The 2023 Critics Choice Awards could provide a key boost to certain Oscars

The timing of the 2023 Critics Choice Awards couldn’t be better.

Organized by the Critics Choice Association, the largest critics organization in the US and Canada with more than 500 members, Sunday’s event took place in the middle of Oscar nomination voting, with the winners giving another televised event to announce what a great acceptance speech it was. they would give it away when the Oscars are handed out in March.

Best Actor Brendan Fraser is the best example of this. The “Whale” star needed a win after her two main rivals, Austin Butler (“Elvis”) and Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) both delivered memorable speeches at the Golden Globes last week. (Fraser also did not attend the event, due to his troubled history with the organization.)

Fraser, who was clearly emotional about the award, still managed to hit the perfect note, combining jokes about critics ignoring his performance in ‘Furry Vengeance’ and inspiring closing words: ‘If you had the strength stand up and walk into the light, good things will happen.” Along with a PGA Awards nomination, “The Whale” is getting a second wind at the last minute and could break into more Oscar categories than previously expected.

Connected

Connected

However, the big winner of the night was A24’s other awards season, “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which won not only Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan, but also Best Director for Daniel Kwan and Daniel. Scheinert. The pair gave a hilarious speech that still left star Michelle Yeoh in tears as Kwan thanked her.

It used to be difficult for a directing duo, especially one not related by family ties, to garner recognition in the best director categories, but with a DGA Awards nomination, Daniels looked set to break new ground with Oscar nominations. morning.

And while they were the front-runners for best original screenplay (another category they won at the CCA), the best director conversation is led by better-known filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, and it’s possible they’ll reverse the expected wins for “The Fabelmans.” . The director received his first screenplay Oscar for his most personal film to date, and the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” filmmakers continue their now five-year streak of best director awards from marginalized backgrounds.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association

And as for the historic Oscars, critics didn’t help Yeoh’s quest to become the first Asian woman to win Best Actress, instead honoring Cate Blanchett’s performance in “THE LIBRARY” at the Critics Choice Awards.

Although the two-time Oscar winner missed this year’s Golden Globes, Blanchett didn’t stay out of the spotlight for long, attending the annual BAFTA Tea Party and winning Best Actress at the Los Angeles Film Critics Awards the day before the CCAs. At his alliance dinner. With “TÁR” writer-director Todd Field ahead of Daniels, Spielberg and Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” in the television categories she’s up for so far, Blanchett appears to have the most Best Actress momentum. voters see this category as the film’s only chance for an honor, while “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has even more Oscar opportunities, such as Quan’s win.

“TÁR” will certainly not win a victory on Oscar night, but Hildur Guðnadóttir still received the best score at the Critics Choice Awards. The film was excluded from the category by the Academy, but the former winner still has a chance for another nomination for his pre-selected work in the film “Women Talking”. The film’s director, Sarah Polley, was another winner at the Critics Choice Awards, winning Best Adapted Screenplay.

‘RRR’ for Best Foreign Language Film is yet another win that will be impossible to repeat at the Oscars as India chose ‘Last Film Show’ in the International Feature Film category, but SS Rajamouli’s acceptance speech can only help its best director. offer, and another Best Song win for “Naatu Naatu” ensures that “RRR” will likely be represented in some capacity at the Oscars.

As for potential Best Picture nominees that have yet to be written off, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” both capped off a week of the boom that was their PGA Awards nominations and multiple won the Critics Choice Awards.

Angela Bassett gave a rousing speech at the Best Supporting Actress award, cementing her status as the front-runner in the category, while “The Onion” took home big prizes like Best Ensemble and Best Comedy. Unfortunately, the only televised speech on behalf of the latter was Janelle Monáe’s career retrospective #SeeHer Award winner, and those two aforementioned categories are not Oscar bids, but are more visible than other films in the Best Picture bubble, such as Silence on the Western Front’.

Like the Golden Globes, the voting body for the Critics Choice Awards does not overlap with the Academy, and often selects Best Picture winners that will be presumptive Oscar runners-up (i.e. last year’s winner, “The Power of the Power Dog”), but again, the ambitious awards show is smart to commit to the weekend as it did.

As Oscar nomination voting closes, some of the “Everything Everywhere All At Once” prizes could make a big difference.

Register: Stay up to date with the latest movie and TV news! Subscribe to our email newsletter here.