Let the Critics' Awards Games Begin!

This is the emotional climax scene from Shame. Most likely will be used in FYC ads.

The pre-Oscar nomination bragging rights of winning critics' awards will commence on Tuesday, Nov. 29th with the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. In years past, the National Board of Review was the first out of the critics awards gate with their list of winners. However this year, the NYFCC has pulled out the 'first' card and will announce the best of 2011, mere days before the end of November... which is a whole month before the actual end of 2011. Make sense? This time of year gets really crowded and dizzying with different critics groups around the country announcing what they believe to be the best films and performances of the year. And in another news development, the NYFCC was originally planning to release the winners on Monday, Nov. 28th, but they are delaying it by one more day to screen 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'... I have no idea why they are even going to bother screening it so late, do they think that film will change some of their votes? Maybe, maybe not. But in any event, if you pay attention to @NYFCC2011 on Twitter Tuesday morning, the winners will be announced.

Jean Dujardin 'The Artist'.

At Gold Derby, many predictions have been made by experts and Michael has received a few votes of support by Tom O'Neal and another blogger, but the most votes appear to go into Jean Dujardin's favor. I wouldn't mind Jean winning as I absolutely LOVE his performance in The Artist. But my heart and gut says that Michael Fassbender's performance was the more demanding and emotionally charged. Let this go on record as my saying that if either of these guys go on the win the Oscar, I will be happy as these are the two lead actor performances that moved me the most. Jean won the Best Actor at Cannes, and Michael won Best Actor at Venice.

The relevance of a NYFCC win is that it would be the first major critics award for an actor to win, and it will set the tone for the rest of December and January in matching this win with others. The more critics awards an actor/actress/film/director wins, the stronger their chances are to not only be nominated, but it increases their chances of winning an Oscar. Let me preface that by saying... in most cases! Oscar does like to beat to a different drummer than the critics as they don't like being dictated to, but more times than not, when a single performer has won notable critics awards, they are bragging rights for the studio and provides marketing ammunition in 'For Your Consideration' ads to nail down those votes for Oscar nominations.

Here are my predictions for the NYFCC:

Best Picture: The Artist
Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius
Best Actor - Michael Fassbender
Best Actress - Elizabeth Olsen
Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer
Supporting Actress - Janet McTeer


At Awards Daily, I found this calendar for the critics and awards season events. Make note of it and watch out on those days for hopeful good news for Michael, Steve and Carey for Shame.

View long list continue... (here)


NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE (NYFCC)Monday, November 28, 2011

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD NOMINATIONSTuesday, November 29, 2011

NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW (NBR)Thursday, December 1, 2011

BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS Sunday, December 4, 2011

LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION (LAFCA)
Sunday, December 11, 2011

BROADCAST FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION NOMINATIONS (BFCA)
Tuesday, December 13, 2011

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD NOMINATIONS (SAG)Wednesday, December 14, 2011

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS (HFPA)
Thursday, December 15, 2011

PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA NOMINATIONS (PGA)Tuesday, January 3, 2012

WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA NOMINATIONS (WGA)Thursday, January 5, 2012

DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA NOMINATIONS (DGA)Monday, January 9, 2012

BROADCAST FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS (BFCA)Thursday, January 12, 2012

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS (HFPA)Sunday, January 15, 2012

BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM & TELEVISION ARTS NOMINATIONS (BAFTA)Tuesday, January 17, 2012

LONDON FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDSThursday, January 19, 2012

PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA AWARDS (PGA)
Saturday, January 21, 2012

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS (AMPAS)
Tuesday, January 24, 2012

DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA AWARDS (DGA)
Saturday, January 28, 2012

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS (SAG)
Sunday, January 29, 2012

BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM & TELEVISION ARTS AWARDS (BAFTA)
Sunday, February 12, 2012

WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA AWARDS (WGA)
Sunday, February 19, 2012

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS
Saturday, February 25, 2012

ACADEMY AWARDS PRESENTATION (AMPAS)
Sunday, February 26, 2012

As the list highlights the most popular events, it is not all encompassing, there are many regional critics groups that announce winners as well, like:  Boson, San Diego, San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Las Vegas, Detroit and Denver. In the event that Michael wins any of these awards, we will list them here at Fassinating Fassbender.