Hollywood Critics Association Awards Winners: Promising Young Woman scores Best Picture and Actress

Promising Young Woman was the big winner Friday night at the Fourth Annual Hollywood Critics Association Awards.

The socially conscious revenge drama, about a woman who flips the tables and preys on male sexual predators, was awarded Best Picture, while Carrey Mulligan earned the Best Actress plaque and director Emerald Fennell won multiple honors.

The Hollywood Critics Association Awards presented a more intimate alternative to the Oscars and the Golden Globes with a low-key virtual presentation where most winners and some presenters fired up their webcams from home.

Mulligan was dressed in a striped shirt at home as she accepted her award for Best actress.

She kept her speech short and sweet but included special thanks for the movie’s writer and director, Emerald Fennell.

‘This opportunity was really the chance of a lifetime and I’m so grateful to her,’ she gushed, just as her dog barked to underscore the relaxed nature of the show.

Fennell, an English actress who was featured on season three of The Crown as Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, received a bounty of awards during the evening.

While accepting her honorary award for Filmmaker on the Rise, she recounted her desire to become integrated in the entertainment industry from an early age, calling Hollywood a ‘Place that I have always admired and dreamed about since I was little.’ 

She won again later in the evening for Best First Feature and Best Original Screenplay.

She sounded starstruck as she accepted the latter award. 

‘It just seems completely extraordinary that this script that was in my head for years and years listening to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears until everything was a pink, sparkly blur, for it to have come all of the way to Hollywood and to be awarded this unbelievable honor is truly extraordinary,’ she gushed.

Delroy Lindo took home the Best Actor plaque for his widely acclaimed role in Da 5 Bloods as a Black veteran returning to Vietnam in the present day to search for the body of his fallen friend, as well as the fortune buried with him. 

He found himself competing against his late costar Chadwick Boseman, though it was for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. 

‘”Thank you” does not capture the depth of my gratitude and my appreciation for getting this award,’ he began his speech. ‘This is a piece of work that I am immensely proud of obviously, but I am also proud of the fact that [Da 5 Bloods has] had not only the creative but the cultural impact that it has had and continues to have.

He continued: ‘The bond with my fellow actors, Clarke [Peters], Isiah [Whitlock Jr.], Norm [Lewis], Chadwick, Jonathan [Majors] was extraordinary and so much a part of this journey. 

‘And Spike, thank you to you man for bring us all together on this journey. I’m deeply deeply honored to receive this and equally grateful,’ he concluded, honoring his longtime collaborator Spike Lee.

All of the film’s actors were honored earlier with the Best Cast Ensemble award. 

Winning the Supporting Actor and Actress awards were less well-known figures, including Paul Raci for Sound Of Metal and Yuh-Jung Youn for Minari.

The show was unusual in that it split up the Best Director category into a male and female winner.

Darius Marder won for Sound Of Metal, while Chloé Zhao was awarded for Nomadland, though she wasn’t available to receive her award.

Parks And Recreation actor and comedian Ben Schwartz was awarded the Best Animated or VFX Performance for Sonic The Hedgehog.

He was so excited that he made his own award out of paper.  

‘Full disclosure, this isn’t the real award. I wasn’t able to get it because we’re in a global pandemic,’ he joked.

Andy Samberg was another funnyman on hand to accept the Best Comedy or Musical Award for his film Palm Springs.

He joked that his speech was incredibly boring. 

His costar Cristin Milioti won the Breakthrough Performance Actress award, and she filmed her short clip out in a snowy woods instead of indoors like almost everyone else.

Aubrey Plaza showed off her winning sarcasm when she was honored with the Acting Achievement Award, which covered her whole career.

‘This is a really big day for me because I just realized that you’re not my therapist,’ she said, addressing Chairman Scott Menzel, who mentioned he had interviewed her multiple times before handing out the award.

‘I’ve talked to you so many times over the last couple years that I genuinely thought you were my therapist. I’m so sorry for unloading on you in all those interviews,’ she joked.

‘This award means so much to me that I’ve decided to retire,’ she continued in her deadpan, despite being in the process of filming multiple movies. ‘I feel like I’ve done all I can do. I’m gonna take this acting achievement award to heart and I’m gonna stop. That’s it for me. But I feel like I’m going out in style. I’ll see you on the other side.’

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was awarded the honorary Trailblazer award ‘highlight and celebrate actors and filmmakers who speak out about important topics and advocate for change.’

The actor and former wrestler was visibly moved following a video recounting his support for the Black Lives Matter movement and other charitable activities.

‘My friends, whom I have known and grown with, all of you over the years as we have gone down this road — and what a privilege it has been and what an honor it has been to receive this honor from you guys,’ he said.

‘The thing that got me about that video, that struck me, was how lucky I am, how grateful I am, how fortunate we all are, how privileged we all are to be in the position we’re in in this wild world of Hollywood,’ he continued.

‘It represents to me opportunity. Yes, opportunity to, hopefully, if you’re lucky enough, build a career that has a little bit of longevity. More so than that, it’s the opportunity to make people feel good. The opportunity to create moments for people that they will never forget.’ 

Zack Snyder, who will release his four-hour director’s cut of Justice League later this month, was awarded the first-ever Valiant Award in response to how he has raise awareness for mental health efforts and suicide prevention following the death of his daughter.  

He called his new cut a ‘movie that was never going to see the light of day’ while celebrating fans for making WarnerMedia release it. 

But he said his true victory was his effort to raise awareness about mental health.

‘The real victory is that effort. The real victory is those lives that are being saved. When everyone watches the movie on March 18, when the credits roll, at the end the real achievement will be all the incredible work that’s been done for mental health awareness and suicide prevention, and I’m proud to be a small part of it,’ he said.

Another honorary award, the Inspire Award, went to Lin-Manuel Miranda for his ability to inspire others through his stage and screen work, including his plays In The Heights and the massively successful Hamilton.    

Winning the special acting award for a Standout Performance Under 23 was Never Rarely Sometimes Always Sidney Flanigan, for her searing portrait of a Pennsylvania teenager forced to go to New York City to get an abortion. 

Director Steve McQueen was honored with the Filmmaker Achievement Award for his career, which includes the films Hunger, Shame, 12 Years A Slave and Widows.

He also directed the acclaimed series of five films about the Black experience in Britain for Amazon called Small Axe.

Another Black history–focused film, Judas And The Black Messiah, was honored with the ceremony’s Impact Award.

Both director Shaka King and Daniel Kaluuya, who plays Fred Hampton, the slain chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party.