The 2024 Critics Choice Awards Smelled Like ‘Adrenaline and Fatigue’

Following last week’s Golden Globes, the following days were filled with seemingly endless events, in which film and TV stars gathered (again, and again) at venues on both coasts to collect more honors. For the winners at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards, mustering up an impressive acceptance speech was mostly feat of stamina.

Several postponements in response to the dual WGA and SAG strikes stacked things up to create arguably the busiest week of all time for awards contenders. One could theoretically have attended the Governors Awards in Hollywood on Tuesday, January 9, flown to New York City to make it to the National Board of Review Awards on Thursday, January 11, and then rushed back to Los Angeles for the the AFI Awards in Beverly Hills on Friday, January 12.

Who would blame any Critics Choice attendees for feeling a little disoriented on Sunday night?

What may not have helped was new venue the Barker Hangar, a replacement for the Fairmont Century Plaza, the show’s usual home, whose workers have been part of the ongoing hospitality strikes in the city. Quite a few times during the evening, the Santa Monica location would whir as airplanes flew over, causing much noise and confusion as to whether some of the night’s winners like “Oppenheimer” director Christopher Nolan were being played off prematurely. (“Bottoms” co-writer/star Rachel Sennott, a Best Comedy nominee, found it to be a “terrifying” effect.)

Because the awards show,…