When Mad Max: Fury Road came out last summer it was universally adored by both movie fans and critics alike. It was, without a doubt, a great movie. However, nobody really expected we’d be hearing about it in awards season. And yet, here we are. Fury Road surprised some when it was named as the Nation Board of Review’s best film of 2015. What’s now proven true is that the NBR is not an anomaly as the film just grabbed another year-end award, this time from the Online Film Critics Society.
The Online Film Critics Society is made up of 254 critics from 22 different countries. Apparently car chases translate into any language as George Miller won the Best Director award for his work on the movie as well. According to The Hollywood Reporter Fury Road also received editing and cinematography awards. The Mad Max wasteland movie is slowly building up a fairly impressive set of awards. It’s looking like the film may be one of those rare moments when the average movie goer and the average film critics may actually agree on what a good movie is.
If that’s not enough, the Broadcast Film Critics Association just released their nominations, and Mad Max: Fury Road has more nominations than any other film (!!) at 13. Among the nominations are Best Picture and Best Director, as well as a Best Actress Nomination for Charlize Theron. The BFCA gives separate nominations for different film genres, as well as general awards, which has resulted in Fury Road getting nominations in both the action categories as well as the general categories.
These recognitions comes on the heels of Fury Road also receiving best picture and director nominations at the Golden Globe awards. The film is looking more and more like it might end up being a much more serious Oscar contender than anybody would have predicted just a few months ago. This is a good thing because the movie is actually that good. While there are certainly a number of deserving films, it would upset few around here if Mad Max: Fury Road actually won Best Picture. It is a summer blockbuster, but it’s also a fantastic film using just about any metric that a film critic uses. The fact that George Miller was able to make the movie a huge financial success as well is just more evidence of how great it is.
The awards and nominations just keep coming. At this rate, Mad Max will have filled his post-apocalyptic vehicle with numerous statues by the time the Academy Awards come around. It’s becoming more and more likely that Max will be there as well.
