"Mank" leads the Critics Choice Nominations
Monday, February 8, 2021 at 12:02PM
NATHANIEL R in Critics Choice Awards, Mank, Minari, Punditry, film critics, precursor awards

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 

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 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 

 

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  

There are essentially 11 Best Actor nominees this year, 8 in Best Actor and 3 more in Supporting

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  

After Globe and SAG shut out, Burstyn snags a nod

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 

Being freshly released definitely helps as this nominee field can attest.

 

Decent choices though my own ballot differs by half. 

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE 

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 

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 


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 

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  

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  

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 

 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 

Yes, I voted for this one. Contemporary costuming deserves more respect. Especially when it's this good.

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 

 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 

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 

 

 

 

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 

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   

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  

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)?  

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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