Critics' Choice Noms: Nine, Inglourious Basterds, Jackson and (Surprise!) Clooney

All-star musical bonanza and Tarantino's Nazi-hunting flick each up for 10 awards; Bullock, Damon, Streep also among nominees

By Gina Serpe Dec 14, 2009 3:34 PMTags
Up In The Air, George Clooney, Nine, Penelope Cruz, Inglourious Basterds, Bradd PittFrancouis Duhamel/ The Weinstein Co., David James/ The Weinstein Co., Dale Robinette/Paramount Pictures

There's nothing like a little singing, dancing and Nazi-hunting to get critics in the mood for awards season.

The star-studded musical bonanza Nine and Quentin Tarantino's World War II-era epic Inglourious Basterds received a record-setting 10 nominations apiece for the 15th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, including a Best Picture nod for both.

Inglourious Basterds also clocked up nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Tarantino, Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz, Best Ensemble (which means the chances of a Brangelina sighting just got exponentially better) and Best Action Movie, among others.

Nine, meanwhile, is also up for Best Ensemble, along with Best Supporting Actress for Marion Cotillard (the only singled-out acting award for the crew) and Best Song.

James Cameron's Avatar, Up in the Air and The Hurt Locker each tallied eight nominations.

And the rest of the categories aren't without their big names, as George Clooney, Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep, Gabourey Sidibe, Matt Damon, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Mo'Nique, Julianne Moore, Clint Eastwood, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson and a certain Enterprise crew all racked up nominations.

If the nominee count seems particularly high this time around, you're not deluded. The Broadcast Film Critics Association decided to increase the prize total from 17 to 25—because if there's one thing awards shows are lacking these days, it's the time-consuming distribution of more statuettes to people you've never heard of.

The new categories: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup, Best Sound and splitting the writing honor into Original and Adapted Screenplay.

The biggest single category is Best Picture, which features a field of 10: Inglourious Basterds, Nine, Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Invictus, Precious, A Serious Man, Up and Up in the Air.

The awards will be handed out on Jan. 15. The ceremony will be hosted by Kristin Chenoweth and airs on VH1.

Here's the complete list of nominees:

BEST PICTURE

Avatar
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Nine
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

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 YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS

Jae Head, The Blind Side
Bailee Madison, Brothers
Max Records, Where The Wild Things Are
Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Road

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

Inglourious Basterds
Nine
Precious
Star Trek
Up in the Air

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 Boalm, 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

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Barry Ackroyd, The Hurt Locker
Dion Beebe, Nine
Mauro Fiore, Avatar
Andrew Lesnie, The Lovely Bones
Robert Richardson, Inglourious Basterds

BEST ART DIRECTION

Dan Bishop, A Single Man
Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Avatar
John Myhre, Gordon Sim, Nine
Naomi Shohan, George De Titta, Jr., The Lovely Bones
David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds Wasco, Inglourious Basterds

BEST EDITING

Dana E. Glauberman, Up in the Air
Sally Menke, Inglourious Basterds
Bob Murawski, Chris Innis, The Hurt Locker
Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron, Avatar
Claire Simpson, Wyatt Smith, Nine

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Colleen Atwood, Nine
Janet Patterson, Bright Star
Sandy Powell, The Young Victoria
Anna Sheppard, Inglourious Basterds
Casey Storm, Where The Wild Things Are

BEST MAKEUP

Avatar
District 9
Nine
The Road
Star Trek

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar
District 9
The Lovely Bones
Star Trek
2012

BEST SOUND

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Nine
Star Trek

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Princess And The Frog
Up

BEST ACTION MOVIE

Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek

BEST COMEDY

(500) Days Of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated
The Proposal
Zombieland

BEST PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION

Gifted Hands
Grey
Gardens
Into The Storm
Taking Chance

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Broken Embraces
Coco
Before Chanel
Red Cliff
Sin Nombre
The White Ribbon

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Anvil
Capitalism: A Love Story
The Cove
Food, Inc.
Michael Jackson’s This Is It

BEST SONG

"All Is Love," Karen O, Nick Zinner (Where The Wild Things Are)
"Almost There," Randy Newman (The Princess and the Frog)
"Cinema Italiano," Maury Yeston (Nine)
"(I Want To) Come Home," Paul McCartney (Everybody’s Fine)
"The Weary Kind," T Bone Burnett, Ryan Bingham (Crazy Heart)

BEST SCORE

Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant!
Randy Newman, The Princess and the Frog
Karen O, Carter Burwell, Where The Wild Things Are
Hans Zimmer, Sherlock Holmes

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