It's time to examine the nominees for the Critics Choice Super Awards!
The Critics Choice Association (CCA) announced today the nominees for the 4th annual Critics Choice Super Awards, honoring the most popular, fan-obsessed genres across both television and movies, including Superhero, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Horror, and Action. Winners will be revealed on Thursday, April 4, 2024. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” leads this year’s film nominees, earning five nominations including Best Action Movie. Tom Cruise received a nomination for Best Actor in an Action Movie, while Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson and Pom Klementieff all received nods for Best Actress in an Action Movie.Consistently, yes, but only for the past four years, while the Saturn Awards have done so 51 times since 1973, when Slaughterhouse Five and Blacula won. As a Saturn Awards voter since 2017, I feel I have to point that out. That written, I usually vote what I like to consider to be the professional over the popular choice, so I'm very interested in what one group of entertainment professionals, the critics, think of speculative fiction movies and TV shows and how that compares to the more heterogeneous electorate for the Saturn Awards. Follow over the jump for the movie nominees.
“The Last of Us” leads this year’s television nominees with seven nominations including Best Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie and Best Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie. Pedro Pascal received nods for both Best Actor in a Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie and Best Actor in a Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie, while Bella Ramsey earned a nominations for both Best Actress in a Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie and Best Actress in a Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie. Melanie Lynskey was also nominated for Best Villain in a Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie. (Superhero categories also include Comic Book and Video Game Inspired series.)
“The Super Awards consistently shine a bright light on the outstanding work being done in genre cinema and television,” said Sean O’Connell, CCA Director of the Super Awards. “We were blown away by the performances and craftsmanship that went into the slate of films and series recognized this year. These nominations represent the absolute best in popular culture, and we’re excited to see which winners emerge.”
Before I get to my prediction of the winner, I'm contrasting how the CCA and Saturn Awards categorize movies and TV shows by genre. The Saturn Awards slotted Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in fantasy and Sisu as an international film, while the CCA considers both action. I agree with this, first because Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has action throughout, while the fantastic elements only show up at the end, and there is no international category at the Super Awards. The rest of the nominees are standard action films, although I find it interesting and telling that Extraction 2 beat out Fast X in this category. The latter wasn't completely shut out, as Jason Momoa earned a nomination for Best Villain in a Movie, but I think it's telling that it was snubbed for Action Movie and the actor and actress categories. None of the above will win, as I think it's between Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and John Wick: Chapter 4 with the former favored.
The acting nominations offer another contrast between the Saturn Awards and the Super Awards. Harrison Ford won Best Actor in a Film at the former, while Tom Cruise was snubbed. Here, Cruise earned an acting nomination, while the CCA snubbed Ford. Cruise won this award last year for Top Gun: Maverick, so I think he's the nominal favorite. My choices for an upset are Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington. Chris Hemsworth and Donnie Yen should just be happy to be nominated.
In one way, this is a diverse field with the nominees split between European and Asian talent; this includes Pom Klementieff, who is French, Russian, and Korean. In another way, it has three nominees from the same film. This could result in either ticket splitting that would allow Priya Kansara or Rina Sawayama, both European of Asian descent, to sneak past, or the voters to consolidate on the best actress of the three from Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. If the former, then I expect it would be Sawayama, the nominee from the better-known film. If the latter, I hope it would be Ferguson.
Since there is no separate animated movie category here as the main Critics Choice Awards recognize those, they've been divided into superhero and sci-fi/fantasy. At least that way Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Boy and the Heron won't step on each other, like they did at the Oscars. I'm also not surprised that they replaced the live-action Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Flash, and The Marvels, although I am surprised that Blue Beetle beat the first two as the critics' choice, pun intended, for best DC movie of 2023. I will get to vote on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Marvels later this year for Best Superhero Film at the Saturn Awards and I expect Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will earn a nomination at the next EMA Awards.
This category sets up a matchup between the winner of Best Animated Film and Best Superhero Film at the Saturn Awards, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3. Since Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Feature at the main awards, I'm predicting it to win here.
The parenthetical comment that "Superhero categories also include Comic Book and Video Game Inspired series" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, as Taron Edgerton earned a nomination for Tetris, which is a thriller about the development of Tetris taking place in the real world, not an adventure in the game world, and The Killer is based on a graphic novel, something I didn't know until I looked it up. Both Edgerton and Fassbender are great actors, and Saturn Award winner Xolo Maridueña should be happy to be nominated along with them. My favorite is Bradley Cooper, and I hope he wins, but I wouldn't be surprised by any of the field winning, including Shameik Moore, who might be part of a Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sweep.
This is a really talented field, but I think the advantage goes to Ayo Edebiri, who swept Critics' Choice, Golden Globes, and Emmys for her role in The Bear. I think that might count for something, even though I'm rooting for Zoe Saldana or Iman Vellani and wouldn't be surprised if Hailee Steinfeld wins as part of a Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse sweep.
I'm repeating my observation about the categorization of M3GAN from 'Avatar: The Way of Water' leads Saturn Awards with 12 nominations.
The one movie that appears out of place is M3GAN, which is generally considered to be a horror movie. I think it's an exception that proves a rule; if the terror is technological, not supernatural, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films considers it science fiction, not horror.At the Super Awards, it's in horror, as I expected. It's one of two films that I think could upset Talk To Me, the Saturn Award winner in the equivalent category, the other being Scream VI. The latter is more of a People's Choice Award movie than a critic's choice, so I think it's still between Talk To Me and M3GAN with the former favored.
The best actors here are Oscar winners Nicolas Cage and Joaquin Phoenix and I think one of them, likely Phoenix, will win. Dave Bautista should be happy the critics think highly enough of his acting skills to nominate him. I feel the same for the other nominees. Tobin Bell and Andrew Scott — who? To be fair, I understand All of Us Strangers has a lot of fans, so I shouldn't sneer. Besides, Scott may surprise me.
The actress nominees show a lot more alignment with the nominated horror movies than the actors, none of whom were in nominees for Best Horror Movie. My personal favorite is Jenna Ortega, who won Best Actress in a Horror Series at last year's Super Awards and the Saturn Award for Best Young Performer in a Television Series for Wednesday and The Drama Movie Star of the Year at the People's Choice Awards for Scream VI — a popular and critical choice! That written, Mia Goth is the defending winner of this award and Best Villain in a Movie and any one of Amie Donald and Jenna Davis, Alyssa Sutherland, or Sophie Wilde could win if their movies do in what will pass for a horror sweep.
This field includes three Oscar winners, The Boy and the Heron, Godzilla Minus One, and Poor Things, along with Oscar nominee The Creator. I think it's between The Boy and the Heron and Poor Things with the latter favored. I have two things to say about Asteroid City. First, why this it here instead of Barbie? Second, the only thing it could win in this field is a game of "one of these things is not like the others." Next!
The field includes four-time Oscar nominee and two-time Emmy winner Mark Ruffalo, four-time Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe, and Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet. Because Ruffalo earned a Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this same role, I'm picking him to win. Chris Pine and Ryunosuke Kamiki should consider themselves lucky to be nominated.
Emma Stone won Best Actress for this role both at the Critics' Choice Awards and the Oscars, so she's the favorite. I don't think even Oscar and Emmy winner Olivia Colman has a chance.
Chukwudi Iwuji made a compelling villain in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 so I'm rooting for him, but I'd get a kick out of MEGAN or Godzilla winning this award. Oh, no, there goes Tokyo. Go, go, Godzilla!
I plan on continuing this with the TV nominees on April 4th, the day the CCA presents the awards. In the meantime, stay tuned for highlights of tonight's Saturday Night Live for Easter.
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