Finally, here's a group of critics who haven't put "The Social Network" at the top of their list.
The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced the nominees for the televised Critics Choice Movie Awards on Monday morning, and Darren Aronofsky's audacious melodrama "Black Swan" led the pack with 12 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Natalie Portman) and Best Supporting Actress (Mila Kunis).
"The Social Network" received nine nominations, which place it behind "Black Swan," "True Grit," The King's Speech" (11 nominations each) and "Inception" (10 nominations).
But a large number of nominations does not guarantee Critics Choice success: last year's nominees were led by "Inglourious Basterds" and "Nine, with 10 nominations each. While the former won three awards, the latter was shut out completely. "The Hurt Locker," which won Best Picture, received eight nods.
"Black Swan," "The Social Network," "True Grit," "The King's Speech" and "Inception" make up half of the Critics Choice slate of 10 Best Picture nominees. The other nominees are "127 Hours," "The Fighter," "The Town," "Toy Story 3" and "Winter's Bone."
The Best Director category, which could be viewed as an indication of which six Best Picture contenders have the best shot of winning, is made up of Aronosfky, Danny Boyle ("127 Hours"), Joel and Ethan Coen ("True Grit"), David Fincher ("The Social Network"), Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") and Christopher Nolan ("Inception").
David O. Russell, the director of "The Fighter," is not included, and neither are Ben Affleck ("The Town"), Lee Unkrich ("Toy Story 3") and Debra Granik ("Winter's Bone").
The most surprising oversight on the relatively mainstream Critics Choice lineup is Lisa Cholodenko's relationship film "The Kids Are All Right," which picked up four nominations (three in acting categories) but was overlooked for Best Picture. So were "Another Year" and "Blue Valentine."
Films that were shut out of the nominations entirely include Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island," Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" and Peter Weir's "The Way Back."
Eight out of the 10 films on last year's slate of Critics Choice Best Picture nominees matched the Oscar nominees. The Best Picture, Best Director and four acting winners were the same as the Oscar winners in those categories (though Best Actress winner Sandra Bullock tied with Meryl Streep at the Critics Choice awards).
In the acting categories, the presence of six nominees means that almost all of the Oscar favorites received nominations, from Best Actor hopefuls Colin Firth, Jesse Eisenberg and James Franco to Best Actress contenders Annette Bening, Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman and Nicole Kidman.
Missing in action: "Biutiful" actor Javier Bardem, "Another Year" actress Lesley Manville, and supporting performers Matt Damon ("True Grit") and Dianne Wiest ("Rabbit Hole").
The Broadcast Film Critics Association is made up of 250 television, radio and online film critics. The Critics Choice Movie Awards will take place on January 14, 2011at the Hollywood Palladium, and will be broadcast live on VH1.
