Critics Choice Awards winners revealed! The Power Of The Dog bites back after Sam Elliott comments

The Power Of The Dog was the big winner at the 2022 Critics’ Choice Awards just days after being criticized by veteran actor Sam Elliott for the movie’s theme of repressed homosexual desire.

The Jane Campion directed film earned the top honor of Best Picture at the end of the star-studded gala which took place between two locations – the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, California and Royal Albert Hall in London – for the 27th annual gala.

It was one of the biggest night’s in showbiz history as Will Smith, Succession, and Ted Lasso were also honored at the historic show.

Earlier in the night The Power Of The Dog and Will Smith were also two of the top honorees as they earned  the same prizes at the BAFTA Awards in London just hours earlier.  

Campion, 67, is no stranger to criticism as she reflected some of the harsh reviews she received early on in her career during her acceptance speech saying: ‘We are so proud and so grateful to the critics choice awards for choosing us. I’ve still got some PTSD from critics going back to early in my career.’

The filmmaker – who wrote and directed the movie – laughed as she concluded her speech saying:  ‘Ouch. Ooh, yes. Some very deep wounds. I have also been really championed by them. They are very powerful and we all know it because we are too afraid to read them. I don’t know. This is — I am like the grandmother of the women’s movement in film now. But I am still here! Chair thank you!’

The dramatic Western beat out an impressive field including: Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, tick, tick…Boom!, and West Side Story.

The film is centered around charismatic rancher Phil Burbank (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.

This came just days after 1883 actor Sam Elliott, 77, compared the movie’s ranch workers to Chippendales dancers who ‘wear bowties and not much else.’

In a foul mouthed tirade on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast last week he said: ‘That’s what all these f***ing cowboys in that movie looked like. They’re all running around in chaps and no shirts. There’s all these allusions to homosexuality throughout the f***ing movie.’

The veteran actor, who also blasted Campion for shooting the Montana-set movie in her native New Zealand, has faced heavy criticisms in wake of his comments.

 The previous night Campion pulled no punches as she slammed Elliot as ‘a little bit sexist’ and ‘a bitch’ for criticizing the movie.

‘I’m sorry, he was being a little bit of a B-I-T-C-H. He’s not a cowboy; he’s an actor,’ Jane Campion told Variety at the Directors Guild of America awards in Los Angeles on Saturday. ‘The West is a mythic space and there’s a lot of room on the range. I think it’s a little bit sexist.’

‘I consider myself a creator. I think he thinks of me as a woman or something lesser first,’ she added, noting that she takes a ‘more expansive’ view of the western genre.

Campion was also recognized in the Best Director category as she was the only woman in the field: Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza, Kenneth Branagh – Belfast, Guillermo del Toro – Nightmare Alley, Steven Spielberg – West Side Story, and Denis Villeneuve – Dune.

The New Zealand native poked fun at being the only woman in the category while recognizing tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams who were in the crowd. 

The  53-year-old actor was recognized for his work in King Richard as he gave a heartfelt thank you to tennis superstar sisters Venus and Serena Williams. 

Campion joked about the athletes giving her tennis lessons before acknowledging her fellow nominees saying: ‘I would also just like to give my love out to my fellow — the guys. The nominees. You know, you are such marbles.  However, you do not play against the guys. Like I have to.’

 The crowd – including Venus and Serena – erupted in laughter and applause in response to the joke.

Earlier in the night the tennis megastar sisters were also the focus of Will Smith who accepted his second honor of the night in the Best Actor category  just hours after winning the same prize at the BAFTA Awards earlier in the night. 

He beat out  top stars including: Nicolas Cage – Pig, Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power of the Dog, Peter Dinklage – Cyrano, Andrew Garfield – tick, tick…Boom!, and Denzel Washington – The Tragedy of Macbeth.

During his acceptance speech, Will – who played their father and coach Richard Williams – said: ‘I am here tonight with Venus and Serena, and their sister.  And I really just want to say to all of you, thank you for entrusting me with your story. 

‘What you were able to do and what your family was able to do inspired everyone in this room, everyone in this country, and everyone around the world. You all define the American dream. You represent the best of what we all hope this world and this country can be.’

The film is a look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams became who they are after the coaching from their father Richard Williams. 

Jessica Chastain was not in attendance but she did win Best Actress for her role in The Eyes Of Tammy Faye. 

The 44-year-old actress was up against a talented field including: Olivia Colman – The Lost Daughter, Lady Gaga – House of Gucci, Alana Haim – Licorice Pizza, Nicole Kidman – Being the Ricardos, and Kristen Stewart – Spencer.

 The biographical film Chastain starred in saw her make an incredible transformation and was an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker as she played the titular role.

Ariana DeBose and Troy Kotsur kept their winning ways going during award season – including earning two earlier in the night at the BAFTA Awards – as they each won again at the Critics’s Choice Awards. 

The talented thespians each took home their second awards of the night in the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories as they were seen via satellite from London.

DeBose, 31, won for West Side Story as she beat out heavy competition including Caitríona Balfe – Belfast, Ann Dowd – Mass, Kirsten Dunst – The Power of the Dog, Aunjanue Ellis – King Richard, and Rita Moreno – West Side Story.

 The actress ended her speech with an inspiring message as she said: ‘You know, the last thing I’m going to say, because you never know who is watching, to all young people, it doesn’t matter how you identify who you are, you are unique, you are talented, you are seen, you are valued, you are loved, and you matter. Please don’t ever forget that. Thank you so much.’

Ariana played the iconic character of Anita in the Steven Spielberg directed film which was an adaptation of the 1957 musical, West Side Story explores forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. 

 Kotsur, 53, – who won for CODA – earned the win over Jamie Dornan – Belfast, Ciarán Hinds – Belfast, Jared Leto – House of Gucci, J.K. Simmons – Being the Ricardos, and Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog. 

The deaf actor was mystified that he had earned a similar honor at the BAFTA Awards hours earlier as he said via interpreter: ‘I just — I can’t believe it that this is happening the same night, two birds with one stone, you know what I mean?

‘BAFTAs earlier tonight and critics choice. Oh, my god. I’m not there in Los Angeles but my spirit is there with you all and your spirit is with us in London so I want to thank all of you. Thank you, all the members of the critics choice association for really recognizing my work and the positive message that has really brought us all together tonight to lead me to be here on this stage and I send you my heart and my love. Thank you so much. Love you all.’

The critically-acclaimed movie is centered around a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) named Ruby (played by Emilia Jones) who is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music by wanting to go to Berklee College of Music and her fear of abandoning her parents. 

When it came to the television portion of the award show there were not bigger winners than Succession and Ted Lasso. 

Succession led winners in the drama television genre as the HBO series earned Best Drama Series over Evil (Paramount+), For All Mankind (Apple TV+), The Good Fight (Paramount+), Pose (FX), Squid Game (Netflix)  This Is Us (NBC), and Yellowjackets (Showtime).

Executive producer Scott Ferguson accepted the gong as showrunner Jesse Armstrong is in London working on season 4.

Ferguson heaped praise on the show’s creator as he said: ‘Not only is he a world-class show runner, he is a world-class human being, and it has been a joy working on the show with this group with me. Even though they don’t seem so nice on the show, they are really a wonderful group. The best cast and crew I have ever worked with. I want to thank my — our historic directing team, who just swept the director’s nominations last night, led by Adam Mckay, who did our pilot and set the tone. 

‘I just want to thank my producing partners, Frank Rich, and we would not be here without HBO. The leadership, as good as we are, and we are good, they make us better. It has just been fantastic to we have a world-class crew. Thousands of people, when you count background artists on the technicians and the department heads and New York and Italy, they made it great in a world of a pandemic. That was a credit to all of them. And thank you, codex. It’s an honor to be honored by writers when we are led by such great writers and Jesse and his geniuses among them. Thank you very much. Thank you.’

The HBO series also earned individual honors in the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories for Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook, respectively.

Culkin triumphed over Nicholas Braun – Succession (HBO), Billy Crudup – The Morning Show (Apple TV+), Justin Hartley – This Is Us (NBC), Matthew Macfadyen – Succession (HBO), and Mandy Patinkin – The Good Fight (Paramount+).

The 39-year-old had a hilarious rambling speech which began: ‘I was just telling Jeremy [Strong] how I really hope they don’t say my name. I was really looking forward to that relief of not having to say anything. I have not prepared anything. So anything can come out. So I don’t know what to say he here. 

‘Thanks, critics, wow. I am going to say that ‘Succession has just been a dream. It is like a dream job, I have been spoiled rotten. Jesse Armstrong is kind of a genius. All the writers on our show are just the best at what they do, I feel like, and they give me so much to work with. All of our actors are so fantastic to work with.’

Snook was not on hand to accept the honor in person but she did beat out an impressive field including: Andrea Martin – Evil (Paramount+), Audra McDonald – The Good Fight (Paramount+), Christine Lahti – Evil (Paramount+), J. Smith-Cameron – Succession (HBO), and Susan Kelechi Watson – This Is Us (NBC).

The HBO series is centered around The Roy family who is known for controlling the biggest media and entertainment company in the world. However, their world changes when their father steps down from the company. 

Ted Lasso has continued its very successful awards show run as the AppleTV+ series earned Best Comedy Series  beating out The Great (Hulu), Hacks (HBO Max), Insecure (HBO), Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), The Other Two (HBO Max), Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu), and What We Do in the Shadows (FX).

Earlier in the night Hannah Waddingham won Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series facing heavy competition including: Hannah Einbinder – Hacks (HBO Max), Kristin Chenoweth – Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+), Molly Shannon – The Other Two (HBO Max), Cecily Strong – Saturday Night Live (NBC), and Josie Totah – Saved By the Bell (Peacock).

The 47-year-old actress – who plays team owner Rebecca Welton – recognized her fellow nominees as she said: ‘Hello! Hi! I am massively unprepared. I didn’t think it it was going to come round to me again. Critics Choice Association — I’m not going to cry! Thank you so much for recognizing me again, among these titans of women! 

‘My god, Molly Shannon! Molly Shannon, Kristin Chenoweth, hello, hello over there. Thank you so much! Apple, Warner bros., honestly, I can’t — I know I keep saying it but this has changed my life, and to Jane Becker, one of the writers on Ted Lasso, I needed to know her name, she was responsible for our funeral episode, and thank you for sharing your grief with me and for me to make right with it. Thank you so, so much. I am just over the moon. Thank you so much!’

Brett Goldstein won Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series as he competed against Ncuti Gatwa – Sex Education (Netflix), Harvey Guillén – What We Do in the Shadows (FX), Brandon Scott Jones – Ghosts (CBS), Ray Romano – Made for Love (HBO Max), and Bowen Yang – Saturday Night Live (NBC).

During his acceptance speech, the 41-year-old British actor said: ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am really not going to swear this time. Thank you to the Critics Choice Association. Thank you to Apple and Jason and Bill and Brandon and Joe Kelly for changing my life. 

‘Let’s be honest. I am basically the most supported actor — like, I don’t do much. I’m just surrounded by amazing cast. And I would like to name them individually but there’s too many and it’s 1:00 in the morning, people need to go to bed. Let me at least say Jason, who taught me everything, Hannah, who I love, and I would love to give a special shout out to the person I did most of my scenes with this year, the amazing juno temple. [Applause] Acting with juno is like acting with peer lights. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you!’

Jason Sudeikis was not in attendance at the event but did win Best Actor in a Comedy Series beating out Iain Armitage – Young Sheldon (CBS), Nicholas Hoult – The Great (Hulu), Steve Martin – Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), Kayvan Novak – What We Do in the Shadows (FX), and Martin Short – Only Murders in the Building (Hulu). 

 The show is centered around an American college football coach Ted Lasso heads to London to manage AFC Richmond, a struggling English Premier League soccer team.

White Lotus stars Murray Bartlett and Jennifer Coolidge won Best Supporting Actor and Actress in a Limited Series or Movie made for Television for the HBO series at the star-studded event.

Australian actor Bartlett, 50, was the first to take home the gong as he beat out competition including  Zach Gilford – Midnight Mass (Netflix), William Jackson Harper – The Underground Railroad (Amazon Prime Video), Evan Peters – Mare of Easttown (HBO), Christian Slater – Dr. Death (Peacock), and Courtney B. Vance – Genius: Aretha (National Geographic).

During his acceptance speech, the talented actor went on to thank creator, writer, and director Mike White – who he referred to as ‘mastermind – as he said: ‘Mike, you are a genius and I adore you. 

‘I thank you for taking a giant leap of faith on me on this and for making it so fun. I want to call out to the amazing cast of White Lotus. This is a truly ensemble show and I share this with them. I want to thank our amazing producers and our credible crew, all our people at HBO for your incredible, wholehearted support, especially for continuing to champion creative geniuses like Mike White.’ 

Shortly thereafter it was acting veteran Coolidge, 60, who beat out Kaitlyn Dever – Dopesick (Hulu), Kathryn Hahn – WandaVision (Disney+), Melissa McCarthy – Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu), Julianne Nicholson – Mare of Easttown (HBO), and Jean Smart – Mare of Easttown (HBO). 

Coolidge was not in attendance to accept the honor in person. 

The 27th annual awards show were co-hosted by Taye Diggs and Nicole Byer and will take place at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, California

Nominations for the event were announced back in December as Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast led the pack as they both scored 11 nominations each.

Meanwhile, Lady Gaga earned another nomination for her role in House of Gucci, landing in the Best Actress category, strengthening her chances at bagging another Oscar nod. 

In addition to Best Picture, Belfast racked up several acting nominations including Best Supporting Actor nods for both Jamie Dornan and Ciarán Hinds. 

Best Supporting Actress for Caitríona Balfe, Best Young Actor/Actress for Jude Hill, and Best Acting Ensemble, while Kenneth Branagh could take home both the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay trophies.

Belfast also earned nominations for Haris Zambarloukos for Best Cinematography, Jim Clay and Claire Nia Richards for Best Production Design, and Úna Ní Dhonghaíle for Best Editing. 

Steven Spielberg received a Best Director nomination for his Best Picture contender West Side Story.  

Two of the film’s standout performers, Ariana DeBose and Rita Moreno, will be vying for Best Supporting Actress, while Rachel Zegler is up for Best Young Actor/Actress.

West Side Story also garnered a nomination for Best Acting Ensemble, and nods for Tony Kushner for Best Adapted Screenplay, Janusz Kaminski for Best Cinematography, Adam Stockhausen and Rena DeAngelo for Best Production Design, Sarah Broshar and Michael Kahn for Best Editing, and Paul Tazewell for Best Costume Design. 

The list of list Picture hopefuls featured several more films with impressive nomination counts, including Dune and The Power of the Dog which picked up ten each.

Licorice Pizza and Nightmare Alley collected eight nominations apiece, followed by King Richard and Don’t Look Up, each with six. Rounding out the Best Picture nominees are CODA and ‘tick, tick…Boom!’

The Critics Choice Awards were originally scheduled to occur January 9 but were postponed due to the surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant.

The Critics Choice Association said in a statement on January 13 they would be moving forward with an in-person event and working with the Los Angeles County Public Health Department ‘to ensure that the proper COVID-19 protocols to keep all attendees safe and comfortable will be in place’ by March 13.

‘Following the science and tracking the course of the Omicron variant, we believe that March 13th will be the right day to properly honor the finest achievements in film and television during the past year,’ CCA CEO Joey Berlin said in the statement.

‘We could have proceeded with our original January 9th date with limited attendance or switched to a virtual awards show like we did last year, but we decided to wait until we could safely gather in person and truly celebrate with the creative community, industry leaders and our CCA members all together in one beautiful setting for all the world to see.’

 The new date conflicts with another major awards show, the BAFTAS, which is also set to take place March 13.

According to Variety sources, the CCAs and BAFTAs have been in communication over the issue and have a mutual understanding amongst one another.