“The Whale” star Brendan Fraser and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” directors get boosts at the Critics’ Choice. How could that impact Oscars?
I wasn’t sure if “Everything Everywhere All at Once” could win best picture, but I might be convinced now.
The A24 multiverse comedy had a fantastic night at the Critics’ Choice Awards, winning five statuettes including best picture, supporting actor for Ke Huy Quan, director and original screenplay for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert and editing for Paul Rogers. All is happening as Oscar nomination voting is underway, closing on Tuesday.
The three-hour ceremony, very well emceed by host Chelsea Handler, provided different results from the Golden Globes winners, where “The Fabelmans” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” led the tally. Both movies were virtually shut out of the CCA, with “Fabelmans” only taking young actor for Gabriel LaBelle (a potential contender for a best actor nomination?) and nothing for “Banshees.” The only other Globe repeats aside from Bassett and Quan, were Cate Blanchett in best actress and original song for the “RRR” number “Naatu Naatu.”
Worth noting: CCA members are not AMPAS voters. However, you would have to go back to 2004 — when Martin Scorsese won directing for “The Aviator” and “Sideways” won best picture and both supporting races — to find CCA winners that were far misaligned from the Academy’s.
Here are the four things I learned from the Critics’ Choice winners.
Daniels did what they needed to do to get a directing Oscar nod.
Call it being cautiously optimistic or mild awards PTSD from seeing the directors’ branch pass on Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight” and “Inception”), Ben Affleck (“Argo”), Bradley Cooper (“A Star is Born”) and others; they can be high-brow about who they let into their “exclusive” club.
