On Friday night, VH1 aired the forgotten awards show, the Critics Choice Awards, otherwise known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards. The Critics Choice sort of represent the consensus of the critics’ thoughts on the year-in-film. The ceremony has improved over the past few years, and this year they actually had a decent production budget and a surprising good house band with Maroon 5. The breezy two-hour show handed out awards quickly and all in all, I enjoyed watching it while I downed a couple of cocktails with my dog (my dog was not drinking).
The big winners:
Best Picture: The Social Network
Best Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Best Actor: Colin Firth
Best Actress: Natalie Portman
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale
Best Newcomer: Hailee Steinfield
Best Ensemble: The cast of The Fighter
Best Made-for-TV Movie: The Pacific
My favorite parts:
* My favorite acceptance speeches were from Melissa Leo and Christian Bale, surprisingly. Bale is really impressing me lately – you can see that he’s making a real effort to NOT be a jagoff. This is Bale’s version of an Oscar campaign – simply not being surly and difficult. Actually putting on a suit and showing some humility and humor about being honored. His acceptance speech was lovely, and he honored the town of Lowell, Massachusetts and the Ward family, and then he got emotional about his family, specifically his wife Sibi. As far as Melissa Leo’s win, she is just an awesome broad, a wonderful character actress and I enjoyed her because she just seemed to be having the time of her life.
* Matt Damon was honored with the Joel Siegel Award, which recognized his humanitarian work with Water.org, the global clean-water initiative that Matt co-founded. Matt looked great, his speech was simple and humble, and he knows how to laugh at himself – he was pretty much roasted by the two presenters of the award, Jimmy Kimmel and Emily Blunt.
* Quentin Tarantino! He got some kind of special lifetime achievement award that gave him special recognition for his extraordinary use of music in film. He seemed genuinely touched to receive the award, and I always enjoy hearing him speak – he’s a talker. And a genius. It was good to see him!
Here are some photos of the winners – for some reason, I can’t find any photos of Christian Bale or Matt Damon. Sorry, CB!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Colin Firth and Natalie Portman look GREAT. Firth looks good basically all of the time … and this is the first Portman-maternity-look that isn’t aesthetically awful.
That’s the best outfit Natalie Portman’s worn since she announced her pregnancy. Very nice.
Hailee’s so cute!
Firstly, is Maroon 5 still together? Colour me mildy surprised. Secondly, and most importantly, what the hell were those Kadashians doing there? The ‘critics’ have bloody low standards.
I like Tarantino too. He did a fun guest spot on Alias many, many (and many) years ago. I especially loved the part where he tortured Sloan. Gave me the warm fuzzies.
Not only do I have an intense love for Colin Firth, I also respect the man immensely, both as an actor and as a person.
Natalie Portman’s pregnancy style was much, much better last night. Melissa Leo looked AMAZING in that black tuxedo- I love that in her speech she acknowledged that the past ten years have been the best of her career, and those are the years that her industry tell her are a wasteland for a woman (ages 40-50).
Natalie looks beautiful and finally a dress that makes her look like a grown pregnant woman, not some pregnant child. Hailee Steinfield is a beautiful girl and was so good in True Grit. I can’t believe she is only 14. She would be my Katniss Everdeen only if she wasn’t too young…wait, I need to think about this.
Colin…what else can you say? The man is so handsome and wears a suit like no one else. He just gets better with age and is just such a nice person. Love, love, love him!
Totally like what Natalie is wearing. Except I hope she doesn’t cover up as much anymore. She is young and cute and should go for shorter hemlines. Just sayin’
Yeah… NatalieP looks gorgeous, the gown is beautiful -looks like a very soft peachy pink chiffon. The bitchface was def the 1st trimester and really bad makeup. She just can’t pull off dark red lipstick.
@KatScorop… I LOOVED that episode… Tarantino was great!
Natalie looks drop dead gorgeous and for the first time in a long time i really like what she is wearing
Thank god Natalie is finally wearing something cute. May it continue for the rest of her pregnancy . . .
If you haven’t seen “The Fighter”, I highly recommend it. Christian Bale and Melissa Leo are both deserving of Oscars. Being a long time Mark Wahlberg fan, I’d like to see him win as well, although I think Colin Firth will edge him out.(deservingly) Anyway, great movie and very talented all around cast.
Why am I suddenly craving a hot Hamm sandwich? 🙂 mmmmm mmmmmm!!
Hailee looks super cute. It’s sophisticated but still appropriate for her age and not overly revealing. I would totally wear it. I think it could work on a lot of ages actually. But I love it on her.
Good to see my man Christian Bale get an award. I hope he goes on to win an Oscar. 🙂
Kaiser and CB, why do my comments still have to await moderation? Haven’t I earnt my stripes yet?
I too find Quentin T. to be a fascinating individual. I could listen to him for hours. I’m also glad he won an award for his music in films. As far as I’m concerned he is a genius with his choice of tunes in his movies. He really can’t act though.
Seriously good dress choice for Natalie.
It’s not just the finally-well-chosen dress, it’s the sparkle in Natalie’s eyes… she’s looking better than she has for this entire campaign. May it continue!
Love Collin. I agree that NP looked the best since the pregnancy announcement but she’s gaining so much weight too fast. She must be around the 4th month or so and she looks fatter than Rachel Zoe who is in her 7th.
Natalie looks gorgeous!
The awards went about as I expected, and as I expect we’ll see for other awards as well.
Isn’t this the first time Christian Bale has really been nominated for a lot? Maybe that’s why we’re finally seeing him participating in all this stuff. I’ve been a fan of his work for a long time, glad to see him getting some recognition for it.
Yay for Matt Damon – he’s been involved with that for a while I think, and it’s a very highly rated charity doing good work.
Yay for Hamm…just because.
@19 (can’t tell if that’s Ana or Aria)
Ha! I bet you anything that Rachel Zoe didn’t gain *enough* weight and that NP’s weight gain is healthy. RZ was always a stick figure in stilettos.
i thought “the fighter” actors were the most gracious:they were really happy to win and even surprised to win the best cast ensemble award(totally deserved on my opinion) for example
Some backstage press room reports confirmed it
@19 (can’t read name, sorry), Natalie doesn’t look “fat” at all! Rachel Zoe likely has an eating disorder, and she always looks scarily unhealthy.
I love how Colin Firth always seems to look tickled pink in photos lately (this and the star pics). Looks humble and happy. He is so adorable. *sigh*
Portman is gorgeous this outing. Melissa Leo is the one who shocked me. I have not paid attention to her since Homicide:Life on the Street when she was also being stalked by John Heard. She was obviously well made up for her film role because I didn’t even recognize her. She looked great at the awards and really deserved hers.
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