Carol

The awards season train keeps on rolling. The Online Film Critics Society, the oldest and most prominent society for online film critics in the world, of which myself and fellow site contributor Daniel Lackey are members of, have recognized the year’s best films with nominations for their 19th annual awards.

Carol and Sicario led the race with six nominations each. Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian followed with five nominations apiece. The Revenant, Spotlight and Steve Jobs each received four nominations while Brooklyn, Ex Machina, Inside Out and Room each received three nods.

The Best Picture category includes an eclectic mix of genre-spanning features from animated features to sci-fi dramas to action-packed blockbusters. The nominees are Brooklyn, Carol, Ex Machina, Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Room, Sicario and Spotlight.

Carol, a new drama chronicling a love affair in the 1950s, received several prominent nominations. In addition to Best Picture, it was nominated for Best Director (Todd Haynes), Best Actress (Cate Blanchett), Best Supporting Actress (Rooney Mara), Best Adapted Screenplay (Phyllis Nagy) and Best Cinematography (Edward Lachman). Sicario, which tells the story of an FBI agent who becomes embroiled in the drug war on the U.S-Mexico border, was nominated in Best Picture, Best Director (Denis Villeneuve), Best Supporting Actor (Benicio Del Toro), Best Original Screenplay (Taylor Sheridan), Best Editing (Joe Walker) and Best Cinematography (Roger Deakins).

The OFCS has nominated the eventual Oscar winner for Best Picture in eight of the last ten years; matching Oscar winners 12 Years a Slave (2013), The Hurt Locker (2009), No Country for Old Men (2007) and Argo (2012), becoming the first major critics group to recognize Ben Affleck’s future Academy Award recipient.

“This year’s crop of nominees is a rich tapestry of modern world cinema.” The OFCS Governing Committee members John Hanlon, Wesley Lovell and Cole Smithey said. “Our organization has always had a unique perspective in our annual selections and this batch is as compelling and fascinating as ever.”

The Online Film Critics Society currently consists of 254 members with writers representing 22 countries across the globe. The winners will be announced on Monday, December 14, 2015.

Here is the full list of nominees:

Spotlight

Best Picture:
Brooklyn
Carol
Ex Machina
Inside Out
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Sicario
Spotlight

Best Animated Feature:
Anomalisa
The Good Dinosaur
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun the Sheep Movie

Best Film Not in the English Language:
The Assassin (Taiwan)
Goodnight Mommy (Austria)
Mustang (France)
Phoenix (Germany)
Son of Saul (Hungary)

Best Documentary:
Amy
Best of Enemies
Cartel Land
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
The Look of Silence

Mad Max Fury Road

Best Director:
Todd Haynes (Carol)
Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)
George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Ridley Scott (The Martian)
Denis Villeneuve (Sicario)

Best Actor:
Matt Damon (The Martian)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)
Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)
Michael B. Jordan (Creed)
Ian McKellen (Mr. Holmes)

Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett (Carol)
Brie Larson (Room)
Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)
Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)
Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Supporting Actor:
Benicio Del Toro (Sicario)
Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina)
Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)
Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)
Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Clouds of Sils Maria.1jpeg

Best Supporting Actress:
Rooney Mara (Carol)
Cynthia Nixon (James White)
Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria)
Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)
Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Best Original Screenplay:
Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
Inside Out (Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley)
Mistress America (Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach)
Sicario (Taylor Sheridan)
Spotlight (Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy)

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Brooklyn (Nick Hornby)
Carol (Phyllis Nagy)
The Martian (Drew Goddard)
Room (Emma Donoghue)
Steve Jobs (Aaron Sorkin)

Best Editing:
Mad Max: Fury Road (Margaret Sixel)
The Martian (Pietro Scalia)
The Revenant (Stephen Mirrione)
Sicario (Joe Walker)
Steve Jobs (Elliot Graham)

Best Cinematography:
The Assassin (Ping Bin Lee)
Carol (Edward Lachman)
Mad Max: Fury Road (John Seale)
The Revenant (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Sicario (Roger Deakins)

What are your thoughts on this year’s nominations? Who would you like to see take the prize in each category?

Published by Courtney Small

The founder of Cinema Axis, Courtney is a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic who can frequently be heard discussing film as co-host of Frameline on Radio Regent. Courtney has contributed to several publications including Leonard Maltin, That Shelf, POV Magazine, In the Seats, Black Girl Nerds, and Comix Asylum. He has appeared on ET Canada and Hollywood Suite's Cinema A to Z. Courtney celebrates diversity in cinema as host of the Changing Reels podcast and is a member of the Toronto Film Critics Association, the Online Film Critics Society, and the African American Film Critics Association.

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2 Comments

  1. Thanks for letting us know about the possible winners. I am having trouble figuring out my top 10 of the year, because an unusual number of movies truly moved me. I suspect “Carol” has best actress and supporting actress awards. Mark Rylance did a great job in “Bridge of Spies”. And “Sicario” and “Mad Max” are both terrific films. “The Martian” was fantastic to watch. I never really warmed to “Brooklyn” but there are some very fine performances in the film.

    1. The performances in Carol are great, but I am not so sure they are a lock in those categories. Both Blanchett and Mara face some very tough competition. I am a little surprised by Brooklyn’s Best Picture nomination though. While I really liked the film, as you stated there are some fine performances, it would not have made my top ten of the year.

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