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#2) NOBODY PANICS WHEN AWARDS GO ACCORDING TO PLAN

You know, like if A equals B, and B equals C, then A equals C. Basic rules that should be obvious but, for some, clearly need to be written down. If a movie wins Best Picture and is also nominated for a sub-Best Picture like Comedy or Action, it should DEFINITELY win the lesser award. I mean, right? Am I totally Bat-shit crazy for thinking the plan should be to make sense?

First of all, the they don’t show all the winners so you’d only notice how insane the CCA’s are if you looked the complete list of winners/nominees online and made the connection yourself. We don’t get to see an award handed out or nominees for Best Sci-Fi or Horror Movie, but we are made aware that the winner is Get Out. Ok, cool, right? That movie deserves awards attention and it’s nice to see it win something. Later on, the ten nominees are listed for Best Picture and one of them is Get Out. Wow, that’s really cool! A Sci-Fi/Horror film has the ability to be a Best Picture nominee and that’s pretty incredible. As great as that is, the Best Picture winner ends up being… drumroll please… THE SHAPE OF WATER! Holy crap, it beat out Three Billboards which won Best Picture at the Globes. It would seem the Oscar race is heating up.

Except, if you double check the winner/nominee list online Shape of Water was a nominee for Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film. How did it lose the lesser and win Best Picture? For a second there I thought Shape of Water’s Best Picture win meant there was a chink in Three Billboards armor but if the CCA’s can’t make simple math work within themselves then how could anything they do actually help predict the Oscars. The CCA’s hurt their own credibility. Maybe the win for Shape of Water DOESN’T hurt Three Billboards chances. Then why do they still feel smaller?

#3) WITH GREAT VICTORY COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

Even though winning a CCA now means nothing to me, that doesn’t mean the things that happen at the CCA’s don’t still have an effect on possibly winning an Oscar. So in the one hand, yes, Shape of Water beat out Three Billboards at the CCA’s and deep down I know that actually does mean something. But, let’s say it doesn’t. Maybe nobody cares the CCA’s didn’t recognize Three Billboards as Best Picture and it’s destined to still win the Oscar. Or maybe, just maybe, the reason Three Billboards eventually loses the Oscar for Best Picture is because both Sam Rockwell AND Frances McDormand decided not to show up to the CCA’s to claim their prize. The chances of one celebrity missing an award show, especially one they are destined to win at, are actually possible. It happens. What doesn’t happen a lot is having two stars from the same movie win an award and neither winner is present.

It’s a bad look for Three Billboards. Losing the CCA Best Picture trophy just makes the race more fun but skipping out on the party when there’s still winners within that losing movie seems like a bad decision in my mind, especially since they said Rockwell’s absence was due to appearing on Saturday Night Live. Really? SNL isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Chances to claim a victory at the CCA’s are hard to come by and, unfortunately, some Academy members (like my future self) might hold this disregard against Three Billboards later. Luckily, they also won the CCA for Best Acting Ensemble. This reinforces the inevitable Rockwell/McDormand Oscar wins but hurts Billboards where it matters most. They lost the CCA for Picture and Original Screenplay, and I fear the shade cast by these actors will loom over Ebbing, Missouri.

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