To those who may not be paying attention, awards season is currently in full swing, with critics societies from all over the world weighing in with their yearly awards. We’ve already heard from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and several others, and today brought with it a list of nominations from the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS), which unlike the other organizations lets the fans in on the nominations process. (Full disclosure: The OFCS is also a critics society of which I am a member.)
Thus far Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel have dominated the critics society honors across the board. Although they haven’t won every major award, they are present on practically every list of winners. Other films that have made a showing across the board include The LEGO Movie (especially as far as animated feature categories are concerned), Whiplash and Birdman.
Related: 19 Films That Deserve More Oscar Buzz
But Birdman is conspicuously absent from the OFCS nominations for Best Picture, a particularly striking observation considering that – like the Academy Awards (or at least, like the Academy is capable of) – there are ten nominees this year. In its place are some unexpected underdogs, including the Polish drama Ida, the Canadian Mommy and the weird Scarlett Johansson sci-fi movie Under the Skin, which thus far has largely been overlooked this season.
Other surprise nominations include a Best Actress nod for Essie Davis in The Babadook (a rare nomination for a horror movie performance), Tilda Swinton for Snowpiercer (a broad and cynical post-apocalyptic thriller), and the adolescent punk rock drama We Are the Best! for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Do these films have a shot at the Oscars this year? Maybe, maybe not. It’s important to remember that although critics awards like the OFCS raise awareness of some of the best films of the year, most of the voting members don’t actually vote for the Oscars. Sometimes these societies rally around films and performances that the Academy decides not to embrace. Remember Albert Brooks’ so-called “sure-fire” Oscar nomination for Drive? That didn’t happen. Hardcore Oscar prognosticators will do well to remember that the real indication of which way the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is leaning on any given year will only be revealed once the Guild Awards nominations and winners are announced over the next 2 1/2 months.
Related: ‘Boyhood’ Wins Best Picture from Los Angeles Film Critics
But that doesn’t mean you should ignore critics society awards. If nothing else, they are an excellent way to determine which films you should catch up on at the end of the year, whether you’re trying to follow along during Oscar season or just want to know which movies totally kicked ass over the last 365 days.
Check out the complete list of OFCS nominations below, and come back on Monday, December 15 to find out who won all the honors.
BEST PICTURE
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ida
The Lego Movie
Mommy
Nightcrawler
Selma
Two Days, One Night
Whiplash
Under the Skin
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Ida
The Missing Picture
Mommy
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Two Days, One Night
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Citizenfour
Life Itself
The Missing Picture
National Gallery
The Overnighters
BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne – Two Days, One Night
Ava DuVernay – Selma
Jonathan Glazer – Under the Skin
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
BEST ACTOR
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Brendan Gleeson – Calvary
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Timothy Spall – Mr. Turner
BEST ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
Essie Davis – The Babadook
Anne Dorval – Mommy
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin – Inherent Vice
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Suzanne Clément – Mommy
Agata Kulesza – Ida
Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Selma
Two Days, One Night
Whiplash
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Gone Girl
Inherent Vice
Snowpiercer
Under the Skin
We Are the Best!
BEST EDITING
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Whiplash
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ida
Mr. Turner
Under the Skin
BEST NON-U.S. RELEASE (NON-COMPETITIVE CATEGORY)
’71
10,000 km
Entre Nós
Han Gong-ju
Hard to Be a God
The Look of Silence
The Salt of the Earth
What We Do in the Shadows
Timbuktu
The Tribe
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
