After the National Board of Review and the Washington D.C. Film Critics both chose Slumdog Millionaire as their best film of the year, the Broadcast Film Critics have shaken things up a little for their Critics Choice Awards. Milk and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button led the pack with eight nominations apiece, with Doubt, The Dark Knight and Slumdog trailing at six each.
The group doesn't announce winners until January 8, and will be choosing among 10-- ten!-- Best Picture nominees, and six people in several of the acting categories. Talk about spreading the wealth. Among my favorite mentions in the list, printed at Variety: Wall-E made it in for Best Picture (among 10, but still), as did The Dark Knight and the entirely underrated The Dark Knight. Robert Downey Jr. made it into a Supporting Actor lineup that looks completely likely as an Oscar pick as well, and in a complete surprise, Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga made it in for their roles in Nothing but the Truth, a movie pretty much no one has been talking about yet.
The bad surprise? Complete across-the-board snub for Revolutionary Road, including nothing for stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. That's a bad sign for such a prestigious, solid movie so early in the game, suggesting it's not connecting with critics in the way it probably expected to. But then, this is just one of many, many critic's announcements that will come out during the next few days. And then the Golden Globe nominations go out tomorrow! So many tea leaves to read, so little time.
