"Mad Max" Leads the Critics Choice Award Nominations

Hot off of its impressive streak with the LA critics and the Golden Globes, "Mad Max" was nominated for an astounding 13 nominations. A film hasn't dominated the nominations this hard since "Black Swan" won 12 nominations back in 2010.

Other films with a strong showing were "Carol" and "The Martian" (9), while there was definitely some substantial support for "Room," "Spotlight" and "Bridge of Spies." Both Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren nabbed nominations for "Tumbo," continuing off of their surprise success with both the SAGS and Globes last week. It would seem as if they're on track to repeat with Oscar, though I personally think the Academy will ultimately pass on them.

See the full list of nominations below. The award will air on January 17.

Second Round of Critics' Awards: Consensus Forming (Kind Of)

The Boston, Los Angeles and New York Online critics all revealed the winners of their awards today. This follows the announcements from the National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle and the Gotham Awards.

There's no one film that's dominating the Best Picture prizes in the way that "Boyhood" did last year, but it's worth noting that "Carol" cleaned up with the NYFCC, and "Mad Max" is finding wide support despite being a summer film. If there's anything these critics prizes are telling us, it's that there's a lot of love for a lot of different films. It's still anyone's game to win at this point.

Take a look at the winners from all three groups below.

First Round of Industry & Critics' Awards: What Do They Tell Us?

It's that time of the year. After consistent guessing and predicting, we are finally starting to get a look at what films truly have the heat going into the Oscar race... at least for right now.

With the Independent Spirit Awards announcing their nominees last week, the Gotham Awards awarding their winners a few days ago, and now announcements from The National Board of Review and The New York Film Critics Circle, things are starting to fall in place... well sort of.

To be fair, these precursors do not decide the Oscars. If you remember back in 2010 when "The Social Network" won every critics award for Best Picture there was, and then went on to lose the Producer's Guild, SAG Ensemble Award and the Oscar, that fact is all too clear in your mind. But again, why these awards are important is because they show what films have heat and what films don't. They can sometimes translate into Oscar success ("The Artist" in 2011, for example) but in a mixed bag of a year like this one, where there is no clear consensus, it's a total toss up.

So, let's examine the first round of winners, shall we?

LA, Boston and New York Online Critics Announce Winners

Good news for former outside looking in Best Actress contender Marion Cotillard! More critics stamped their seal of approval for her performances in "The Immigrant" and "Two Days One Night". With exposure such as this it's hard to imagine her not being named amongst the final 5. If she's nominated by SAG and/or the Globes, she's in.

Take a look below at who else cleaned up with the critics today.

New York Film Critics Circle Winners

The first major awards voting body has selected their winners.

Click below to see who took home the first honors in film of the season and what it means for the race.

London Film Critics Circle Winners

Film of the Year:

• 12 Years A Slave

British Film of the Year:

• The Selfish Giant

Foreign Language Film of the Year:

• Blue Is the Warmest Color

Documentary of the Year:

• The Act of Killing

Director of the Year:

• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Denver Film Critics Anoint Gravity

Some last minute "winning" traction after a big win with the PGA makes for a good Oscar campaign.


Best Picture: 

• Gravity

Best Director:

• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Best Actor:

• Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress:

• Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Critic's Choice Awards: 12 Years A Slave Wins Best Picture

After a victory at the Oscars, 12 Years A Slave wins another Best Picture honor.

The fight for Best Picture isn't over yet; 12 Years A Slave is putting up a good fight against American Hustle, with Gravity hanging in the wings. 

American Hustle won another Comedy Best Picture award, but unlike the Globes, the Broadcast Film Critics have a separate award entirely for Best Picture of the year, where American Hustle was mentioned. However, Steve McQueen's epic won, giving it some much needed gas in its Oscar campaign tank.

American Hustle did win Best Ensemble however, leaving it in a good position to win the same award at the SAG awards on Saturday. 

Gravity won a bunch of technical honors, an actress award for Sandra Bullock and another award for Alfonso Cuaron. There's clear support for all 3 of these films, and it will be interesting to see how the guilds decide what their choices are.

Iowa Film Critics Love 12 Years A Slave

Michael Fassbender and Sarah Paulson as the poisonous Master and Mistress Epps in 12 Years A Slave.

Best Picture:

• 12 Years A Slave (runners-up: Nebraska & American Hustle)

Best Director:

• Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave (runners-up: David O. Russell, American Hustle; Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity)

Best Actor: 

• Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave (runners-up: Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis; Bruce Dern, Nebraska)

Best Actress:

• Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine (runners-up: Amy Adams, American Hustle; Sandra Bullock, Gravity)

Best Supporting Actor:

• Michael Fassbender, 12 Years A Slave (runners-up: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips; Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club)

Best Supporting Actress:

• Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years A Slave (runners-up: June Squibb, Nebraska; Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle)

Best Documentary:

• 20 Feet From Stardom (runners-up: Black Fish & Stories We Tell)

Best Animated Feature:

• Frozen (runners-up: The Wind Rises & Despicable Me 2)

Vancover Film Critics Go For 12 Years A Slave & Cuaron

Best Film:

• 12 Years A Slave

Best Director:

• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Best Actor:

• Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Actress:

• Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

National Society of Film Critics End the Critics Portion of Awards Season; Inside Llewyn Davis gets a Boost

After missing out on PGA and WGA love, the final (major) critics group threw their weight behind the Coen's film in a big way. Inside Llewyn Davis won Picture, Director, Actor and Cinematography honors. Not that this will have huge influence on the AMPAS, but it's not a bad laurel to have.

In the other races, Cate Blanchett reigned supreme over Adele Exarchopoulos after sharing the LAFCA win with her last month; though it's good she of all people was Blanchett's fiercest competitor, this award could have really given a boost to Exarchopoulos' campaign; it's becoming likely she will be left out after a brief glimmer of hope after the wave of critics. Usual winner Jared Leto was beaten by Spring Breakers' James Franco, though his Oscar hopes are quite slim; this was the first major award he won (he shared the LAFCA win with Leto).

Full list of winners (complete with # of votes) below, check them out.

Central Ohio Film Critics Anoint Gravity, Adele Exarchopoulos, James Franco & More

Best Picture: 

• Gravity

Best Director:

• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Best Actor:

• Chiwetel Ejifor, 12 Years A Slave

Best Actress:

• Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color

Central Ohio Film Critics Association

Amy Adams gets some recognition outside of the Globes for her amazing work in American Hustle. 

Best Film:

• American Hustle
• Before Midnight
• Frances Ha
• Gravity
• Her
• Inside Llewyn Davis 
• Nebraska
• 12 Years A Slave
• Upstream Color
• The Wolf of Wall Street

12 Years A Slave Rakes in the Most Nominations with Vancouver Critics

After being left out of the Gothams, NYFCC & LAFCA, the smaller critics groups have repositioned the Steve McQueen's tale of slavery back on top.

Best Picture:

• 12 Years A Slave
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Director:

• Joel & Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis
• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave 

Nevada Critics Crown Meryl Streep with Her First Win of the Season

Though she's won key nominations from SAG & the Globes, Streep has received virtually zero support from any of the precursor awards.

Though they certainly do not carry the same weight of the LAFCA, NYFCC, NYFCO, or BFC, The Nevada critics throwing their weight behind Streep's seemingly divisive performance doesn't hurt her (fading) presence in the Best Actress race. With outsiders like Amy Adams and Adele Exarchopoulos looking to snag her spot, any added momentum is useful, no matter how small the group adding it happens to be.

See the full list of winners below.

Utah Critics Association Champion Adele Exarchopoulos & Scarlett Johansson

Best Picture:

1. Gravity
2. 12 Years A Slave

Best Director:

1. Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
2. Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave

Best Actor:

1. Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave
2. Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Actress:

1. Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color
2. Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine & Sandra Bullock, Gravity

Las Vegas Film Critics Prefer Emma Thompson over Cate Blanchett

Best Picture:

• 12 Years A Slave

Best Director:

• Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave

Best Actor:

• Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress:

• Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks

Toronto Film Critics choose Inside Llewyn Davis and Oscar Isaac

Though it may not amount to a lot in the end, it is a nice change of pace from the battle between 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, American Hustle and Her that a group could notice Inside Llewyn Davis and Oscar Isaac, 2 very deserving contenders in their respective categories.

This marks the first major win for the little underdog since the surprising win at the Gotham awards, which proves there is a lot of love for the Coen Bros. latest.

In fact, surprisingly enough, the frontrunner (12 Years A Slave) was ignored completely in every category.

See the full list of winners below.

Phoenix Film Critics Society Winners

Full list of nominees here, winners below

Austin Film Critics Association Awards

Best Film:

• Her, Spike Jonze

Best Director:

• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Best Actor:

• Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave

Best Actress:

• Brie Larson, Short Term 12

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

Best Cinematography:

• Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity

Best Score:

• Arcade Fire, Her

Best Foreign Language Film:

• Blue Is the Warmest Color

Best Documentary:

• The Act of Killing

Best Animated Film:

• Frozen

Best First Film:

• Fruitvale Station, Ryan Coogler

Breakthrough Artist:

• Brie Larson, Short Term 12

Best Austin Film:

• Before Midnight

Special Honorary Award: Scarlett Johanson for her outstanding voice performance in Her