The Critics Choice Awards were meant to be last night, but were — correctly, obviously! — postponed until a later date, given that wide swaths of the city are still on fire and the event typically takes place in Santa Monica, which will not rest easy until the winds fully stop and they can tame the flames. Because I don’t know what we’ll have in the way of content for a bit, I decided to do some CCAs flashbacks and really MILK IT across the week. We begin with the first year for which we have pictures, 2003, and continue through 2005. This batch has some fun baby pictures (well, comparatively) of actors who are in or adjacent to the awards this year. I’m betting you can identify this first one. You will be humming “Sunrise, Sunset” while your eyes prickle.

  • In 2003, they nominated ten movies for Best Picture, but only three directors TOTAL, although they rolled two of Spielberg’s nominations (Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can) into one so that he didn’t have to compete with himself.
  • In fact, three was the norm for almost all the categories, which seems needlessly mean to the losing nominees, ESPECIALLY in the case of Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis and Jack Nicholson tied, leaving Robin Williams on the outside, alone.
  • The only category with the now-typical five nominees was Best Actress (and Julianne Moore, for Far From Heaven, beat Nicole Kidman from The Hours). Oh yeah, and of those three actors, two tied. Robin Williams was therefore ]he only one to lose.
  • By 2004, that Digital Performance category was gone and most categories had five nominees (except for Best Picture, again).
  • There was a Best Digital Acting category, presumably invented for both Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and for which you bet your hobbit Andy Serkis won. Well, no, the winner was listed as Gollum. Which feels misguided.
  • In 2005, they piloted a category called Best Popular Film, which is the equivalent of the Globes’ Box Office category but a MUCH harsher way of phrasing it. None of those three films were in Best Picture, so it really gives an air of, “Here are the GOOD movies, and here are the ones The Great Unwashed enjoyed.” Spider-Man 2 won over Bourne Supremacy, Passion of the Christ, The Incredibles, and Napoleon Dynamite. In fairness to The Incredibles, it DID also win the animated movie category, but wasn’t able to crack into the overall best list.
[Photos: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images, Robert Mora/Getty Images, SGranitz, Jeffrey Mayer, Gregg DeGuire, Terry McGinnis/WireImage, Vince Bucci/Getty Images]