The Critics' Choice Awards aired on Sunday night, and there were a lot of interesting picks amongst the winners. Regardless, one win stood out. Not only did the category of Best Actress result in a tie, but it also marked the first major win for Lady Gaga as Best Actress. She won for A Star Is Born, but only after Glenn Close won first for The Wife.
The interesting tie meant that Glenn Close's win was announced first. Glenn Close gave a gracious speech, the gist of which talked about how woman are looking out for each other and are rooting for one another. Than she stepped to the side of the stage and Lady Gaga's name was announced.
A Star Is Born has been in the awards conversation over the past several months. Previously Lady Gaga had won Best Actress from the Dublin Film Critics' Circle and the National Board of Review, plus the movie has received attention for the song "Shallow" in numerous awards forums, including but not limited to the Hollywood Music in Media Awards. However, she notably lost at the Golden Globes to Glenn Close and a lot of her fans were unhappy with that result.
But the Critics' Choice award for Best Actress was a different sort of win. It aired on TV on a major station just like the Golden Globes had, for one. It also gave Lady Gaga a win on a rather large stage, and it came with a little bit of theatricality and drama, thanks to the tie. Lady Gaga took her moment and ran with it, spending several minutes thanking everyone she could think of after admitting she "spilled water all over" herself.
She spent a specific amount of time focusing on Bradley Cooper, who picked her for the role and who spent a lot of time honing her character of Ali. Bradley Cooper wrote, directed and starred in A Star is Born opposite Lady Gaga, even learning to sing and speak differently for the role. You can take a look at the full speech in which Lady Gaga even calls Cooper "magical" below.
I also like that the camera panned out enough to show Glenn Close holding her own award and looking pleased as punch to be sharing it with Lady Gaga. Sincerity really shines on an Awards stage. The love continued to spread later that evening as well.
During the evening, Lady Gaga also won a second time at the Critics' Choice Awards, winning for "Shallow" in the Best Song category.
This and the Golden Globes win for "Shallow" should only be the start of the awards season for A Star Is Born, which has also been nominated for some BAFTAs, as well. The Oscars nominations will be announced later on this month.
It wasn't an overall happy ending to the months of press Lady Gaga has been doing for A Star Is Born. She later had to leave after she learned that her beloved horse, Arabella was dying, skipping the after parties and heading home to say goodbye.
