SPIRIT AWARD WINNERS - 12 YEARS CLEANS UP

For once, we can simultaneously accuse the Spirit Award voters of betraying their true cause and pathetically anticipating tomorrow night's Oscar results and accuse them of doing the right bloody thing. Check this out! Five wins for 12 Years a Slave, including Best Director for Steve McQueen! Holla! Their four acting winners may well turn out to be AMPAS' four too, which would make this perhaps the least 'independently' spirited Spirit awards ever, or among the most 'independently' spirited Oscars ever. Signs, for now, can only hint in one direction: to give you a hint, how does 20 Feet from Stardom's victory over The Act of Killing, After Tiller, Gideon's Army and The Square in Best Documentary look for Film Independent? Nominations right here.

Best Film

12 Years a Slave (Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt and Bill Pohlad)

Best Director

Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)

Best Male Lead

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Female Lead

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Supporting Male

Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Female

Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

Best Screenplay

John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)

THE 2013 CRITICS TALLY - 12 YEARS A SLAVE WINS BEST PICTURE

Would you like to know how deep my obsession for this thing runs? Kk, here it is: each year, I make a comprehensive tally of all of the major critic organisations' choices for the best of 2013. I assign each of their picks a score, with the ultimate score for a win in any category or on any list being 10 points. From there, based on a value I assigned to each individual group, I multiply these scores by as much as 10, thus weighting the overall results in favour of the more influential (slash intelligent) groups. And the critic awards season has now reached its close, and the results are below:


Best Picture

12 Years a Slave (Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Brad Pitt and Bill Pohlad)

American Hustle (Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon, Charles Roven, David O. Russell and Richard Suckle)

Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman)

Her (Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze and Vincent Landay)

Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen and Scott Rudin)

Best Director

Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Spike Jonze (Her)

Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)

David O. Russell (American Hustle)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Robert Redford (All Is Lost)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

Judi Dench (Philomena)

Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

Brie Larson (Short Term 12)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)

James Franco (Spring Breakers)

James Gandolfini (Enough Said)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)

Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

Scarlett Johansson (Her)
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

June Squibb (Nebraska)

Best Original Screenplay

Spike Jonze (Her)

Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Bob Nelson (Nebraska)

David O. Russell and Eric Singer (American Hustle)

Best Adapted Screenplay

John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)

Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope (Philomena)

Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater (Before Midnight)

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (The Spectacular Now)
Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Best Cinematography

Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity)

Sean Bobbitt (12 Years a Slave)

Roger Deakins (Prisoners)
Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska)

Best Editing
Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger (Gravity)
Alan Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers (American Hustle)
Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill (Rush)
Thelma Schoonmaker (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Joe Walker (12 Years a Slave)

Best Production Design
K. K. Barrett (Her)
Jess Gonchor (Inside Llewyn Davis)
Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy (The Great Gatsby)
Andy Nicholson (Gravity)
Adam Stockhausen (12 Years a Slave)

Best Music

Hans Zimmer (12 Years a Slave)

T-Bone Burnett (Inside Llewyn Davis)

William Butler and Owen Pallett (Her)
Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks)

Steven Price (Gravity)

Best Ensemble Cast

Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Louis C. K., Bradley Cooper, Paul Herman, Jack Huston, Jennifer Lawrence, Alessandro Nivola, Michael Pena, Jeremy Renner, Elisabeth Rohm and Shea Wigham (American Hustle)

Stephanie Beatriz, Alex Calloway, Kaitlyn Dever, Lydia du Veaux, John Gallagher, Kevin Hernandez, Brie Larson, Rami Malek, Diana-Maria Riva, Keith Stanfield, Frantz Turner and Melora Walters (Short Term 12)
Abigail Breslin, Chris Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Ewan McGregor, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Julia Roberts, Sam Shepard, Meryl Streep and Misty Upham (August: Osage County)
Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Paul Giamatti, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong'o, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Michael Kenneth Williams and Alfre Woodard (12 Years a Slave)
Bruce Dern, Missy Doty, Tim Driscoll, Will Forte, Rance Howard, Stacy Keach, Terry Kotrous, Angel McEwan, Bob Odenkirk, Devin Ratray, Melinda Simonsen, June Squibb and Mary Louise Wilson (Nebraska)

Best Animated Feature

Frozen (Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee)

The Croods (Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders)

Despicable Me 2 (Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud)

Monsters University (Dan Scanlon)

The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki)

Best Documentary

The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer)

20 Feet from Stardom (Morgan Neville)

Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperthwaite)

Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel)

Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley)

Best Foreign Language Film

Blue Is the Warmest Colour (Abdellatif Kechiche)

The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino)

The Hunt (Thomas Vinterberg)

The Past (Asghar Farhadi)
Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour)

THE COENS BITE BACK AT OSCAR WITH SUCCESS AT ICS

You can always rely on the International Cinephile Society. Sure, I had little to complain about when AMPAS announced its nominees for the best in film last year, but the ICS' even stronger picks have resulted in some equally strong choices for their awards. Only one of their outright winners in the top categories is even nominated for the Oscar: Alfonso Cuaron in Best Director for Gravity - a sign of the strength of Cuaron in that category is that Gravity is only the ICS' 7th favourite film of the year (only 7th?! It must be shit!). Preferred by voters were Inside Llewyn Davis, which wins four honours including Best Picture and places second for two further, and Blue Is the Warmest Colour, which also wins four and places just behind Llewyn in Picture. You can find their full nominations here.

Best Picture

1.        Inside Llewyn Davis

2.        Blue Is the Warmest Colour

3.        Her

4.        Frances Ha

5.        The Great Beauty

6.        Laurence Anyways

7.        Gravity

8.        Spring Breakers

9.        The Wolf of Wall Street

10.     12 Years a Slave

11.     Before Midnight

Best Director

1.        Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

2.        Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Best Actor

1.        Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)

 Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis)

2.        Joaquin Phoenix (Her)

Best Actress

1.        Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

2.        Juliette Binoche (Camille Claudel 1915)

Best Supporting Actor

1.        James Franco (Spring Breakers)

2.        Anton Adasinski (Faust)

Best Supporting Actress

1.        Léa Seydoux (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

2.        Scarlett Johansson (Her)

Best Original Screenplay

1.        Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

2.        Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Adapted Screenplay

1.     Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

2.        Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater (Before Midnight)

LONDON CRITICS CIRCLE FILM AWARDS - 12 YEARS A SLAVE AND ALFONSO CUARON WIN AGAIN

Barkhad Abdi's win for Best Supporting Actor at the London Critics' Circle Film Awards tonight was the only major surprise, as the critics' picks continued to garner awards. Once more, 12 Years a Slave wins a Best Picture award, while Gravity's Alfonso Cuaron wins a corresponding Best Director award. Nominations can be found here.

Film of the Year

12 Years a Slave

Director of the Year

Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Actor of the Year

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

Actress of the Year

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Supporting Actor of the Year

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Supporting Actress of the Year

Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

Screenwriter of the Year

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Technical Achievement of the Year

Tim Webber - visual effects (Gravity)

Documentary of the Year

The Act of Killing

Foreign Language Film of the Year

Blue Is the Warmest Colour

UK REGIONAL FILM CRITICS AWARDS GO TO CRITICS' FAVOURITES

No prizes for guessing which films have won the Richard Attenborough Film Awards from the UK Regional Film Critics! Usual suspects abound, meaning at the very least the second-favourites to win Oscars in March. Not gonna complain, like, not given the quality of these critics' choices. Word has it that Screen On Screen itself was narrowly beaten to the award for Blogger of the Year, but that it was beaten in a tie-break round, and only because of sympathy votes for Den of Geek, obvs.

Film of the Year

                12 Years a Slave

Director of the Year

                Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

Actor of the Year

                Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

Actress of the Year

                Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Screenwriters of the Year

                Spike Jonze (Her)

British Breakthrough of the Year

                George MacKay (How I Live Now / Sunshine on Leith)

British Film of the Year (Public Vote)

                Philomena

Visual Effects of the Year (Public Vote)

                Gravity

On-Screen Duo of the Year (Public Vote)

                Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)

Blogger of the Year (Public Vote)

                Den of Geek

GAY AND LESBIAN ENTERTAINMENT CRITICS ASSOCIATION CHOOSE DORIAN AWARD WINNERS

Nominations announced a week ago have morphed into award winners from the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association. 12 Years a Slave is this group's favourite film of the year, as with so many others', though the only film to win more than one award is Blue Is the Warmest Colour.

Film of the Year

12 Years a Slave

Film Performance of the Year - Actor

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Film Performance of the Year - Actress

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Documentary of the Year

Bridegroom

Foreign Language Film of the Year

Blue Is the Warmest Colour

LGBT Film of the Year

Blue Is the Warmest Colour

Unsung Film of the Year

Kill Your Darlings

Short Term 12

Visually Striking Film of the Year

Gravity

Campy Flick of the Year

I'm So Excited!

Wilde Artist of the Year

James Franco

Timeless Award

Lily Tomlin

INTERNET FILM CRITIC SOCIETY CHOOSES ITS BEST OF 2013

Hardly the most prominent critical organisation in existence, the Internet Film Critic Society announced its award winners for last year with very little fanfare. Rather than one Best Picture award, they have separated films out into specific genres. No film wins more than one sole accolade from the group.

Best Director

                Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Actor

                Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

Best Actress

                Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

Best Action Film

                Pacific Rim

Best Comedy

                The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Drama

                Before Midnight

Best Experimental Film

                Upstream Colour

Best Horror or Science Fiction

                You’re Next

Most Underrated Film

                Only God Forgives

Worst Film

                Grown Ups 2

12 YEARS A SLAVE WINS CRITICS CHOICE BEST PICTURE AWARD... JUST

No, alas, Lou Lumenick is not a member of the BFCA, so there'll be no leaking of vote tallies here! All the same, I'm fairly confident in predicting that 12 Years a Slave's Best Picture win from the Broadcast Film Critics Association tonight was by a pretty small margin, since Gravity took home Best Director and a further six trophies, to 12 Years' three in total. American Hustle won a couple of Comedy awards; strangely, the BFCA chose not to honour it in any main categories, despite its 13 nominations, though four wins in all isn't too shabby. Lupita Nyong'o won Best Supporting Actress, while Her asserted its dominance in the Original Screenplay race by adding a Critics Choice award to the Golden Globe it won on Sunday. Full list of nominations can be found here.

Best Picture

12 Years a Slave

Best Director

Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

Best Actor

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Supporting Actor

Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Actress

Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)

Best Original Screenplay

Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Adapted Screenplay

John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)

GAY AND LESBIAN ENTERTAINMENT CRITICS ASSOCIATION NOMINATIONS - THE DORIAN AWARDS

I've only posted a select few categories from GALECA's annual Dorian Award nominations, since the other categories do not relate at all to film. I'm delighted to see that at least one prominent critic organisation hasn't forgotten about how much they all loved Blue Is the Warmest Colour back in Cannes. They might all remember better had it not won the Palme. And another group, after the ICS, to show love for Laurence Anyways. So you can't win them all! They will present their awards on the 21st of January, which is less than a week away. And you can see their full list of nominees here.

Film of the Year

·          12 Years a Slave

·          American Hustle

·          Blue Is the Warmest Colour

·          Dallas Buyers Club

·          Gravity

·          Her

·          Laurence Anyways

Film Performance of the Year – Actor

·          Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)

·          Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

·          James Franco (Spring Breakers)

·          Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

·          Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Film Performance of the Year – Actress

·          Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

·          Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

·          Judi Dench (Philomena)

·          Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

·          Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)

GRAVITY WINS DENVER FILM CRITICS SOCIETY

Yeah, so once again it looks like my suspicions have been confirmed. The Denver Film Critics Society's accidental habit of posting their nominations in order of preference has proven fairly prescient, as most of their first place choices today took home their annual awards, save for a few cases. After Alfonso Cuaron's Golden Globe win yesterday, Gravity now wins four awards including Best Picture and Best Director, while 12 Years a Slave gets beaten to the one first place standing it held and walks off with nowt. American Hustle wins two awards to add to the three is won yesterday.

Best Picture

Gravity

Best Director

Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Best Actor

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Supporting Actor

Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Best Original Screenplay

David O. Russell and Eric Singer (American Hustle)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Best Score

Steven Price (Gravity)

Best Original Song

'Let It Go' (Frozen)

Best Animated Film

Frozen

Best Documentary

The Act of Killing

Best Foreign Language Film

The Grandmaster

Best Comedy

This Is the End

Best Science Fiction / Horror Film

Gravity

INTERNATIONAL CINEPHILE SOCIETY NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

The International Cinephile Society always pleases me with its choices. Aside from a peculiar predilection for Xavier Dolan's dour Laurence Anyways, there's plenty to smile about with their choices for the best of 2013. There's considerable support for Her and Blue Is the Warmest Colour, and some technical love shown for Leviathan and Blancanieves. And a wisely-chosen Best Picture Not Released in 2013 (we're taking that to mean the US, I expect, even though this is the International Cinephile Society) features several excellent films. Winners will be announced late in awards season, on the 23rd of February.

Best Picture

·          12 Years a Slave

·          Before Midnight

·          Blue Is the Warmest Colour

·          Frances Ha

·          Gravity

·          The Great Beauty

·          Her

·          Inside Llewyn Davis

·          Laurence Anyways

·          Spring Breakers

·          The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Director

·          Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

·          Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)

·          Xavier Dolan (Laurence Anyways)

·          Spike Jonze (Her)

·          Abdellatif Kechiche (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

·          Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty)

Best Actor

·          Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)

·          Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

·          Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis)

·          Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt)

·          Joaquin Phoenix (Her)

·          Melvil Poupaud (Laurence Anyways)

Best Actress

·          Juliette Binoche (Camille Claudel 1915)

·          Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

·          Suzanne Clément (Laurence Anyways)

·          Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

·          Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha)

Best Supporting Actor

·          Anton Adasinski (Faust)

·          Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)

·          James Franco (Spring Breakers)

·          Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

·          Matthew McConaughey (Mud)

Best Supporting Actress

·          Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

·          Scarlett Johansson (Her)

·          Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)

·          Kristin Scott Thomas (Only God Forgives)

·          Léa Seydoux (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

Best Original Screenplay

·          Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)

·          Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha)

·          Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

·          Xavier Dolan (Laurence Anyways)

·          Spike Jonze (Her)

Best Adapted Screenplay

·          Destin Cretton (Short Term 12)

·          Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater (Before Midnight)

·          Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix (Blue Is the Warmest Colour)

·          François Ozon (In the House)

·          John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)

12 YEARS DOMINATES NORTH CAROLINA FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS

Never mind all the shocks and surprises in the North Carolina Film Critics Association nominations. They went all out in favour of 12 Years a Slave - a common feature of critic groups of late, despite American Hustle's emergence post-Christmas as the Oscar frontrunner. Indeed, 12 Years wins all six of its possible wins from its seven nominations, thereby shutting Gravity, American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street out entirely.

Best Narrative Film

12 Years a Slave

Best Director

Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)

Best Actor

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Best Supporting Actor

Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)

Best Supporting Actress

Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)

Best Original Screenplay

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (Inside Llewyn Davis)

Best Adapted Screenplay

John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)

Best Animated Film

Monsters University

Best Documentary Film

Stories We Tell

Best Foreign Language Film

The Hunt

Tar Heel Award

The Way Way Back