British talent fares better at Critics Choice Awards than Baftas

British talent scored several big wins at the 27th Critics Choice Awards (CCA) following a disappointing lack of success back home at the Bafta awards.

Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical film Belfast scooped the awards for best acting ensemble, best original screenplay and best young actor/ actress for its 11-year-old star Jude Hill.

Richmond-based football comedy series Ted Lasso also continued a successful award season run, winning best comedy series as well as individual gongs for Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham.

The in-person CCA ceremony was hosted by US actor Taye Diggs and comedian Nicole Byer at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles.

Other British wins came from Oscar-winning designer Jenny Beavan who won best costume for her work on Disney’s Cruella, and the latest Bond theme No Time To Die.

The tune, written and performed by sibling duo Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, won the award for best song.

It comes just hours after the 2022 Bafta awards in London concluded with one of the lowest number of British wins in recent years, picking up only one of the main acting honours.

But several Bafta winners continued their evening’s success at the CCA, including The Power Of The Dog and actors Troy Kotsur and Ariana DeBose.

The dark western won best picture overall, its second major accolade of the evening having already won the Bafta for best picture.

Director Jane Campion was forced to take to the stage twice in a row, after also winning best director, an accolade she had also picked up at the Baftas.

She thanked the film’s stars, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit McPhee and Kirsten Dunst as well as Netflix, as she received the accolade from fellow Kiwi director Taika Waititi.

Kotsur won best supporting actor for his part in Coda and joked the honours were “two birds with one stone” and said that though he could not be there in person his “spirit is there with you all”.

DeBose was named best actress for her turn as Anita in West Side Story.

Smith fended off British rival Cumberbatch again by taking home the best actor at CCA, following his Bafta win for leading actor.

The actor attended the ceremony with tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, whose father he plays in the film, saying the pair “defined the American dream”.