The State of the Oscar race: regional critics prizes (1st ROUND)

The first precursor awards have hit the Oscar race and there are as many good surprises as some shocking/unexpected picks, like every year. On this post we will just present the awards noms/wins, only with a brief analisys about each one of them.

Have a look:

• NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE (NYFCC)

The NYFCC Awards are the oldest critics prize and maybe the most prestigious one in the US and worldwide, so winning here can give a big Oscar boost to any contender. Although the NYFCC Award are quite inconsistent in terms of translation to the Oscar nominations morning, winning here puts everyone on the map. So, it was quite surprising seeing Rajamouli winning Best Director here for RRR - but it started a "trend" at critics prizes for sure. I think Keke Palmer's win is quite an inspiring and out-of-the-box pick, but I don't think it will translate to real Oscar chances, unlike all the other acting winners here. TÁR also got a big boost - it sure is a tailor-made movie for critics' taste and it deserves its degree of prestige (although I had some issues with the movie that I believe the general audiences might also feel).

BEST FILM: TÁR

BEST DIRECTOR: S.S. Rajamouli, RRR

BEST ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, TÁR

BEST ACTOR: Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin and After Yang

BEST SCREENPLAY: Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM: EO, Jerzy Skolimowski

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Top Gun: Maverick, Claudio Miranda

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Keke Palmer, Nope

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST NON-FICTION FEATURE: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

BEST FIRST FILM: Aftersun

• LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION (LAFCA)

A big boost for Everything Everywhere All At Once (A24) and Dolly De Leon (Triangle of Sadness, NEON) from one of the "big three" critics organizations in the US. The LAFCA has always had a tendency for foreign directors/actors/actresses, but if you exclude S.S. Rajamouli for RRR (who also got a big boost here after a surprising NYFCC win), the rest of the above the line winners are much more conventional than the previous years'.

Here are the LAFCA winners:

FILM [TIE]: Everything Everywhere All At Once & TÁR

DIRECTOR: Todd Field, TÁR  / runner up: S.S. Rajamouli, RRR

LEAD PERFORMER: Cate Blanchett, TÁR and Bill Nighy, Living / runners up: Danielle Deadwyler, Till and Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once

SUPPORTING PERFORMER: Dolly De Leon, Triangle of Sadness and Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once / runners up: Jessie Buckley, Women Talking and Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway

SCREENPLAY: Todd Field, TÁR  / runner up: Martin McDonagh, Banshees of Inisherin

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Michal Dymek, EO / runner up: Hoyte Van Hoytema, Nope

EDITING: Blair McClendon, Aftersun / runner up: Monika Willi, TÁR

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Dylan Cole & Ben Procter, Avatar The Way of Water / runner up: Jason Kisvarday, Everything Everywhere All At Once

ORIGINAL SCORE: M.M. Keeravani, RRR / runner up: Pawel Mykietyn, EO

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: EO (Poland) / runner up: Saint Omer (France)

ANIMATED FEATURE: Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio / runner up: Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed / runner up: Fire of Love

NEW GENERATION: Davy Chou & Park Ji-Min, Return to Seoul 

EXPERIMENTAL FILM: De Humani Corporis Fabrica

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Claire Denis 

• BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS (BSFC)

A breath of fresh air in most categories. First since they picked a foreign-language film for Best Film (Return to Seoul), the BSFC created the English Language Film, which went for The Banshees of Inisherin. Nice to see Farrell also got recognition for After Yang and that After Yang also took home Adapted Screenplay. Inspired choices in Cinematography, Editing and, specially Ensemble with both Women Talking and Jackass Forever tied for the prize.

FILM: Return to Seoul

ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: The Banshees of Inisherin

DIRECTOR: Todd Field, TÁR

ACTRESS: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once

ACTOR: Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin and After Yang

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once

ENSEMBLE: [TIE] Women Talking & Jackass Forever

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Kogonada, After Yang

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Earl Rockett, Pearl and X

EDITING: [TIE] Blair McClendon, Aftersun & Kim Sang-bum, Decision to Leave 

ORIGINAL SCORE: M.M. Keeravani, RRR  / runner up: Hildur Guðnadóttir, Women Talking 

ANIMATED FEATURE: Turning Red

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Laura Poitras, All the Beauty of the Bloodshed

NEW FILMMAKER: Charlotte Wells, Aftersun

• CHICAGO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION (CFCA)

The nominations I most cheerish here? Decision to Leave for Best Picture and Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave) for Best Director. In fact, the Best Director lineup is a marvelous one in my opinion: The Daniels, Todd Field, Park Chan-wook, Sarah Polley and S.S. Rajamouli... I would exchange one for Steven Spielberg and I would have my dream Oscar lineup here. Also, good notices for Aftersun, which scores 6 nominations overall, including Best Picture, Actor and Original Screenplay. The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At Once dominate here too.

BEST PICTURE

1. Aftersun
2. The Banshees Of Inisherin
3. Decision to Leave
4. Everything Everywhere All At Once
5. TÁR

BEST DIRECTOR

1. Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All At Once
2. Todd Field, TÁR
3. Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave
4. Sarah Polley, Women Talking
5. S.S. Rajamouli, RRR

BEST ACTRESS

1. Cate Blanchett, TÁR
2. Ana de Armas, Blonde
3. Mia Goth, Pearl
4. Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
5. Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once

BEST ACTOR

1. Austin Butler, Elvis
2. Colin Farrell, The Banshees Of Inisherin
3. Brendan Fraser, The Whale
4. Paul Mescal, Aftersun
5. Bill Nighy, Living

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Hong Chau, The Whale
2. Kerry Condon, The Banshees Of Inisherin
3. Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once
4. Janelle Monae, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
5. Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees Of Inisherin
2. Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway
3. Barry Keoghan, The Banshees Of Inisherin
4. Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once
5. Mark Rylance, Bones and All

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood
2. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
3. Mad God
4. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
5. Turning Red

BEST DOCUMENTARY

1. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
2. Bad Axe
3. Descendant
4. Fire of Love
5. Moonage Daydream

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1. Bardo, False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths
2. Close
3. Decision to Leave
4. Happening
5. RRR
6. Saint Omer

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1. After Yang, Kogonada
2. Bones and All, David Kajganich
3. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,  Rian Johnson
4. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Guillermo del Toro & Patrick McHale
5. Women Talking, Sarah Polley

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1. Aftersun, Charlotte Wells
2. The Banshees Of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh
3. Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Daniels
4. The Fabelmans, Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg
5. TÁR, Todd Field

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1. Babylon, Linus Sandgren
2. Bardo, False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths, Darius Khondji
3. Decision to Leave, Kim Ji-Yong
4. Everything Everywhere All At Once, Larkin Seiple
5. Top Gun: Maverick, Claudio Miranda

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1. Babylon, Justin Hurwitz
2. The Banshees Of Inisherin, Carter Burwell
3. The Batman, Michael Giacchino
4. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Alexandre Desplat
5. RRR, M.M. Kreem

BEST ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN

1. After Yang
2. Avatar: The Way Of The Water
3. Babylon
4. Everything Everywhere All At Once
5. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1. Babylon, Mary Zophres
2. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ruth E. Carter
3. Corsage, Monika Buttinger
4. Everything Everywhere All At Once, Shirley Kurata
5. The Northman, Linda Muir

BEST EDITING

1. Aftersun, Blair McClendon
2. Babylon, Tom Cross
3. Decision to Leave, Kim Sang-beom
4. Everything Everywhere All At Once, Paul Rogers
5. TÁR, Monika Willi

BEST USE OF VISUAL EFFECTS

1. Avatar: The Way Of The Water
2. Everything Everywhere All At Once
3. Nope
4. RRR
5. Top Gun: Maverick

MILOS STEHLIK AWARD FOR BREAKTHROUGH FILMMAKER

1. Alice Diop, Saint Omer
2. Audrey Diwan, Happening
3. John Patton Ford, Emily the Criminal
4. Jane Schoenbrun, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
5. Charlotte Wells, Aftersun

MOST PROMISING PERFORMER

1. Austin Butler, Elvis
2. Frankie Corio, Aftersun
3. Danielle Deadwyler, Till
4. Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once
5. Amber Midthunder, Prey

• NEW YORK FILM CRITICS ONLINE (NYFCO)

Another critics association that picked The Banshees of Inisherin. This movie seems unstoppable with film critics and so is Colin Farrell who has been sweeping the Best Actor category until now (something I predicted would be for Brendan Fraser, The Whale). And EO is taking another prize home - maybe I underestimated this film in my previous predictions, but I really didn't see it coming. And it's nice to see Hong Chau getting some gold for her work. With the exception of The Banshees of Inisherin, which is listed first in the Film category because it was selected as the winner, the rest of the shorlisted film are in alphabetical order (I put the number for organization purposes only).

FILM: 

1. The Banshees of Inisherin - WINNER
2. Avatar: The Way of Water
3. Babylon
4. Everything Everywhere All At Once
5. The Fabelmans
6. RRR
7. She Said
8. Tár
9. Top Gun Maverick
10. Women Talking

DIRECTOR: [TIE] The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once & Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

ACTRESS: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once

ACTOR: Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Hong Chau, The Whale / runners up: Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin and Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Brendan Gleeson, Banshees of Inisherin  

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER: Austin Butler, Elvis

ENSEMBLE: Glass Onion / runners up: Everything Everywhere All at Once & Women Talking

SCREENPLAY: Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Hoyte Van Hoytema, Nope / runner up: Russell Carpenter, Avatar: The Way of Water

USE OF MUSIC: Elvis

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: EO (Poland)

ANIMATED FEATURE: Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: All The Beauty and the Bloodshed / runner up: Bad Axe

DEBUT DIRECTOR: Charlotte Wells, Aftersun

• LAS VEGAS FILM CRITICS SOCIETY (the Sierra Awards)

EEAAO everywhere here, but I am very intrigued by the critical support Glass Onion has been receiving: here it took home prizes for Supporting Actress (Janelle Monae), Ensemble and Comedy Film. And a note about All Quiet On the Western Front winning Foreign Language Film here - an exceptional movie that could easily get recognition across the board if Netflix had given it the spotlight it deserved.

FILM: Everything Everywhere All At Once

DIRECTOR: The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once 

ACTRESS: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once

ACTOR: Brendan Fraser, The Whale

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Janelle Monae, Glass Onion

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once

MALE YOUTH PERFORMANCE: Gabriel LaBelle, The Fabelmans

FEMALE YOUTH PERFORMANCE: Frankie Corio, Aftersun

ENSEMBLE: Glass Onion

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: David Kajganich, Bones and All 

BREAKOUT FILMMAKER: Charlotte Wells, Aftersun

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Top Gun: Maverick, Claudio Miranda

ART DIRECTION: Babylon, Florencia Martin & Anthony Carlino

COSTUME DESIGN: Elvis, Catherine Martin

EDITING: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Paul Rogers

VISUAL EFFECTS: Avatar: The Way of Water

ORIGINAL SCORE: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Alexandre Desplat

ORIGINAL SONG: "Vegas", Elvis

ACTION FILM: Top Gun: Maverick

COMEDY FILM: Glass Onion

SCI-FI OR HORROR FILM: Everything Everywhere All At Once

FAMILY FILM: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) 

ANIMATED FEATURE: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Bad Axe

• WASHINGTON DC AREA FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION (WAFCA)

What's really fun about WAFCA are its "different categories" like Voice Performance, Motion-Capture Performance or the higher number of "technical/artisan" awards here. Still, another score for Everything Everywhere All At Once and it is nice to see Decision to Leave winning in the Foreign Language Film department instead of the now "usual" EO and RRR.

FILM: Everything Everywhere All At Once

DIRECTOR: The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once 

ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, TÁR

ACTOR: Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once

YOUTH PERFORMANCE: Gabriel Labelle, The Fabelmans

VOICE PERFORMANCE: Jenny Slate, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

MOTION-CAPTURE PERFORMANCE: Zoe Saldana, Avatar: The Way of Water

ENSEMBLE: Glass Onion

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Rian Johnson, Glass Onion

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Hannah Beachler, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

EDITING: Eddie Hamilton, Top Gun: Maverick

ORIGINAL SCORE: Michael Giacchino, The Batman

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Decision to Leave (South Korea) 

ANIMATED FEATURE: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Good Night Oppy

• SOUTHEASTERN FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION (SEFCA)

Another critics win for Everything Everywhere All At Once and a quite interesting TOP 10 which includes The Batman. SEFCA clearly loved The Fabelmans, which took 3 different runner-up mentions. Glad for Sarah Polley's win here for Adapted Screenplay.

With the exception of Everything Everywhere All At Once, which is listed first in the Film category because it was selected as the winner, the rest of the shorlisted film are in alphabetical order (I put the number for organization purposes only).

FILM

1. Everything Everywhere All At Once - WINNER
2. The Banshees of Inisherin
3. The Fabelmans
4. TÁR
5. Top Gun: Maverick
6. RRR
7. Glass Onion
8. Women Talking
9. Nope
10. The Batman

DIRECTOR: The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once / runner up: Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans

ACTRESS: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once / runner up: Cate Blanchett, TÁR

ACTOR: Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin / runner up: Brendan Fraser, The Whale

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin / runner up: Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once / runner up: Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin

ENSEMBLE: Glass Onion / runner up: Women Talking

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once / runner up: Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Sarah Polley, Women Talking / runner up: Rian Johnson, Glass Onion

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick / runner up: Janusz Kaminski, The Fabelmans

ORIGINAL SCORE: Michael Giacchino, The Batman / runner up: John Williams, The Fabelmans

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: RRR (India) / runner up: Decision to Leave (South Korea)

ANIMATED FEATURE: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio / runner up: Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Fire of Love / runner up: Good Night Oppy

GENE WYATT AWARD: Elvis / runner up: Till

• ATLANTA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE

Nothing new here. EEAAO scores big again and so do The Banshees of Inisherin and Glass Onion. I had doubts about The Daniels' Best Director Oscar chances, but I start feeling them more and more locked for an Academy Award nomination in that category.

FILM

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once - WINNER                  
2. The Fabelmans  
3. The Banshees of Inisherin                                                
4. TÁR                                        
5. RRR                                                              
6. Top Gun: Maverick                                        
7. Decision to Leave                                           
8. Women Talking                                              
9. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery               
10. Nope                                                              

BEST LEAD ACTOR: Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin

BEST LEAD ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, TÁR                   

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Janelle Monae, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery 

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

BEST DIRECTOR: The Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SCREENPLAY: Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin                       

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Fire of Love                                      

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: RRR (India)                  

BEST ANIMATED FILM: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio   

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick        

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Michael Giacchino, The Batman         

BEST STUNT WORK: Top Gun: Maverick                                      

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER: Austin Butler, Elvis                   

BEST FIRST FEATURE FILM: Charlotte Wells,  Aftersun