11th hour addition brings tally to 11 nominated films
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) has announced that Star Wars: The Force Awakens has earned a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for Best Picture. The film was not screened for BFCA voters in time for the initial nominations balloting, but after members of the nation’s largest film critics group saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens last week it was decided to hold a special referendum yesterday to determine if it would have been nominated if the BFCA membership had been able to consider it.
The exception was made for only the Best Picture category and all other Critics’ Choice Award nominations remain as previously announced. Star Wars: The Force Awakens joins The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Carol, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Room, Sicario and Spotlight as Critics’ Choice Award Best Picture nominees.
While making an amendment to the Critics’ Choice Awards nominations is highly unusual, having an 11th Best Picture nominee is not unprecedented. In 2000, Cast Away was similarly screened too late for normal consideration and the BFCA included it among 11 Best Picture nominees.
It is the purpose of the Critics’ Choice Awards to honor the finest in cinematic and television achievement. BFCA made this exception to its rules and included Star Wars: The Force Awakens to serve this purpose.
Winners will be revealed at the 21st annual Critics’ Choice Awards show on January 17th, televised live at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on A&E, Lifetime and LMN, and hosted by T.J. Miller.
The 21st Annual Critics’ Choice Awards” will be produced by Bob Bain Productions and Berlin Entertainment.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More