A recap of the 2021 Critics’ Choice Awards. Photo from criticschoice.com.
The red carpet was rolled out and the stars were dolled up for the 26th Critics’ Choice Awards. Well, online of course!
The awards premiered Sunday night on CW and was hosted by Taye Diggs. The Critics’ Choice Association consists of hundreds of television, film and radio critics from the United States and Canada. The awards covered 20 film categories and 19 television categories. The show tried to embrace the humor of the virtual awards through bits like editing face filters over Diggs.
A unique award that the Critics’ Choice Awards presents is the Best Young Actor or Actress Award, which is given to a child, teenage or young adult actor that had a standout performance in a movie. The winner of the award this year was 8-year-old actor Alan Kim, for his work in the movie “Minari,” in which he switched between speaking Korean and English throughout. He had the most adorable acceptance speech and became so overcome with joy that he cried, making it stand out as a highlight of the night.
An interesting question that has been a component of these virtual awards shows: are celebrities still showing off in impressive outfits as they did in person?
Although a few people were shown to have dressed quite casually for the previous big award show, the Golden Globes, such as Jodie Foster wearing pajamas, there were multiple outstanding outfits for the Critics’ Choice Awards. Fashion standouts included Regina King, who was in a magnificent black sparkly Versace gown, and John Boyega, who wore an all-white suit accompanied by a massive Louis Vuitton shawl.
Following the trend set by the Golden Globes, the film “Nomandland” and Chloé Zhao won Best Picture and Best Director respectively. There is a lot of speculation that “Nomandland” will additionally win the biggest prize at the Oscars. This hopefully indicates that Hollywood is starting to show more respect to women in the movie industry, especially female directors. Although Hollywood has made progress, people of color and women are still quite overlooked when it comes to award shows. The Critics’ Choice Awards have garnered a reputation in the past couple of years for having more diverse nominees compared to the other awards shows.
Chadwick Boseman won Best Actor for his last performance, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” before his tragic death last summer. His wife Simone Boseman accepted the award on his behalf.
She remarked that “it is so hard to find a celebratory feeling in these moments” after losing him, but it brings her and Boseman’s family so much joy that Chadwick is getting the honor he deserved.
Zendaya won the #SeeHer Award in the fifth year of its creation for her performances in projects such as “Euphoria” and “Malcolm & Marie,” as well as for her activism. The award was created by the SeeHer initiative and is awarded to a woman or girl who helps portray an accurate representation of females in media and advertising.
SeeHer chose Zendaya because “she is showing the next generation that you are never too young to use your voice,” said president Nadine Karp McHugh.
The Critics’ Choice Awards was an overall success for both the viewers and winners. They did a great job at making the most of the night with the unfortunate setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.