Critics' Choice Chooses "Sideways"

It's official: Lindsay Lohan is a bigger Oscar season threat than Alexander.

The teenage tabloid queen was nominated Wednesday for a Critics' Choice Award by the Broadcast Film Critics Association; Oliver Stone's Alexander the Great opus wasn't.

As has become the way, Sideways led all contenders with eight nominations, including ones for Best Picture, Best Actor (Paul Giamatti), Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Haden Church), Best Supporting Actress (Virginia Madsen) and Best Director (Alexander Payne).

Finding Neverland, the story of Peter Pan author JM Barrie, picked up seven nods, including one for star Johnny Depp. Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes opus, The Aviator, stayed in the game with six.

Jamie Foxx, who scored a hat trick with three nominations at the Golden Globes, made do with a pair of Critics' Choice Awards nominations--a Best Actor nod for Ray, a Best Supporting Actor nod for Collateral.

Lohan earned her ticket to the Jan. 10 awards ceremony with a nomination as Best Young Actress for Mean Girls.

Stone's Alexander, meanwhile, got its now usual snub. Spanglish, another movie with an Oscar pedigree from writer-director James L. Brooks, likewise was ignored.

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 received just one nomination each. Passion will battle the likes of Spider-Man 2 for Best Popular Movie; Fahrenenheit 9/11 will vie for Best Documentary Feature. The controversial box-office hits missed out on the biggest prize--Best Picture. Although Golden Globe rules prevented the films from competing for the top award there, no such red tape existed at the Critics' Choice Awards. The movies just didn't get the votes.

Unlike most award-giving groups, the Critics' Choice contingent makes plain what its members think of the award contenders. The Broadcast Film Critics Website offers ratings on all the year's releases, save for those that have yet to hit theaters.

Among the Best Picture contenders (all 10 of them), Sideways was the highest rated film by the group's critics, with an average score of 96 out of a possible 100. Collateral was the lowest rated, with an 86. Numbers were not available on The Aviator, Hotel Rwanda, Million Dollar Baby and The Phantom of the Opera.

Passion, meanwhile, had an 82; Faherenheit, an 84. (Nominations are determined by balloting, not the group's average scores.)

Comprised of TV, radio and online reporters, the Broadcast Film Critics Association claims to be the most accurate predictor of Oscar nominations, citing a 94 percent match rate of its Best Picture contenders to the Academy Awards' Best Picture contenders. (Of course, the BFCA does nominate twice as many films--10, to the Academy's five.)

With Sideways dominating, this year's crop of Critics' Choice nominees is in line with the other pre-Oscar stages, including the Globes. Other now usual nominees include Imelda Staunton, up for Best Actress for Vera Drake, and Laura Linney, up for Best Supporting Actress for Kinsey.

The 10th Annual Critics' Choice Awards are to be presented in a live WB telecast from Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater. Will & Grace star Eric McCormack is set to host; Tom Cruise is set to receive the career-achievement tribute.

Here's a complete look at the nominees for the Critics' Choice Awards:

Best Picture: The Aviator Collateral Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Finding Neverland Hotel Rwanda Kinsey Million Dollar Baby The Phantom of the Opera Ray Sideways

Best Actor: Javier Bardem, The Sea Inside Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda Johnny Depp, Finding Neverland Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator Jamie Foxx, Ray Paul Giamatti, Sideways

Best Actress: Annette Bening, Being Julia Catalina Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby Uma Thurman, Kill Bill Volume 2 Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Best Supporting Actor: Thomas Haden Church, Sideways Jamie Foxx, Collateral Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby Clive Owen, Closer Peter Sarsgaard, Kinsey

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, The Aviator Laura Linney, Kinsey Virginia Madsen, Sideways Natalie Portman, Closer Kate Winslet, Finding Neverland

Best Acting Ensemble: Closer The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Ocean's Twelve Sideways

Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby Marc Forster, Finding Neverland Taylor Hackford, Ray Alexander Payne, Sideways Martin Scorsese, The Aviator

Best Writer: Bill Condon, Kinsey Charlie Kaufman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind John Logan, The Aviator David Magee, Finding Neverland Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, Sideways

Best Animated Feature: The Incredibles The Polar Express Shrek 2

Best Young Actor: Liam Aiken, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Cameron Bright, Birth Freddie Highmore, Finding Neverland Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban William Ullrich, Beyond The Sea

Best Young Actress: Emily Browning, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Dakota Fanning, Man on Fire Lindsay Lohan, Mean Girls Emmy Rossum, The Phantom of the Opera Emma Watson, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Best Popular Movie: The Bourne Supremacy The Incredibles Napoleon Dynamite The Passion of the Christ Spider-Man 2

Best Family Film (Live Action): Finding Neverland Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Miracle Spider-Man 2

Best Picture Made for Television: The Five People You Meet in Heaven The Life and Death of Peter Sellers Something the Lord Made The Wool Cap

Best Documentary Feature: Control Room Fahrenheit 9/11 Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Super Size Me

Best Foreign Language Film: House of Flying Daggers Maria Full of Grace The Motorcycle Diaries The Sea Inside A Very Long Engagement

Best Song: "Accidentally in Love" from Shrek 2, Counting Crows "Believe" from The Polar Express, Josh Groban "Old Habits Die Hard" from Alfie, Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart

Best Soundtrack: Alfie Beyond the Sea De-Lovely Garden State Ray

Best Composer: Michael Giacchino, The Incredibles Rolfe Kent, Sideways Howard Shore, The Aviator