"Mank" leads the Critics Choice Nominations
Mank and Minari led the 26th annual Critics Choice nominations with 12 and 10 nods respectively. The ceremony this year will be held on March 7th on the CW with Taye Diggs hosting (and if you missed the TV nominations, those came out a couple of weeks ago). Since there are so many nominees in each category (it's getting ridiculous in lead acting!) we'll be mostly talking about who was left out. That's the takeaway in each category when you keep expanding the number...
BEST PICTURE
- Da 5 Bloods (Netflix) - 6 nominations
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix) - 8 nominations
- Mank (Netflix) - 12 nominations
- Minari (A24) - 10 nominations
- News of the World (Universal Pictures) - 7 nominations
- Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures) - 6 nominations
- One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios) - 6 nominations
- Promising Young Woman (Focus Features) - 6 nominations
- Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios) - 5 nominations
- The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix) - 6 nominations
The big misses here are The Father (which definitely hasn't screened enough) and First Cow, given critical enthusiasm for both all year. Netflix has 40% of the list which shows you the advantage of the easy availability of streaming channels versus traditional distributors (plus, the unlimited bank account of having lots and lots of films and therefore a good shot at multiple strong contenders)
BEST ACTOR
- Ben Affleck – The Way Back (Warner Bros.)
- Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)
- Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
- Tom Hanks – News of the World (Universal Pictures)
- Anthony Hopkins – The Father (Sony Pictures Classics)
- Delroy Lindo – Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
- Gary Oldman – Mank (Netflix)
- Steven Yeun – Minari (A24)
Ben Affleck is a mild surprise but has been campaigning hard. Meanwhile they keep upping the number of nominees in categories (it's getting ridiculous) presumably to make sure that no one is ever Oscar nominated without first being praised by the Critics Choice Awards. With 8 slots here it's depressing there wasn't room for Mads Mikkelsen (the only one from my own ballot that didn't make it). People love the film but for some reason that hasn't translated into buzz for him even though it's such a masterful star turn.
Even with 8 slots you'll notice that Kingsley Ben-Adir is missing for One Night in Miami so that film is probably looking at just one acting nomination come Oscar time (for Leslie Odom Jr)... though our personal preferences for the two best in show in that ensemble piece are Kingsley Ben-Adir and Aldis Hodge.
BEST ACTRESS
- Viola Davis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
- Andra Day – The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Hulu)
- Sidney Flanigan – Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)
- Vanessa Kirby – Pieces of a Woman (Netflix)
- Frances McDormand – Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
- Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)
- Zendaya – Malcolm & Marie (Netflix)
Only 7 slots in Best Actress, though. We're on record (a broken record at that) at despising shifting numbers of nominees. Be consistent. You look amateurish when you're not! The big misses here given seven whole slots is the older film legends with both Michelle Pfeiffer and Sophia Loren sitting this year out. Pfeiffer's pfilm definitely didn't screen enough and Loren's role was weirdly mild given the film it's a remake of.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
- Chadwick Boseman – Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
- Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
- Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros.)
- Bill Murray – On the Rocks (A24/Apple TV+)
- Leslie Odom, Jr. – One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
- Paul Raci – Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)
And only six nominations in Supporting Actor. There's different amounts for almost every acting category, WTF. With so many leading men (Kaluuya, Murray, Odom Jr) crowding out actual supporting actors, there was no room for brilliant character actors like Charles Dances and Glynn Turman. We thought Bo Burnham might surprise here given this particular voting body and the peak Promising Young Woman fantacism during voting, but that was not to be.
Can we talk about how fucked up it is to allow Category Fraud each year AND have less slots in the supporting categories than in lead categories? It's basically saying "we do not respect character actors. Give us only movie stars." At this point all awards bodies (because they're all guilty of this) should just admit that that's how it is and expand leading categories to 12 slots and just eliminate supporting categories altogether.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Amazon Studios)
- Ellen Burstyn – Pieces of a Woman (Netflix)
- Glenn Close – Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix)
- Olivia Colman – The Father (Sony Pictures Classics)
- Amanda Seyfried – Mank (Netflix)
- Yuh-Jung Youn – Minari (A24)
This is the first televised award that News of the World's Helena Zengel missed the nomination in, after getting the SAG & Globe double. But we think she still has a great shot at the Oscar nomination. It's interesting that Candice Bergen could not get any traction this year despite having such a fun showy role in Let Them All Talk. Maybe people just didn't like the movie she was in enough? This is also bad news for Dominique Fishback in Judas and the Black Messiah since the Kaluuya fever (a leading man pretending to be supporting) has not helped her with voting bodies.
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
- Ryder Allen – Palmer (Apple TV+)
- Ibrahima Gueye – The Life Ahead (Netflix)
- Alan Kim – Minari (A24)
- Talia Ryder – Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)
- Caoilinn Springall – The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
- Helena Zengel – News of the World (Universal Pictures)
Decent choices though my own ballot differs by half.
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
- Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
- Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros.)
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
- Minari (A24)
- One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
- The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
Interesting to see Promising Young Woman and Mank both miss here, even though neither made my ballot either. It's the same list as SAG plus Judas and the Black Messiah.
BEST DIRECTOR
- Lee Isaac Chung – Minari (A24)
- Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)
- David Fincher – Mank (Netflix)
- Spike Lee – Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
- Regina King – One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
- Aaron Sorkin – The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
- Chloé Zhao – Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
Seven whole nominees for Best Director so in some ways we hope Oscar goes with another name entirely so they don't get to claim to have predicted it 100% (by expanding all their fields - it used to be 6 nominees in most categories, which even then was hedging your Oscar bets). We're still aghast that even critics have said "yeah, Sorkin is a great director" because... well, no, he is not. And before any of you say "well it's the Critics Choice Awards what do you expect?" please note that lots of critics organizations included him so that koolaid must have tasted real good.
The biggest misses here that we still think could surprise on Oscar nom morning -- IF there's a surprise of course and it would only be one of them -- Greengrass, Reichardt, Zeller.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
- Lee Isaac Chung – Minari (A24)
- Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)
- Jack Fincher – Mank (Netflix)
- Eliza Hittman – Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)
- Darius Marder & Abraham Marder – Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)
- Aaron Sorkin – The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
To be honest I'm a bit surprised not to see Soul here and it's depressing to see Palm Springs disrespected.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
- Paul Greengrass & Luke Davies – News of the World (Universal Pictures)
- Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller – The Father (Sony Pictures Classics)
- Kemp Powers – One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
- Jon Raymond & Kelly Reichardt – First Cow (A24)
- Ruben Santiago-Hudson – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
- Chloé Zhao – Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
This is a good get for News of the World which is obviously hovering on the bubble with Oscar dreams. But I'm actually a bit surprised to see no mention of I'm Thinking of Ending Things because critics groups often went wild for that one (it's not on my ballot but still critics really loved the screenplay)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
- Christopher Blauvelt – First Cow (A24)
- Erik Messerschmidt – Mank (Netflix)
- Lachlan Milne – Minari (A24)
- Joshua James Richards – Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
- Newton Thomas Sigel – Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
- Hoyte Van Hoytema – Tenet (Warner Bros.)
- Dariusz Wolski – News of the World (Universal Pictures)
7 nominees. There's no strong Oscar contender misses though they obviously weren't looking beyond Best Pic contenders. I'll be blunt and say I dont understand the appeal of Da 5 Bloods at all in this particular category.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
- Cristina Casali, Charlotte Dirickx – The Personal History of David Copperfield (Searchlight Pictures)
- David Crank, Elizabeth Keenan – News of the World (Universal Pictures)
- Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas – Tenet (Warner Bros.)
- Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale – Mank (Netflix)
- Kave Quinn, Stella Fox – Emma (Focus Features)
- Mark Ricker, Karen O’Hara & Diana Stoughton – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Soooo happy to see Personal History of David Copperfield here (and extremely surprised, too). Otherwise it's as expected. A bit disappointing to not see First Cow here, though. As for Oscar appeal the only obvious misses are Mulan (Oscar enjoys the work of Grant Major) and The Midnight Sky (as Oscar likes astronaut stuff in this category).
BEST EDITING
- Alan Baumgarten – The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
- Kirk Baxter – Mank (Netflix)
- Jennifer Lame – Tenet (Warner Bros.)
- Yorgos Lamprinos – The Father (Sony Pictures Classics)
- Mikkel E. G. Nielsen – Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)
- Chloé Zhao – Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
A bit of a surprise to see Sound of Metal here but a good surprise. Oscar likes William Goldenberg (News of the World) and Tariq Anwar (One Night in Miami) so you can't count on this list being predictive of the Oscars. Minari and Promising Young Woman also missed.
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
- Alexandra Byrne – Emma (Focus Features)
- Bina Daigeler – Mulan (Disney)
- Suzie Harman & Robert Worley – The Personal History of David Copperfield (Searchlight Pictures)
- Ann Roth – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
- Nancy Steiner – Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)
- Trish Summerville – Mank (Netflix)
Another surprise get for David Copperfield though it's definitely a costume picture! Some notable period pieces that are missing here are United States vs Billie Hollywood, Ammonite (Oscar loves Michael O'Connor), and First Cow.
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
- Emma (Focus Features)
- Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix)
- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
- Mank (Netflix)
- Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)
- The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Hulu)
No Mulan? Curious. The other big miss is Birds of Prey since Suicide Squad got an Oscar nomination for similar work. The CCA's also weren't in to Da 5 Bloods gore, or I'm Thinking of Ending Things surreal old age makeup, the comic prosthetics of Borat, or the period recreations of Judas and the Black Messiah, or One Night in Miami
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
- Greyhound (Apple TV+)
- The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures)
- Mank (Netflix)
- The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
- Mulan (Disney)
- Tenet (Warner Bros.)
- Wonder Woman 1984 (Warner Bros.)
Did they just include everything with noticeable visual effects this year? Not quite even though it feels like it. Missing are Sonic the Hedgehog, The New Mutants, Project Power, Birds of Prey, Possessor and Oscar announces the finalists in this category tomorrow so we'll see if any of those show up.
BEST COMEDY
- Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Amazon Studios)
- The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix)
- The King of Staten Island (Universal Pictures)
- On the Rocks (A24/Apple TV+)
- Palm Springs (Hulu and NEON)
- The Prom (Netflix)
Relegating Palm Springs to this category instead of Best Film irks me but so does the existence of this category since if you're not going to admit that Best Film = "Best Drama" than you shouldn't have a Best Comedy category. Be consistent!
Still and all this is infinitely preferrable to what the Globes came up with this year for Best Musical or Comedy.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
- Another Round (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
- Collective (Magnolia Pictures)
- La Llorona (Shudder)
- The Life Ahead (Netflix)
- Minari (A24)
- Two of Us (Magnolia Pictures)
This is too embarrassing to believe. There were 100s of options and the CCA just literally copy and pasted the Globe nominations. It's the exact same list plus one (Collective).
BEST SONG
- Everybody Cries – The Outpost (Screen Media Films)
- Fight for You – Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros.)
- Husavik (My Home Town) – Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (Netflix)
- Io sì (Seen) – The Life Ahead (Netflix)
- Speak Now – One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
- Tigress & Tweed – The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Hulu)
So all end credits song exceept Husavik? Sigh. I know this would be radical but I'm beginning to wonder if the rules should change and you should have to incorporate the song into the actual movie to be eligible?
BEST SCORE
- Alexandre Desplat – The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
- Ludwig Göransson – Tenet (Warner Bros.)
- James Newton Howard – News of the World (Universal Pictures)
- Emile Mosseri – Minari (A24)
- Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Mank (Netflix)
- Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jon Batiste – Soul (Disney)
Also the exact same list as at the Globes + 1 (Minari)
Do you have any takeaways from this last round of televised award nominations before our "Christmas" (aka Oscar Nomination Morning)?
Reader Comments (60)
Oh thank God Lindo and Raci got in.
So no snubs. What these nods are good for is for telling us what’s still standing.
I feel like the only thing that had buzz but didnt get a mention here was Charlie Kaufmans script.
I mean at least it's not as WTF as the Globes, but 8 Best Actor citations?
has Bakalova missed anything so far? Remove any of those 6 and you have your Supporting Actress line up for the Oscar. I think that the only locked for BAFTA noms are Bakalova and Colman, and one of them will win it.
8 nominations is essentially a long list. I've always liked that they do 6, as it gives us a bit of insight into the top contenders of the year and the performances that critics really want to see honored. However, this seems a bit much.
That said, happy to Delroy Lindo and Spike Lee bounce back. It will be interesting to see where that film lands. It could get 5 nominations and it could get zero. It feels like such a wildcard, and I think the big thing that hurts it is how deeply engaged in Black history and politics as compared to Blackkklansman.
The scheduling for films this year is tough. I still haven't seen Minari and have no sense if this (and SAG) are more due to its big pushes, or if it will be a film the academy will embrace.
Looks like Pfeiffer is definitely out given the lack of nom here. I suspect she'll make it back soon enough, but it has been a very slow return to the nominees table! '
The Greyhound, a film that was just dark and hard to see, in the visual effects category seems like a bad choice.
It would be really fun to have Tom as Rita's date to this year's Oscars.
I think Helena still makes it in. I suspect this body felt like they could honor her in the kid category.
I think Candice Bergen was great in her film. But it had such a muted release, an odd structure, and it seems like Warner Brothers just hasn't had a strong year. Do we have any idea how HBOMax campaigned it or what they did to push her? She should have been at every roundtable this year, but did those even happen?
Her best shot was with the Globes (who love her) and SAG. I'm a bit surprised she was left out of SAG, in particular.
What a mess.
Oh, and final thought on the supporting actress race:
I think if Glenn gets nominated (still a big if, since the Academy may be feeling daring), then she'll need to win at least one televised award to win. However, it's easy to see Olivia taking the SAG (she's never won an individual one), Maria taking this one, and Amanda taking the Globe.
I also think it's Ellen vs. Glenn for the fifth slot, and that it's very easy to see the Academy giving it to Ellen a second time. She just feels like someone who should have two.
No Amy Adams or Meryl Streep, even with the extra slots.
At last Eurovision getting the credit it deserves (Even if it deserves at least 3 spots in that lineup).
I think Olivia's biggest hurdle for Oscar is that she won so recently... and precisely when everyone was guessing it was Close at last. Now this year the Supporting Actress race is insanely open... if Bakalova's wasn't so wildly comedic, we would be already agreeing that she would be the frontrunner, but the narratives are amazing... these 6 women have strong arguments to be the final winner.
We'd all be rooting for Colman this year had she not been such a Greedy Gertrude last time - demanding to go Lead over Emma Stone...
Director and Supporting Actress will be interesting to see Oscar nomination time. Some big names will be left off. Unpopular opinion I wouldn't nominate Close. The other contenders are more interesting to me.
I've never really thought much of the CCAs. Didn't they start out with a spine at least? I remember Kevin Bacon winning their Best Actor prize their inaugural year for Murder in the First. Then again, the BAFTAs had brass balls back in the day, too.
Meh. Nominating everything under the sun and still missing out on sterling contenders just makes those contenders feel like shi* ("Damn! Eight nominees and I'm still not there?") and also like a pure, unadulterated hot mess, which at least makes that sting over not receiving a nomination alongside the other 90 peers pretty much a moot thing.
Give me 5 nominees across the board any day.
Again, though, props to all the awards-giving bodies for sticking to their dull guns and not taking the opportunity to freshen up their thinking after a pandemic that's seized most of what we call everyday life.
That takes serious skill.
Ben Affleck over Mads Mikkelsen is certainly a choice, "critics."
Colman absolutely deserved the Best Actress Oscar for The Favourite and she will absolutely deserve it if she wins supporting this year. Also there IS a path - the Globes love her, she hasn't won an individual SAG award, the BAFTAs tend to support British talent, the film is only now reaching wider audiences and the excitement will be fresh in 2 months, as opposed to films that premiered 3 months ago - she definitely has a chance.
Colman absolutely deserved the Best Actress Oscar for The Favourite and she will absolutely deserve it if she wins supporting this year. Also there IS a path - the Globes love her, she hasn't won an individual SAG award, the BAFTAs tend to support British talent, the film is only now reaching wider audiences and the excitement will be fresh in 2 months, as opposed to films that premiered 3 months ago - she definitely has a chance.
Sorry but the Critics Choice Awards are SO pathetic.
More than 5 nominations in many categories and all safe picks. Why not John Magaro in "First Cow", Carrie Coon in "The Nest", Brian Dennehy in "Driveways", or Catherine Deneuve in "The Truth?
Their only reason to exist is to predict the Oscars.
Stick to 5 per category,Afflecks nom keeps him in the conversation and i'm glad as I was great in The Way Back,couLD NOTW surprise come nomination morning,it's very old school Oscar.
Seyfried bounces back!
No John David Washington in Best Actor, even with 8. I think that means Zendaya's chances for that 5th slot aren't great.
So odd that Sophia hasn't surfaced anywhere. :(
The sheer number of nominees doesn't help clarify, but at least they didn't include Jared Leto. I'm also disappointed that both Palm Springs and The 40 Year Old Version have not been recognized much this season. They are two of my favorite movies this year. I've already forgotten I watched "The Trial of the Chicago 7," but these two are fresh in my mind.
Embarrasing. The only decent thing to do is to end your membership especially if you're paying a monthly fee.
If Odom Jr. is a lead in ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI... then all four actors should be considered leads.
As I see it, the only lead is Ben-Adir. The film takes X's perspective more than any of the others', even giving him a postscript at the end, something not even Cooke is afforded (admittedly a strange decision).
The real category fraud is Bakalova, which you don't seem to care about.
Gotta love the Critics' Choice awards. I'm surprised they didn't do an emergency second ballot or expand Supporting Actor arbitrarily after they saw the GG and SAG nominations and realised Jared Leto wasn't getting enough of their votes to match.
I would never be a member of this.
How is Bakalova category fraud?
She is away for a significant part of the movie.
Also, not for nothing, Critics' Choice, but you can't deign to be the taste-makers of anything if you nominate everyone and everything under the Hollywood sun.
That's not how that works even if one squints.
Absurd.
Jonathan -- hmmm. how do you figure i dont care about that? I put a "category fraud" marker on her oscar chart just like i did with all the others.
Pauline -- good for you.
Steve G -- LOLOLOL. We actually voted after the Globe & SAG nods (which explains the copying and pasting in a few categories)
Peggy Sue -- nah. y'all wouldn't like if it we didn't have access to all the screeners and such.
shawhank -- good point.
After these "critics" all but ripped Glenn Close a new asshole for "Hillbilly Elegy," they then had the NERVE to nominate her in supporting actress just to get its lame Oscar predictions correct? Burn this fraudulent awards organization to the ground!
I’m not saying anything new but 2020 sucked. Even the very few movies I did like I still feel pretty meh about. There are a couple of good nominations here but I can’t get excited about them.
At least 1 nom for Zendaya (so far) this season! She’s stellar in Malcolm & Marie, but I can’t say the same for John D. Washington and his “hot dude overacting showcase”.
I would never ever fuck a Critics Choice member.
Globes are better. As always.
At least they nominate who they like, not all possible Oscar favourites.
Critics' Choice Awards are a joke!
I hope three gentlemen legitimately tied for sixth in Best Actor....
Hoping that the Good Terminators keep coming through for Glenn Close! :D
Someone -- totally agree. the Globes are like "i said what i said" (however looney it is) and the CCAs are like sneaking peeks at other people's homework or panicked that they haven't heard the latest goss about who's hot and who's not.
You are quite whiny.
Truth Teller -- yes. critics award season brings that out in me. NEXT.
The author asks why Aaron Sorkin got a directing nomination. I'm wondering why Chicago 7 was nominated at all. Okay, there were a few decent performances but the movie was, to my mind, nothing at all special and the more informed critics weren't exactly bowled over by it. As historical recreations go it can't hold a candle to Mank or One Night in Miami (let alone Russia's Dear Comrades!) and it's not nearly as relevant to our own times as it apparently imagines itself to be.
Not me but LOL
Peggy Sue, that's Peggy, not same name completely.
I love the released Oscar longlists! Wait, these are Critics Choice? Same fucking difference.
Don't come for better Peggy, Peggy Two!
Guys I honestly don't think Nathaniel's a member of this group. They just go so far against all his beliefs and ethics of movie awardage that it makes zero sense for him to be a member. Plus all his best work on the blog is about older movies, the Oscars stuff is an amusing trifle. Also he has Claudio so he knows we'd be hitting refresh multiple times a day to see if he has poated anything. If this was many decades back we'd be saying "Ebert, Kael and Alves".
Bskalova is much more of a Lead in her film than Viola Davis is in hers. Davis really belongs in Supporting for Ma Rainey, while she belonged in Lead for Fences. Ridiculous.
And this Awards show keeps embarrasing itself. Its sole purpose is to guess The Oscars, nothing more. Why have an Awards show just to guess a future Awards show, which this show has become much more guilty of than the Globes? Soon they’ll have 13 nominees in each category just to make sure that they don’t miss a single Oscar nominee.
This is the Awards body that included Phantom of the Opera in their 6 Best Picture slots because of fan Oscar buzz, even though the CRITICS didn’t give it a good reception. So why the hell would the CRITICS vote for it for Best Picture at their own awards show?
Start making inspired choices. Nominate the 10 best REVIEWED film by critics for Best Picture, wouldn’t that make sense for a Critics Choice?
Oops didn't read Nathaniel's rude dismissive comments. Lucky he's built an indispensable team around him so we will all take his cruelty just to read the team members articles. Maybe a more quiet editorial role? Get you mental/physical health on track so the true hood Nathaniel can return?
There is an even better Trial of the Chicago 7 film from 2020 out there.
It’s called “Small Axe: Mandrake”. 😉
Grow a backbone son.
Oh Jesus Gross.