Jon M. Chu, who directed the wildly successful film adaptation of the Broadway musical Wicked, has, well… an impossible dream this awards season.
After winning the award for best director at the 2025 Critics Choice Awards, held Friday, Feb. 7, at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif., he proclaimed, “I’m gonna win that Oscar!” (Chu was clearly joking, since he was not nominated for the Oscar this year for his work on Wicked.)
The director, 45, was up for the award against Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez, Sean Baker for Anora, Edward Berger for Conclave, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, Coralie Fargeat for The Substance, RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys and Denis Villeneuve for Dune: Part Two.
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After hugging Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and members of the Wicked cast, Chu took the stage and joked about his Oscars snub.
“Oh man, I literally did not want to stress myself out, so I didn’t write anything because I was like, no way, so it’s crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy. I’m gonna be real with you because I have nothing—no phone… I love directing,” he said.
“We get to tell stories for our life. I’ve been waiting to be able to not think about algebra or grammar ever again. I just wanted to make movies. I wanted to work with my friends. I wanted to share whatever it is we had in our head that week, that year, in our childhood. And I feel very privileged to be here,” he continued. “To be telling the stories to the world with all of you out here, I look at us and, yes, we’re all dressed up. But I know that the real work is when we’re not—when we’re sitting in the edit room staring at a cut and being like, ‘Is anyone going to like this?’
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“When I lay on the floor and I look at my wife and I’m like, ‘I think this is terrible,’ and she’s like, ‘You can do it.’”
Michael Kovac/Getty Images
Chu continued to thank his family, including his five children. He continued, “This is for all the people who love artists. It is a hard life to love an artist. We are selfish people. We are weird, but you guys pick us up.”
He then called America “the greatest place in the world,” before noting, “Yes, we have our issues.”
“But it is the greatest place where dreams can come true,” he said, “and we can achieve stuff that my parents could have never dreamed.”
The film also won the awards for best production design (Nathan Crowley, Lee Sandales) and best costume design (Paul Tazewell).
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Wicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz, stars Grande as Glinda alongside Erivo as Elphaba. The first part of the film was released Nov. 22, 2024, and its second part will hit theaters Nov. 21.
The 30th Critics Choice Awards, hosted by Chelsea Handler for the third consecutive year, airs live from the Baker Hanger in Santa Monica, Calif., honoring the finest achievements of filmmaking and television programming in 2024.
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