The nominees for the 23rd annual Critics’ Choice Awards were announced today, by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists association. The nominees reflect critically renowned film and television this year, chosen by the critics themselves. The winners will be announced on January 11th at 8pm on The CW. LGBTQ actors, creators, and inclusive films and television series were nominated for several awards.
The coming-of-age romance Call Me By Your Name received eight total nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and actor nods for Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, and Michael Stuhlbarg. Battle of the Sexes, the Billie Jean King biopic telling the story of King’s historic tennis match with Bobby Riggs, received two nominations including one for Emma Stone in Best Actress in a Comedy for her portrayal of King.
Leading the nominations in numbers was Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water with 14 nominations for the '60s set fantasy film, which co-stars Richard Jenkins as the protagonist’s gay neighbor and confidant, Giles. Jenkins received a nomination in Best Supporting Actor for this role. The film was also nominated in Best Picture and Best Director, among others. Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, the story of a teenage girl coming-of-age in Sacramento, which also includes an LGBTQ storyline, received eight nominations, including Best Picture. Out filmmaker Dee Rees also received a nomination in Best Original Screenplay for Netflix's Mudbound.
Three out of the six nominations for Best Foreign Language film were for LGBTQ-inclusive stories. This includes BPM (Beats Per Minute), a French film about the activists in ACT UP Paris fighting for rights for those living with HIV and AIDS in the early days of the crisis; A Fantastic Woman, a Chilean film starring Daniela Vega as a transgender singer who has to deal with grief and discrimination from her late lover’s family; and Thelma, a thriller from Norway that focuses on the titular Thelma falling in love with a woman and the eerie powers she has grown to develop. All three films are also Oscar submissions from their respective countries.
On the television side Starz’ American Gods received a Best Drama nomination, as well as Hulu’s Emmy Award-winning drama The Handmaid’s Tale and NBC’s This Is Us. Tatiana Maslany received a nomination in Best Actress in a Drama for Orphan Black, where she plays multiple characters including out character Cosima. Non-binary actor Asia Kate Dillion received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for playing non-binary character Taylor Mason on Showtime’s Billions. Earlier this year, Dillon penned a letter to The Academy regarding the use of gendered categories, and how they would be submitting for consideration within this binary. “Given the choice between actor and actress, actor is a non-gendered word that I use,” Dillon said. “That’s why I chose actor.”
Modern Family was nominated in Best Comedy Series, and out actors Titus Burgess and Sean Hayes both received Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy nods for their work on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Will & Grace respectively. Nominees for Best Animated Series include Netflix's BoJack Horseman, which has been praised for including an asexual character, and Amazon's Danger & Eggs, which has been described as the "Greatest, Weirdest, Queer-and-Trans Inclusive Kids Show Ever."
Feud: Bette and Joan and Godless were both nominated in Best Limited Series, while Ellen and Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen both received nominations in Best Talk Show. RuPaul’s Drag Race was nominated in Best Reality Competition Series, one of the series two nominations.
The 23rd annual Critics Choice awards will be held on January 11th, at 8pm ET/5pm PT on The CW. Congrats to the nominees!
