If the glamorous Hollywood awards season creates ties that bind, then the recent Critics Choice Award winners may indicate who has the best chance of winning a coveted Academy Award on February 24.
Unlike the upcoming 53rd Super Bowl on February 3, seemingly there are no tiebreakers in the Critics Choice Awards, which aired earlier this month, following the prestigious Golden Globes.
Veteran actress Glenn Close and newbie actress-singer Lady GaGa tied for Best Actress honors. Close portrays Joan Castleman in The Wife, which led the actress to a unifying speech for the ages, urging women to follow their dreams, after her Golden Globe win on January 6.
Lady GaGa tied with her stunningly natural break-out performance in A Star Is Born, the all-around Bradley Cooper project. They co-wrote Shallow, which also won the Critics Choice Award for Best Song. So Lady GaGa the dynamic, musician-singer-artist has that going for her on top of her great popularity with younger music fans drawn to her messages of inclusion and self-acceptance.
The other tie of the night at the Critics Choice Awards involved Amy Adams for Sharp Objects and Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette for the Ben Stiller-directed flick, Escape at Dannemora. Adams and Arquette showed one another the love as their names were announced for Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television. Now that's a mouthful – and a long title to etch on a trophy.
In recent years, the Critics Choice Awards have been a somewhat accurate — but not infallible — predictor of Oscar success, wrote Henrique Damour of Entertainment Weekly, post-awards. Since 2008, the CCAs have correctly predicted the eventual Oscars winner for Best Picture seven times, Best Actor eight times, and Best Actress six times, he wrote.
As he did at the Golden Globes, director Alfonso Cuaron won Best Picture for Roma, a black-and-white family drama.
Interestingly enough, actor Christian Bale won two Critics Choice Awards – Best Actor and Best Actor in a Comedy – for the same performance as former Vice President Dick Cheney in Vice. Bale is up for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, but Rami Malek of Bohemian Rhapsody grabbed the Golden Globe in that slot.
Green Book, which took home the Best Motion Picture at the Golden Globes, continues its hot streak, with lead actor Mahershala Ali winning Best Supporting Actor at the Critics Choice Awards.
Regina King repeated her Golden Globe victory, as well. She captured the Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal in If Beale Street Could Talk.
Not surprisingly, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won for Best Comedy and The Americans won for Best Drama Series in the television categories.
Close and GaGa go head-to-head again at the Oscars, with fella nominees Melissa McCarthy of Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Olivia Colman of The Favourite and Yalitza Aparicio of Roma as clear underdogs.
Also up for Oscars are Adams and Ali.
Fighting off Roma for a sweep at the Oscars will be nominated directors Spike Lee for BlacKkKlansman, Adam McKay for Vice, Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite and Powel Pawlikowski for Cold War.
Crazy Rich Asians won a Critics Choice for Best Comedy but was not nominated for an Academy Award.
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