The 29th annual Critics Choice Awards were held on Sunday night (January 14th) at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California. Hosted for the second year in a row by Chelsea Handler, the ceremony aired live on the CW.
Handler commented on the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes during her opening monologue. “Of course, nobody had a harder time this year than studio executives, who were forced to vacation for six consecutive months in a row,” she joked. “With Barbie, Greta Gerwig became the highest-grossing female director of all time … Again, over $1.4 billion at the box office. So while David Zaslav was wearing a zip-up vest and sailing off to Saint Tropez, one very talented woman swooped in with a movie about female empowerment and saved the entire music — movie — industry.”
Later, Handler took aim at her ex, Jo Koy, when she said, “Thank you for laughing at that. My writers wrote it.” This comes after Koy blamed his writers when his opening monologue fell flat at the Golden Globes.
Oppenheimer and Barbie continued to be the big winners for film, with Oppenheimer taking home eight awards including Best Picture and Barbie receiving six awards in total. For television, Beef, The Bear, and Succession took home the most awards—also mirroring the Golden Globes.
Emma Stone won Best Actress for her role in Poor Things, while Paul Giamatti won Best Actor for The Holdovers. “Playing Bella was one of the greatest joys of my life. I got to unlearn a lot of things in playing her. Unlearn parts of shame and societal stuff that gets put on us, and I'm still working on it,” Stone said. “This is the Critics Choice Awards — and it is about outside opinion … I'm very grateful to the critics for this. But I'm just learning not to care what you think.”
Referring to his visit to In-N-Out following his Golden Globes win, Giamatti joked, “Wow … I didn't think my week could get any better than going viral for eating a cheeseburger … Seriously guys, I need that endorsement, so let's all just pray for me.”
Margot Robbie presented her friend and Barbie costar America Ferrera with the 2024 SeeHer Award. During her acceptance speech, Ferrera said that as a “first-generation Honduran-American girl in love with TV, film, and theater,” she “yearned to see people like myself on screen as full humans.”
“To me, this is the best and highest use of storytelling. To affirm one another’s full humanity. To uphold the truth that we are all worthy of being seen,” the Ugly Betty actor added. “Black, Brown, indigenous, Asian, trans, disabled, any body type, any gender, we are all worthy of having our lives richly and authentically reflected.”
Harrison Ford received a standing ovation when he accepted the Career Achievement Award. “I’m really happy to be here tonight to see what our business is turning into and all of the talented people who are getting opportunities that probably would not have existed in my early part of my career. I’m really happy about that,” Ford said. He added that he felt “enormously lucky” and thanked his wife, Calista Flockhart, as well as his innumerable costars over the years.
Presenters for the evening included Angela Bassett, Natasha Lyonne, Oprah Winfrey, Kaley Cuoco, Mandy Moore, David Duchovny, Meg Ryan, Ke Huy Quan, Sandra Oh, Bella Ramsey, and Brendan Fraser.
See the full list of winners below:
BEST PICTURE
Oppenheimer
BEST DIRECTOR
Christopher Nolan – Oppenheimer
BEST ACTOR
Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
BEST ACTRESS
Emma Stone – Poor Things
BEST LIMITED SERIES
Beef (Netflix)
BEST DRAMA SERIES
Succession (HBO | Max)
BEST COMEDY SERIES
The Bear (FX)
BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Kieran Culkin – Succession (HBO | Max)
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Sarah Snook – Succession (HBO | Max)
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Oppenheimer
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jeremy Allen White – The Bear (FX)
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Ayo Edebiri – The Bear (FX)
BEST SONG
“I’m Just Ken” – Barbie
BEST ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Steven Yeun – Beef (Netflix)
BEST ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Ali Wong – Beef (Netflix)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Ebon Moss-Bachrach – The Bear (FX)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Meryl Streep – Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Billy Crudup – The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Elizabeth Debicki – The Crown (Netflix)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Maria Bello – Beef (Netflix)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Jonathan Bailey – Fellow Travelers (Showtime)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
BEST COMEDY (non-televised)
Barbie
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (non-televised)
Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach – Barbie
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (non-televised)
Cord Jefferson – American Fiction
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM (non-televised)
Anatomy of a Fall
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS (non-televised)
Oppenheimer
BEST EDITING (non-televised)
Jennifer Lame – Oppenheimer
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (non-televised)
Hoyte van Hoytema – Oppenheimer
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN (non-televised)
Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer – Barbie
BEST COSTUME DESIGN (non-televised)
Jacqueline Durran – Barbie
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP (non-televised)
Barbie
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
BEST SCORE (non-televised)
Ludwig Göransson – Oppenheimer
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Dominic Sessa – The Holdovers
BEST TALK SHOW (non-televised)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO | Max)
BEST MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION (non-televised)
Quiz Lady (Hulu)
BEST ANIMATED SERIES (non-televised)
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE SERIES (non-televised)
Lupin (Netflix)
BEST COMEDY SPECIAL
John Mulaney: Baby J (Netflix)