Musical romance “La La Land” led The 22nd Annual Critics Choice Awards with 8 wins out of its 12 nominations, including Best Picture and a tie for Best Original Screenplay with “Manchester by the Sea”. That family drama earned two other honors, including Best Actor – Casey Affleck.
Biopic “Jackie” also won three awards, including Best Actress – Natalie Portman. Coming-of-age drama “Moonlight” took Best Ensemble and Best Supporting Actor – Mahershala Ali. And Viola Davis earned Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “Fences”.
Now onto the 74th Golden Globes nominations – “La La Land” leads the pack with 7 nods, followed by “Moonlight” with six and “Manchester by the Sea” with five. “Fences” received acting nods (Denzel Washington – Actor, Drama, Viola Davis – Sup. Actress), but not Best Director (Washington) or Best Picture – Drama. Mel Gibson is in the Director race for “Hacksaw Ridge”.
Jessica Chastain received an Actress in a Drama nomination for little-seen “Miss Sloane”. Lily Collins (“Rules Don’t Apply”) and Hailee Steinfeld (“The Edge of Seventeen”) are surprise Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical nominees. Viggo Mortensen enters Best Actor in a Drama for “Captain Fantastic” (he was submitted as a Comedy for Critics Choice). Octavia Spencer (“Hidden Figures”) is up for Supporting Actress.
For Best Supporting Actor we have two surprise contenders – “The Big Bang Theory”‘s Simon Helberg for “Florence Foster Jenkins” (Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant are also nominees) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson over CCA nominee Michael Shannon for “Nocturnal Animals”. Lead Actor in a Comedy features Jonah Hill for “War Dogs”.
The delightful “Sing Street” is among Best Picture – Comedy or Musical nominees. The Best Animated Feature category is wild, including Critics Choice winner “Zootopia”, “Kubo and the Two Strings”, “Moana” and newcomers to the Awards Season race “Sing” and indie “My Life as a Zucchini”. Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” represents “Trolls” in Best Original Song race, joining “City of Stars” (“La La Land”), “Faith” (“Sing”), the title track from “Gold” and “Moana”‘s “How Far I’ll Go”.
Martin Scorsese’s “Silence”, which some predicted might dominate these nominations, was shut-out completely.
Jimmy Fallon will host the 74th Globes on Sunday January 8th on NBC. The complete list of nominees is at goldenglobes.com. SAG Awards nominations are next – this Wednesday morning.