US actress Demi Moore attends the thirtieth Annual Critics Alternative Awards at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, on Feb. 7, 2025. Picture: Michael Tran/AFP
Demi Moore gained greatest actress on the Critics Alternative Awards on Friday, Feb. 7 (US time), confirming her standing as favourite for the Oscars in every week that noticed scandal envelop her “Emilia Perez” rival Karla Sofia Gascon.
Nineties megastar Moore’s horror movie “The Substance” additionally gained greatest authentic screenplay at a glitzy Los Angeles gala held by North America’s largest critics’ group, which topped “Anora” because the 12 months’s greatest image.
Moore’s win follows her victory on the Golden Globes in January, and places her on observe to cap a exceptional profession renaissance at subsequent month’s Oscars.
“This has been such a wild trip,” mentioned Moore, 62, who made a string of hit movies within the Nineteen Nineties, however got here to be often called a lot for her love life as her performing in subsequent a long time.
That has modified with “The Substance,” a body-horror flick about an ageing movie star who injects a serum to quickly dwell once more in her youthful physique.
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Nodding to the movie’s ceaselessly bloody and horrifying depictions of warped our bodies, Moore thanked critics for rewarding “this style of horror movies, which are missed and never seen for the profundity that they will maintain.”
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Moore’s win got here on the expense of Gascon, the Spanish transgender star of narco-musical “Emilia Perez” whose Oscar marketing campaign collapsed in spectacular vogue over the previous week.
Social media messages posted years in the past by Gascon resurfaced by which she made derogatory and racist remarks about Muslims, China and even the Oscars themselves.
The movie’s distributor Netflix has since dropped Gascon from its Oscars marketing campaign, and director Jacques Audiard disavowed his lead actor for her “completely hateful” and “inexcusable” feedback.
Gascon was notably absent on the Critics Alternative Awards, and when her title was learn out among the many nominees, the normally celebratory Hollywood viewers fell conspicuously silent.
Moore did namecheck Gascon whereas thanking her fellow nominees throughout her acceptance speech.
However neither Audiard nor Zoe Saldana, who gained greatest supporting actress for “Emilia Perez,” talked about Gascon of their remarks from the stage.
A Netflix consultant informed AFP they hoped “the actions of 1 individual” wouldn’t “have an effect on the entire movie,” which continues to be within the working to win greatest image on the Oscars.
That race, for probably the most coveted Academy Award, is unusually wide-open this 12 months.
Friday’s ceremony supplied a serious increase for “Anora,” the Cannes pageant Palme d’Or winner, a couple of younger New York stripper who marries the younger son of a Russian billionaire in an ill-fated whirlwind romance.
A number of different contenders additionally picked up key wins Friday.
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“The Brutalist” star Adrien Brody gained greatest actor, “Conclave” gained greatest tailored screenplay and greatest performing ensemble, and Broadway adaptation “Depraved” earned greatest director for Jon M. Chu.
