Yahoo News Breaking Baz: Critics Choice Awards Chief Joey Berlin On Why Cate Blanchett Lost The Oscar; Hayley Atwell’s Rare Moment In ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’
EXCLUSIVE: That jibe Cate Blanchett made about awards shows being akin to a “horse race” “lost” her the Best Actress Oscar. So says Joey Berlin, CEO of the Critics Choice Awards.
None of us knows that for sure, but Berlin’s adamant.
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Blanchett uttered a stream of vitriol during her acceptance speech when she collected the Critics Choice Award for Best Actress back in January for her performance in Focus Features’ Tár.
“I would love it if we would just change this whole f*cking structure,” she told the audience on January 15. “It’s like what is this patriarchal pyramid where someone stands up here. Why don’t we just say there was a whole raft of female performances that are in concert and in dialogue with one another?”
“And stop the televised horse race of it all,” she continued. “Because, can I tell you, every single woman with a television, film, advertising, tampon commercials — whatever — you’re all out there doing amazing work that is inspiring me continually. So thank you. I share this with you all.”
Blanchett was slammed in some quarters for being hypocritical.
“That’s how she lost the Oscar,” Berlin asserted as he sipped a cup of posho loose leaf Earl Grey on a recent sunny morning at the Dean Street Townhouse in Soho, London.
You think that’s why Blanchett lost the Academy Award to Michelle Yeoh?
“I do,” nodded Berlin.
At that point of the awards season, he noted, Oscar voters pay close attention to “these precursor events,” and they go to “little private events and campaign events and everything.”
Contenders “who get out and press the flesh and give the community the impression that they would be so honored to be honored in this way, it’s impactful for somebody to get up and say: ‘This is bosh. This is silly what we’re doing here,’” Berlin argued.
Berlin slammed down his tea cup. “OK, maybe vote for somebody else then.”
Tilting his dandy new Panama, Berlin pulled out a rabbit. “I’m in an interesting position because I can see the raw votes,” he revealed.
Spluttering into my tea, I quickly realized that he was referring to Critics Choice Awards numbers, not the Academy’s ultra-secret tally.
He made clear, though, that “the accountants do everything. I don’t touch anything, but I do see at the end, they see the actual totals.
“And whenever anybody wins a Critics Choice Awards by a fair margin, they will win the Oscar. There’s no doubt about it. Cate Blanchett, she was at a close race,” he attested.
He asks in all seriousness who actually won the Oscar.
“Oh, right, right. That was close,” he said. “And of course, Michelle Yeoh, she was at our show. Very gracious and came up when [Everything Everywhere All at Once] won” Best Picture.
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“You know, when you’re on the circuit and being ingratiated, I always tell the studios, it’s unfortunate maybe, but campaigning works,” he added, pleased with his cautionary tale.
The lesson being that if you play nice, the Oscar gods and goddesses will shower golden statuettes upon your head.
Which really is so lovely, isn’t it? But so boring.
Say what the heck you want when you win a movie award, but please make it lively — not these godawful “I thank my agents, managers and personal barista” kinda speeches. The kind that put people watching on their sofas in Kansas and Kensington instantly to sleep.
Be more like Olivia Colman (The Favourite), Jamie Foxx (Ray), Adrien Brody (The Pianist) or, if you feel as strongly as Blanchett, send a protest surrogate the way Marlon Brando did when he won for The Godfather.
Putting all of that aside, the point Berlin was making is that the Critics Choice Awards has, in his view, become the most influential predictor of Oscar nominations, supplanting the tarnished Golden Globes.
“To have all of the contenders in one room at the time when the Academy Awards ballots are in the hands of the voters, it’s a very significant position, Berlin said. “And we belong there because, let’s say we are the professional film and television watchers. This is what we do all day. And, obviously, the Oscars is always the gold standard for film honors, but the reality is the Academy is made up of people who make films. And if you’re a professional filmmaker, you haven’t got time to watch everybody’s films. So how do they decide what’s the best of the best?
“There’s word of mouth and things,” he continued, ”but to have professional watchers kind of whittle down the field, I think we performed an extremely valuable service. And arguably it’s the greatest we are the people who really do see everything.”
Berlin’s of the opinion that the Golden Globes are in the dumpster now — nobody cares about ‘em.
Next year, 2024, “the Globes are scheduled for January 7, the first Sunday, and we’re scheduled for January 14, which is advantageous, I believe,“ Berlin said, because January 7 is still very close to the holidays. “And so there are going to be many people, many important people in the industry, who are going to be away for the holidays. Virtually everybody’s going to be away. So would they they like to extend their holiday a little longer and not come back for the Golden Globes and still get all the value by appearing at the Critics Choice Awards a week later?
“I was very happy when they planted their flag on January 7 and ours on January 14.”
Did he do a little jig?
Full of smiles, he said: “It’s the perfect day for us. It’s also, in the States, it’s Martin Luther King weekend. So to have a Sunday night event where nobody’s going to work on Monday is great,“ Berlin told me.
Helpfully, he added that Academy members “will be able to watch the show and vote while they’re doing it, or the next day, because they will have the ballots in their hands.”
I asked Berlin whether there’s a disconnect between awards shows and the filmgoing public, what with plummeting TV ratings and a general air of apathy.
To be clear: Berlin couldn’t remember what film won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
It was Everything Everywhere All at Once.
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He remembered, though, that Top Gun: Maverick starring Tom Cruise didn’t win.
“Well, the Academy Awards are not the People’s Choice Awards,” Berlin said. “These are the films that the professional filmmakers admire the most, and I think that’s a reasonable position. I think the Academy’s smart to make this move to try and get more of these films into more theaters.
“But yeah, it’s not a popularity contest. And frankly, I thought that Top Gun: Maverick might win anyway last year. It’s a real crowd-pleaser.”
RELATED: Academy Town Hall Clarifies New Oscar Inclusion Standards Initiative For Members
He agreed with the Academy’s push to bring in more international members “and properly trying to make the organization more diverse and inclusive and everything. I think it does tend to allow more marginal films to get in as well, so it’s a balancing act. But yeah, I don’t have a problem with the Academy members being a little snooty.”
Laughing, he added, “Now, at Critics Choice of course, we’re a little more populous, so that’s OK.”
But he admires the Academy for sometimes aiming for 10 Best Picture nominations. ”And they might want to go for six nominees in acting categories,” he advised. “We have, I think, seven or eight in some of the categories because there is so much good work out there.”
He admitted, though, that he has had conversations with associates about whether to “tighten it, make the nominations even more significant, if there are fewer of them.”
But he said “our thinking is always to be more generous. It’s like, if we know somebody, you get to know the people who are making the movies and who this is important to. … I understand. The Academy is going to be stricter, do different things. Our job is to set the field, like, ‘These are the things that you really don’t want to miss before you vote for the Oscar.’”
Let’s not forget, that the more runners and riders there are in the Critics Choice Awards, the more studios are in the mix to buy tables.
Berlin sees his group as the final stop for Academy voters, saying: ”We are the significant influencers. We were influencing before there were influencers. That’s literally what we do.”
Unlike Marc Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Berlin hasn’t come to bury the Golden Globes.
“I think they’ve done that to themselves. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association literally is no more. … The organization was so scandal-ridden that it’s now disappeared and it’s just a brand,” conceding that “it’s a very valuable brand. And I don’t believe it’s going to go away, but I think it’s — what do you say when, what’s the metaphor for when your opponent is digging a hole for itself? Leave them alone.”
“We’re doing our thing, they’re doing their thing,” he said. “We do our thing and we try to stay in our lane, but our lane, I think, is getting wider” with the group’s competitive shows and celebrations saluting diverse communities.
Berlin’s keeping an eye on all the labor negotiations because he has celebratory shows to put on in the fall. ”My shows don’t exist if there’s a strike,” he explained.
RELATED: SAG-AFTRA & Studios Eyeing Talks Extension As Contract Expiration Looms
His organization had the Critics Choice Real TV Awards on June 16, but because of the writers strike, “we had to cancel and turn that into an announcement.”
The inaugural Critics Choice Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television also was due in June. ”Hopefully we can do it in October,” he said.
Berlin’s theory about a potential SAG-AFTRA strike ”is that they sort it out just in time to save the Emmys,” but that’s also wishful thinking on his part because of his other fall commitments and the main show in January.
We got totally distracted from the purpose of our breakfast meeting.
Berlin was in London to find a UK partner to broadcast the Critics Choice Awards.
He knows that it’s not necessarily a great proposition what with the eight-hour time difference.
When the awards start over in LA, Brits are tucked up in their beds.
But any of the networks here [in the UK] could show highlights that night, he suggested.
“It’s a great 90 minutes of television,” he boasted. “We have literally hundreds of stars in the room, and you watch them mingle, and here’s Cate Blanchett chatting with George Clooney during the commercial break — things like that. It’s really a wonderful evening, and I would like for people all over the world to be able to see it. We have a lot of international distribution … except for the UK.”
A Note On Hayley Atwell in ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One‘
We will, no doubt, see the Tom Cruise-Christopher McQuarrie summer blockbuster Mission: Impossible -Dead Reckoning Part One show up in some categories this coming award-season cycle.
Cruise has a Ph.D. in international relations. I’m kidding, but the man sure knows how to draw in an international audience.
I make no apology for loving a rollicking, all-action, nonstop-thrilling blockbuster. This one had something more.
I’ve mentioned this before: James Stewart had this thing about “moments of time in movies that you’ll never forget,” and Hayley Atwell provides such a moment in M:I-7.
No spoilers here.
But it’s safe to note that Atwell brings a deft lightness of touch to the film, and she underpins that lightness with depth. It’s such a thoughtful performance. I caught the picture twice just to be certain of my reaction to what Atwell does.
By the way, Atwell’s co-stars Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby do sublime work in M:I-7 too, but Atwell made me believe in a moment. A rare moment.
Just go see the movie when it opens July 12 on the biggest theater screen that you can find.
Take your family. Buy popcorn. Watch the movie.
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