Critics Choice Shows Love for Sinners |
The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a frantic time if you’re part of the awards race. Every day this week there have been premieres, screenings, Q&As, even holiday parties that are actually just awards events dressed up in tinsel.
I’m Rebecca Ford and I was at a whole bunch of those events this past week, along with tracking the latest slew of nominations. The Gotham Awards revealed their winners on Monday (a good night for One Battle After Another and It Was Just an Accident filmmaker Jafar Panahi); the New York Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review, and AFI weighed in later in the week; and today, the Critics Choice nominations were revealed.
It was an especially good week for One Battle After Another, which won the top prizes from both the NYFCC and the National Board of Review. But to throw a fun twist into this year’s race, the Critics Choice group chose to give more love to Warner Bros.’s other big awards player, Sinners, on Friday.
The Critics Choice noms are often a mixed bag that leans towards populist films, but this year’s list of nominees seems to capture the Oscar race as it’s shaping up. Sinners leads with 17 nominations, nearly matching the record of 18 that Barbie achieved two years ago. It’s a big boost for the Ryan Coogler film, which is in a tight race with One Battle After Another. The Paul Thomas Anderson film received the secondmost nominations on Friday, with 14.
As for the acting fields, Sinners star Michael B. Jordan was an expected nominee. But Wunmi Mosaku landing a nomination for supporting actress (on the heels of her surprise win at the Gothams) feels like a significant boost to her chances.
The most glaring acting snub was for Wicked: For Good star Cynthia Erivo, who was not included in the best-actress list. Her costar Ariana Grande was nominated in supporting actress, and the sequel got seven nominations total, so it’s a bit of a surprise to not see Erivo cited too.
The Critics Choice group is composed of critics and other entertainment journalists; these roughly 575 voting members do not overlap with Academy voters. Neither do the Golden Globes voters, which are mostly international journalists. But these groups endorsing certain films helps those movies gain traction and attention from Academy voters, and also helps shape the narrative that their films are true contenders. The Golden Globes nominations on Monday will add even more color and context to this race. Stay tuned. |
