Critics Choice Awards Spread the Wealth

Anora is suddenly at the front of the pack
thanks to wins at the Critics Choice, DGA and PGA

Anora, Wicked, Emilia Perez, and The Substance were among the top winners at the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards held Fri. Feb. 7 in Los Angeles after two postponements due to wildfires in the area. No one picture dominated the proceedings, throwing the race for the Oscars even further into disarray with no clear frontrunner before the big night on March 2. Anora unexpectedly won Best Picture though it lost in all of its other categories. The comedy about an escort marrying the son of a Russian oligarch suddenly leapt to the head of the Oscar pack since it also won the top prize at the PGA Awards and its director Sean Baker won at the DGA Awards, both presented the next day on Feb. 8. Wicked's John Chu was named best directed by the Critics Choice though he was not nominated by the DGA or the Oscars. Emilia Perez took awards for Best Foreign-Language Film, Supporting Actress Zoe Saldana, and Best Song. The French-made, set-in-Mexico film has been embroiled in controversy since anti-black and Muslim tweets by its transgender star Karla Sofia Gascon have surfaced. The Substance won for Best Actress Demi Moore, Original Screenplay and Make-up. Best Supporting Actor Kieran Culkin of A Real Pain was not present since he is rehearsing Glengarry Glen Ross for Broadway in NYC.  Adrien Brody of The Brutalist was named Best Actor.

Host Chelsea Handler opened the show by paying tribute to LA first responders, a sampling of whom were special guests at the ceremony. In the TV categories, FX's Shogun dominated with four wins while Hacks won three.

Conclave and Wicked Top Critics Choice List

Ralph Fiennes in Conclave
Credit: Focus Features

Conclave and Wicked topped the list of nominees for the Critics Choice Award film categories with 11 each. Dune Part 2 and Emilia Perez followed with 10 each. The 30th annual Critics Choice Awards will be presented on Jan. 12 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Chelsea Handler will repeat her hosting duties from last year and the show will be broadcast on E! The nominations for Best Picture, Actor and Actress were announced on Dec. 12 on the Today Show by host Carson Daly. Formerly known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Critics Choice Association, like the Golden Globes, also give out TV honors. Those nominations were announced last week with Shogun leading the list with six. Abbott Elementary, Disclaimer, Hacks, The Diplomat, The Penguin and What We Do in the Shadows followed with four nods each.

I'm grateful that Marianne Jean-Baptiste of Hard Truths and Danielle Deadwyler of The Piano Lesson were not snubbed here are they were for the Golden Globes. Unlike last year when Oppenheimer and Barbie were clear front-runners, the race for film awards is wide open, so it's difficult to predict winners.

A complete list of the film nominees follows:

'Lincoln' Leads Broadcast Film Critics Noms

Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln

Critics' movie awards continue to announce their winners and nominees and Lincoln finally trumped Zero Dark Thirty, taking the most nominations, a record 13 from the Broadcast Film Critics Association including Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress and Director. This group is composed of scribes who air their views on TV, radio or the web. A few years ago they graduated from merely announcing their winners like the New York Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association to rolling out announcements for nominations and then presenting the awards in a TV ceremony and calling the event the Critics Choice Awards. The show has been on VH-1 and this year it will go from basic cable to broadcast network on the CW with a ceremony telecast on Jan. 10, the day the Oscar nominations are announced.

Perhaps in an attempt to out Golden-Globe the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Broadcast Critics have added even more categories than the GG, presenting award for Best Comedy and Action Picture and Actor and Actress in those respective genres. In addition, you can be nominated in those categories and also be in the running in the general film fields. Thus Judi Dench is nominated three times, for Supporting Actress and Best Actress in an Action Picture for her M in Skyfall and as part of the Best Ensemble for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Likewise, Bradley Cooper is nominated for Best Actor and Best Actor in a Comedy for Silver Linings Playbook. Even I'm not obsessive enough to list all those nominations in my compilation of the all the film awards so far (See below) Also I will skip the Detroit Film Critics nominations (maybe when the announce their winners, I'll include them.)

Picture: Argo (cc)
Amour (LAFCA)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (cc)
Django Unchained (cc)
Les Miserables (cc)
Life of Pi (cc)
Lincoln (cc)
The Master (cc)
Moonrise Kingdom (cc)
Silver Linings Playbook (cc)
Zero Dark Thirty (Bos, cc, NBR, NYFCC, NYO) 

Actor: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook (cc, NBR)
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (Bos, cc, NYFCC, NYO)
John Hawkes, The Sessions (cc)
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables (cc)
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master (cc, LAFCA)
Denzel Washington, Flight (cc)

Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty (cc, NBR)
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone (cc)
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook (cc, LAFCA-tie)
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour (Bos, cc, LAFCA-tie, NYO)
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild (cc)
Naomi Watts, The Impossible (cc)
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea (NYFCC)

Supp. Actor: Alan Arkin, Argo (cc)
Javier Bardem, Skyfall (cc)
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook (cc)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained (NBR)
Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild (LAFCA)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master (cc)
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln (cc, NYO)
Matthew Maconaughey, Bernie and Magic Mike (cc, NYFCC)
Ezra Miller, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Bos)

Supp. Actress: Amy Adams, The Master (cc, LAFCA)
Judi Dench, Skyfall (cc)
Ann Dowd, Compliance (cc, NBR)
Sally Field, Lincoln (Bos, cc, NYFCC)
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables (cc, NY)
Helen Hunt, The Sessions (cc)

Director: Ben Affleck, Argo (cc)
Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master (LAFCA)
Katheryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty (Bos, cc, NBR, NYFCC)
Tom Hooper, Les Miserables (cc)
Ang Lee, Life of Pi (cc)
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook (cc)
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln (cc)

Bos=Boston Society of Film Critics; cc=Critics Choice Award nomination; LAFCA=Los Angeles Film Critics Assoc.; NBR=National Board of Review; NYFCC=New York Film Critics Circle; NYO=New York Film Critics Online