Online Film Critics Awards: Rooney Mara (pictured with Cate Blanchett) strangely listed in the Best Supporting Actress category for ‘Carol.’
Rooney Mara listed as supporting actress in Online Film Critics Society Award nominations
The nominations for the 2015 Online Film Critics Society Awards have been announced. Although as much a lead in Todd Haynes’ Carol as costar Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara has been shortlisted in the Best Supporting Actress category.
The Weinstein Company’s campaign, widely criticized for promoting awards season (particularly Oscar) category fraud, seems to be working in the case of Carol. Yesterday, Mara was voted Best Supporting Actress at the New York Film Critics Online Awards.
Not working so well is Focus Features’ campaign for Tom Hooper’s gender-bending biopic The Danish Girl. Long before the film’s opening, pundits were asserting that this year’s Best Actor Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) would be a shoo-in 2016 Best Actor Oscar nominee for playing Danish artist Einar Wegener, who underwent one of the first (known) sex-change operations in modern history.
So far, however, The Danish Girl has been all but ignored by U.S. critics groups. Its sole mention by the Online Film Critics was a Best Supporting Actress nod for Alicia Vikander – an unusual choice, as Vikander has been generally shortlisted for another of her 2015 roles: the human-looking bot in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina. (This year, she was also seen in the domestic box office bomb The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and in the Bradley Cooper dud Burnt.)
‘Carol’ and ‘Sicario’ tops
The Online Film Critics’ favorites seem to be the period lesbian romance Carol and Denis Villeneuve’s drug war drama Sicario; each has six nominations. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, a surprisingly successful entry this awards season, and Ridley Scott’s feel-good Gravity-esque The Martian, starring Matt Damon as the titular little green man (kidding), landed five nods apiece.
Also listed are most actors who have topped U.S. critics’ awards to date, including Charlotte Rampling (45 Years), Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn), Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs), Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria), and Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies). Noticeably absent are Michael Keaton (Spotlight and Paul Dano (Love & Mercy).
The Best Picture category includes only English-language entries. In fact, that’s also the case in the acting categories. Notable among the Best Foreign Language Film nominees is László Nemes’ Hungarian Holocaust drama Son of Saul, winner of several U.S. awards to date.
Online Film Critics and the Oscars
As found in its release, the Online Film Critics Society “has nominated the eventual Oscar winner for Best Picture in eight of the last ten years.”
Four OFCS Best Film winners went on to take home a matching Oscar:
- Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (2013).
- Ben Affleck’s Argo (2012).
- Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2009).
- Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men (2007).
Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on your take on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ choices.
The Online Film Critics Society 2015 winners will be announced on Monday, Dec. 14.
According to its website, the OFCS has 254 members from 22 countries.
‘Sicario’ with Emily Blunt: Surprising top contender for the Online Film Critics Awards.
Online Film Critics Awards 2015 nominations
Best Picture
Brooklyn.
Carol.
Ex Machina.
Inside Out.
Mad Max: Fury Road.
The Martian.
The Revenant.
Room.
Sicario.
Spotlight.Best Film Not in the English Language
The Assassin (Taiwan).
Goodnight Mommy (Austria).
Mustang (France).
Phoenix (Germany).
Son of Saul (Hungary).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 Actress
Rooney Mara (Carol).
Cynthia Nixon (James White).
Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria).
Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl).
Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs).Best Supporting Actor
Benicio Del Toro (Sicario).
Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina).
Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight).
Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies).
Sylvester Stallone (Creed).Best Adapted Screenplay
Brooklyn (Nick Hornby).
Carol (Phyllis Nagy).
The Martian (Drew Goddard).
Room (Emma Donoghue).
Steve Jobs (Aaron Sorkin).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 Cinematography
The Assassin (Ping Bin Lee).
Carol (Edward Lachman).
Mad Max: Fury Road (John Seale).
The Revenant (Emmanuel Lubezki).
Sicario (Roger Deakins).Best Editing
Mad Max: Fury Road (Margaret Sixel).
The Martian (Pietro Scalia).
The Revenant (Stephen Mirrione).
Sicario (Joe Walker).
Steve Jobs (Elliot Graham).Best Documentary
Amy.
Best of Enemies.
Cartel Land.
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.
The Look of Silence.Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa.
The Good Dinosaur.
Inside Out.
The Peanuts Movie.
Shaun the Sheep Movie.
Image of Online Film Critics’ Best Actress nominee Cate Blanchett and Best Supporting Actress nominee Rooney Mara: The Weinstein Company.
Emily Blunt Sicario image: Lionsgate.