Awards Season Just Can't Come This Early! - A 22nd Critics' Choice Awards Recap
Play of the Game Gala: La La Land. (Image: Bustle / A&E)
Guess what, folks, the 22nd Critics' Choice Awards is held this Sunday, unlike in the past where the awards gala, which has now award the best of movies and television simultaneously, is always held in January. We (actually, I myself) always thought that People's Choice Awards always open the Awards Season which traditionally starts every January. But this time around, in a surprising twist, a second CCA is held this year, at the end of the already-dramatic 2016 as we live our remaining days of the year with a grain of salt.
And that also means another thing: Welcome to the third season of World Fandom Championship! The 2017 season has finally kicked off, and as always, TV and movie franchises will battle in a series of award shows and polling competitions, vying for the World Champion status. The third season of the championship featured new changes that will make this season one of the best yet, among them being the all-new Actor's Championship system, the addition of Oscars, and, as always, a new crop of movies and television fighting for the fandom supremacy! This season kicked off with a rather unconventional calendar, with Critics' Choice being the season's opener instead of People's Choice Awards (more on that later on), and we're not leaving 2016 yet, not sure why the organizers did it, but well...
FIGHT FOR THE CRITICS' CHOICE
(Image: SpoilerTV)
Nominees for CCAs were announced on December 1, announced by Entertainment Weekly via EW.com and the People/Entertainment Weekly Network as part of a multi-platform content and promotional partnership between EW and the award show itself. Like last year, the 22th running will gather movies and TVs in one single gala, with a new crop of movies spicing up the field as well as in TV where we will see last season's breakout newcomers Mr. Robot and The People v. O.J. Simpson battle against seasoned nominees Game of Thrones and House of Cards, plus the new awards season efforts of FX's Atlanta and Netflix's Stranger Things, among others.
The Movie field saw ten different movies fighting for the outright Best Picture: Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, La La Land, Lion, Loving, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, and Sully. Manchester by the Sea surrounded all Actor categories but Best Actress, and also locked in both a single Best Young Actor/Actress category nomination and Best Acting Ensemble, with Fences and Hell or High Water tailing in. La La Land was also the one to watch, with both Best Actress/Best Actor nominations and a couple of other nominations.
The battle for the potential holeshot in movies would revolve around La La Land, bagging 12 nominations, fighting against Arrival and Moonlight which both have 10 nominations, as movie actors duke it out for supremacy included Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling for La La Land, Amy Adams for Arrival, and Denzel Washington for Fences (who's also nominated for Best Director for the same movie) along with Viola Davis, all in their respective categories. Andrew Garfield, Ryan Reynolds, and Hailee Steinfeld, with multiple actor nominations among others, will also settle their arms race here, as well as fan-favorites Dwayne Johnson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, and Margot Robbie.
As for the TV field, The People vs O.J. Simpson led the pack with six nominations, including Best Movie Made for Television outright and all the actor-based counterparts bar Best Supporting Actress, with a winning line-up that comprised Cuba Gooding Jr. and Courtney B. Vance in Best Actor, Sarah Paulson in Best Actress, and Sterling K. Brown with John Travolta in Best Supporting Actor. Game of Thrones and Mr. Robot also colored the Best Drama categories, with Stranger Things making its awards debut this season along with Westworld. Mr. Robot entrusted Rami Malek and Christian Slater for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor wins, while GoT went up with pairs in Supporting Actor/Actress categories, with Peter Dinklage and Kit Harrington in the former category, and Emilia Clarke and Lena Headey in the latter. Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany from Orphan Black would also have to put her A-game as she went head-to-head against the likes of Outlander's Caitriona Balfe, HTGAWM's Viola Davis, and Westwood's Evan Rachel Wood. Finally, Comedy will see Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Veep, and Silicon Valley battle against the seasoned Modern Family and newcomer Atlanta in Comedy-based categories including Best Comedy Series, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ellie Kemper, and Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon battle altogether in Best Comedy Actress and reigning champion Jeffrey Tambor of Transparent went up against Atlanta's Donald Glover. The Supporting Actress/Actor battles within Comedy shows not to be missed also included Julie Bowen against Anna Chlumsky and Allison Janney for the former, with Louie Anderson battling Ty Burrell and the host himself T.J. Miller for the latter.
Here, we could also expect the continuation of the Emmys derby between The People vs O.J. Simpson and Game of Thrones, of which both shows earn six and five nominations respectively, Netflix's Constructor's Championship campaign relying on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and House of Cards as it tries to one up their last year's title rob in the Championship by The CW, and also Mr. Robot's second season fray, after being christened as last year's Breakout Newcomer.
AS IT HAPPENS
"We are not a nation who is divided. We're a nation that is broken, and anything that is broken can be fixed. This is an opportunity - TV and film can bring us together, because we are one nation, one couch, one potato." - T.J. Miller's empowering speech at 22nd Critics' Choice Awards, telling everyone to put the political dramas aside and instead live as unity. (Image: LA Times / Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
With a duration that's almost equal to a European Le Mans race, the awards gala held in 11th of December began with a batch of first wins: for the movies, Moonlight for Best Acting Ensemble, Manchester by the Sea's Lucas Hedges for Best Young Actor/Actress, and Hacksaw Ridge for Best Action Movie. In the TV side, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's Jane Krakowski snatched the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
In a series of shocking events later on, La La Land's Damien Chazelle and MBTS's Kenneth Lonergan both won Best Original Screenplay, further enhanced MBTS's win count but with La La Land shadowing. Suicide Squad's Margot Robbie won Best Actress in an Action Movie, with Hacksaw Ridge's Andrew Garfield winning the Actor counterpart of the same category, marking the first Superhero movie win in the night, which would be succeeded by Deadpool winning Best Comedy and Best Actor in Comedy courtesy of Ryan Reynolds, who also happened to win Entertainment of the Year. This would mark the first time since 2008 Superhero-themed movies were considered for Critics' Choice nods, with The Dark Knight winning Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Action Movie, according to IamGreenArrow over SpoilerTV.
Courtney B. Vance's Best Actor in a Movie Made for Television or Limited Series started The People vs O.J. Simpson's series of dominance in the TV field, followed by Sarah Paulson in the Actress counterpart and Sterling K. Brown for the Supporting Actor counterpart, before the show itself earned Best Movie Made for Television or Limited Series, succeeding its second consecutive domination in award shows after their Emmys campaign months ago. Another favorite Game of Thrones, with whom the FX drama dueled with during the Emmys, only managed to win Best Drama Series out of all its five nominations, and Emmys winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Best Actress in Comedy Series campaign got destroyed in the hands of Kate McKinnon in a TV presidential race. FX's new show Atlanta also didn't miss a win either, with Donald Glover winning Best Actor in Comedy Series, same story with Baskets' Louie Anderson received his Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series nod shortly after his Emmy success.
EVERYONE wants to wish @violadavis a well-deserved congratulations on her #SeeHer award. @SeeHer2020 #CriticsChoice pic.twitter.com/mVkDcHqP35
- Critics' Choice (@CriticsChoice) December 12, 2016
Viola Davis became one of the most highlighted actress in the gala. Not only she won Best Supporting Actress for Fences, but the first ever #SeeHer Award beforehand, presented by the Association of National Advertisers in conjunction with A&E Network as part of a multi-platform content and promotional partnership launched this year between EW and the Critics’ Choice Awards.
Other notable wins include Zootopia and BoJack Horseman, winning Best Animated Feature and Best Animated Series respectively, despite the condition where Animated Trophy is no longer run for this season. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who played Negan in The Walking Dead whose character was responsible for the much-outraged killing in the series this year, won Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series. Westwood's Evan Rachel Wood toppled nominees Tatiana Maslany, Robin Wright, Viola Davis, and Caitriona Balfe at once with a Best Actress in a Drama Series, while Better Call Saul's Bob Odenkirk had the same story in the Actor counterpart, beating out Mr. Robot's Rami Malek and House of Cards' Kevin Spacey. Casey Affleck and Natalie Portman would head on to their victories in their respective Best Actor and Actress categories before La La Land winning the Best Picture, Silicon Valley awarded as the Best Comedy Series winner, and finally Game of Thrones winning the Drama counterpart.
The night ended with La La Land not only dominating the Movies field but also the gala outright, with a total of 12 nominations, a Best Picture win and seven other nods including Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography though defeated in actor-based categories. The People vs O.J. Simpson also dominated in the TV sector, making it its second consecutive domination after Emmys months ago, with four successive wins including Best Movie Made for Television or Limited Series and Best Actress in a Movie Made for Television or Limited Series courtesy of Sarah Paulson.
Full winners with complete nominations can be checked here on A&E TV's official site. The Critics' Choice website also has a run-through of detailing wins sorted by movie and series titles, as well as wins by network.
THE HOLESHOT
The #CriticsChoice for Best Score is @LaLaLand's Justin Hurwitz. pic.twitter.com/vtV0kwgxtt
- Critics' Choice (@CriticsChoice) December 12, 2016
"City of stars, are you shining just for me?" - A line of what could be described as La La Land's victorious start to the third World Fandom Championship season.
Being an award show, the scoring for Critics' Choie Awards for WFC classification in this round uses a three-tier point system, with each nomination worth one point. For Fandom classifications, five points are up for grabs for outright wins in general categories such as Best Picture, Best Comedy, Best Animated Feature, and Best Sci-Fi/Horror for movies and Best Comedy, Best Drama, Best Animated Series, and Best Movie Made for Television or Limited Series for TV. Three points will be awarded for actor-based categories including Supporting Actor/Actress categories, and two points for the rest of categories including Best Director for movies and all Guest Performer accolades for TV.
With plenty of nominations and wins, La La Land seized the World Championship standings followed by The People vs O.J. Simpson, being the only best TV finisher within the Top 10, with Arrival sandwiching the FX series based on the O.J. Simpson trial, which also repeated the success of Fargo, also an FX series, in l ast year's Critics' Choice. The 12 points the movie acquired off of the gala should be enough to maintain the lead through Golden Globes, not until Deadpool gives a blow in People's Choice Awards later on if it does won Golden Globes, because there is a fifty-fifty between having La La Land fortifying the lead or Deadpool catching up. This condition also allowed La La Land to take the lead in Movies Championship and the International Award Trophy standings.
The People vs O.J. Simpson meanwhile sits second in the World Championship, but it is more than enough to pack an early lead in a couple of cups and trophies, including Streaming/Cable Championship and Drama Trophy, with Game of Thrones and Westworld shadowing in second and third respectively. Game of Thrones also packed an early Sci-Fi/Fantasy Trophy lead, alongside Silicon Valley leading the Comedy Trophy. The Teen Trophy is currently vacant with no Teen Dramas appearing, and BoJack Horseman, now qualified as a Drama competitor following the dissolve of the Animated Trophy, starts its season in fifteenth place with half a point, along with 14 other movie and TV titles.
Following the new Actor's Championship system, the three-tier system is also used, which will define the eventual points for all award rounds. With one point for each nomination, five points will be awarded for main Actor/Actress accolades, three points will be awarded for Supporting role wins, and last but not least two points will be given for winners for Guest Performer categories and Best Young Actor/Actress category, with the young actors and actresses now eligible for Actor's Championship this season. It might be different from what I envisioned in the 2016 season closing post, but I found this new system a best practice to begin with.
Casey Affleck and Natalie Portman, along with a bunch of TV actors and actresses winning the outright Best Actor/Actress in each genre, started out with a healthy lead in the Actor's Championship, with potential shakeup lies in Golden Globes and People's Choice later on. All eyes however go to actresses like Viola Davis, Margot Robbie, and Sarah Paulson as these actresses have a lot of prowess at their disposal which should be enough to get awarded with a couple of actor/actress wins in succeeding award shows. In addition, Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon and Alec Baldwin also earned a couple of points despite SNL being a non-classified WFC participant.
Last but not least, the Constructor's Championship also begins with a cable network and a streaming service, namely FX and Netflix respectively, taking the command, with broadcast network ABC being the only first represent in the standings as efforts from NBC and CBS, as well as one other ABC show "Shark Tank" won Best Structured Reality Series, are either Variety, Reality, or Talk Shows, all of which do not comply to the WFC rules. That said, ABC started its season from behind in this round against all the other streaming and cable adversaries, yet its American Crime also began its season with a big lead in the Network Championship with efforts from FOX, NBC and CBS all wiped out.
The full results after Critics' Choice Awards are within this spreadsheet below:
The spreadsheet will be updated in the real-time, so don't be surprised if you see some bits changed here and there! Also, you can view this in its fullscreen glory here, which includes so much more, including all the standings after CCAs!
PCA GOES BACK
In the last post, the PCAs was no longer considered as a Championship round due to the fact that most nominees are nominated for one category, with no representations for the actor categories, making it a "Prologue" round which scores no points whatsoever. Due to CCAs effectively being the first round of the season and a Prologue can only be done in the very first round, the Association has agreed to put PCAs back to the Championship Calendar, meaning movies and television franchises will earn points off of this round.
However, there will be one twist: the final points awarded in PCAs will be different from the conventional points system, and instead a unique system will be enforced. The final points awarded for the World Championship standings will instead rely on the number of wins and nominations, which will only apply to the Fandoms. The following is the point scoring system considered for the standings:
Nominations: 1 pt per category
Wins: 3 pts per category wins, 5 pts in outright Choice TV Show/Movie.
Assuming that a fandom is nominated in two categories including the main Choice category at the very least, a fandom can score 9 or, to an extent, 10 points in this round. Sure it's not as rewarding as other award shows, but with fandoms and actors fighting for themselves in PCAs, this is the best possible system. Classification rules will still apply, meaning that fandoms appearing in this round must at least win one category they are nominated in.
As for the actors, the new point scoring system also apply as previously stated. If by any chance a Critics' Choice nominee wins a category and is also a People's Choice nominee (and they do happen to snatch some wins off of Golden Globes), then the actor/actress's chance of seizing the Actor's Championship will increase, and that would be vital for the upcoming SAG AFTRA Awards, plus Oscars for the movie actors/actresses. Like the fandoms, actors and actresses will have to win at least one category they're nominated in to be classified.
So what's in store in the 2017 PCAs in January? Critics' Choice movies Deadpool, Suicide Squad, and Zootopia gathered once again in a public poll-based award show, with Captain America: Civil War raking in the most nominations out of all movie titles. In the TV side, Grey's Anatomy takes a strong showing in TV categories as it attempts to continue where American Crime has started in CCAs, but with The Big Bang Theory, Outlander and Stranger Things barging in, it won't be an easy job for the long-running medical drama, same with How To Get Away With Murder. Last season's World Champion Orange is the New Black will also make its appearance in Favorite Premium Drama Series, with last season's Breakout Newcomer Mr. Robot makes its first PCAs appearance, taking on reigning winner Pretty Little Liars, set to take wins in their potentially last awards season campaign with their final season en route, in the Favorite Cable TV Drama race.
In the actors side, Ryan Reynolds, Margot Robbie, Denzel Washington, and Meryl Streep will go face-to-face in movie-based categories against the favorites Jennifer Lawrence and Shailene Woodley, as the TV actors will see award-favorites Viola Davis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Rami Malek, Kevin Spacey, Gina Rodriguez, and Keri Russell battle against fan-favorites such as Ashley Benson, Kaley Cuoco, Mariska Hargitay, Taylor Schilling, and Dwayne Johnson. Dwayne Johnson and Kristen Bell are also the ones to watch out for, with movie and TV acting nominations at their disposal.
For Music nominations and beyond, former One Direction bandmates Zayn Malik and Niall Horan will battle in Favorite Breakout Artist, against The Chainsmokers, Alessia Cara, and DNCE. The Weeknd and Drake will be the one to watch out for in Favorite Male Artist, as with Adele, Beyoncé, and Rihanna for Favorite Female Artist, and Fifth Harmony and Coldplay in Favorite Group. Beyoncé's Lemonade will also fight against Drake's Views and Rihanna's Anti, while Favorite Song will see Zayn's trump card "Pillowtalk" fight against the joker work of Rihanna and Drake fittingly entitled... "Work". Digital categories may expect Kim Kardashian and James Corden's Carpool Karaoke with Adele winning in Favorite Social Media Celebrity and Favorite Comedic Collaboration respectively, but tables may turn not in their favor at an unexpected moment. Cameron Dallas and Nash Grier will fight in the Favorite Social Media Star category along with three others, while the YouTube counterpart will see PewDiePie, Tyler Oakley and Miranda Sings, plus two others, fighting for the win.
The voting still commences until 15th of December, while the gala itself will be on 18th of January. With Golden Globes kicking off on 8th January next year with its nominations also released very recently, this will be the third round in the calendar! Vote while you still can! More on People's Choice at the next post!
On my behalf, I apologize for the lateness of this article. I didn't notice that Critics' Choice would start this early as I initially thought that it'd be held in January like it usually does. To make it up though, this article also acts as the preview for People's Choice which will be held in January, hence the usual TL;DR-ness. Regulations and whatnot will come in 2017, before Golden Globes at the latest.
In the meantime, Twitter and Tumblr accounts for World Fandom Championship are now ready to be followed! Head on to @WorldFandomCS on Twitter and/or WFC's own Tumblr page for more fandom competition feed goodness that is World Fandom Championship! Expect a Tumblr version of this post posted soon!
Finally, after all the dramas this year has had, let's seize the glory in the choices of the Critics and the People once again!
~[R]