Kevin Costner, Ron Howard and Jessica Chastain Earn Special Critics Choice Movie Awards Honors

Ron Howard, Kevin Costner, Jessica Chastain Critics' Choice Movie Awards Honorees
Jessica Chastain attends amfAR’s 21st Cinema Against AIDS Gala (Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images)

Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year) will receive the first-ever MVP Award at the 20th Annual Critics Choice Movies Awards* to be held on January 15, 2015 in Los Angeles. Broadcast Film Critics Association President Joey Berlin also announced that Ron Howard was named as the recipient of the Louis XIII Genius Award and Kevin Costner has earned the group’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Michael Strahan has been tapped to host the awards shows which will be broadcast live from the Hollywood Palladium on A&E at 9pm ET and 6pm PT.

The Critics Choice MVP Award will be given to an “extraordinary actor for their work in several standout movies throughout a single year.” Chastain’s 2014 movies included Interstellar, Miss Julie, A Most Violent Year, and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.

Howard earned the Louis XIII Critics Choice Genius Award as an icon who has “demonstrated unprecedented excellence in the cinematic arts.” Previous recipients include Richard Linklater and Judd Apatow.

Kevin Costner is being recognized for his three decades of incredible work with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Working in front of and behind the camera, Costner’s impressive filmography includes Dances with Wolves which he produced, directed, and starred in. He also delivered stellar performances in The Untouchables, Field of Dreams, JFK, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Draft Day.

The nominees for the 2015 Critics Choice Movie Awards will be announced on Monday, December 15th.

* – I’m a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the group that votes on the annual Critics Choice Movie Awards.