A full month after Christmas Eve and you'd normally be expecting Oscar nominations by now, but no! Not this year! We're still stuck amid the unceasing first wave of COVID-19 and the apparently also unceasing first wave of critics' groups awards. Today brings the nominations for the North Texas Film Critics Association's prizes for the best in film of 2020, and there's a familiar candidate leading them up. Chloe Zhao's Nomadland has five nods to her three fellow Best Picture contenders' three apiece: Mank, Promising Young Woman and The Trial of the Chicago 7. Of note is that this group doesn't bother with a Best Screenplay prize, has picked three white guys for Supporting Actor nominations in a year packed with actors of colour contending in that category, and considers Jessie Buckley a "newcomer." Hmm... The North Texas critics took their time picking their nominees, but are in quite the rush to decide upon their winners - they'll be announced just two days from today, on the 26th of January.
Best Picture
Mank
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Director
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)
Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)
David Fincher (Mank)
Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)
Best Actress
Viola Davis (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)
Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman)
Frances McDormand (Nomadland)
Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman)
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal)
Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom)
Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods)
Steven Yeun (Minari)
Best Supporting Actress
Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm)
Ellen Burstyn (Pieces of a Woman)
Youn Yuh Jung (Minari)
Best Supporting Actor
Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7)
Bill Murray (On the Rocks)
J. K. Simmons (Palm Springs)
Best Cinematography
Erik Messerschmidt (Mank)
Joshua James Richards (Nomadland)
Hoyte van Hoytema (Tenet)
Gary Murray Award for Best Ensemble
Da 5 Bloods
The Glorias
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Animated Film
Over the Moon
Soul
Wolfwalkers
Best Documentary
All In: The Fight for Democracy
Crip Camp
Time
Best Foreign Language Film
The Life Ahead (Italy)
Minari (South Korea)
The Mole Agent (China)
Best Newcomer
Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm)
Jessie Buckley (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)
Linda May (Nomadland)