People's Choice Awards 2018: Nicki Minaj, Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War triumph

Forty-three gongs were attributed ahead of Sunday night based on the public's votes

The 2018 People's Choice Awards will kick off at 9pm EST on 11 November, 2018. (E! / People's Choice Awards)

The 44th People's Choice Awards kicked off at 9pm ET in Santa Monica on Sunday, with Nicki Minaj opening the evening. Rita Ora and John Legend also sang during the ceremony.

This year, 43 awards were to be attributed across the categories of movies, TV, music, and pop culture. Members of the public voted ahead of time for their favourite films, TV shows, musicians, and influencers.

Three special awards were given. Melissa McCarthy was named People Icon of 2018, Victoria Beckham earned the Fashion Icon title, and lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson was awarded the People's Champion gong.

In addition to providing the opening performance for the evening, Minaj collected two major awards during the ceremony. She was named Female Artist of 2018 and won the Album of 2018 award for Queen. Minaj thus had the chance to give two humorous acceptance speeches. In the first, she gave a shout-out to actor Michael B Jordan, saying he would be removing her dress later in the evening. Minaj's second acceptance speech saw her dedicate her award to "Kim Kardashian's a** in that dress".

Avengers: Infinity War, which was released in April this year by Marvel, was one of the night's big winners. The superhero film was named movie of the year and won the Action Movie of 2018 award. It also earned Scarlett Johansson the title of Female Movie Star of 2018 for her role as Black Widow.

Black Panther, another Marvel Studios production, led to two awards. Chadwick Boseman was picked as Male Movie Star of 2018 for his role as T'Challa, while Danai Gurira, who plays Okoye, won the Action Movie Star of 2018 gong.

Follow updates as they happened

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[12 November 2018 00:08 · James Crump]

Read The Independent's review of Kevin Hart's latest film, Night School:

[12 November 2018 00:14 · James Crump]

Speaking from the red carpet is Shadowhunters' Harry Shum Jr, who earlier today announced that he and his wife Shelby Rabara are expecting their first child: https://twitter.com/HarryShumJr/status/1061680105133494273

[12 November 2018 00:28 · James Crump]

Most votes are closed, but the polls are still open to award the Movie of the Year title. No matter what, the winner will be a Marvel Studios production: voters can pick between Infinity War and Black Panther.

[12 November 2018 00:32 · James Crump]

A touch of Posh is coming to the People's Choice Awards! Victoria Beckham will be the inaugural recipient of the Fashion Icon Award tonight. She said on Twitter she was "so excited" about the honour. 

[12 November 2018 00:35 · James Crump]

Beauty influencer James Charles is speaking from the red carpet! The YouTuber is nominated in the Beauty Influencer of the Year category.

[12 November 2018 00:36 · James Crump]

James Charles went for an all-white look for tonight's ceremony: 

[12 November 2018 00:41 · James Crump]

Chrissy Teigen's husband John Legend is performing tonight in Santa Monica. Earlier on Sunday, Teigen shared this video of her EGOT-winning spouse singing Christmas tunes: album: 

[12 November 2018 00:45 · James Crump]

Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund is the Animal Star of 2018! 

[12 November 2018 00:46 · James Crump]

Celebrity cat Lil Bub was also nominated in the Animal star category. 

[12 November 2018 00:48 · James Crump]

Crusoe the Celebrity Dachshund has 660,000 followers on Instagram and is a New York Times Bestselling author.