It's Official: 'Star Wars' is A Best Picture Nominee At 2016 Critics' Choice Awards!

It's official! Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a Best Picture nominee at this year's Critics' Choice Awards. It was announced last Friday that the Broadcast Film Critics Association (the producers of the Critics' Choice Awards) would be voting Monday to add the film in an almost completely unheard-of turn of events. The results are in, and it looks like the Best Picture category is getting its 11^th nominee!

Last Friday, BFCA members were sent an email asking the question of if the members had been allowed to see the film before initial polling closed (the film ultimately screened for critics after nominations closed), would they have voted for the film in the Best Picture category?

The move came after an apparent outcry from the members of the BFCA, with enough people clamoring to add the latest installment in the beloved space opera franchise to the category.

Voting went out to members Monday, and results on Tuesday indicate that enough members would have voted for the film had they been able to see it before voting ended.

This is only the second time the BFCA has allowed an extra picture to be added. The association added the Robert Zemeckis-directed drama, Castaway, to the Best Picture lineup in 2000.

The move, plus the enormous box office success of the movie, has many Oscar pundits predicting a Best Picture nomination at the 2016 Academy Awards. The film has broken into the top 10 over at awards prediction website, GoldDerby, with seven experts now predicting the film will earn a nomination in film's biggest awards category.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens joins other big awards hitters such as Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Spotlight, Brooklyn, Room, The Martian, The Big Short, Carol, Sicario and Bridge of Spies in the category.

The Critics' Choice Awards will air Jan. 17, 2016.