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Source: Deadline
Compared to the more well-known and prestigious Academy Awards and even the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice Awards are a more recent addition to the vast number of ceremonies that make up the film awards circuit. First established in 1996 and referred to as the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, the event is held each year by the American-Canadian Film Critics Choice Association, an organization made up of several online, radio and television critics who specialize in the medium of film. The ceremony may be relatively young compared to its more popular contemporaries, but in recent years, the Critics Choice Awards have started to gain a considerably greater amount of attention, especially since it first began airing on network television (this year on the CW). Part of this can be attributed to how accurate of a predictor the event has become for the forthcoming Oscars, as many of the winners who earn a prize at the Critics Choice Awards have gone on to win the exact same prize at the Oscars. If that trend continues, then the results of this year’s ceremony, the 28th Critic Choice Awards, should provide a somewhat accurate picture of what the upcoming Academy Awards might look like.
Coming into the ceremony with a total of fourteen nominations, a record total achieved only by three films prior (2017’s “The Shape of Water”, 2018’s “The Favourite”, and 2019’s “The Irishman”), A24’s absurdist comedy-drama “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, wound up taking home a total of five accolades by the end of the night, more than any other film honored that evening. Not only was the film named Best Picture, but Kwan and Scheinert also received prizes for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, while Ke Huy Quan won for Best Supporting Actor and Paul Rogers won for Best Editing. Despite losing out the award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy to “The Banshees of Inisherin”, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has remained a prominent frontrunner in the Best Picture Oscar race for several months now, and while the Critics Choice Awards have not always been the most accurate predictor in this specific category (in the past ten years, only five of the Critics Choice winners ended up being named Best Picture at the Oscars), this win nonetheless increases the likeliness of the film Kwan and Scheinert have crafted taking the industry’s most sought-after accolade.
Coming in second place with a total of two wins overall, there were four other films tying for the runner-up spot. Angela Bassett was named Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, a film that had also been awarded with Best Costume Design (a prize that its predecessor, 2018’s “Black Panther” has also received just four years prior). Another prominent sequel, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, won awards for Best Acting Ensemble and Best Comedy (two awards that do not have specific equivalents at the Academy Awards), while the Indian epic action-drama “RRR” was named Best Foreign Language Film and its song “Naatu Naatu” was announced as Best Song. Finally, there is Todd Field’s “Tar”, for which Cate Blanchett won the Best Actress prize and Hildur Gudnadottir won for Best Score. Outside of those previously mentioned, there were two other acting prizes out handed out at the Critics Choice Awards that evening. The award for Best Young Actor/Actress went to Gabriel LaBelle for his performance in Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiography “The Fabelmans”, while Best Actor went to Brendan Fraser for his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s drama “The Whale.
Elsewhere throughout the ceremony, there were a decent number of other films that managed to leave with a single award and nothing more. Sarah Polley and her film “Women Talking” won the Critics Choice Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Claudio Miranda won the award for Best Cinematography for his work on the action sequel “Top Gun: Maverick”. Best Production Design went to Florencia Martin and Anthony Carlino for their work on the historical epic “Babylon”, Baz Luhrmann’s music biopic “Elvis” received a prize for Best Hair and Makeup, and “Avatar: The Way of Water” was honored with the award for Best Visual Effects. Finally, there was the award for Best Animated Feature, which went to “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”.
Interestingly, Martin McDonagh’s historical comedy-drama “The Banshees of Inisherin”, which went into the ceremony with nine nominations in total, ended up winning in none of the categories it was included in, despite winning many of the top honors at the recent Golden Globes. Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic “The Woman King”, which had received four Critics Choice Awards nominations, also left the event empty-handed, as did Charlotte Wells’ drama “Aftersun” and Matt Reeves’ superhero film “The Batman”, both of which earned three nominations beforehand. Oliver Hermanus’ drama “Living” and Chinonye Chukwu’s biographical drama “Till”, meanwhile, each garnered two nominations, but likewise won in none of their respective categories.
Will the wins seen at the Critics Choice Awards be repeated at the Academy Awards taking place on March 12th? If what has happened so far and elsewhere throughout the awards circuit is any indication, there’s a strong chance that they will in some cases, but might not in other cases. There are still many more major events to keep an eye on – not only are the Screen Actors Guild Awards, perhaps the most well-known of the guild-specific awards ceremonies, set to occur on February 26th, but the yet-to-be-announced Academy Awards nominations are currently expected to be revealed next week on January 24th. How these events compare to the Critics Choice Awards is at the moment uncertain, but there’s little doubt that the comparisons will be quite fascinating regardless of what happens.
