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?

The National Board of Review Puts "A Most Violent Year" on the Map

After yesterday's decision by the Gotham Awards and the New York Film Critics, the National Board of Review has named "A Most Violent Year" the best film of 2014, and gave it 2 other major awards.

Though far from being a huge indicator of Oscar success, this helps the film that was definitely in need of a push (that December 31st release date, and having a not so major studio behind it)

"Birdman" continued its success after the Gotham awards with 2 notices here, while Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" also showed strength.

It's still seriously wide open race at this point.

See the full list of winners below.

The National Board of Review Names Spike Jonze's "Her" as the Best Film of the Year

In a complete turn around from yesterday's "American Hustle"-centric wins at the NYFCC, the NBR answered by giving both of their top prizes to Spike Jonze's film about a man (Jaoquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his computer operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). See the complete list of winners below:

Upcoming awards, Wolf of Wall Street Screens! & More

Happy December! I've been busy celebrating Thanksgiving and mentally preparing myself for the upcoming final exams, just as things are really starting to heat up.

• Tuesday December 3rd marks precursor season; the NYFCC (New York Film Critics Circle) will announce their winners. They are the first to do so, followed by the National Board of Review, and then by the LAFCA (Los Angeles Film Critics Association), followed by what seems like a million more critics organizations. Awards Daily's Sasha Stone gives insight and makes her predictions and analyzes both the NYFCC and National Board of Review awards (read here).  

• During the onslaught of seemingly endless critics awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) will announce their nominees on December 11th, and the next day the Golden Globes will announce their choice. The SAG nominees usually reflect more of what the impending Oscar nominations will look like considering the voting body is made up of actors (the largest voting body in the Academy coincidentally), so they're usually a key factor in deciding upon Oscar predictions. Take a look at this year's contenders (and the pretenders) for the Best Ensemble award here). 

• There really isn't too much time before the pool of contenders starts slimming down and the real nominees start to build upon their respective momentum. The last real surprise of the season seems to be Martin Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street, which hasn't been officially screened yet, but did play for a small group of guild members over the weekend, to very positive reactions, particularly in the case of Jonah Hill who seems to be a spoiler for the Best Supporting Actor race (you can read a full write up from incontention's Kris Tapley here). 

• It has also been announced that David O'Russell's starry American Hustle is officially being campaigned as a "Comedy" for the Golden Globes. 
• And finally, Sight and Sound get the "End of the year list" rolling by announcing their winners of the Best Films of 2013 poll