Birdman Leads Critic’s Choice Awards

No, not that one. Though a live-action Harvey Birdman with Stephen Colbert reprising his role as Phil Ken Sebben would be instant Oscar-bait.

Alejandro Gonz?lez I??rritu’s dark comedy starring Michael Keaton as a version of Michael Keaton with post-Batman-stress-disorder has become the darling of the awards circuit scoring 13 Critic’s Choice noms and will possibly be the first superhero film to win a Best Picture Oscar in February. Yeah, yeah, it’s not really a superhero film, but close enough in my book. The costume is fucking awesome.

And since the Critic’s Choice Awards recognize comedy, action, and sci-fi – categories the Academy typically turns its collective nose up at – this might be the only chance for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy to get any sort of recognition (the Golden Globes snubbed nearly all genre films this year).

Both films garnered Best Action Movie nominations as well as Best Actor In An Action Movie for Chris Pratt and Chris Evans, respectively. Zoe Saldana was also nominated for Best Actress In An Action Movie, though personally I feel Scarlett Johansson would have been more deserving. Guardians also pulled in nominations for Best Hair & Makeup, and Best Visual Effects in a stacked category that includes The Hobbit, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Interstellar, and Edge of Tomorrow.

If you care about these films getting the recognition they deserve then support this show. Some of these are truly outstanding works of art, with the same caliber of storytelling, directing, acting, and emotion as anything that came out this year. Personally I’m treating the Critic’s Choice as my Oscars.

The awards will be broadcast live on A&E from the Hollywood Palladium on January15th at 9pm ET/6 PT.