Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Grabs 7 Nominations at Jameson Empire Awards

Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” is the most prominent film at Jameson Empire Awards with 7 nominations. This comes as little shocker as the mega-budget movie has not done fairly as good when we talk about nominations for Academy Awards and Golden Globes. Jameson Empire Awards is organized by Empire Magazine which is a monthly film magazine. The award show is essentially fan-based and magazine readers from all over the world get to vote for the winners of the year.

Steve McQueen’s Oscar nominated film “12 Years a Slave” is at second place with 6 nominations, while Francis Lawrence’s “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” is at third place with 5 nominations. British director Paul Greengrass’ Oscar nominated film “Captain Phillips” also grabbed five nominations, while Alfonso Cuarón’s space drama Gravity was able to get 4 nominations. These five films have been nominated for the best film award.

Paul Greengrass has been announced to be awarded with the Empire Inspiration Award at the event for his outstanding work on the “Bourne” series. Under the category of Best Director Award, he will contest against four renowned directors including Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity), Edgar Wright (The World’s End), Peter Jackson (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), and Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave).

The first film of the series, “The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey”, had grabbed two awards for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy film and Best Actor (Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins) at the Empire awards in 2013. This year, the second installment of the franchise has not only been nominated for the category of Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Best Actor, but it also has been nominated for Best Film. Richard Armitage (who played the role of Thorin Oakenshield) has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor, while Evangeline Lilly (who played female lead role as Tauriel) has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Aidan Turner has been nominated for Best Male Newcomer.

It was recently reported that DVD and Blu-ray for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug has been projected to launch on April 8. After the film turn out to be box office hit, fans are now enthusiastically waiting for the third installment, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, that has already been announced to launch at the end of this year.

Throwing some spoilers, director Peter Jackson had earlier stated that there could be a huge fight between the elves, men, dwarves, and goblins, when they reach at the Lonely Mountain.