The Critics Choice awards have released their nominations with "12 Years a Slave" and "American Hustle" leading the nominees with 13 apiece.
Among the nominations for "12 Years a Slave," filmmaker Steve McQueen was nominated for Best director; Chiwetel Ejiofor was nominated for Best Actor; a Best Supporting Actor nod went to Michael Fassbender; Lupita Nyong'o was nominated for Best Supporting Actressand; and John Ridley was nominated for Best Screenplay. The movie also obtained technical nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Score, Best Editing, Best Makeup, and Best Acting Ensemble.
Meanwhile, "American Hustle" garnered nominations in the Best Picture, Best Director (David O. Russell), and Best Supporting Actress category (Jennifer Lawrence). Christian Bale surprised in the Best Actor category while Bradley Cooper was shortlisted for Best Supporting Actor. The movie was also nominated for Best Ensemble, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Costume Design. The movie also obtained nominations in second tier categories including Best Comedy, Best Comedy actor for Christian Bale and Best Comedy Actress for Amy Adams.
Other Best Picture nominees included "Gravity," which was nominated for 10 awards, and "Captain Phillips," which was nominated for six. "Her," "Nebraska" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" were also nominated in six categories including Best Picture.
Other Best Picture nominees included "Inside Llewyn Davis," "Saving Mr. Banks" and "Dallas Buyers Club."
Meanwhile, "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" had a huge showing with five nominations including Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design while "August: Osage County" was nominated for four awards including Best Ensemble.
The Critics Choice awards are important to the Oscar race because they are known for predicting the nominees. The association was the only precursor awards to have predicted "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" for Best Picture and last year eight of the nine best picture nominees were also nominated for the Critics Choice. Previous winners include "Argo," "The Artist," "The Social Network," "The Hurt Locker," and "Slumdog Millionaire."