The Broadcast Film Critics Association isn't all that different from the various other critic's groups who handed out awards on Sunday (you can read all about that here), but it is bigger, and has the money to put on the splashy Critics Choice Awards, airing January 12 on Vh1. So you can choose to pay more attention to today's announcement of their nominees, which were topped by now-predictable critical favorites like The Artist and Hugo, but also featured some dark-horse contenders, like Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive showing up in 8 categories, and the first critics list appearance of Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which only recently started screening for critics and was among their 10 nominees for Best Picture.

The BFCAs cover all the categories done by the Oscars-- yes, including Best Sound-- and then add a few of their own to the end, so instead of going through each category individually it seems easier to simply look for surprises. They nominated six people in each acting category-- all the better to predict the Oscars with, my dear-- and made room for a lot of people who might otherwise struggle for their nomination, like Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene for Best Actress, Andy Serkis as Best Supporting Actor in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and everyone's favorite dark horse candidate this year, Melissa McCarthy of Bridesmaids. They showed some love for the largely forgotten The Ides of March for Best Acting Ensemble, gave the lovely Tom McCarthy comedy Win Win a Best Original Screenplay hat tip, and even managed to get in a mention for Fast Five, which made their list for Best Action Movie. Sadly- or maybe not, depending on how much you dug Justin Lin's bonkers movie-- that's probably the end of awards hopes for that one.

Below is a selected list of the BFCA nominees; you can see the full selection at Gold Derby.

BEST PICTURE
"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"Drive"
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
"The Help"
"Hugo"
"Midnight in Paris"
"Moneyball"
"The Tree of Life"
"War Horse"

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney – "The Descendants"
Leonardo DiCaprio – "J. Edgar"
Jean Dujardin – "The Artist"
Michael Fassbender – "Shame"
Ryan Gosling – "Drive"
Brad Pitt – "Moneyball"

BEST ACTRESS
Viola Davis – "The Help"
Elizabeth Olsen – "Martha Marcy May Marlene"
Meryl Streep – "The Iron Lady"
Tilda Swinton – "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
Charlize Theron – "Young Adult"
Michelle Williams – "My Week With Marilyn"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 Kenneth Branagh – "My Week With Marilyn"
Albert Brooks – "Drive"
Nick Nolte – "Warrior"
Patton Oswalt – "Young Adult"
Christopher Plummer – "Beginners"
Andrew Serkis – "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Berenice Bejo – "The Artist"
Jessica Chastain – "The Help"
Melissa McCarthy – "Bridesmaids"
Carey Mulligan – "Shame"
Octavia Spencer – "The Help"
Shailene Woodley – "The Descendants"

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Asa Butterfield – "Hugo"
Elle Fanning – "Super 8"
Thomas Horn – "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
Ezra Miller – "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
Saoirse Ronan – "Hanna"
Shailene Woodley – "The Descendants"

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
"The Artist"
"Bridesmaids"
"The Descendants"
"The Help"
"The Ides of March"

BEST DIRECTOR
Stephen Daldry – "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
Michel Hazanavicius – "The Artist"
Alexander Payne – "The Descendants"
Nicolas Winding Refn – "Drive"
Martin Scorsese – "Hugo"
Steven Spielberg – "War Horse"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
"The Artist" – Michel Hazanavicius
"50/50" – Will Reiser
"Midnight in Paris" – Woody Allen
"Win Win" – Screenplay by Tom McCarthy, Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni
"Young Adult" – Diablo Cody

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
"The Descendants" – Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" – Eric Roth
"The Help" – Tate Taylor
"Hugo" – John Logan
"Moneyball" – Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Story by Stan Chervin