La La Land solidified its place as the 2017 Academy Awards front-runner, scoring an impressive 8 wins at the 22nd Annual Critics’ Choice Awards. Along with wins for production design, cinematography, editing, and score, the musical starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone also landed best original song, best director and best original screenplay for writer-director Damien Chazelle, and the big one, best picture. In fact, La La Land won the most awards of any of tonight’s nominated film or television shows, a good sign of things to come as we move into 2017.
La La Land easily bested its two (most likely) strongest competitors, Moonlight and Manchester By The Sea, though both of those films still won important trophies. Moonlight took home best supporting actor for co-star Mahershala Ali, as well as best acting ensemble. Meanwhile, Manchester won thrice, sharing best original screenplay with La La, and winning best young actor or actress, and best actor.
The wins, in other words, were as predictable as expected considering the acclaim heaped on all three of those films but especially La La, which has been sending critics to the moon since its festival debut. But predictability wasn’t just for film, as the awards overall went pretty much as expected in almost all categories.
Take Viola Davis, who emerged from Fences this fall as the consensus front-runner for whichever acting awards she ends up being nominated for. She deservedly won best supporting actress for her Fences role. Meanwhile, Natalie Portman took home best actress for Jackie. Eric Heisserer won best adapted screenplay for Arrival. And on the television front, Bob Odenkirk won best actor in a dramatic series for Better Call Saul, The People Vs. O.J. Simpson won four times, including acting prizes for Sarah Paulson and Courtney B. Vance, and Donald Glover, showing off the very authentic mustache he’ll be wearing in the upcoming Han Solo film, won for best actor in a comedy series. About the only upset is that Silicon Valley won best comedy series, beating Atlanta, whose first season has been universally praised.
One pleasant surprise though? A slightly inebriated Atlanta‘s Keith Stanfield crashed the stage and “accepted” the award on behalf of Silicon Valley before quickly walking off. (He was really echoing what a lot of us were thinking about who should have been up there.)
TJ Miller hosted tonight’s proceedings, bringing a defiantly absurdist approach to the gig. Starting the show out with a chorus line of topless men with faces painted on their torsos and heads covered by oversized top hat appearing to whistle, Miller later pretended to have his head blown off by a canon and ended the show dressed as a headless man carrying his bloody head on a platter. The jokes didn’t always land but the commitment to weirdness at least won this viewer over. Naturally he didn’t address the biggest news over the weekend – his citizen’s arrest at the hands of an Uber driver with whom he scuffled over Donald Trump early Friday morning. Read more about Miller’s act tonight here.
This year’s Critics’ Choice Awards were marred early on by controversy, thanks to the decision by the Broadcast Television Journalists Association to give exclusive access to the nominations to Entertainment Weekly and People. This prompted approximately 15% of the BTJA’s membership to resign from the association in protest, including TVLine’s Michael Ausiello, Variety’s Debra Birnbaum, and IndieWire’s Michael Schneider. But the issue didn’t come up once during the show, even when Entertainment Weekly awkwardly presented Ryan Reynolds with the Entertainer of the Year award (though, to be honest, camera cuts to the audience after the overwrought tribute to Reynolds played suggested the award didn’t go over well with the crowd.)
All in all, if tonight is any indication, Oscar season is going to look pretty much like people are already predicting. Read on for the full winner’s list.
BEST ACTION MOVIE
Hacksaw Ridge
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Moonlight
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jane Krakowski – Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – Netflix
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Louie Anderson – Baskets – FX
BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
Arrival
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Elle
BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge
BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Margot Robbie – Suicide Squad
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Eric Heisserer – Arrival
BEST ACTOR IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES
Courtney B. Vance – The People v. O.J. Simpson – FX
BEST ACTRESS IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES
Sarah Paulson – The People v. O.J. Simpson – FX
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Thandie Newton – Westworld – HBO
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
John Lithgow – The Crown – Netflix
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Linus Sandgren – La La Land
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
La La Land – David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
BEST EDITING
Tom Cross – La La Land
BEST SCORE
Justin Hurwitz – La La Land
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Madeline Fontaine – Jackie
BEST HAIR & MAKEUP
Jackie
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Jungle Book
SPECIAL AWARD: Entertainment Weekly Presents Entertainer Of The Year
Ryan Reynolds
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Donald Glover – Atlanta – FX
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Kate McKinnon – Saturday Night Live – NBC
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali – Moonlight
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Zootopia
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool
SPECIAL AWARD: First Annual #SeeHer Award
Viola Davis
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED
SERIES
Sterling K. Brown – The People v. O.J. Simpson – FX
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR
LIMITED SERIES
Regina King – American Crime – ABC
BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin – Saturday Night Live – NBC
BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A DRAMA SERIES
Jeffrey Dean Morgan – The Walking Dead – AMC
BEST SONG
City of Stars – La La Land
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Damien Chazelle – La La Land (TIE)
Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester by the Sea (TIE)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Viola Davis – Fences
BEST MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES
The People v. O.J. Simpson – FX
BEST STRUCTURED REALITY SERIES
Shark Tank – ABC
BEST UNSTRUCTURED REALITY SERIES
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown – CNN
BEST REALITY COMPETITION SERIES
The Voice – NBC
BEST REALITY SHOW HOST
Anthony Bourdain – Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown – CNN
BEST TALK SHOW
The Late Late Show with James Corden – CBS
BEST ANIMATED SERIES
BoJack Horseman – Netflix
BEST DIRECTOR
Damien Chazelle – La La Land
BEST COMEDY
Deadpool
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Evan Rachel Wood – Westworld – HBO
BEST ACTRESS
Natalie Portman – Jackie
BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Bob Odenkirk – Better Call Saul – AMC
BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
BEST DRAMA SERIES
Game of Thrones – HBO
BEST COMEDY SERIES
Silicon Valley – HBO
BEST PICTURE
La La Land
