Awards season has taken a severe hit, but it isn't dead. And, on Monday at least, there was very little Blood.
On the same night that Hollywood found out that the upcoming Golden Globes ceremony has been canceled, No Country for Old Men scored a leading three wins, including Best Picture, at the 13th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, which was not picketed by the striking Writers Guild of America and therefore attracted its fair share of A-list acting talent.
"They need to get people in a room and sit them down—and lock the door until they come up with a solution," George Clooney, on hand to present the inaugural Joel Siegel Award to friend and frequent costar and coactivist Don Cheadle for his humanitarian work, told E! News when asked his thoughts on the latest strike-related development.
"You have to think of it from a different angle. This is a one-industry town…It is not about whether or not a film gets heard…What matters is it is not just actors and writers that are unemployed. There are 100,000 people that are in trouble."
With the Screen Actors Guild's blessing, Clooney walked the red carpet outside the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium alongside Cheadle, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Daniel Day-Lewis, Marcia Gay Harden, Katie Holmes and many others who are likely hoping that the Academy Awards' producers are more successful than the Globes' producers were at cutting a deal with the writers.
Industry turmoil aside, Monday was a night for celebrating the Broadcast Film Critics Association's picks for the year's top achievements in film.
"It's moments like this when I wish that George Clooney was my speech writer…You haven't got a spare speech I could borrow by any chance?" Day-Lewis inquired in accepting his award for Best Actor for his scene-chomping turn in There Will Be Blood, one of two wins for Paul Thomas Anderson's drama. The other came for Jonny Greenwood's score.
"It's the mystery of the work of all these people who I admire so much in the work they've done this year, it's like food and drink to me," the probable Oscar frontrunner, honoring his fellow nominees. "I don't know how they did what they did. I'm just glad of it."
While there seemed to be no shortage of big names in the house, a number of the evening's winners were not there to accept their awards in person, both making it easier for host D.L. Hughley to bring the ceremony in on time and allowing those who did show up to take their time.
Javier Bardem, for one, probably said more when picking up his trophy for Best Supporting Actor than he did throughout the entirety of No Country for Old Men, in which he played a relentless psychopath hot on the trail of $2 million in stolen drug money.
"I think that something is wrong here," said a humble Bardem, who also picked up the Best Director trophy on behalf of Joel and Ethan Coen. "After watching the talent in those performances, I feel like I won the lottery…All the performers were truly heartbreaking. I'm just a lucky guy, that's all."
In addition to the Coen brothers, the list of absent winners included Best Actress winner Julie Christie, also an Oscar favorite for her portrayal of an Alzheimer's patient in Away from Her; stripper-turned-first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody, who scored yet another honor for Juno; Best Young Actor Ahmad Kahn Mahmidzada, whose turn in The Kite Runner as a boy who suffers a horrible injustice at the hands of a street gang in pre-Taliban Afghanistan has been touted as one of the best child performances on film, ever; Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Best Song winners for Once; Sicko director Michael Moore, whose scathing look at the U.S. healthcare industry was named Best Documentary; and Gone Baby Gone star Amy Ryan, who did the audience a good turn by sending Casey Affleck up to collect her award for Best Supporting Actress.
"I would like to thank the Academy—that must be a mistake," Affleck began. "My deepest regrets for being unable to accept in person. Thank you, Casey, for—makes a joke about me—I would like to thank Miramax and, mostly, Ben Affleck for giving me this chance and for your unending love and support…Then she makes another joke about me. Goodnight."
On a lighter, less kidnappy note, Juno and Hairspray collected two honors apiece, including Best Comedy Movie for the former, which is heading into the final stretch before Oscar nods are announced with both increasingly large box office receipts and major buzz.
Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky was named Best Young Actress and shared in the film's win for Best Ensemble.
"Thank you so much!" Blonsky tearfully exclaimed onstage, extending her thanks to "my mommy who's sitting here crying and my other mommy who's at home, John Travolta."
Into the Wild, which led the field coming in with seven nominations, came up empty-handed tonight.
Here's the complete list of winners from the 13th Annual Critics' Choice Awards:
- Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
- Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
- Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her
- Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
- Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
- Young Actor: Ahmad Kahn Mahmidzada, The Kite Runner
- Young Actress: Nikki Blonsky, Hairspray
- Acting Ensemble: Hairspray
- Director: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men
- Writer: Diablo Cody, Juno
- Composer: Jonny Greenwood, There Will Be Blood
- Song: "Falling Slowly," Once (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)
- Foreign Language Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
- Comedy Movie: Juno
- Family Film (Live Action): Enchanted
- Animated Film: Ratatouille
- Documentary: Sicko
- Picture Made for Television: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee