There is order in the universe: the largest critics' U.S. group, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, agreed with almost all of the smaller critics groups and named "The Social Network" the best film of 2010 at the Critics Choice Movie Awards on Friday night.
The film took home four awards, winning Best Picture and also securing trophies for David Fincher (Best Director), Aaron Sorkin (Best Adapted Screenplay) and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Best Score).
Colin Firth ("The King's Speech") and Natalie Portman ("Black Swan") took home honors for lead actor and actress, while "The Fighter" swept the other acting awards: Christian Bale and Melissa Leo won for their supporting roles, while the cast of the David O. Russell film was also named Best Acting Ensemble.
In sheer numbers, the big winner of the night was Christopher Nolan's "Inception," which took home six awards: Best Action Movie, and a near sweep of technical categories: Best Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction, Sound and Visual Effects.
"Toy Story 3" was named Best Animated Feature, "Easy A" Best Comedy, and "Waiting for 'Superman'" Best Documentary.
In something of a surprise, the original Swedish version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was named Best Foreign Language Film over "Biutiful" and "I Am Love." David Fincher, who was not present at the show to accept his Best Director award, is currently shooting an English-language version.
Most of the top Oscar contenders came out of the evening with their hopes intact. "Social Network" won the big awards; "The Fighter" showed real strength in the acting categories (actors being by far the Academy's largest branch); "The King's Speech" picked up an expected win for Firth and a significant one for screenwriter David Seidler; "Black Swan" stayed in the game with Portman's win; and "Inception" dominated below-the-line categories.
In the CCMA's sole television category, the miniseries "The Pacific" beat two HBO movies, "You Don't Know Jack" and "Temple Grandin."
The awards, which were held at the Hollywood Palladium and broadcast on VH1, are voted on by the approximately 250 members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association. The BFCA includes television, radio and Internet critics.
The Critics Choice Movie Awards are generally a more reliable predictor of the Oscars than the Golden Globes are, matching the Oscar Best Picture winner the last four years in a row and eight of the last 10. (The only mismatches came in 2005 and 2006, when the Oscars chose "Million Dollar Baby" and "Crash" and the critics opted for "Sideways" and "Brokeback Mountain.")
Last year, of the 19 categories in which the CCMAs and the Oscars overlap, Critics Choice winners went on to win Academy Awards in 13 of them (including one case where Sandra Bullock won the Oscar and tied with Meryl Streep at the CCMAs). Notable areas in which the critics and Academy voters disagreed including both writing categories, in which "Inglourious Basterds" and "Up in the Air" won with the critics, "The Hurt Locker" and "Precious" with the Academy.
