For the second consecutive Sunday, a group of journalists gave their opinion on the cinema’s award season (this time with a much more polished virtual ceremony). Last week, Hollywood Foreign Press Association was increasingly controversial with its 78th Golden Globe. This week, it was the Critics Choice Association with its – well, our, since I am, full disclosure, a longtime voting member – 26th Critics Choice Awards.
It must be said at the outset that, between the two groups, there is only one person who is also among the nearly 10,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who will determine the 93rd Academy Award (nomination vote currently underway) – member of the HFPA Lisa Lu – therefore, these results do not directly suggest what the Academy will do.
But in a season like this, when Academy members are not mixing as they usually do and are therefore looking, in many cases, for guidance on which films to prioritize, these previous awards could have a greater influence than usual.
Then? CCA voters echoed HFPA’s choices in several key categories. Nomadland, the winner of the biggest drama drama (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm won the Top Globe for musicals / comedies), was awarded as best film and its filmmaker Chloe Zhao, who has been the target of some questionable rumors in recent days, won the award for best director (making her only the second woman to win the award, after The Hurt Lockerin Kathryn Bigelow)
The awards for best film and best director have not been great predictors of the corresponding Oscars in recent years – the former failed to repeat itself in four of the last six, while the latter failed in only four of the last six – so The Chicago Trial 7 (who won the best performance award, a good consolation before the SAG Awards), Minari (who won the awards for best foreign language film, for which he is not eligible for an Oscar, and for best young actor / actress, for a lovely 8-year-old child Alan Kim), et al, should not throw in the towel just yet.
The late Chadwick Boseman again prevented strong competition to win the best actor for Black Bottom by Ma Rainey, as was widely expected. (Boseman was awarded the drama actor Globe, while Boratin Sacha Baron Cohen received the musical / comedy actor award.) Daniel Kaluuya won the best supporting actor for Judas and the Black Messiah, solidifying his position as the man to be beaten in that race.
The other repeated winner: the Soul, composed by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste.
Even more interesting, however, are the categories in which the CCA and the HFPA differed. Globos’ best actress went to United States x Billie Holidayin Andra’s Day (drama) and I care a lotin Rosamund Pike (musical / comedy); CCA voters nominated the first, but not the last, and chose to honor Promising young womanin Carey Mulligan, a big boost for his campaign, especially considering how much CCA voters liked the Frances McDormand– anchored Nomadland.
Promising young womanin Emerald Fennell also won best original screenplay on Attemptsin Aaron Sorkin, who won the only Globo script, suggesting that she and her film should not be underestimated.
The other award for female acting, best supporting actress, went to BoratBulgarian escape from Maria bakalova. The 24-year-old actress was forced to compete in one of the categories of leading actresses on Globo and lost to Pike; here, she was back in the support race, facing formidable veterans like Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy), Olivia Colman (The father) and Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari), and won. Given that the last 13 recipients of this Critics Choice Award have won the corresponding Oscar, she and her supporters must be feeling much better than they were a week ago (when The Mauritanianin Jodie Foster – who was not nominated for the Critics Choice Award – won the Globo in this category).
Meanwhile, Zhao’s Nomadland script won the best adapted script Critics Choice Award, after losing in the single script category on Globo. Palm Springs upset winner of the globe Borat in the category of best comedy. AND One night in miami entered the frame with the award for best music for “Speak Now”, composed and performed by Leslie Odom, Jr., also nominated for best supporting actor in the film, surpassing, among other songs, Life aheadof “Io Si”, which won the Globe.
The “below the line” categories were scattered all over the place. Nomadland, with his famous long tracking shot, won the best photograph. Black Bottom by Ma Rainey won the award for best hair and makeup and best costume. Mank won the best production design. Attempts and Metal sound tied for better editing. AND Principle prevailed in the VFX category.
Monday morning will bring the 10 nominees to the Producers Guild of America award, which is expected to offer much more valuable clues to the thoughts of Academy members, given that 614 Academy members are producers, most of whom presumably belong to the PGA , and that The PGA, like the Academy, employs a preferential vote to select its nominees and winners.