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After the Critics’ Choice Awards, the Best Picture Race at the Oscars Is Even Murkier

On the other hand, the acting categories now all have clear front-runners
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Just a few days after the Golden Globes bestowed awards upon their favorite TV shows and films of the past year, the Critics’ Choice Awards did the same on Thursday night. Many of the same names were read, including Frances McDormand, Elisabeth Moss, and Guillermo del Toro.

And now the Best Picture field is even murkier. Del Toro’s The Shape of Water took home the award at the Critics’ Choice, winning four total—del Toro also won Best Director. If you’re keeping score, the smaller awards bodies’ Best Picture trophies have now been dished out to The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Best Picture, Drama, at the Golden Globes), The Post (National Board of Review), and Lady Bird (Best Picture, Comedy, at the Golden Globes). It’s still difficult to tell how this is going to play out, but there’s good news for The Shape of Water: In the last 10 years, the Critics’ Choice Best Picture winner has gone on to win the same category at the Oscars seven times, the exceptions being La La Land, Boyhood, and The Social Network.

The acting categories, however, are beginning to sort themselves out. The same quartet of Golden Globes winners won their respective categories on Thursday: Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) for Best Drama Actor, McDormand (Three Billboards) for Best Drama Actress, Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards) for Best Supporting Actor, and Allison Janney (I, Tonya) for Best Supporting Actress. In the last 10 years, actors who have won both a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice Award have gone on to win the Oscar in their respective categories just over 67 percent of the time. (Our deepest condolences to Timothée Chalamet for this statistic.)

In other news, we also now have a clear front-runner for Best Awards Season Acceptance Speech, courtesy of The Florida Project’s young star, Brooklynn Prince. Prince won the Best Young Actor award and went to the stage in tears. “This is such a big honor, all the nominees are great. You guys are awesome, we should go and get ice cream after this!” she said, which I can confirm is the cutest thing uttered in 2018.

On the TV side, familiar winners surfaced in The Handmaid’s Tale (Best Drama Series) and Big Little Lies (Best Limited Series). Meanwhile, after a strong Golden Globes showing, Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won Best Comedy Series and its star, Rachel Brosnahan, captured Best Actress in a Comedy Series. The show wasn’t released before last year’s Emmys, so watch out for Maisel this coming September.

You can check out the full list of Critics’ Choice Awards winners here.

Miles Surrey
Miles writes about television, film, and whatever your dad is interested in. He is based in Brooklyn.

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