Oscar Watching: Critics Choice Nominees, LA Critics Winner, AFI Top Ten List)

The Oscar race is slowly becoming clearer and clearer in a year with no de facto front-runner. With ten Best Picture nominations, things are even more uncertain than usual, but at this early stage, it would appear that three of the ten spots are locked. More on that later.

Yesterday, The L.A. Film Critics named their best of the year. They chose THE HURT LOCKER as Best Picture, and likewise honoured its director Kathryn Bigelow. Best actress was given to Yolande Moreau for SERAPHINE, and actor to Jeff Bridges for CRAZY HEART. In the supporting categories, actor went to Christoph Waltz for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, and actress to Mo’nique for PRECIOUS.

Next up, The AFI named their Movies of The Year:

CORALINE
THE HANGOVER
THE HURT LOCKER
THE MESSENGER
PRECIOUS
A SERIOUS MAN
A SINGLE MAN
SUGAR
UP
UP IN THE AIR

Finally, in the wee hours of the morning today, The Critics Choice nominees were announced. I’ll post the full nominee list after the jump, but here are the ten nominees they chose for Best Picture.

AVATAR
AN EDUCATION
THE HURT LOCKER
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
INVICTUS
NINE
PRECIOUS
A SERIOUS MAN
UP
UP IN THE AIR.

So, what does this all mean? Not much, for starters. I’m loathe to call any of these an absolutely sound water stick for Oscar Nominees – but you’ll likely find many spots online that will fully believe in the predicting power of at least one of them. One thing I think we can see -when one takes all this and combines it with the previously announced NBR Awards – is that three spots in Oscar’s Best Picture race are pretty much locked in. UP IN THE AIR, PRECIOUS, and THE HURT LOCKER are almost givens at this point, with seven others still to be decided.

This will all be cemented or clouded a tad further today and tomorrow with The New York Film Critics announcing their year-end best of, and those wacky cats at The Golden Globes announcing their nominees tomorrow morning. Feel free to argue about what this all means in the comments section, and after the jump you can find the rest of the BFCA nominees.

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges – “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney – “Up In The Air”
Colin Firth – “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman – “Invictus”
Viggo Mortensen – “The Road”
Jeremy Renner – “The Hurt Locker”

BEST ACTRESS
Emily Blunt – “The Young Victoria”
Sandra Bullock – “The Blind Side”
Carey Mulligan – “An Education”
Saoirse Ronan – “The Lovely Bones”
Gabourey Sidibe – “Precious”
Meryl Streep – “Julie & Julia”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon – “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson – “The Messenger”
Christian McKay – “Me And Orson Welles”
Alfred Molina – “An Education”
Stanley Tucci – “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz – “Inglourious Basterds”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Marion Cotillard – “Nine”
Vera Farmiga – “Up In The Air”
Anna Kendrick – “Up In The Air”
Mo’Nique – “Precious”
Julianne Moore – “A Single Man”
Samantha Morton – “The Messenger”

BEST DIRECTING
Kathryn Bigelow – “The Hurt Locker”
James Cameron – “Avatar”
Lee Daniels – “Precious”
Clint Eastwood – “Invictus”
Jason Reitman – “Up In The Air”
Quentin Tarantino – “Inglourious Basterds”

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Mark Boal – “The Hurt Locker”
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – “A Serious Man”
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber – “(500) Days Of Summer”
Bob Peterson, Peter Docter – “Up”
Quentin Tarantino – “Inglourious Basterds”

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach – “Fantastic Mr. Fox”
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell – “District 9”
Geoffrey Fletcher – “Precious”
Tom Ford, David Scearce – “A Single Man”
Nick Hornby – “An Education”
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner – “Up In The Air”