23RD ONLINE FILM CRITICS SOCIETY AWARDS NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED
“The Irishman,” “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” “Parasite,” and “Marriage Story” lead the nominations for the 23rd Annual Online Film Critics Society Nominations
December 23, 2018 — As we approach the end of a decade that will be remembered for a long time to come, the members of the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) have voted for their choices for the best films 2019 has given us. The winners will be revealed on January 6th.
What a year 2019 has been. In March, Fox became a part of the Disney family. In July, the longstanding worldwide box-office record fell. In November, Scorsese attacked superhero movies and showed everyone how to use CGI on non-fantasy movies. His film, “The Irishman,” is now the top contender for the awards at the OFCS awards with eight nominations in a majority of the most desired categories, while “Joker” is the only comic based work with any nominations (two).
Netflix also showed its strength with “Marriage Story” in six categories, making this web-based corporation the strongest among distributors.
In a close second we have Neon Films, distributor of “Parasite,” “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” “Apollo 11,” and “Monos,” which received a total of twelve nominations, with three out of the five contenders in the Best Film Not in the English Language category.
“Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” returns the audience to an unforgettable moment in the history of American cinema and it pleased the members of the OFCS enough that they gave it seven nominations.
Cannes Film Festival favorite Bong Joon-ho finally won the Palme d’Or with “Parasite,” which is one of the top candidates with the OFCS with six nominations.
Sam Mendes’ “1917” is the most nominated film without acting nominees. The epic war movie had five nominations.
The new big names of horror Ari Aster and Jordan Peele kept on working within that genre this year. Peele won the OFCS award for Best Picture in 2017 and this year he is in the running again with four nominations. Aster’s approach to a Nordic pagan festival only received one nomination for its lead star, Florence Pugh, who was also nominated for “Little Women.” Greta Gerwig’s new approach to the classic was nominated in three categories.
Another female director that came on strong this year is Céline Sciamma and her film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.“ The feature got four nominations, all women. In the Debut Feature category we see three other women, Mati Diop (“Atlantics”), Melina Matsoukas (“Queen & Slim”) and Olivia Wilde (“Booksmart”). In 2019, it is the only category (apart from acting) where women have the majority.
The Walt Disney Company may have dominated this year’s box office, and will probably end the year with seven of the top ten films, a feat that pulverizes their amazing results of 2016, but in terms of nominations, Disney wasn’t that lucky. They only had three films and with four total nominations between them. Half in their dominant field, Best Animated Feature (“Toy Story 4” and “Frozen 2”) and half from their acquisition of Fox Searchlight (Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit.”)
In a year that “Star Wars” closes out a new trilogy, Rian Johnson, the director of the eighth chapter, did a less conventional project with great success: two nominations for “Knives Out”.
“Atlantics,” “Hustlers,” “Pain and Glory,” “The Farewell,” “The Lighthouse,” and “Uncut Gems” are the only other films with double nominations.
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About the Online Film Critics Society
Established in 1997, the Online Film Critics Society continues to support and champion the best of global online film criticism. With an international membership, work is published in more than 15 languages and covers cinema from around the world. More information can be found at ofcs.org.
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