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Hillary Atkin

Critics Choice Movie Awards Help Firm Up Handicapping for the Oscars

Jan 20, 2014

The quirks of this year’s awards season calendar, with the 19th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards coming just four days after the Golden Globes and on the eve of the Academy Awards nominations announcement, served to cement the favorites and frontrunners heading into the Oscars.

Cate Blanchett. Matthew McConaughey. Jared Leto. Lupita Nyong’o. “12 Years a Slave.” “American Hustle.” “Frozen.” All were critical darlings who took the CCMA in their respective categories during a two-hour telecast hosted by Aisha Tyler on the CW Jan. 16.

Like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association does for its Golden Globes, the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) separates drama, comedy and animation categories for its movie awards. (The organization honors excellence in television at a separate ceremony scheduled in June.)

It was abundantly clear that both groups marked their ballots nearly identically when it came to awarding the top films and best lead and supporting actors and actresses. The only exception was that the Globes honored Jennifer Lawrence with the supporting actress statuette for her role in “American Hustle,” while the critics went with Nyong’o — who also got the statue at the Screen Actors Guild Awards over the weekend, as did Blanchett, McConaughey, Leto and “American Hustle.”

Both HFPA and BFCA also gave gold to “Hustle’s” Amy Adams and to Leonardo DiCaprio for his role in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” For directing, both also awarded Alfonso Cuaron for “Gravity,” which took a total of 7 statuettes, a CCMA record.
Like the Oscars, the critics recognize both original and adapted screenplays. The prizes went to Spike Jonze for “Her,” and John Ridley for “12 Years a Slave.”

With the exception of Ridley, all of those honorees were in attendance at the ceremony, as were other nominees, winners and presenters, including Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, Bradley Cooper, Emma Thompson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jonah Hill, Ben Kingsley, Mark Wahlberg, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Harvey Weinstein and Margot Robbie.

The A-list turnout is a testament to the importance of the kudo-fest, which will mark its 20th year next year.

Also similar to the Globes is the freewheeling, fun spirit of the CCMAs, which took place at Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hangar and led to at least three bleeped f-bombs and other words you can’t say on broadcast television.

One instance came when Sandra Bullock was accepting the award for best actress in an action movie and an off-camera announcer interrupted, apparently tossing to a break. But after her bleeped WTF, Bullock soldiered on with her speech.

Another censored bit came from the mouth of Bradley Cooper when the cast of “Hustle” took the podium for the best acting ensemble award; and yet another when host Tyler let loose with a profanity, which was drowned out in the hall by audience laughter.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

Picture: “12 Years a Slave”
Actor: Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Actress: Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Supporting actor: Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Supporting actress: Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
Young actor/actress: Adele Exarchopoulos, “Blue Is The Warmest Color”
Acting ensemble: “American Hustle”
Director: Alfonso Cuaron, “Gravity”
Original screenplay: Spike Jonze, “Her”
Adapted screenplay: John Ridley, “12 Years a Slave”
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “Gravity”
Art direction: Catherine Martin (production designer), Beverley Dunn (set decorator), “The Great Gatsby”
Editing: Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Sanger, “Gravity”
Costume design: Catherine Martin, “The Great Gatsby”
Hair and makeup: “American Hustle”
Visual effects: “Gravity”
Animated feature: “Frozen”
Action movie: “Lone Survivor”
Actor in an action movie: Mark Wahlberg, “Lone Survivor”
Actress in an action movie: Sandra Bullock, “Gravity”
Comedy: “American Hustle”
Actor in a comedy: Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Actress in a comedy: Amy Adams, “American Hustle”
Sci-fi/horror movie: “Gravity”
Foreign language film: “Blue Is the Warmest Color”
Documentary feature: “20 Feet From Stardom”
Song: “Let It Go,” Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, “Frozen”
Score: Steven Price, “Gravity”
Joel Siegel Award: Forest Whitaker
Louis XIII Genius Award: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater for their trilogy “Before Sunrise,” ”Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight”
Hollywood’s Hottest Star: Benedict Cumberbatch

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One Comment

  1. There are too many awards shows and most of them, like these, are worthless. This award is possibly the worst as it’s voted on by notorious quote whores and ‘critics’ who are in the pockets of the studios. Some of these fame whores receive so many veiled kickbacks that it makes the Hollywood Foreign Press Association jealous. Any group that gives out an obvious ass-kisser award like ‘Hottest Star’ should be immediately ignored and banned from any legitimate press coverage (and yes, I do include the Golden Globes on that list).

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