The Awards Blog #1: Early Announcements in 2013
The highlights of the film awards season are the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards and the Golden Globe Awards in January, the BAFTA Awards in February, and culminating with the Oscars in March. However, the season has already kicked off, with several critics’ choice awards having already been announced. In today’s post, we will take a look at the results of the respective critics’ association awards of Houston, New York, San Diego, Los Angeles and Toronto, as well as the National Board of Review Awards, all of which are good early barometers for the bigger ceremonies in 2014.
In all cases, the nominees were essentially the same. 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, Her and American Hustle were all up for Best Picture at these awards, with Blue is the Warmest Colour also in the running for the handful which did not have a separate Best Foreign Picture category. 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle also dominated the acting nominations, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence picking up nominations in all of the awards, along with Blue Jasmine’s Cate Blanchett and Dallas Buyer Club’s Jared Leto. Gravity picked up the most technical nominations for the shows that had technical categories, while Disney’s Frozen and Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises were the joint favourites in the Animated Feature category.
The winners*, however, were less uniform. In Houston, 12 Years a Slave picked up Best Picture, Best Actor (Ejiofor), Best Supporting Actress (Nyong’o) and Best Screenplay. Gravity won for Best Director (Alfonso Cuaron) and Best Actress (Sandra Bullock). The Supporting Actor trophy went to Jared Leto. The New York Film Critics Circle chose a different set to recognise however; Best Picture was won by American Hustle, which also won for Best Supporting Actress (Lawrence) and Best Screenplay. Steve McQueen won Best Director for 12 Years a Slave, Robert Redford won Best Actor for All is Lost, and Cate Blanchett won Best Actress. The only common winner was Jared Leto for Best Supporting Actor.
Over in San Diego, Leto continued to dominate, alongside Blancett’s second win for Best Actress. Best Actor, however, went to Oscar Isaacs for Inside Llewyn Davis and Best Supporting Actress saw a surprise win for Shailene Woodley for The Spectacular Now. Alfonso Cuaron won for Best Director, while Her won for Best Picture. Multiple categories in the Los Angeles Critics Association Awards ended in ties. Gravity and Her won Best Picture, Cate Blanchett and Blue is the Warmest Colour’s Adele Exarchopolous won Best Actress, and Jared Leto and Spring Breakers’ James Franco won Best Supporting Actor. Bruce Dern won Best Actor for Nebraska, repeating his earlier win at Cannes, while Lupita Nyong’o won Best Supporting Actress and Her picked up the Best Screenplay win.
The Toronto Film Critics Association results saw multiple wins for Inside Llewyn Davis, with the film picking up Best Picture and Best Actor (Isaacs),. Cate Blanchett and Jared Leto cemented their positions as Oscar favourites by picking up Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor. Jennifer Lawrence returned to the winners’ circle by picking up the Best Supporting Actress trophy. Best Director went to Cuaron for Gravity. Her won for Best Screenplay. Finally, the National Board of Review Awards were also announced, with several more different winners. Best Film and Director went to Her. Bruce Dern won Best Actor and Emma Thompson won Best Actress for Saving Mr. Banks. Nebraska’s Will Forte ended Jared Leto’s perfect record in the Best Supporting Actor category while former Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer took home the Best Supporting Actress trophy for Fruitvale Station. This was also the first major awards ceremony of the calendar to give two awards for Screenplay, with Inside Llewyn Davis winning for Original and The Wolf of Wall Street winning for Adapted.
Awards season is only just beginning, and the results at the bigger awards might be different again, especially with such a strong year of films in contention. However, it is clear that some films and performances are definitely favourites (notable Blanchett and Leto), and with most of these winners having already been recognised with nominations by SAG and the Golden Globes, it would not be too surprising to see them pick up some of the more well-known trophies too.
*Selected categories only; check respective websites for further details.
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