, though. 9/11 family drama with a Hugo-esque father-son dynamic Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, directed by always Oscar-nominated director Stephe Daldry, and War Horse, Steven Spielberg’s World War I epic adapted from a novel and stage play of the same name, are recent additions to the “Best Picture” and “Best Director” fields; they’ll be showing up more often in future awards shows. Charlize Theron, Ryan Gosling, and Carey Mulligan were surprising but not entirely unexpected finds among the acting nominees. One glaring omission from the directing list is Terrence Malick, who about ties Martin Scorsese for most wins thus far. The more expected fare appears below.

16th Critics’ Choice Awards Winners

Best Picture
The Social Network

• 127 Hours
• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The King’s Speech
• The Town
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit
• Winter’s Bone

The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards fall for Black Swan

Darren Aronofsky and his Black Swan received a record-setting 12 nominations from the BFCA this week, upgrading Mila Kunis to "contender" status for "Supporting Actress," among other categories.

The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, in their 16th year, gave Darren Aronofsky’s much talked-about Black Swan a record-setting 12 nominations. In a close 2nd place are the Coen brothers’ remake of True Grit and British biopic The King’s Speech with 11 nominations each. In a surprising turn of events, Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom), and Jeremy Renner (The Town) are looking more likely to secure “Supporting” Oscar nominations in their respective categories. Noomi Repace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) is also a pleasant addition to the “Lead Actress” race. However, she knocked out many critics’ favorites in Lesley Manville (Another Year) and Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right) from possible — and probably critical — nominations. The spurned actresses can take solace, though, in the fact that their bids would ultimately have been useless. If BFCA leans the same way in the “Best Actress” race it has for the past two years, it will most likely draw a tie between the race’s frontrunners, between “America’s Sweetheart” and “The Acclaimed Veteran” (i.e. Natalie Portman and Annette Bening).

BEST PICTURE

• 127 Hours
• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The King’s Speech
• The Social Network
• The Town
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit
• Winter’s Bone