Critics' Choice Awards Nominations

The 18th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards nominations were announced today. Awards will be presented on January 10, 2013 (the day Oscar nominations are announced), and be broadcast on the CW.

Herein, the nominees in select categories (reviews are linked to in the first mention). For the full list of nominees, visit criticschoice.com/movie-awards:

Best Picture:

• Argo
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Django Unchained
• Les Miserables
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• The Master
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Zero Dark Thirty

Expect to see this slate of films throughout the award season, with maybe The Dark Knight slipping in in the place of Life of Pi. Having not seen Django, Les Mis or Zero Dark Thirty yet (that is, of the nominated films I plan to see) I can't reasonably pick a favorite.

Best Actor:

• Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
• Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
• John Hawkes, The Sessions
• Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
• Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
• Denzel Washington, Flight

Tough category, even based just on the three performances (Cooper, Day-Lewis and Phoenix) I've seen. I was really impressed by Cooper, though.

Best Actress:

• Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
• Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
• Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
• Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
• Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Best Supporting Actor:

• Alan Arkin, Argo
• Javier Bardem, Skyfall
• Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
• Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
• Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike

Even though I haven't seen Skyfall or Magic Mike, I'm stunned to see these performances included while Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in Django Unchained (which I haven't seen yet) is excluded. What's going on, critics?

Best Supporting Actress:

• Amy Adams, The Master
• Judi Dench, Skyfall
• Ann Dowd, Compliance
• Sally Field, Lincoln
• Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
• Helen Hunt, The Sessions 

Pretty much every prognosticator has Hathaway winning the Oscar, but look for the critics to buck the trend and select someone else (maybe Adams?!?) as the winner of their award.

Best Young Actor:

• Elle Fanning, Ginger and Rose
• Kara Hayward, Moonrise Kingdom
• Tom Holland, The Impossible
• Logan Lerman, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
• Suraj Sharma, Life of Pi
• Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Acting Ensemble:

• Argo
• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
• Les Miserables
• Lincoln
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director:

• Ben Affleck, Argo
• Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
• Tom Hooper, Les Miserables
• Ang Lee, Life of Pi
• David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
• Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Affleck has been the critical darling this season, and rightly so. He's proving his directing chops for a few years and Argo cements him as one of today's elite directors.

Best Original Screenplay:

• Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
• John Gatins, Flight
• Rian Johnson, Looper
• Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
• Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom
• Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty

The great thing about this category is that all of these screenplays (except, I think, for Zero Dark Thirty and Flight) could only come from the minds that wrote them. Aaron Sorkin, masterful as he is, could not have written The Master. Excellent options, all.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• Chris Terrio, Argo
• Tony Kushner, Lincoln
• David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
• David Magee, Life of Pi
• Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I want to root for Kushner because he's a playwright, but Terrio's Argo was so incredible.

Best Action Movie:

• The Avengers
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Looper
• Skyfall

Even though I'm not an action movie buff, I'm glad they separate out this genre so that films like Looper can be recognized.

Best Actor in an Action Movie:

• Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Rises
• Daniel Craig, Skyfall
• Robert Downey, Jr., The Avengers
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Looper
• Jake Gyllenhaal, End of Watch

Best Actress in an Action Movie:

• Emily Blunt, Looper
• Gina Carano, Haywire
• Judi Dench, Skyfall
• Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises
• Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games

I think it says something about the state of "action movies" when actors in those movies are accomplished, award winning (or deservedly award-nominated) actors, like Dench, Bale (above), Hathaway, Lawrence, et al.

Best Comedy:

• Bernie
• Silver Linings Playbook
• Ted
• This is 40
• 21 Jump Street

My vote's for Ted! Hands down, the funniest movie of the year - and maybe even the funniest movie of the last several years.



Best Actor in a Comedy:

• Jack Black, Bernie
• Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook 
• Paul Rudd, This is 40
• Channing Tatum, 21 Jump Street
• Mark Wahlberg, Ted

If Channing Tatum wins one more thing this year I'm going to pull my hair out. Hopefully, the critics will choose someone else, like Wahlberg and his commitment to that litany of trashy-girls' names.

Best Actress in a Comedy:

• Mila Kunis, Ted
• Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
• Shirley MacLaine, Bernie
• Leslie Mann, This is 40
• Rebel Wilson, Pitch Perfect

Woohoo for funny ladies!

Best Song:

• "For You," Actor of Valor, performed by Keith Urban, written by Monty Powell and Keith Urban
• "Skyfall," Skyfall, performed by Adele, written by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
• "Still Alive," Paul Williams Still Alive, performed and written by Paul Williams
• "Suddenly," Les Miserables, performed by Hugh Jackman, written by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer
• "Learn Me Right," Brave, performed and written by Mumford and Sons

This happened with the Madonna Evita movie, too: they wrote a new song so the film could compete in the Best Song category.


Best Score:

• Alexandre Desplat, Argo
• Mychael Danna, Life of Pi
• John Williams, Lincoln
• Jonny Greenwood, The Master
• Alexandre Desplat, Moonrise Kingdom

I thought Greenwood's score for The Master was incredible.

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And there you have it: the 18th annual Critics' Choice Awards nominations. Lincoln leads the pack with a record-setting 13 nominations. Tune in to the CW on January 10, 2013, to see who wins!