The Critics Choice Super Awards have never pretended to be subtle. Superhero brawls, monsters, jump scares, spaceships. That’s the whole point. And when the sixth annual nominations dropped this week, two titles muscled their way to the front: Superman and The Boys.
The Critics Choice Association’s genre celebration covers action, superhero, horror, and science-fiction/fantasy. The final math gave Superman six nominations, more than any other film. The Boys grabbed five to lead all of television.
August 6 is the date. That’s when winners get crowned.
‘Superman’ and The Boys’ Rivals: How the Movie Race Shapes Up
Six nominations sounds abstract until you break it down. Superman landed in Best Superhero Movie, then the cast took over. It’s the same blueprint that put Superman and The Boys atop their respective fields: one flagship nomination, then a wave of individual recognition behind it.
Three of its actors, David Corenswet, Edi Gathegi, and Nicholas Hoult, will compete against each other for Best Actor in a Superhero Movie, which has to make for an awkward group chat. Hoult also snuck into Best Villain. Rachel Brosnahan rounds things out in the Best Actress race.
On the film side, nobody else built a footprint like that this year. Superman joins The Boys as the only titles to hit that kind of number anywhere on the list. A walkover, though? Hardly.
Look at the rest of Best Superhero Movie: Supergirl, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Masters of the Universe, Mortal Kombat II, Exit 8, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle.
Milly Alcock got a Best Actress nod for Supergirl. The Fantastic Four contingent runs three deep with Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, and Julia Garner. Masters of the Universe sent Nicholas Galitzine and Camila Mendes into the acting fields and dropped Jared Leto into Best Villain, where he tends to feel at home.
Superman Leads With The Boys, But Five Films Sit Close Behind
Here’s where it gets crowded. Behind Superman, five different movies tied at four nominations each: Masters of the Universe, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Project Hail Mary, Obsession, and Weapons. None of them matched the totals that let Superman and The Boys run away with their fields, but four nods is nothing to sneeze at.
Project Hail Mary deserves a closer look. Ryan Gosling nominated. James Ortiz nominated. Sandra Hüller up for Best Actress. Plus a shot at Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie against a field that includes Disclosure Day, which handed Emily Blunt yet another nomination this season, along with Bugonia, Frankenstein, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, I Love Boosters, and Predator: Badlands.
Horror fans, your bracket: Weapons, Obsession, Backrooms, Send Help, The Long Walk, and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Weapons earned acting recognition for Josh Brolin and Amy Madigan, and Madigan turned her terrifying work into a Best Villain nomination too.
Then comes the action slate, seven titles deep: The Naked Gun, The Rip, Motor City, Normal, The Furious, Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, and Sisu: Road to Revenge. The acting races there feature Pamela Anderson, Matt Damon, Bob Odenkirk, Alan Ritchson, and Charlize Theron. Not a bad dinner party. Still, no film or show came close to the hauls Superman and The Boys put up this year.
The Boys Dominates the Television Field
Television belongs to The Boys. Five nominations, including Best Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie, and a matching swagger to its big-screen counterpart.
Nobody should be surprised that Antony Starr got nominated twice for playing Homelander, once for Best Actor and once for Best Villain. Some performances really do belong in both boxes. Valorie Curry and Colby Minifie joined him with Best Actress nods.
Standing between the show and the superhero series trophy: Fallout, Daredevil: Born Again, Gen V, Invincible, Peacemaker, Spider-Noir, and Wonder Man.
Fallout put up four nominations of its own behind Walton Goggins, Annabel O’Hagan, and Macaulay Culkin. Matching that total were House of the Dragon and Paradise, the latter powered by Sterling K. Brown, who earned two individual nominations across the action and sci-fi acting fields. Julianne Nicholson got Paradise recognition as well.
Beyond Superman and The Boys: Horror and Fantasy Favorites
TV horror assembled quite the lineup: Wednesday, Dexter: Resurrection, IT: Welcome to Derry, Ghosts, The Beauty, The Boroughs, Widow’s Bay, and Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy.
Jenna Ortega picked up another Best Actress nomination for Wednesday. No shock there. Dexter: Resurrection did well for itself too, with Michael C. Hall nominated for bringing Dexter Morgan back from the dead and Peter Dinklage up for Best Villain.
Sci-fi/fantasy series might be the deepest category of all. House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Alien: Earth, For All Mankind, Paradise, Pluribus, Silo, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds all made the cut. House of the Dragon added acting nods for Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, and Ewan Mitchell, with Rhea Seehorn, Rebecca Ferguson, and Timothy Olyphant among the other recognized names.
The Super Awards exist for a simple reason. Genre audiences are the most passionate in entertainment, and traditional awards bodies ignored them for decades. So every year, the superheroes, monsters, detectives, villains, and space adventurers get one celebration to themselves. This year, Superman and The Boys are the ones holding court.
Winners of the sixth annual Critics Choice Super Awards will be announced on Thursday, August 6.
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