Critics Choice Awards 2021: Who will win the biggest awards?
Zendaya, Anya Taylor-Joy, Carey Mulligan and Michaela Coel are all vying for the top prizes. Who will be victorious at this year’s Critics Choice Awards?
The Critics Choice Awards are set to take place on Sunday night in Los Angeles — or Monday in Australia. The second big event of awards season, the ceremony follows the lead of the Golden Globes to combine film and television in one ceremony.
One thing that sets the Critics Choice Awards apart from other events on the calendar is that they love to be contrary and award ties. Remember the year that Lady Gaga and Glenn Close tied for Best Actress? Or last year, when Bong Joon Ho and Sam Mendes were both awarded the Best Director trophy?
The Critics Choice Awards are true fence-sitters, and you can expect at least one major tie to happen on Monday.
Here are our predictions for the biggest awards:
Film
Best Picture: Nomadland. A big win at the Golden Globes cements this film as the award season frontrunner. The Critics Choice Awards loves to predict the Oscar winner — so don’t expect them to veer off course here.
Best Director: Chloé Zhao. The Critics Choice Awards will want to make history, just as the Golden Globes did.
Best Actor: Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. There is no other contender.
Best Actress: We’re predicting that this will be a tie … But between who? Could it be a combination of Carey Mulligan for Promising Young Woman and Andra Day, the surprise Golden Globes Best Actress winner for the United States vs Billie Holiday?
Best Supporting Actor: Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and the Black Messiah. The actor is getting rave reviews for his performance as Chairman Fred Hampton in the biopic, and coming in hot off a Golden Globes win, Critics Choice voters will want to see him give another charming acceptance speech.
Best Supporting Actress: The trickiest category to predict right now, given that the Golden Globes opted for Jodie Foster — who isn’t even nominated at the Critics Choice Awards. It would be wonderful to see Yuh-Jung Youn accepting this award, and given the overall love for film Minari — nominated for nine other awards including Best Picture — this could be a sign of the voting body’s desire to award that performance.
Best Original Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin won this at the Golden Globes for Trial of the Chicago 7. We would love to see Emerald Fennell on the virtual stage for Promising Young Woman.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Kemp Powers for One Night In Miami. Powers’ script has been lauded for translating a stage play for the big screen.
Best Cinematography: New Zealand director of photography Lachlan Milne did beautiful work on Minari, and we would love to see him win in this category. It’s more likely, though, that Erik Messerschmidt might win this for Mank. Making a movie look and feel like it’s from Golden Hollywood is no easy feat, but he pulled it off in this Netflix film.
Best Young Actor/Actress: Alan Kim for Minari. That little boy has been winning hearts and minds with his adorable interviews all through awards season, although Helena Zengel for News of the World — nominated for a Golden Globe in Best Supporting Actress! — could spoil.
Best Ensemble: A fantastic award that recognises the work of an entire cast. There are so many worthy winners here, but we feel that the Critics Choice Awards will not miss the opportunity to recognise Boseman again, this time for Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, which also stars Delroy Lindo and Jonathan Majors.
Best Comedy: It’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm vs. Palm Springs here. Borat won at the Globes, but Palm Springs is much loved among critics … Tie?
Television
Best Drama Series: The Crown — unless Lovecraft Country pulls off a surprise win.
Best Drama Actor: Joshua O’Connor from The Crown was a fan favourite after his acceptance speech in this same category at the Golden Globes — but critics love Jonathan Majors of Lovecraft Country. Is this another category where there could be a tie?
Best Drama Actress: Emma Corrin for The Crown. There is no competition.
Best Drama Supporting Actor: Michael K Williams for Lovecraft Country. The critics love this show, available in Australia on Binge.
Best Drama Supporting Actress: Gillian Anderson for The Crown. As with her co-star Corrin, there is no competition.
Best Comedy Series: One final award for the last season of Schitt’s Creek.
Best Comedy Actor: Jason Sudeikis has been at the top of critics lists for the past year, and expect the Critics Choice Awards to follow in the footsteps of the Globes and award him here. Nicholas Hoult could be a potential spoil, though.
Best Comedy Actress: Catherine O’Hara for Schitt’s Creek. Although don’t be surprised if Kaley Cuoco nabs the prize for The Flight Attendant.
Best Comedy Supporting Actor: Will the Critics Choice, Awards take the opportunity to give Dan Levy another award for Schitt’s Creek? We think so.
Best Comedy Supporting Actress: Rita Moreno for One Day At A Time would be an incredible win, but look out for Hannah Waddingham for AppleTV+’s Ted Lasso.
Best Limited Series: It’s a battle between I May Destroy You and Golden Globes winner The Queen’s Gambit here. We’re calling the former.
Best Limited/TV Movie Actor: John Boyega and Mark Ruffalo won these categories, which were split in two, at the Globes. We still think Hugh Grant for The Undoing could surprise everyone.
Best Limited/TV Movie Actress: It’s Anya Taylor-Joy’s world, we’re just living in it.
Best Limited/TV Movie Supporting Actor: Wouldn’t a win for Daveed Diggs (The Good Lord Bird) in this category be fantastic? It’ll probably be Donald Sutherland for The Undoing, though.
Best Limited/TV Movie Supporting Actress: It’s down to Uzo Aduba for Mrs America and Marielle Heller in The Queen’s Gambit, and either would be a very worthy winner in our eyes.
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