“The Favourite” leads the film awards categories in the 2019 Critics Choice Nominations with 14, including Best Picture.
Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” follows with 12 nominations. Best Picture and Best Action Movie aren’t huge surprises, but Ryan Coogler isn’t in the Best Director category. However Michael B. Jordan did snag a Supporting Actor nomination.
Critics Choice has made-up for many of the Golden Globe snubs, including a Best Actor nomination for “First Reformed”‘s Ethan Hawke and a Best Actress nom for “Hereditary”‘s Toni Collette. Both films are A24 releases. “If Beale Street Could Talk”‘s Nicholas Brittel is up for Best Origina Score, and “Cold War” is in the Foreign Language Film category with a well-deserved recognition.
“First Man” only received 2 Golden Globe noms, but with Critics Choice – that number skyrockets to 10. “Mary Poppins Returns” is close behind with 9, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Emily Blunt and a duo of Original Song nominees (“The Place Where Lost Things Go” and “Trip a Little Light Fantastic”).
“A Star Is Born” and “Vice” also scored 9 noms each. “Roma”, which I expected to possibly lead the pack, has 8, and “Green Book” earned 7. Elsie Fisher is a Double Nominee (Best Young Actor/Actress and Best Actress in a Comedy) for indie darling “Eighth Grade”.
Nicole Kidman is up for Best Supporting Actress for “Boy Erased”, but she was snubbed in the Best Actress category for her work in “Destroyer”. Other notable snubs include “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” (not even in Best Comedy contention) and (once again) Julia Roberts for “Ben is Back” and Felicity Jones for “On the Basis of Sex”.
On the surprises side – “The Grinch” joins what looks like the Oscar 5 (“Incredibles 2”, “Isle of Dogs”, “Mirai”, “Ralph Breaks the Internet” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”) in Best Animated Feature. “Game Night” headlines the Comedy categories. And “Mary Queen of Scots” is up for two technical awards even though Focus Features did not send screeners of the film out to all BFCA members in time for voting.
Very pleased to see “Ready Player One” as a Best Action Movie nominee and “Annihilation” and “Halloween” on the Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie ballot.
Watch the 24th Annual Critics Choice Awards on Sunday January 13th at 7pmET on The CW. For the complete list of nominees, visit CriticsChoice.com.