Two films lead the nominations for the critics' picks in 1991 cinema: Barry Levinson's Bugsy and Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs. The latter went on to demolish its competition in top categories at the year's Oscars, and is represented in those same five categories here where it reigned supremere there: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor and Screenplay. Here, of course, is the Critics Consensus Awards, where I'm collating data from the critics' year-end awards and polls for each calendar year for the past five decades, assigning points values to said data, and declaring awards and nominations for all 50 of those frames. Of note in '91 is that three of four acting categories boast two nominees from the same film (Best Actor being the exception), while for the second consecutive year only two Best Picture nominees were also up for that Oscar (the two nomination-leaders, predictably). Two individual occurrences of category splitting can be found this year, for the first time ever, in Leading Actor Anthony Hopkins and Supporting Actress Mercedes Ruehl - both secured enough points to be nominated in Leading and Supporting each, but per CCA rules were placed in the category for which they received more points. Category splitting is actually fairly rare here (and increasingly so), and this is its sole double occurrence in a single frame. You may notice the absence of Oscar winner Jack Palance in Supporting Actor - our first acting Oscar recipient to fail to make the CCA cut. This year also marks the first appearances of the Coen brothers, who (mild spoiler alert) will go on to become the CCA's most-nominated persons to date. And Gus van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, which was nominated for no Oscars, lands in Picture, Director and Actor, impressively. Later, I'll reveal the '91 award winners, but your nominations for now are as follows:
Best Picture
Barton Fink (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)
Bugsy (Warren Beatty, Mark Johnson and Barry Levinson)
My Own Private Idaho (Laurie Parker and Gus van Sant)
The Silence of the Lambs (Ronald M. Bozman, Jonathan Demme, Edward Saxon and Kenneth Utt)
Thelma & Louise (Mimi Polk Gitlin and Ridley Scott)
Best Director
Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs)
Terry Gilliam (The Fisher King)
Barry Levinson (Bugsy)
Oliver Stone (JFK)
Gus van Sant (My Own Private Idaho)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Geena Davis (Thelma & Louise)
Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs)
Susan Sarandon (Thelma & Louise)
Alison Steadman (Life Is Sweet)
Juliet Stevenson (Truly Madly Deeply)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Warren Beatty (Bugsy)
Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs)
Joe Mantegna (Homicide)
Nick Nolte (The Prince of Tides)
River Phoenix (My Own Private Idaho)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Jane Horrocks (Life Is Sweet)
Diane Ladd (Rambling Rose)
Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear)
Amanda Plummer (The Fisher King)
Mercedes Ruehl (The Fisher King)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
John Goodman (Barton Fink)
Steven Hill (Billy Bathgate)
Samuel L. Jackson (Jungle Fever)
Harvey Keitel (Bugsy)
Michael Lerner (Barton Fink)
Best Screenplay
David Cronenberg (Naked Lunch)
Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise)
Zachary Sklar and Oliver Stone (JFK)
Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs)
James Toback (Bugsy)
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