Toy Story 3 is smiling brightly, as it took home a big prize tonight at the 16th Annual Critics Choice Movie Awards. Director Lee Unkrich and Producer Darla K. Anderson were in attendance at the awards show voted on by the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Read on for a recap with a full transcript of the acceptance speech.
First up was the Best Animated Feature category. Again, the nominees were:
- Despicable Me
- How To Train Your Dragon
- The Illusionist
- Tangled
- Toy Story 3
And the Critics Choice was…Toy Story 3! Lee Unkrich walked towards the stage as Randy Newman’s score played over the room. He very articulately gave the following acceptance speech:
Wow. This is very cool. First of all, congratulations to all my fellow nominees. I know you’re out in the room. This has been an amazing year for animation, so congratulations to you guys.
(Applause)
Thank you so much to the Broadcast Film Critics Association. You guys said some really, really kind things about our film after it came out and it just meant the world to us after the over four long years that it took to make the movie. Thanks to everyone at Pixar and Disney, Bob Iger, Rich Ross, Ed Catmull, and John Lasseter for trusting me with Toy Story 3. It was a responsibility that I never, ever took lightly.
And thank you…endless thanks to Producer Darla Anderson and Screenwriter Michael Arndt (applause) and the rest of my talented cast and crew. For all these [people] believing that we were making a film worth making.
And thanks to audiences all over the world for embracing a story about talking toys that hopefully had something very human to say. Thank you very much.
(Applause)
Next up was the award for Best Song, which was not presented on-screen. The winner was announced as the show went to break. The nominees were:
- “I See The Light” – Tangled
- “If I Rise” – 127 Hours
- “Shine” – Waiting For Superman
- “We Belong Together” – Toy Story 3
- “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me Yet” – Burlesque
“If I Rise” (by Dido and A.R. Rahman) from 127 Hours took home the honors.
Best Adapted Screenplay was presented a bit later. The nominees were:
- 127 Hours
- The Social Network
- The Town
- Toy Story 3
- True Grit
- Winter’s Bone
The Critics Choice was The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin).
The next category that Toy Story 3 was nominated in, Best Sound, was also presented off-screen. The nominees were:
- 127 Hours
- Black Swan
- Inception
- The Social Network
- Toy Story 3
And the Critics Choice was Inception.
The last award of the night was the biggest one of the evening, as is customary. The nominees for Best Picture were:
- 127 Hours
- Black Swan
- The Fighter
- Inception
- The King’s Speech
- The Social Network
- The Town
- Toy Story 3
- True Grit
- Winter’s Bone
And the Critics Choice Award for Best Picture went to The Social Network.
A good night for Toy Story 3 and Lee Unkrich. His acceptance speech was great. A nice way to cap off the evening is the last line from his speech:
And thanks to audiences all over the world for embracing a story about talking toys that hopefully had something very human to say.
Pixar has a real ability to breathe life into things that are otherwise lifeless and make us care about those characters like they were truly living. A robot that can love, a rat that can cook, and toys that can have a deep friendship with one another – yes, we believe in those characters, and we love them as if they were one of us.
Congratulations to Pixar and Lee Unkrich!
Click here for the long list of awards that Toy Story 3 has taken home already.
Update (1/15/11): I’ve added a link to the presentation of the Best Animated Feature Award. Click here to watch the big moment unfold in full-screen.
Additionally, here are some photos of Lee Unkrich accepting the award and giving his speech:
Images were posted by Zimbio, which has a great selection of photos from last night. The above are only a sample. To view their full collection of photos from the Critics Choice Movie Awards, click here.
Thanks to reader Josh for the links to the video and photos!
