The 28th Critics’ Choice Awards were held on Sunday night, January 15, 2023, at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California, to honor the finest achievements of filmmaking and television shows in 2022. The ceremony was broadcasted on The CW. Taye Diggs, who had hosted this show consecutively for the past four years, was replaced by Chelsea Handler. Like the previous couple of years, film and television nominations were announced separately. The television nominations were announced on December 6, 2022, while the film nominations were announced on December 14. “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” led the film chart with fourteen nominations, a record number of nominations tied with “The Shape of Water,” “The Favorite,” and “The Irishman,” and followed by “The Fabelmans” with eleven nominations. “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” bagged five wins out of those fourteen nominations.
Best Picture
Eleven films were nominated for Best Picture. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” S. S. Rajamouli’s “RRR,” Todd Field’s “Tár,” Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” and Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” were among the nominees. In the end, the Best Picture prize was awarded to “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.” It recently won Best Picture (Comedy or Musical) at the 80th Golden Globes as well. This back-to-back win for this multiversal drama will boost its Oscar-winning chances.
Best Director
This year, CCA nominated ten directors for this award. Among the nominees were heavyweight directors like Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” James Cameron for “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Damien Chazelle for “Babylon,” Todd Field for “Tár,” Baz Luhrmann for “Elvis,” Martin McDonagh for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Sarah Polley for “Women Talking,” Gina Prince-Bythewood for “The Woman King,” S. S. Rajamouli for “RRR,” and Steven Spielberg for “The Fabelmans.” Daniels has been sweeping almost all the critics’ awards till now, but recently Steven Spielberg won at Golden Globes. So, people were looking forward to who was going to win, but ultimately Daniels was announced as the winner, furthering their chances for an eventual Oscar win.
Best Original Screenplay
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schienert’s “Everything Everywhere All At Once” dominated this category throughout the entire award season. This time they won by beating the likes of “Tár,” “The Fabelmans,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” and a surprising nominee, “Aftersun.”
Best Adapted Screenplay
Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story” was the frontrunner for Best Adapted Screenplay. But in this edition of the Critics’ Choice Awards, this prize was awarded to Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking.” The other nominees were “The Whale,” “She Said,” and “Living.”
Best Cinematography
The Best Cinematography has been awarded either to “Avatar: The Way of Water” or “Top Gun: Maverick” throughout this award season. CCA decided to go with “Top Gun: Maverick.” “Empire of the Sun” was also nominated, which was helmed by legendary cinematographer Sir Roger Deakins, but sadly, because of the movie’s mixed reception, its beautiful cinematography went unnoticed. The other nominees were “Tár,” “The Fabelmans,” and “Babylon.”
Best Editing
“Everything, Everywhere, At Once” was hailed as the best-edited film of this year by critics and experts. And rightly so, it did manage to secure a win at the Critics’ Choice Awards. Among the other nominees were “Babylon,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “Elvis,” and “Tár.”
Best Costume Design
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” undoubtedly had the best costume design out of all the nominees (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “Elvis,” “The Woman King,” and “Babylon”). Black Panther’s win solidified its Oscar-winning chances in this category.
Best Production Design
It may be a rough award season for Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon”, but in one category they are definitely going to win Best Production Design. Here, the win at the Critics’ Choice Awards made its Oscar-winning chances even higher.
Best Score
This was the most controversial win in Critics’ Choice history. When they announced “Tár” as the winner of Best Score, it shocked the entire film community; how can it win when the entire film has little to no score at all? Even if it is disqualified at the Oscars for this category. This decision raised a lot of eyebrows, for sure.
Best Song
After its Golden Globes win, “Naatu Naatu” from India’s action epic “RRR” continues to dominate in this category as it wins the Critics Choice Awards as well. M.M. Keeravani’s “Naatu Naatu” beats Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand,” Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up,” and Taylor Swift’s “Carolina,” and now seems to be the clear Oscar frontrunner.
Best Visual Effects
At this point, it does not even matter who the other nominees are. James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water ” continues to sweep the Best Visual Effects category in every award show, and now it’s looking like it’s absolutely locked to win the Oscars too.
Best Foreign Language Film
This award season’s foreign language frontrunner, “RRR,” won the Critics’ Choice award. Even though it lost this award to “Argentina 1985” at the Golden Globes, it will not be competing at the Oscars as the Film Federation of India chose not to submit “RRR” as their official submission for the 95th Academy Awards.
See more: 80th Golden Globes Awards: Winners And Snubs, Breakdown