Awards Season: A Brief Summary

Oh man. Its awards season now, and I am ridiculously behind on my observations and reactions to the various awards and nominations going out. I haven't made my December Oscar picks yet because I am waiting for the Golden Globe nominations to be announced tomorrow, since these will (somewhat) clear the air around the contenders and pretenders. But for now, here's a short summary of reactions to various awards thus far. INDIE SPIRITS - A Serious Man gets best ensemble but no best feature nomination? This film is getting to be very unpredictable. - I'm pleased to see Paranormal Activity get a Best First Feature nomination. It's an encouragement of more indie horror. SATELLITE AWARDS - I just want to say up front that I don't consider the Satellites to be accurate predictors of the awards season. The hefty amount of nominations for 2012 only confirms this. - However, this is not the first group to recognize Woody Harrelson for The Messenger. Maybe he's got some real heat now... - The District 9 nominations in director and screenplay are excellent, but probably the biggest nominations the film will be recognized for. NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW - Star Trek as a top film? And Where the Wild Things Are? I loved them both, but this seems a little odd. Will this be their only recognition or is more to come? -The tie for Best Actor between Morgan Freeman and George Clooney: cop-out. -Up in the Air seems to be moving past Precious as the film to beat. DC FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION - This just looks like a list of front-runners and buzzed-about performances. - Kathryn Bigelow's direction win certainly looks promising for her future. - The only real surprise here is the Original Screenplay category: The Hurt Locker, (500) Days of Summer and A Serious Man all lost out to....Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds script. Which is fantastic, since it was the most inventive screenplay of the year (my apologies to Summer and District 9). BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS - The Hurt Locker takes Best Picture, Director and Actor. The film's Oscar chances really are on the rise. - Meryl Streep finally registers her first big win. But is she still too far behind Carey Mulligan to be considered a frontrunner? - There's Star Trek again, in the Best Ensemble category. If it continues to be picked for things like this and makes it to the Oscars, set phasers to stun. LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION -The Hurt Locker again for Best Picture and Director. Could this really be the year of the first female directing Oscar winner? NEW YORK FILM CRITICS ONLINE - Avatar as Best Picture? Maybe I'm underestimating this film after all.... - The Top 11 films are a hoot. I guess when Oscar expands to 10 films, you can't have a top 10 list anymore... - Chalk up another screenplay win for Tarantino. It looks like he'll (finally) be making his long-awaited return to the Oscars. That's all I've got for now. Hopefully, by the the end of the day I'll have reactions to the BFCA Critic's Choice nominations, as well as my response to the Grammy nominations.