Critics Choice Award Winners, Blanchett's Speech, and More
Monday, January 16, 2023 at 8:43AM by Nathaniel R
Last night the Critics Choice Awards were held and broadcast on the CW. They copied and pasted many of the winners from the Golden Globes, though not quite all. To their credit, though, the repeat acting winners mostly seemed to understand this (a stark change from years past where you'd hear the same speech at every show) and didn't copy and paste their own speeches. There were also a few differences in attendance that varied things up (most noticeably Cate Blanchett who didn't attend the Globes; she won at both). But it was a dull night, overall, if you weren't in the room. We've gone before of course but it's been a few years and it does feel different if you're inside the room. Especially if you manage to get a seat at a fun table.
For the low energy, maybe we should blame the absence of awesome cheerleader Jamie Lee Curtis whose enthusiasm was very much missed since Everything Everywhere All At Once kept winning awards (it took five in total, the most prizes for anything) The winners and a few more comments after the jump...
FILM CATEGORIES
The Daniels win Best Director
PICTURE Everything Everywhere All At Once
DIRECTOR Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once
ACTRESS Cate Blanchett, TÁR
ACTOR Brendan Fraser, The Whale
SUPPORTING ACTRESS Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
SUPPORTING ACTOR Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once
YOUNG ACTOR Gabriel Labelle, The Fabelmans
ACTING ENSEMBLE Glass Onion
Since the CCA prides themselves on predicting the Oscar wins (sigh), we know what they think the frontrunners are. The Globes care less about "predicting" but if you take the two shows and mush them together, it's Banshees of Inisherin (which won nothing at the CCAs! ouch) vs Everything Everywhere All At Once vs The Fabelmans on Oscar night).
The best speech from these (mostly) televised wins belonged to Daniel Kwan in Best Director who told a funny story about his mother encouraging him to go to film school.
Cate Blanchett appeared to be over it, upon her win. She mentioned all the great performances in the room and also the performances of Andrea Riseborough (currently getting a big Oscar-voting timed push from her peers with Q&As moderated by Kate Winslet and Amy Adams), Tang Wei, and Penelope Cruz. Her conclusion was a desire to see an end to televised awards pitting actors against each other.
Love Cate and understand that it's all subjective and there is no true "best". But we can't agree. Imagine what the cultural landscape would be like if box office and streaming algorithms were the only barometer of popularity? END TIMES. You think things are dumbed down now? Just wait until serious craft, great acting, and thematic elements are no longer valued enough to have whole conversations and shows and a "season" built around celebrating them!
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Everything Everywhere All at Once
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Women Talking
CINEMATOGRAPHY Top Gun Maverick
PRODUCTION DESIGN Babylon
EDITING Everything Everywhere All At Once
COSTUME DESIGN Black Panther Wakanda Forever
HAIR AND MAKEUP Elvis
VISUAL EFFECTS Avatar The Way of Water
COMEDY Glass Onion
ANIMATED FEATURE Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM RRR
SONG "Naatu Naatu" RRR
SCORE TÁR
The thing about the craft categories at the CCAs is it's the one area where they don't totally care about the Oscars when voting, since some things win that aren't even eligible at the big show like RRR in foreign film and TAR in Score (it's not just this year where that's happened). But we think that's probably less about not wanting to predict the Oscars and more about just not caring as much about the "lesser*: categories and demoting them to off-air status, like the Emmys do with their craft categories.
* we have never thought about these categories as "lesser" which is why Oscar will always be the greatest award show. For 90ish years the Academy has understood this though they're understanding of the importance of all film crafts to the movies we love has been threatened this past decade as they've worried about ratings.
TV CATEGORIES
Niecy Nash-Betts always saw herself as a dramatic actress. But the industry said "Comedy"
DRAMA SERIES Better Call Saul
ACTRESS, DRAMA Zendaya, Euphoria
ACTOR, DRAMA Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA Jennifer Coolidge, White Lotus
SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA Giancarlo Esposito, Better Call Saul
COMEDY SERIES Abbott Elementary
ACTRESS, COMEDY Jean Smart, Hacks
ACTOR, COMEDY Jeremy Allen White, The Bear
SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary
SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY Henry Winkler, Barry
LIMITED SERIES The Dropout
ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES Amanda Seyfried, The Dropout
ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES/MOVIE Daniel Radcliffe, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
SUPPORTING ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES/MOVIE Niecy Nash-Betts, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
SUPPORTING ACTOR, LIMITED SERIES/MOVIE Paul Walter Hauser, Black Bird
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE SERIES Pachinko
ANIMATED SERIES Harley Quinn
TALK SHOW Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
COMEDY SPECIAL Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special
The best famous-person speech of the night belonged to Niecy Nash-Betts who told a wonderfully instructive and self-deprecating story about her desire to be a great dramatic actress while everyone wanted her to stay in the comedy box. Bob Odenkirk was even more modest claiming his work was all elbow grease and the true talent was all around him, just making him look good in the center.
Liz Meriwether's speech was one funny quip after another after another
And finally the most hilarious speech of the night went to the Executive Producer and Showrunner of The Dropout, Liz Meriwether. In her joyful acceptance speech, every other line generated big laughs whether she was talking about her personal life or zinging her "ridiculously hot parents". She also managed to make fun of the show's food options "I think I'm going to throw up... just breadsticks!", sing the praises of Amanda Seyfrieds work in... Mean Girls, and best of all added "...and thank you to Mike White for not being nominated in this category"
Before we go a final round of applause to Ben Stiller for the funny "presenter banter written by A.I." bit. As for other presenters, Seth Rogen skewering the Critics Choice Awards for being on the CW was... a choice. A drunk choice probably!
If you watched the show, what was your favourite moment?
Reader Comments (43)
Yeah, man I hated Cate's speech. It's easy to say "let's do away with 'best actress' prizes" when you have two Oscars, four Globes, three BAFTAs, three SAG Awards and counting. Not to be harsh (I love her, loved her in TAR) but it was a perfect illustration of someone kicking the ladder out from under them. Tone deaf.
The cutaways to Viola Davis hit hard—there's somebody who understands the importance of these individual moments and milestones, who relishes them, who fights for more of them.
I also felt sorry for Michelle Yeoh...it's a bad look when the film sweeps and she loses. She's obviously the film. She also joined the EEAAO team a little late onstage and looked like she'd been crying. :( Officially rooting hard for her to win.
Well, I do agree with Blanchett, at least partially. I think awards shows cannot simply move on as they have always done. After the pandemic, so many sex scandals in Hollywood, Black Lives Matter, the move for more representation and actual globalization, its kind of silly to keep doing these shows in the same way. It doesn't make any sense.
Yes, awarding and embracing "smaller" movies needs to happen to keep the art alive but these shows also need to recognize there's more than one way to watch a movie, more than one type of audience member and more than one type of "good" movie. They need to remember movies are art AND entertainment, and that they're not only made for those who watch 10 movies a month but also for the ones that go to the movies less than 3 times a year.
The Oscars have always been know to be kind of elitist. I mean, a movie like EEAAO would have never been nominated 15 years ago. They have changed but they need to do more to connect to the people that actually goes to the movies, wherever that happens. Awards shows still look like gatherings from a club you'd never be a part of and that has to change if they don't want to become obsolete.
Abolishing the whole thing? Maybe not. But they do need changes and I do think Blanchett tried to convey that.
It’s so ridiculous that 3 of the 4 film acting winners repeated from the Globes. And I’m sure they will all repeat at SAG & Oscars now because they are locked in. Awards shows aren’t allowed to pick who they really want anymore or else face the internet screeching that they are wrong (or worse). In reality, we will probably see like 90% of all categories (that translate to Oscars) repeat on Oscar night. So in a way, last night was basically Oscar night. Time to move on to next season.
I love Queen Cate but to criticize the prize n award show YET accepting it at the same time juz smack o hypocrisy, ingratitude n arrogance!! 🙄
If the concept o the award is way past your taste. Give it up to Michelle Yeoh who deserves it every bit as u do, or maybe even more!
She wanna appear woke, but ends up as @DK rightfully pointed out earlier: Tone Deaf!! 😂
I’ll also say—If you pored over critics’ reviews and compared Angela Bassett’s notices against her competitors, you would not come away with the idea that “critics believe she gave the performance of the year in her category.” It was warmly received but they hardly screamed “give her an Oscar!”
We may not know how SAG or Oscar voters privately feel about the field. The HFPA is mysterious too. But critics publish their reactions right out in the open, in black and white! We know exactly what they actually thought about these performances. And this award does not nearly match the critical consensus, or anything approaching it. (Not to mention that local critics groups have not been giving her their prizes…)
So: Critics say Angela Bassett is the Best Supporting Actress of 2022 but none of them bothered to say so when they reviewed her film and nobody bothered to single her out when their local/regional groups convened.
I don't know what to make of this bizarre Andrea Riseborough blitz... It seems like they've noticed that Michelle Williams is vulnerable in the category due to the SAG snub, so they're taking full advantage of it. Do you guys genuinely think this can happen?
Blanchett is great as always but so was Yeoh. This is about people wanting to reward a favored genre (dramatic acting) over a less favored one (action/comedy/weird, whatever we want to call it). Sad.
Wait a minute… Andrea Riseborough for what? I do love her since forever, but I’m lost. Is she in the conversation right now?
I don't watch the Critics Choice Awards (the Real Housewives of Potomac and the Traitors are a better use of my time), but this speech strikes me as tone-deaf for the reasons DK and Nathaniel state.
Too bad all these Andrea Riseborough fans weren't around when it was time to push Toni Collette in Hereditary or Lupita Nyong'o in Us. I wonder how Williams, Davis, Deadwyler, de Armas, and Robbie feel about this sudden campaign.
The negative reactions to Blanchett's speech are hyperbolic and only exist in the Twitter bubble. It was a fun, spontaneous speech, and Cate's win at Critics Choice solidifies her as the clear frontrunner in the category.
Antonio -- it's for an indie called TO LESLIE for which she received a Spirit Award nomination a couple of months ago. Famous actors are suddenly talking about her performance this week (the movie had an itty bitty release in October)
Bad news bears for Michelle Yeoh that she couldn't pull out a win at an awards show that awarded EEAAO Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (all of which were competitive categories) in addition to the acting prize we already had it locked in for.
Cate Blanchett's speech feels weirdly like the childish inverse of Todd Field's thoughtful, measured Gothams speech, which humbly ridiculed the notion of "best" whilst at the same time acknowledging the role that awards play in raising awareness and cementing the cultural legacies of these films.
I think there's a few contributing factors to Cate winning the coin toss against Yeoh: I wonder if Cate's rising above as a "well, but the performance is UNDENIABLE" pick in the face of Ke Huy Quan, Angela Bassett, and Brendan Fraser's comeback and/or overdue narratives. Also, if TÁR fans don't want to see it go home empty-handed, Actress is looking like the only category it has a real chance of taking home at this point.
I am sure Cate didn't mean to be toned deaf in her speech but it came across that way. It's easy to say awards don't matter when she already won multiple awards under the sun. She has been campaigning for months and now that she won it, she said she didn't care? In the grand scheme, it's true that the works speak for themselves; but many know how hard it's to be appreciated especially for poc. I still love her and I agree that her speech won't matter but I wish she worded them differently.
Also, the fact that EEAAO swept and Michelle was left off just proved how resistance award bodies in rewarding WOC in the lead actress category. Yes, it's possible the voters love Cate's performance more but when are these awards really about "the best"? It's frustrating that WOC have such high barrier to be "undeniable". Again, Cate's performance is my number one performance of the year, but this is not a good look. Michelle and Danielle performances are tremendous and in the case of Michelle, she even has a strong movie. It just feels like there will always be loophole to not awarding WOC in best actress. Now there is excuse that EEAAO can be rewarded somewhere so no need to reward Michelle and the only way to reward TAR is by rewarding Cate; it's so frustrating.
Andrea Riseborough campaign is also weird. Where are these people with Tang Wei for example? I know it's all about connections and the tweets show that it was started by the director's wife and then spread out by her friends and then supported by Andrea's colleagues and co stars. But the fact that her inclusion might kick out WOC in contention is unfortunate. That said, I watched the movie and Andrea is great in it and will be a deserving nominee although while watching the movie, I keep thinking..this is the movie that all these people champion??
I totally get what Cate was getting at in terms of how silly it is that actors are made to compete with each other via award shows, but I 100% agree with you that, as imperfect as they may be, they’re still one of the biggest things standing in the way of box office and streaming service algorithms becoming the only major sources of exposure in the American movie landscape.
Coupled with EEAAO gaining momentum in general, I think the contrast between Cate’s speech here at Michelle’s at the Globes might just shift the Best Actress race in Michelle’s favor. We’ll see what SAG does, but at the moment I’m actually leaning towards Michelle Yeoh winning.
I love the EEAAO cast's reaction to their Best Picture win. Stephanie Hsu's and Dan Kwan's exuberance was lovely to see and I love that they ended their speech with a MICHELLE YEOH primal scream. It's almost like they knew they had to shift the story back to her after losing out to Blanchett whose speech, yes, was a bit odd. Still hoping Yeoh sneaks in with that SAG win.
And what is the magic that is a Ke Huy Quan speech? He's given so many of them and yet each and everyone is so heartfelt, emotional, sincere. Can't help but root for him and for this wonderful movie/role! The Daniels winning Best Director was A MOMENT as well against those big-hitters!
Angela Bassett is happening at the Oscars, yes?
@Ad-mil I'm not on social media and don't own a mobile phone and I found Blanchett's speech off putting,arrogant,hypocritical and a little mean to fellow nominees and think voters will to,if you don't agree with pitting actors against one another then don't show up and collect,do not pass go,it's very easy to say that when you've won every award in the world for the past 25 years and are seen as the heir to Meryl,what about young actors who would like peer recognition and the boost it can give careers,Yeoh for the win.
She probably wanted to be the first to say it to appear down with fed up of the elites folk,maybe she knows winning a 3rd won't be a good look even though she is not personally responsible for who they award as a winner at the Oscars.
I'm fairly positive Quan probably thought this would never happen to him,let him have his moment just as you've had many of yours Cate!
Kate Hepburn,George C Scott and Albert Finney were the stunt masters of not showing up to award ceremonies.
I think The Whale is peaking at exactly the right time this bodes well for Chau and maybe Fraser to win but it's now a 3 way race for Best Actor.
I thought JLC would be getting the veteran prizes but Bassett I think has surpised everyone with her sweeping,I am pleased for her but still don't know what kind of enunciating tricks she has with the role,gives good speeches though
Did Fraser just throw a spanner in the works and shift the Best Actor race back to him as the frontrunner.
Did not watch this awfulness.
Strong Rourke v. Penn / Meryl v Viola vibes right now.
Everyone criticising Cate Blanchett's speech at the Critics Choice Awards, while also hinting at her being ungrateful, has historical dementia and is also not a very smart human being.
Go back and watch Cate Blanchett's 1st Oscar winning speech.
Now watch Viola Davis' Oscar winning speech or Paltraw's speech.
Another thing, the very notion that we need awards shows in order to access, appreciate and discuss great cinema is idiotic.
It's 2023. If you want to watch a great movie, you have access to it on Mubi, Netflix, Name a Streaming Platform.
I concur with those who say it's easy for Cate to dismiss awards when she's won so many of them. These are some Winslet-y vibes, at least she didn't tell Viola to "suck it up". I doubt it's going to affect her winning the Oscar though. With Angela finally getting awards recognition after almost 3 decades, she is certainly not one to agree with Cate...
While it's unlikely that EEAAO scores this big with the Academy, it's certainly nice to see a non-Q4 release being this loved, right? Director is the least likely to repeat.
I have not yet watched The Banshees of Inishering but I don't mind this zero win for it. I'm a massive fan of Three Billboards... but I dislike In Bruges and it's always put me off how McDonagh brought the same two actors together, it feels uninspired. Like, you are not able to direct other people?
I’d be so embarrassed if the Academy rewarded Angela Bassett an Oscar for the silly BP:WTF. They’d have more integrity just giving her an Honorary Award like they just did to Samuel L. Jackson.
DK: I could not agree with you more. I am so frustrated because there were so many AMAZING Supporting Actress performances last year. This just seems like laziness and a waste. What a shame.
The hyperbolic "embarrassment" at the prospect of Angela Bassett: Oscar Frontrunner is laughable considering this is the same Academy that named Sandra Bullock best actress for The Blind Side and deemed Green Book best picture.
I know that some of you are working overtime to rewrite very recent history due to anti-MCU sentiment (I'm no great fan myself), but most reviews call her work either best in show, her best in years, or just plain great -- often citing awards consideration.
Of all of the injustices that could befall an awards season, an overdue, career-honors win for a respected veteran giving a lauded performance in a comic-book movie ranks fairly low.
If she can't take much more of this adulation and was so aggrieved whilst wearing parachute couture why didn't she invite the other 5 nominees for Best Actress on the stage and say I share this with all of you,far classier.
YAY FOR RADCLIFFE!!!!!! The Weird Al movie better get some fucking Emmys!
Nathaniel, you’re a critic, right? Like, you vote in this thing? Please tell me, in all seriousness, do critics and the guilds sit around in November and say, “okay pals, let’s pick the five performances in five movies and five TV shows we watched this year and give them all the awards.” Because I know you watch a ton of movies. And I watch a ton of television shows. And between us we can probably name 25 of each that deserve award recognition, even a freakin’ nomination, right?
Hoping this is a bit of a boost for Fraser, who is so wonderful and moving in The Whale.
I have never been able to explain it. I guess people are lazy or an idea (i.e. performance or movie) gets lodged into their heads early from an influential group and they stick with it, no matter what their original take on the film/performance was.
let's just say my ballot doesn't go very far in these things. Generally a couple of things i love get nominated at the Oscars and at other shows and the rest just has to make do with my own love for it :)
I've said it many times but i absolutely refuse to believe that all these different groups all actually share the same collective opinion.
Yavor...
That is not at all what I'm saying. Die hard Cinephiiles do not need it, no, that's true. But the general public and pop culture at large does. Awards season is really, year in and year out, the only time when there's a mainstream discussion of "art" and "quality" and the magic of talented craftsmen in cinema. And many many great movies and stellar careers that cinephiles who thumb their noses at awards shows enjoy, were only possible because the director or actor was an awards magnet at some point in their career, bringing publicity and some selling power (and thus more fans) to their projects.as we'll never know what cate was thinking, let's come at it from another direction: maybe it was her way of saying "vote for somebody other than me; share the wealth"
sincerely,
pollyanna.
@Troy H
Thank you. Well said
I don’t understand people complaining about her win when JLC is one of the nominees.
Sigh. Cate Blanchett is in my holy trinity of all time favorite actresses. And while her speech is a little frustrating, we just need to accept she’s become a Hepburn/ McDormand when it comes to her feelings on awards. I still think she’s winning her third Oscar in March (Yeoh might take the SAG, but I think genre bias is going to be more of an issue with Academy voters).
N—Thanks for answering my question. Just watched a perfect hour of television last night with probably the best writing and acting in a decade, and I’m sure it won’t get a nomination by a US awards body, so I’ll just love it forever on my own.
At least RRR and Pachinko got some love from the critics.
The speech of Cate Blanchett feels SO self-centered and even selfish, especially considering that actors have the principal attention in award ceremonies.
I always complain the fact that even the cinephiles didn't care much to know all the people involved in a film and just are interested in the faces in front on screen.
It would be phenomenal that we can recognize the cinematographers, sound designers, make up artists etc. as good as we know actors, but putting the conversation just in the actor's branch is disappointing.
Maybe Cate doesn’t want a third Oscar as much as some of us want her to get one. So in her genius way, she took it upon herself to give the speech she gave to help sway voters over to Yeoh’s camp. Who knows? I sure don’t as much as others on here seem to know everything.
Pam -- now i have to know what that perfect hour was!
"McDonagh brought the same two actors together, it feels uninspired. Like, you are not able to direct other people?"
Wow. That's the comment of somebody who doesn't know much about how film works. By that logic, you'd have to dismiss some of the greatest films ever made by Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen, R.W. Fassbinder, George Cukor, Scorsese, Cassavetes, Kurosawa...
To me Cate's speech was fine. I took it more as "abolish competition in the arts" than anything else. If others want to keep it it's because they want to benefit from it, and that will always exclude a majority of "losers".
Dan H: I don't see how McDonagh is even the same ballpark with those people you listed when he had like 4 movies and 2 of them share the two main actors. I know a lot about film, thank you very much, I think one can comment on whether a casting feels uninspired, especially when it's cool to bash so-called repetitive "comic book" movies even in this very thread, not to mention biopics.
Are we all sleeping on Felix Kemmerer in Best Actor for AQOTWF?
N - since you asked,
60 minutes of perfect television: Happy Valley S3 E3
And, though you haven't asked, I'll tell you anyway,
30 minutes of perfect television: Reservation Dogs S2 E4 "Mabel"
45 minutes of perfect television: Better Things S5 E10 "We Are Not Alone"
@Troy
I can’t think of a better example of the precursors’ growing “sameness” than Bassett winning the Critics’ Choice for Wakanda Forever. She’s a classic Globe pick—movie star in a huge hit. Classic SAG winner—veteran actor due for her moment. I love HFPA and SAG for what they are, their biases and tendencies.
But BFCA? Can’t square Bassett’s narrative with a win there. It’s nothing personal. I just expect a point-of-view from the group that picked Allen in Pleasantville, Adams in Junebug, Ryan in Gone Baby Gone, Madsen in Sideways, once upon a time. They have a platform to give someone a boost, keep the race interesting, and they’re choosing not to. That’s disappointing, ‘cause Bassett would be just fine without *one* of the major precursors.
Elazul, you admit you haven't even seen BANSHEES but call the casting "uninspired". They could be the two best actors on the planet for those particular roles (having seen it, I'd say they are) and you wouldn't know because you haven't seen it. McDonagh has, as you say, only directed four feature films and he's already directed two performers to Oscars. So, yeah, I think he knows how to direct "other actors."
Here's some data:
Scorsese put DeNiro and Keitel opposite each other in two of his first five feature films.
Woody Allen cast himself opposite Diane Keaton in five films practically back-to-back at the beginning of his career in the 70s.
Ingmar Bergman made three films in a row in the 60s starring Liv Ullmann and Max Von Sydow. Before that, he made three in a row starring Gunnar Bjornstrand and Eva Dahlbeck.
Hardly lazy and uninspired directors. It's called being an auteur filmmaker.