Toni Collette, Ethan Hawke, and "Roma" Conquer Chicago
Sunday, December 9, 2018 at 1:32AM The Chicago Film Critics Association held their annual dinner Saturday evening and named Roma Best Film of the year and handed it four other prizes to underline the point. The Favourite, First Reformed, and If Beale Street Could Talk each picked up two prizes. The complete list of winners is after the jump...
Film Roma
Director Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Actress Toni Colette, Hereditary
Actor Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Supporting Actor Richard E Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
These five winners are solidifying themselves as the critical darlings of the year along with Regina King in Beale Street but Regina did not emerge victorious in Chicago because...
Supporting Actress Olivia Colman, The Favourite
While we'd normally applaud a critics group for thinking for themselves, we have trouble with that when it comes to Category Fraud and the Chicago Film Critics totally indulged in the misguided belief that a film can only have one lead. They considered all the most talked about co-leads this year Mahershala Ali, Timothee Chalamet, Rachel Weisz, and Olivia Colman to be supporting... except for Emma Stone who they deemed the sole lead of The Favourite's ménage à trois.
Original Screenplay First Reformed
Adapted Screenplay If Beale Street Could Talk
Animated Feature Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse
Documentary Feature Minding the Gap
Foreign Film Roma
Most Promising Filmmaker Bing Liu, Minding The Gap
Most Promising Performer Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade
Editing Roma
Cinematography Roma
Score If Beale Street Could Talk
Production Design The Favourite
Use of Visual Effects Annihilation
Annihilation is a wonderful choice for visual effects and we hope the Academy makes room for it in their nominations. We consider it possible given the very satisfying surprise win for Alex Garland's Ex Machina a few years back.
Reader Comments (24)
Nat, didn't Chalamet win Supporting Actor for Beautiful Boy?
It's odd that awards voters seem so unwilling to consider there may be three leads in a film expressly about three people squabbling...
I honestly thought Glenn Close was going to win all the critics awards and so far she has won NOTHING. Toni Collette has been winning almost everything in sight. Even though she didn't get a Globe nomination, is it possible for the Academy to honor another horror , so soon after Get Out.
And it looks like Ethan Hawke has Best Actor in the bag. I think this will be his 5th nomination (and first Best Actor nom).
I honestly thought Glenn Close was going to win all the critics awards and so far she has won NOTHING. Toni Collette has been winning almost everything in sight. Even though she didn't get a Globe nomination, is it possible for the Academy to honor another horror , so soon after Get Out.
And it looks like Ethan Hawke has Best Actor in the bag. I think this will be his 5th nomination (and first Best Actor nom).
Ethan Hawke's and Toni Collette's performances are both and obviously "critics-bait." and I fully expect them each to sweep the Best Actor and Best Actress awards that the 50+ American critics' organizations will announce over the next two months. But even if they win literally everything, neither performance is an Oscar shoe-in. If I was a gambling man I would put them each in a very precarious fifth spot (behind Bale, Cooper, Mortensen, and Malek in the male field; behind Gaga, Colman, Close, and the new Meryl Streep, Miss Viola Davis)
Oh, I see! American critics have decided to show they have a mind of their own by snubbing Glenn Close of the Best Actress race (Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco) while they indulge all the category frauds of the world.
How brave of them.
As much as we can champion Toni Collette to the nomination finishing line, I think the last few year’s newly recruit Academy members have been programmed to think about other factors in their selections instead of a great Acting performance.
I think Close is back in with the televised awards like McDormand last year, so I'm just happy to see Collette doing so well in the interim.
Actually, Close probably won't win the Globe and she's not just missing. Out of the four critics' groups so far announcing nods, she failed to get nods from three of them. McDormand got everything last year, every nod. She even had plenty of wins.
Its December and people still think Glenn Close is winning the Oscar???
Thrilled that Hawke keeps steamrolling. Nat, I know you hate consensus in critics' awards, but he really needs this if he's going to get an Oscar nod.
wait you say Grant wasnt victorious but hes listed as the winner. eho won?
Delighted for Toni. Holding out hope she'll earn a SAG nom to propel her to Oscar recognition.
huh -- sorry. wrote that at 1:30 am and obviously i was half asleep. fixed!
or drunk
Liza -- unfortunately, no!
Nathaniel, I saw on another site that the Academy had picked their shortlist for visual effects (https://www.indiewire.com/2018/12/oscar-visual-effects-shortlist-20-incredibles-2-isle-of-dogs-1202025051/). Annihilation is not on the list. I'm as angry about this as you are.
I'm not surprised by Collette winning these critics awards. Besides being fully deserving, it's the type of role that seems to do well with these audiences. Rosamund Pike similarly won a lot of these a few years back for a movie and role that was not considered totally in Oscar's wheelhouse. I expect the same this year, though hoping Collette can score that nomination after doing so well with the critic groups.
Hawke is peaking early. Look for Christian Bale to come from behind. The comments I'm hearing (some from very influential people) are that he's going to go head-to-head with Bale and Cooper. One person said he "can't imagine" anyone but Bale winning in the end.
Rob -- curious. They were supposed to announce the 17th.
Dan H -- that's so gross.
I love Hawke and think he is the best actor of that generation. He seems likely to win an Oscar within the next 5-10 years. But I will be shocked if Cooper doesn't sweep the televised awards. A Star is Born is too significant an achievement, and there was so much doubt that he could pull it off. Plus, Cuaron seems locked for Best Director, so Best Actor will be Cooper's reward.
There are performances like Bale's every year (Oldman just last year), and he already has an Oscar.
Nathaniel, if I remember correctly, this is the first of their shortlists. They narrowed the field to 20 for the bake-off and they'll narrow it to 9 on the 17th.
Even the Chicago-based critics seem unimpressed with the Chicago-based ‘Widows.’
TOM, Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune critic) gave "Widows" a full four stars, so that's not quite the case.