Continuing its romp through the critics kudos this awards season Fox Searchlight’s Birdman drew a whopping 13 nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s 20th Annual Critics Choice Movie Awards. In fact it’s a big day for Fox in general as Searchlight’s March release, The Grand Budapest Hotel was remembered to the tune of 11 nominations, while big Fox scored 6 nominations with Gone Girl . All three
compete for Best Picture, Director , Screenplay and significant acting nods. This is a big boost in particular for Budapest , coming on the heels of its SAG nod for Outstanding Cast as well as four key Golden Globe nominations. 
Usually films opening as early as March are largely forgotten when it comes to Best Picture attention but Budapest could be a rare exception in recent years if this triumph for the Wes Anderson comedy is repeated at the Oscars. The last film that opened as early as March , or even April, and went on to a Best Picture Oscar nomination was Erin Brockovich in 2000.
The rest of the nominees for Picture include the other critics darling of the season so far, IFC’s Boyhood with 8 nominations, The Imitation Game with 6 , the surging Nightcrawler, Selma, The Theory Of Everything, Whiplash and 
Unbroken . The latter got 4 key nominations including Director for 
Angelina Jolie , a rebound of sorts after the upcoming Christmas Day release was completely, and shockingly , shut out in last week’s Golden Globe nominations. This should brighten spirits at Universal’s Hollywood premiere tonight which Jolie will sadly miss due to a well-publicized case of Chicken Pox. And it should steal some of the star power thunder for the CCMAs from the normally glitzy Globes which this year bypassed the opportunity to nominate some of the bigger names.
Two other major studio war films with big stars, American Sniper and Fury, that were also totally shut out by the Globes also got a small rebound from the Broadcast Critics with nominations for the lesser Best Action Movie and Action Actor prize for Bradley Cooper and Brad Pitt respectively. But that’s probably small comfort for a couple of movies 
that had their sights set much higher and couldn’t break into the categories that count. And though they got significant below the line mentions two other biggies, Paramount and Warner Bros’ Interstellar and Disney’s Into The Woods also failed to make the Best Picture list (though Woods grabbed a nod for Meryl Streep in Support as well as for its sterling ensemble), as did Foxcatcher, which on the heels of its Globe Best Picture- Drama nod , received nothing more from the CCMAs than Supporting Actor for Mark Ruffalo and a Makeup nomination (for Steve Carell’s nose no doubt, if not the deserving Carell himself).
In the lead acting races the contenders are pretty much the same ones we have seen from SAG and the Globes. Only Marion Cotillard’s performance in Belgium’s Two Days, One Night was a CCMA Best Actress nomination 
not showing up on the other lists, although she has won several other critics group awards this season including from the New York Film Critics. Previous underdogs, Jennifer Aniston in Cake and Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler repeated their SAG and Globes success with nods here too making both very formidable bets , as I have suspected since seeing their respective films in Toronto in early September, to show up on Oscar’s radar too. One small surprise in the Best Actor category where front runners Eddie
Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Keaton will face off again, is the inclusion of Budapest’s Ralph Fiennes over Carell. Fiennes has been considered a bit of a long shot this season but he’s gaining momentum after his Globe nod in the Musical /Comedy Actor category and an ensemble nod from SAG. He has two additional nods from CCMA , as does Keaton , for both Comedy Actor and Ensemble. Selma’s David Oyelowo, a SAG no-show , rounds out the Best Actor field. Still Alice’s frontrunning Julianne Moore, Wild’s Reese Witherspoon, The Theory Of Everything’s Felicity Jones and Gone Girl Rosamund Pike complete the list of Best Actress contenders. The Supporting candidates are identical to the Globes except for CCMA additions going to Inherent Vice’s hilarious Josh Brolin for the men and Snowpiercer’s outrageous Tilda Swinton for the women (even though she may be playing a man in this one).
The CCMAs also seem to be strongly in line with the Globes this year in producing a Best Director list that m
atches perfectly with Budapest’s Wes Anderson, Selma’s Ava DuVernay, Gone Girl’s David Fincher, Birdman’s Alejandro G. Inarritu and Boyhood’s Richard Linklater. Only the inclusion of Jolie for the CCMA list differs because this group (of which I am a voting member) generally allows six nominations per category instead of five (except for Best Picture which has ten).
The Critics Choice Movie Awards is increasingly important in the scheme of things and will for the third year in a row take place on the same day that Oscar nominations will be announced. It airs – to the East Coast – live on new network partner, A&E from the Hollywood Palladium at 9pm ET on January 15th with Michael Strahan hosting. The organization
has quite a track record in matching the ultimateOscar winners. Last year the eventual Academy Award champs first picked up a CCMA in 17 of the 19 categories they share. The Oscars differed only for Makeup and Foreign Film (where the critics chose Blue Is The Warmest Color, a film ineligible for Oscar in that category). Two years after he was stunningly snubbed in the morning for a Best Director Oscar nomination for Argo , Ben Affleck went on that evening to win that honor at the CCMAs beginning a run that led to the DGA award and eventually the Best Picture Oscar.
Here’s the full list of nominees in all 28 categories:
BEST PICTURE
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Nightcrawler
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Whiplash
BEST ACTOR
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman
David Oyelowo – Selma
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
BEST ACTRESS
Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin – Inherent Vice
Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods
Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Ellar Coltrane – Boyhood
Ansel Elgort – The Fault in Our Stars
Mackenzie Foy – Interstellar
Jaeden Lieberher – St. Vincent
Tony Revolori – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Quvenzhane Wallis – Annie
Noah Wiseman – The Babadook
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Into the Woods
Selma
BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro G. Inarritu – Birdman
Angelina Jolie – Unbroken
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman – Alejandro G. Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo
Boyhood – Richard Linklater
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness
Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy
Whiplash – Damien Chazelle
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
The Imitation Game – Graham Moore
Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
The Theory of Everything – Anthony McCarten
Unbroken – Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese, William Nicholson
Wild – Nick Hornby
BEST CINEMATOGRAPY
Birdman – Emmanuel Lubezki
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Robert Yeoman
Interstellar – Hoyte Van Hoytema
Mr. Turner – Dick Pope
Unbroken – Roger Deakins
BEST ART DIRECTION
Birdman – Kevin Thompson/Production Designer, George DeTitta Jr./Set Decorator
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Adam Stockhausen/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator
Inherent Vice – David Crank/Production Designer, Amy Wells/Set Decorator
Interstellar – Nathan Crowley/Production Designer, Gary Fettis/Set Decorator
Into the Woods – Dennis Gassner/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator
Snowpiercer – Ondrej Nekvasil/Production Designer, Beatrice Brentnerova/Set Decorator
BEST EDITING
Birdman – Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
Boyhood – Sandra Adair
Gone Girl – Kirk Baxter
Interstellar – Lee Smith
Whiplash – Tom Cross
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Milena Canonero
Inherent Vice – Mark Bridges
Into the Woods – Colleen Atwood
Maleficent – Anna B. Sheppard
Mr. Turner – Jacqueline Durran
BEST HAIR & MAKEUP
Foxcatcher
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Into the Woods
Maleficent
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie
BEST ACTION MOVIE
American Sniper
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Fury
Guardians of the Galaxy
BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Tom Cruise – Edge of Tomorrow
Chris Evans – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Brad Pitt – Fury
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy
BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Emily Blunt – Edge of Tomorrow
Scarlett Johansson – Lucy
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Zoe Saldana – Guardians of the Galaxy
Shailene Woodley – Divergent
BEST COMEDY
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
St. Vincent
Top Five
22 Jump Street
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Jon Favreau – Chef
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Bill Murray – St. Vincent
Chris Rock – Top Five
Channing Tatum – 22 Jump Street
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Rose Byrne – Neighbors
Rosario Dawson – Top Five
Melissa McCarthy – St. Vincent
Jenny Slate – Obvious Child
Kristen Wiig – The Skeleton Twins
BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
The Babadook
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
Snowpiercer
Under the Skin
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Force Majeure
Ida
Leviathan
Two Days, One Night
Wild Tales
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Citizenfour
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
Jodorowsky’s Dune
Last Days in Vietnam
Life Itself
The Overnighters
BEST SONG
Big Eyes – Lana Del Rey – Big Eyes
Everything Is Awesome – Jo Li and the Lonely Island – The Lego Movie
Glory – Common/John Legend – Selma
Lost Stars – Keira Knightley – Begin Again
Yellow Flicker Beat – Lorde – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
BEST SCORE
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez – Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar
Pete Hammond
