‘Everything Everywhere’, ‘Fabelmans’ Lead – Deadline

With 14 nominations, five of them for actors, A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once racked up the highest total among films in contention for the 28th annual Critics Choice Awards for Film. Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans was next, also grabbing five noms for its cast out of 11 overall to score the including three for Spielberg as producer, director and co-writer of his autobiographical story.

Paramount also found itself back in the awards game in a big way, coming in with 9 nominations for Babylon, Damien Chazelle’s ode to the decadent Hollywood of the silent and early-talkies era including Best Picture, Director and Actress for Margot Robbie. The studio also racked up six nominations for the year’s top box office smash Top Gun: Maverick, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Tom Cruise. Searchlight struck out with its hopeful, Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light (only a single Cinematography nom) but landed an impressive 9 nominations, including five for acting, for Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, which continues its awards season roll.

In addition to the above-mentioned films, the 11 Best Picture nominees — there was an exact tie for the last spot — also include James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water with six nominations overall including Best Director for the Friday-opening sequel to the 2009 all-time box office champ; Elvis with seven names including Actor for Austin Butler and Director for Baz Luhrmann; Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery with six; India’s sensation RRR with five including Director for SS Rajamouli and Foreign Language Film; Focus Features’ Tar with seven including Best Actress front-runner Cate Blanchett; and Women Talking, which did very well with six including Director and Adapted Screenplay for Sarah Polley.

The latter is one of two women among the list of 10 nominated directors, along with The Woman King’s Gina Prince-Bythewood — although her film inexplicably failed to make the Best Picture cut. Monday’s Golden Globes nominations included no women directors and was heavily criticized for the omissions, so perhaps this represents a turnaround in that regard. CCA decided to increase the number of Directing nominees to better correlate with Best Picture. Oscar should follow suit since both organizations now have a guaranteed list of 10 Best Picture nominees. No movie directs itself.

RELATED: Golden Globes Film Analysis: Cruise Is Snubbed, Fraser Isn’t & A Mixed Bag For Diversity

Among those snubbed by the Globes — particularly Cruise and Till’s Danielle Deadwyler, as well as Fabelmans Supporting Actors Paul Dano and Judd Hirsch — they all had a better day today with these nominations. The Critics Choice Awards traditionally has the strongest track record in terms of predicting Oscars.

“We are so proud to be recognizing this incredible group of films and the people who made them possible,” said Critics Choice Association CEO Joey Berlin. “This recognition comes from a diverse group of more than 600 critics and entertainment reporters who share their opinions about film and television with millions of people every day, all year long. Our collective opinion about the year’s finest achievements is truly meaningful to the creative community.”

As previously announced, Abbott Elementary leads the TV contenders for the 28th annual Critics Choice Awards, collecting noms in six categories. In addition to Best Comedy Series, the show earned several acting nominations including Actress in a Comedy Series for Quinta Brunson. Chris Perfetti and Tyler James Williams were nominated for Supporting Actor, while Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph both earned nominations for Supporting Actress. Better Call Saul followed with an impressive five nominations overall, while Gaslit, Reservation Dogs and The Good Fight tied with four nominations each.

It was also announced that Hollywood icon Jeff Bridges will receive the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s show.

The winners will be revealed at the star-studded Critics Choice Awards gala hosted by Chelsea Handler, which The CW will air live at 7 pm in the East (delayed in the West) from the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles on Sunday, January 15 .

Over the course of the past few weeks, CCA has also held four other awards ceremonies including one in New York for Achievement in Documentaries, where Amazon’s Good Night Oppy led with five wins, as well as the CCA’s strong commitment to diversity with the inaugural Critics Choice Celebration of Asian Pacific Cinema and Television, the second annual Celebration of Latino Cinema and Television and last week’s fifth annual Celebration of Black Cinema and Television, all also held at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel ballroom.

Full disclosure: I am a member of the Critics Choice Association and president of the Film Branch.

Here is the complete list of film nominations:

BEST PICTURE

Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
RRR
Tar
Top Gun: Maverick
Women Talking

BEST ACTOR

Austin Butler – Elvis
Tom Cruise – Top Gun: Maverick
Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser – The Whale
Paul Mescal – Aftersun
Bill Nighy – Living

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett – Tár
Viola Davis – The Woman King
Danielle Deadwyler – Till
Margot Robbie – Babylon

Michelle Williams – The Fabelmans

Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Paul Dano – The Fabelmans
Brendan Gleeson – The Banshees of Inisherin
Judd Hirsch – The Fabelmans
Barry Keoghan – The Banshees of Inisherin
Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Brian Tyree Henry – Causeway

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Angela Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever|
Jessie Buckley – Women Talking
Kerry Condon – The Banshees of Inisherin
Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stephanie Hsu – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Janelle Monáe – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS

Frankie Corio – Aftersun
Jalyn Hall – Till
Gabriel LaBelle – The Fabelmans
Bella Ramsey – Catherine Called Birdy
Banks Repeat – Armageddon Time
Sadie Sink – The Whale

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
The Woman King
Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR

James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water
Damien Chazelle – Babylon
Todd Field – Tár
Baz Luhrmann – Elvis
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
Sarah Polley – Women Talking
Gina Prince-Bythewood – The Woman King
SS Rajamouli – RRR
Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Todd Field – Tár
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh – The Banshees of Inisherin
Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner – The Fabelmans
Charlotte Wells – Aftersun

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Samuel D. Hunter – The Whale
Kazuo Ishiguro – Living
Rian Johnson – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Rebecca Lenkiewicz – She Said
Sarah Polley – Women Talking

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Russell Carpenter – Avatar: The Way of Water
Roger Deakins – Empire of Light
Florian Hoffmeister – Tár
Janusz Kaminski – The Fabelmans
Claudio Miranda – Top Gun: Maverick
Linus Sandgren – Babylon

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Hannah Beachler, Lisa K. Sessions – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Rick Carter, Karen O’Hara – The Fabelmans
Dylan Cole, Ben Procter, Vanessa Cole – Avatar: The Way of Water
Jason Kisvarday, Kelsi Ephraim – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, Bev Dunn – Elvis
Florencia Martin, Anthony Carlino – Babylon

BEST EDITING

Tom Cross – Babylon
Eddie Hamilton – Top Gun: Maverick
Stephen Rivkin, David Brenner, John Refoua, James Cameron – Avatar: The Way of Water
Paul Rogers – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Matt Villa, Jonathan Redmond – Elvis
Monika Willi – Tár

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Ruth E. Carter – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Jenny Eagan – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Shirley Kurata – Everything Everywhere All at Once
Catherine Martin – Elvis
Gersha Phillips – The Woman King
Mary Zophres – Babylon

BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP

Babylon
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Whale

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Everything Everywhere All at Once
RRR
Top Gun: Maverick

BEST COMEDY

The Banshees of Inisherin
Bros
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Triangle of Sadness
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Turning Red
Wendell & Wild

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

All Quiet on the Western Front
Argentina, 1985
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Close
Decision to Leave
RRR

BEST SONG

Carolina – Where the Crawdads Sing
Ciao Papa – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Hold My Hand – Top Gun: Maverick
Lift Me Up – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Naatu Naatu – RRR
New Body Rhumba – White Noise

BEST SCORE

Alexandre Desplat – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Michael Giacchino – The Batman
Hildur Guðnadóttir – Tár
Hildur Guðnadóttir – Women Talking
Justin Hurwitz – Babylon
John Williams – The Fabelmans