London Critics Circle Announce Nominees with ’12 Years’ & ‘Philomena’ in Lead
Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine up for best picture and acting notices
Earlier this week the London Film Critics finally announced their nominees and, as with a lot of cities this year with their nominees and winners, 12 Years a Slave took the lead with best picture, director, its cast, and also as *British* cast members (Chiwetel Ejiofor got two nods in this regard).
The Solomon Northrup saga also received a technical achievement award nomination for Sean Babbit’s cinematography. Another big contender seems to be Stephen Frears’ Philomena starring Judi Dench (also nominated) and Steve Coogan (nominated in multiple categories, actually for four films altogether, see below for all the films), which received five nominations.
It’s interesting to note where the London Film Critics fall different than those in America just by the simple fact that films get some double attention in the UK if they’re by native filmmakers – Steve McQueen, Paul Greengrass – and casts in films, not to mention some special notice for breakthrough artists and films.
For Breakthrough British Filmmaker, Jon S. Baird received a nomination for Filth starring James McAvoy and Rufus Norris for Broken among others, these being films that haven’t yet touched U.S. shores. At the same time a film like Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, which couldn’t secure distribution by a major studio in the states (ultimately broadcast on HBO) premiered at Cannes and got distribution in the UK, and received nominations for production design and Michael Douglas for best actor.
Behind the Candelabra, Michael Douglas for best actor
Another mention is that The Great Beauty, Pablo Sorrentino’s Italian film of excesses in society, got a best picture nomination alongside the likes of heavyweights The Wolf of Wall Street and Inside Llewyn Davis (it also got a Best Foreign Film nomination, marking as a favorite with the nominating committee).
In documentaries The Act of Killing got another nod – the unconventional and harrowing look at reenactments by death-squad leaders of their atrocities in Indonesia – and shared space with Beware Mr. Baker about drummer Ginger Baker, and Alex Gibney’s We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (neither of these films have received too much attention in doc awards circles, mostly going to Killing or Blackfish).
And with the specifically British notices, there were five nominees for Young British Performer; Byzantium star Saorise Ronan got recognition for more than one film as Coogan did and her co-star in How I Live Now George McKay. Lastly, Gary Oldman got a special award – the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film, recognizing his achievements in acting over the past few decades. All of the awards will be announced February 2nd.
The Great Beauty
Here is the full list of nominees, let us know in the comments or on Twitter as always at @FocusFilmOnline what you think!
FILM OF THE YEAR
Blue Is the Warmest Color
Blue Jasmine
Frances Ha
Gravity
The Great Beauty
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Blue Is the Warmest Color
Caesar Must Die
Gloria
The Great Beauty
A Hijacking
BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR
A Field in England
Filth
Philomena
Rush
The Selfish Giant
DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR
The Act of Killing
Beware of Mr Baker
Leviathan
Stories We Tell
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Bruce Dern – Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
Michael Douglas – Behind the Candelabra
Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave
Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
Judi Dench – Philomena
Adele Exarchopoulos – Blue Is the Warmest Color
Greta Gerwig – Frances Ha
SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips
Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave
James Gandolfini – Enough Said
Tom Hanks – Saving Mr Banks
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Naomie Harris – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
June Squibb – Nebraska
BRITISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Christian Bale – American Hustle / Out of the Furnace
Steve Coogan – Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa / The Look of Love / Philomena / What Maisie Knew
Chiwetel Ejiofor– 12 Years a Slave
Michael Fassbender– The Counsellor / 12 Years a Slave
James McAvoy – Filth / Trance / Welcome to the Punch
BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Judi Dench – Philomena
Lindsay Duncan – About Time / Last Passenger / Le Week-End
Naomie Harris – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine
Emma Thompson – Beautiful Creatures / Saving Mr Banks
YOUNG BRITISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
Conner Chapman – The Selfish Giant
Saoirse Ronan – Byzantium / The Host / How I Live Now
Eloise Laurence – Broken
George MacKay – Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson / For Those in Peril / How I Live Now / Sunshine on Leith
Shaun Thomas – The Selfish Giant
DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity
Paul Greengrass – Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen – 12 Years a Slave
Paolo Sorrentino – The Great Beauty
Martin Scorsese – The Wolf of Wall Street
SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR
Ethan Coen & Joel Coen – Inside Llewyn Davis
Spike Jonze – Her
Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope – Philomena
John Ridley – 12 Years a Slave
Terence Winter – The Wolf of Wall Street
BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH FILMMAKER
Jon S Baird – Filth
Scott Graham – Shell
Marcus Markou – Papadopoulos & Sons
Rufus Norris – Broken
Paul Wright – For Those in Peril
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
American Hustle – Judy Becker, production design
Behind the Candelabra – Howard Cummings, production design
Filth – Mark Eckersley, editing
Frances Ha – Sam Levy, cinematography
Gravity – Tim Webber, visual effects
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Trish Summerville, costumes
Inside Llewyn Davis – T-Bone Burnett, music
Stoker – Kurt Swanson & Bart Mueller, costumes
12 Years a Slave – Sean Bobbitt, cinematography
Upstream Colour – Johnny Marshall, sound design
DILYS POWELL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILM
Gary Oldman
