In Contention: Chicago Film Critics

By Josh Spiegel

December 25, 2008

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The Chicago Film Critics announced their annual awards on December 18th, and their choice for Best Picture is unquestionably the current unlikely dark horse in the race for the coveted Best Picture Oscar: Disney-Pixar's WALL-E. The lovestruck robot, while the title star of one of the year's best (in my opinion), wouldn't seem as likely a choice for any major awards back in the summer, when expectations were high for many year-end releases like Milk, Australia, and even Body of Lies. Now, with the last film having disappeared (along with Russell Crowe's fake accent and blubber) and Hugh Jackman likely to only host the Oscars instead of win, some surprise films have emerged as possibilities for the top five, and yes, WALL-E is one of those films.

Every year, the Academy Awards are announced in Los Angeles, and each ceremony has its own particular tagline. Despite the annual switch, the official tagline should be what Oscar-winning scribe William Goldman once wrote: "Nobody knows anything." In regards to the Oscars, it's simple: predictions are easy, but knowledge is hard. As 2008 turns to 2009, we're getting closer to seeing the Oscar nominations announced (that will happen on January 22nd). Until then, all prognosticators can do is look to critics' groups, the Golden Globe nominations, and the Screen Actors Guild nominations.

As nice as it is for the folks at Pixar to take in another accolade, what's important for the Chicago Film Critics is how much of a bellwether the group has been in the past. Chicago's picked five of the last ten Best Picture winners, choosing Far From Heaven and Almost Famous instead of Chicago and Gladiator. And you'd think they'd choose a movie about their own town!




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Slightly more interesting is that, since 2003, the film critics have chosen four of five Best Picture winners, the exception being in 2004, when they went head over heels for Sideways, which ended up losing to Million Dollar Baby at the Oscars. What you can take away from the previous awards is that the Chicago group is, more often than not, adept at predicting nominees at the very least; only three of the past ten winners haven't been nominated for Best Picture Oscar - Far From Heaven, Almost Famous, and Mulholland Drive.

Most of the critics have made their decisions on the top actors of the year, and Chicago's choices aren't too outside the mainstream choices. Mickey Rourke and Anne Hathaway, likely Oscar nominees come January, took the Best Actor and Actress awards, for The Wrestler and Rachel Getting Married, respectively.

In what is quickly becoming an unsurprising category in general, the Best Supporting Actor award goes to...yes, Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia. His singing is so beautiful, it....kidding. The late Heath Ledger took another prize for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. The only notable choice here is in the Best Supporting Actress category, where Kate Winslet won for her role as a former Nazi guard in The Reader. Though that film and Winslet's other holiday movie, Revolutionary Road, haven't gotten universal praise, she's likely to wind up with at least one nomination at the Oscars, as she slowly turns into the film version of Susan Lucci. At the rate she makes movies, she'll get to 19 nominations in no time!


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