The Critics Choice Awards were held Friday night, and aired on VH1. It was a pretty good awards show, with a focus put on the big awards and the actors. The biggest highlight for me was the Best Actress category, which included nominees Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sibide, Emily Blunt and Saoirse Ronan. Bradley Cooper was presenting, and he let out a little gasp when he opened the envelope and announced there was a tie. Meryl’s name was announced first, and her speech was of course wonderful, as she thanked her husband first off: “I want to thank my husband… who is playing golf!” After her speech, she stayed on the stage for Bradley to announce the tying actress, who was Sandra Bullcok (for The Blind Side). When Sandra came up to the stage, she and Meryl did a play bitch act, where they gave each other the “I’ll cut you” look and Sandra shouted into the microphone, “This is bullsh-t!”

Then Sandra and Meryl laughed and made out. No joke! It was really cute.

Here’s the list of winners:

Best Picture – The Hurt Locker
Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow (for The Hurt Locker)
Best Actress – (above)
Best Actor – Jeff Bridges (for Crazy Heart)
Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz (for Inglourious Basterds)
Best Supporting Actress – Monique (for Precious)
Best Ensemble – Inglourious Basterds
Best Action Film – Avatar
Best Animated Film – Up
Best Young Actor/Actress – Saoirse Ronan (for The Lovely Bones)
Best Comedy – The Hangover
Best Documentary – The Cove
Best Original Screenplay – Quentin Tarantino, for Inglourious Basterds
Best Adapted Screenplay – Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner for Up In the Air

The show also included a really touching tribute to the late writer/director John Hughes, and a performance of “Don’t You Forget About Me” performed by Death Cab for Cutie, which was actually really lovely. Also, Kevin Bacon won the Joel Segel Award, which is sort of like the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement. Meryl presented it to Kevin, not only for his film career, but for his charity work. I was pretty thrilled with some of the winners, especially Jeff Bridges – I really hope he’s a major contender for the Best Actor Oscar, just because I think he’s one of the few actors keeping Clooney in check, you know? Even though Clooney claims he’s “not campaigning.”

The other notable incident that pleased me to no end was Kathryn Bigelow’s win for Best Director. She’s the first woman to ever pick up that award at the Critics Choice, and if she ends up with an Oscar nomination for directing, she’s only be, like, the second or third woman to ever play with the big boys. And if she is nominated for an Oscar – which I think is very possible – it will be another first for the Oscars. It will be the first time two ex-spouses are competing against each other for the same award. You see, Bigelow and James Cameron were married from 1989 to 1991, and Cameron is pretty much a shoo-in for, at the very least, a nomination for Best Director for Avatar. I was under the impression that James Cameron was a bastard to be married to, but he was incredibly classy when Bigelow won last night. A look of real happiness came over his face when her name was announced, and he jumped up to be the first to give her a standing ovation, which was really sweet, in my opinion. I’m changing my opinion of James Cameron – not only with this act, but with his dorky/sweet appearance on Oprah on Friday too. He seems like a nice guy.

The fashion at the Critics Choice was pretty dull, though. My vote for Best Dressed was Saoirse Ronan, but I was barely paying attention.

Critics Choice Awards photos from red carpet & press room, all from January 15, 2010: Kathryn Bigelow, Diane Kruger with Christoph Waltz, hostess Kristen Chenoweth with winner Quentin Tarantino, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, my boyfriend Jeremy Renner, Marion Cotillard, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, and Saoirse Ronan. Credit all: WENN.