What’s up with the Critics Choice Awards’s Best Director lineup? Is Timothée Chalamet running his Oscar campaign like a presidential campaign? Gold Derby editors and experts Christopher Rosen and Joyce Eng are here to answer your burning questions of the week on “Awards Magnet.”
Two years ago, Critics Choice had 10 nominees instead of its standard six. Similarly, when this year’s nominations were announced on Dec. 12, eight directors made the cut. Were there really multiple ties? Obviously no one knows the answer to that except those who tabulated the votes, but there is a certain pattern when Critics Choice has expanded beyond six slots in this category. But how many of its eight nominees will transfer over the Oscars’ field of five? Two years ago, despite 10 nominees, Critics Choice missed eventual Oscar nominee Ruben Östlund for “Triangle of Sadness.”
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One person Critics Choice snubbed in the Best Director contest was “A Complete Unknown’s” James Mangold. But the Bob Dylan biopic made Best Picture and landed an expected Best Actor nomination for Chalamet, who has been rolling out an unconventional press tour/Oscar campaign for the film, which opens on Christmas. Last week, he hit Dylan’s alma mater University of Minnesota before rubbing shoulders with the students of Vanderbilt University. On Saturday, he impressed the internet with his ball knowledge as the guest picker on “College GameDay,” being the only panelist to call the Ohio University Bobcats upsetting the Miami University RedHawks. He is Lisan al Gaib after all. Oh, yeah, he also reunited with his “Interstellar” dad Matthew McConaughey. This “man of the people” tour has won over fans, but will it, as one listener asks, win over industry voters?
Plus: questions about “Emilia Pérez’s” Golden Globes performance, “The Brutalist’s” ACE Eddies snub, and more.
Email your questions to slugfests@goldderby.com.
