The Hollywood Critics Awards (HCA), defined as the people who cover the Oscars becoming part of the Oscar race itself — you have all of the people who populate Film and Oscar Twitter voting on awards and attending the awards, which makes it an odd sort of situation, to be sure. I have always been of the mind that if you cover the awards you can’t really be part of them, but that’s left over from the days of “we are not the story,” which was the old credo from journalists as illustrated in Broadcast News. For years, as this site transitioned from an HTML news site to a blog, I had a whole category called “we are the story” because inserting ourselves into our coverage was so unethical back then. Now, well — it’s just part of the whole thing. And anyway, we’re not news journalists in this business (for the most part). The awards race is about hype, buzz, publicity, and money.
The other thing that is driving awards shows online (at least that the HCA has very much tapped into) is the various fandoms that populate Twitter, and they are enormous. They will bring eyeballs. Kristen Stewart, Jamie Dornan, Caitriona Balfe all have big fan bases online and will account for much of their engagement. So then you have to wonder how much of it crosses over to industry voters. I guess we’ll have to see.
I’m not sure what it means exactly in the grand scheme of things, and ordinarily, I would not post about the HCAs, given that. But our very own Mark Johnson and Clarence Moye are members, along with our friends Jazz Tangcay, Landon Johnson, Karen Peterson, Scott Menzel, Will Mavity, Erik Anderson, and Erick Weber. Scott Menzel runs the whole thing with his wife Ashley. Film Twitter is, for the most part, a truly terrible hive, but these folks are Film Twitter’s better half, I’d say.
However, I take these wins with a grain of salt…
Here are a few speeches from the show:
Kristen Stewart (handed out by AwardsWatch’s Erik Anderson)
Andrew Garfield (handed out by Variety’s Jazz)
Here is Ciaran Hinds giving out the Newcomer award to Jude Hill:
And here is the whole cast of Belfast in attendance:
Best Picture – CODA
Best Actor – Andrew Garfield, tick, tick…BOOM!
Best Actress – Kristen Stewart, Spencer
Best Supporting Actor – Troy Kotsur, CODA
Best Supporting Actress – Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Best Cast Ensemble – Belfast
Best Director *Tie* – Denis Villeneuve, Dune & Jane Campion, The Power of The Dog
Best Original Screenplay – Fran Kranz, Mass
Best Adapted Screenplay – Siân Heder, CODA
Best Animated or VFX Performance – Stephanie Beatriz, Encanto
Best Action Film – The Harder They Fall
Best Animated Film – The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Best Comedy or Musical – tick, tick…BOOM!
Best Documentary – Summer of Soul
Best Horror – Last Night in Soho
Best Indie Film – Pig
Best International Film – Drive My Car
Best First Feature – Lin-Manuel Miranda, tick, tick…BOOM!
Best Short Film – Us Again
Best Score – Hans Zimmer, Dune
Best Original Song – Be Alive, King Richard
Best Cinematography – Greig Fraser, Dune
Best Production Design – Tamara Deverell, Nightmare Alley
Best Film Editing – Paul Machliss, Last Night in Soho
Best Stunts – Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings
Best Costume Design – Jenny Beavan, Cruella
Best Hair & Makeup – Justin Raleigh, Linda Dowds, and Stephanie Ingram, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Best Visual Effects – Brian Connor, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert, and Tristan Myles, Dune
Honorary Awards
Acting Achievement Award – Nicolas Cage
Artisan Achievement Award – Greig Fraser
Artisan on the Rise – Alice Brooks
Excellence in Artistry – Kenneth Branagh
Filmmaker on the Rise – Natalie Morales
Filmmaking Achievement Award – Guillermo del Toro
Game Changer Award – Simu Liu
Inspire Award – Aunjanue Ellis
International Icon Award – Javier Bardem
Newcomer Award – Jude Hill
Spotlight Award – The Cast of CODA
Star on the Rise – Saniyya Sidney