HOLLYWOOD—On Friday, February 7, the 30th Annual Critic’s Choice Awards were held with Chelsea Handler serving as host. I will admit Handler is not afraid to go there with stinging barbs as she tackled that legal drama involving Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, as well as many of the new policies from President Donald Trump. This is an awards show after all, so there were plenty of trophies given out during the process.
No single movie dominated, but “Anora” did come out on top winning the Best Picture prize. Which I didn’t expect, then I had to think about it? Did the Critic’s change their potential winners considering the ceremony had been pushed back almost a month because of the Los Angeles wildfires? I don’t think so, but I couldn’t help, but have that assertion because it felt like “Anora” just skyrocketed to the top of the charts overnight and not many people were talking about the movie.
The momentum is absolutely growing in “Anora’s” favor, but things can always change at the flip of a dime. Other big winners at the ceremony included “Emilia Perez” which walked away with three trophies: Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldana, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Song. Actress Demi Moore had a good night walking away with the prize for Best Actress for her work in the horror film, “The Substance.” The movie also earned a trophy for Best Original Screenplay for the movie’s director Corali Fargeat.
That battle for Best Actor is discussed by many to be a two-person race between Adrien Brody and Timothee Chalamet for their work in the films “The Brutalist” and “A Complete Unknown.” It was ultimately Brody who walked away with the prize, while the Best Supporting Actor race delivered another victory for Kieran Culkin for “A Real Pain.”
Peter Straughan picked up the Critic’s Choice Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for “Conclave,” which I think is a movie that should be generating far more buzz than what it actually is. However, the biggest surprise for me in the ceremony was the victory by Jon M. Chu for Best Director for “Wicked.” I will admit I thoroughly enjoyed the musical and I hate musicals, but I was expecting this to be a race between Sean Baker “Anora” and Brady Corbet “The Brutalist.”
Oscar members are always a finnicky one when it comes to this race and we’ve seen Best Director and Best Picture split many times at the Oscars, look at “Brokeback Mountain” and “Crash” or perhaps, “Saving Private Ryan” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
Yes, it has happened more times than you can imagine, and its quite possible something similar could happen for 2025. The BAFTA ceremony will be held on February 16, while the following Sunday we have the SAG Awards and then the pinnacle of awards the Oscars are handed out a week later on March 2. Yes, as soon as Awards Season starts it looks like it is slowly coming to an end.
