The first thing to remember about the London Critics is that they have separate awards for British & Irish actors and productions. This inevitably sways the tallies towards those kinds of films. The second is that their eligibility period is slightly wider, as any film that releases in the UK prior to the end of February are usually eligible and since studios release films internationally differently than in the US, some of these films (Les Misérables and Clemency for example were eligible for the 92nd Oscars and Rocks hasn’t even been released in the US at all) wouldn’t be eligible for the Oscars. The other thing to note is that because of the British Irish categories and the home turf advantage, some figures show up in the mainline nominations even though their Oscar chances are almost nil. This is true of About Endlessness, Rocks, and Saint Maud. What’s worse is that the blur between television and films were excepted by this group to recognize Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films even though the film specifically aired in the UK on the BBC.
Award Tallies
(8) Saint Maud
(6) Rocks
(5) Nomadland
(4) Lovers Rock, Mank, Promising Young Woman
(3) Collective, The Father, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Mangrove, The Mauritanian, Pieces of a Woman, Sound of Metal, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Other than Nomadland in Best Feature, Riz Ahmed in Best Actor, and Time in Best Documentary (tied with A Thousand Cuts), none of these choices are really following any common path. This might be the farthest outside of the norm they’ve ever been.
A respectable haul for Minari and Nomadland with Minari picking up an award that gives it a minor boost towards the Oscars.
Giving traction to Da 5 Bloods and Minari, North Carolina’s film critics have helped deliver some variety to the awards season, even if only a touch of it.
Following in the footsteps of New York with a little Los Angeles thrown in, Florida Film Critics have chosen First Cow as best film, but selected Small Axe: Lovers Rock for runner-up in a couple of categories. Beyond that, things seem to be following a rather predictable path so far this year.
There’s going to be some major discussions this year about Small Axe, a production that is being submitted to the Emmys by Netflix, but which this group chose to recognize with two awards. It’s a strange decision to make, though it’s nice to see Carey Mulligan get her first award of the year.