Critics’ Choice Awards nominations: '12th Fail', 'Kaathal' vie for best pic honour

The nominations for Critics' Choice Awards (CCA) 2024 were announced on Wednesday with 12th Fail, Kaathal - The Core, and Joram among the eight contenders for the top prize of the best picture.

The sixth edition of the awards will honour the best of talent in feature films, short films, and web series in India every year, across all languages and platforms across 24 categories.

According to a press release, the other five best picture nominees are: Dhuin, Fire in the Mountains, Koozhangal (Pebbles), Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, and Shesh Pata.

Vikrant Massey (12th Fail), Abhinav Jha (Dhuin), Manoj Bajpayee (Joram), Mammootty (Kaathal – The Core) and Prosenjit Chatterjee (Shesh Pata) are in the running for the best actor award.

In the best actress category, the nominees are Vinamrata Rai for "Fire in the Mountains", Kalki Koechlin for "Goldfish", Jyothika for "Kaathal – The Core", Shefali Shah for "Three of Us", and Shahana Goswami for "Zwigato".

The best supporting actor category boasts of contenders such as Ambarish Bhattacharya ("Ardhangini"), Pankaj Kapur ("Bheed"), Aditya Rawal ("Faraaz"), Jaideep Ahlawat ("Jaane Jaan"), and Sudhi Kozhikode ("Kaathal – The Core").

Jaya Ahsan for "Ardhangini", Deepti Naval for "Goldfish", Smita Tambe for "Joram", Gunjalamma for "Pinki Elli? (Where Is Pinki?)" and Gargee Roy Chowdhury for "Shesh Pata" are the nominees in the best supporting actress category.

For best writing, the fight is among Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Jaskunwar Kohli, Anurag Pathak, Aayush Saxena, and Vikas Divyakirti for "12th Fail"; Prashant Rana, Achal Mishra, Anubhav Priya and Abhinav Jha for "Dhuin"; Devashish Makhija for "Joram"; P. S. Vinothraj for "Koozhangal (Pebbles)", and Rima Das for "Tora's Husband".

In the best director category, the nominees are Vidhu Vinod Chopra for "12th Fail", Devashish Makhija for "Joram", P. S. Vinothraj for "Koozhangal (Pebbles)", Avinash Arun Dhaware for "Three of Us", and Rima Das for "Tora's Husband".

Under the film nominations, the Critics' Choice Awards 2024 will also recognise talent in editing and cinematography segments.

In the web series nominations, the five shows vying for the top honour of the best web series are: "Dahaad", "Farzi", "Jubilee", "Kohrra", and "Trial by Fire".

For best director in the web series category, the line-up includes Reema Kagti and Ruchika Oberoi for “Dahaad”, Vikramaditya Motwane for “Jubilee”, Randeep Jha for “Kohrra”, Konkona Sen Sharma for “Lust Stories S2: The Mirror”, and Prashant Nair, Randeep Jha, and Avani Deshpande for “Trial by Fire”.

The best writing category boasts the likes of Reema Kagti, Ritesh Shah, Mansi Jain, Sunayana Kumari, Karan Shah, Chaitanya Chopra, Zoya Akhtar and Sumit Arora (“Dahaad”), Atul Sabharwal (“Jubilee”), Gunjit Chopra, Diggi Sisodia and Sudip Sharma (“Kohrra”), Konkona Sen Sharma and Pooja Tolani (“Lust Stories S2: The Mirror”), and Prashant Nair and Kevin Luperchio (“Trial by Fire”).

Vijay Varma for “Dahaad”, Shahid Kapoor for “Farzi”, Suvinder Vicky for “Kohrra”, Gagan Dev Riar for “Scam 2003 - The Telgi Story: Volume 2”, and Kay Kay Menon for “The Railway Men” are the best actor nominees.

The best actress category includes Sonakshi Sinha for “Dahaad”, Wamiqa Gabbi for “Jubilee”, Tillotama Shome for “Lust Stories S2: The Mirror”, Karishma Tanna for “Scoop” and Rajshri Deshpande for “Trial by Fire”.

The best supporting actor segment is populated with names such as Gulshan Devaiah for “Dahaad”, Vijay Sethupathi for “Farzi”, Sidhant Gupta for “Jubilee”, Barun Sobti for “Kohrra”, and Abhay Deol for “Trial by Fire”.

Zoa Morani for “Dahaad”, Aditi Rao Hydari for “Jubilee”, Mona Singh for “Kaala Paani”, Amruta Subhash for “Lust Stories S2: The Mirror”, and Nimrat Kaur for “School of Lies” are the nominees in the best supporting actress category.

The nominees for the best short film are: "Cabbage", "Giddh (The Scavenger)", "Next, Please", "Nocturnal Burger", and "Scenes from a Pandemic".

Under the short film nominations, awards in the best director, actor, actress, writing, and cinematography categories will also be given away.

Group M Motion Entertainment in collaboration with the Film Critics Guild and Vistas Media Capital are the organisers of the awards.

Anupama Chopra, chairperson, Film Critics Guild said they are proud to present the best of Indian content from across the country at the upcoming edition of the awards.

"Witnessing the depth of storytelling prowess across short films, web series & feature films to come up with our final list of diverse and deserving nominees has been a rewarding task... Stay tuned to find out what the Critics loved most, and who takes home the Awards!" Anupama Chopra said in a statement.

Ashwin Padmanabhan, president – investments, trading, and partnerships, Group M India said the sheer number of applications they received for the awards is fascinating.

"It was a challenging endeavor to narrow it down to such a small number, but we are happy to showcase the finest Indian talent," he said.

Abhayanand Singh, Co-Founder and Group CEO for Vistas Media added, "2023 has been one of the best years for Indian cinema with some of the best content coming out from all major languages. Vistas Media is extremely excited to now honour the talent behind these as we get ready for another edition of CCA."

The awards ceremony will be held on March 12.