Hollywood Critics Association announces first wave of honorary awards: Sidney Flanigan, Nicole Beharie, Aubrey Plaza and more

Erik Anderson December 21, 2020

The Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) announced today their first wave of honorary awards for the 4th Annual HCA Awards Ceremony taking place in Los Angeles on March 5, 2021.

Each year, the HCA presents a series of honorary awards highlighting actors, filmmakers, and artisans whose impressive work for the year demands recognition. “Even in this strange and unusual year, there is so much to celebrate in terms of achievements in cinema. 2020 offered the world a wide variety of films with a big focus on inclusivity and underrepresented voices,” notes HCA’s Vice-Chair Ashley Menzel.

As an organization, the HCA has always made it part of their mission to be inclusive, not only with their membership but also with the talent they embrace each and every year. “When you hear about the lack of representation in the entertainment industry, that is something that we as an organization take very seriously. This organization has always taken great pride in being inclusive since day one. We believe that natural inclusivity has always been and will continue to be reflective in all of our nominees, winners, and honorees,” adds HCA Chairman Scott Menzel.

Two-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti (Fatale, Black and Blue, Heat) will receive the organization’s first-ever “Timeless Award,” which is their take on the Lifetime Achievement Award. Sound of Metal‘s Paul Raci will be honored with “Breakthrough Performance Actor” while Cristin Milioti will receive “Breakthrough Performance Actress” for her role in Neon and Hulu’s existential comedy, Palm Springs.

This year’s “Acting Achievement Award” will go to Aubrey Plaza for her tour-de-force performance in Momentum Pictures’ Black Bear. Nicole Beharie will receive this year’s “Game-Changer Award” for her profound performance in Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth. Academy Award-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will be honored with the “Artisan Achievement Award” for their work on Pixar’s Soul and Netflix’s Mank. Both scores by Reznor and Ross are amongst the most memorable scores of 2020.

Keeping up with the tradition of previous years, the HCA special honors will celebrate and highlight the work of many new or up and coming actors. “There was no shortage of great performances in 2020 and we are pleased to be able to highlight some of the spectacular new talents,” says HCA President Nestor Bentancor.

Sidney Flanigan, the star of Eliza Hittman’s critically acclaimed Never Rarely Sometimes Always, will be receiving the “HCA’s Standout Performance by an Actor or Actress 23 or Under Award”. Run star Kiera Allen will be the recipient of the “Spotlight Award” (formerly known as the Newcomer Award). Jo Ellen Pellman, who stars as Emma Nolan in Ryan Murphy’s film adaptation of The Prom, will receive the “Star on the Rise Award”.

The “Filmmaker on the Rise,” “Artisan on the Rise,” “Filmmaker Achievement,” “Trailblazer,” and “Inspire Award” recipients will be announced in mid-January. A full list of nominations for the HCA Awards will be revealed on February 2, 2021, while the winners will be announced at the ceremony on March 5, 2021.

About the Hollywood Critics Association:

Founded in late 2016, the primary goal of the Hollywood Critics Association is to bring together a passionate group of critics to represent the voices of a new era in Hollywood. Its purpose is to be a critics group that is diverse and supports underrepresented voices.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.