Editor’s Note: This article was republished on Feb. 19, 2026 following a website transfer that removed it. The article was originally published on Jan. 20, 2025.
Inside the films and series that defined Critics Choice Awards
The 31st annual Critics Choice Awards lit up Los Angeles on Jan. 4. The presentation, which was once again hosted by comedian Chelsea Handler in Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, brought together the biggest names in Hollywood and critically acclaimed storytellers celebrates the best in film and television from the past year. The ceremony marked the beginning of an eventful awards show season and offered a map of where the critical consensus might coalesce this year.
Written ballots were submitted during a weeklong nomination period, and the nominees were then announced in December. The awards show is presented by the Critics Choice Association (CCA), which is the largest critics organization in the U.S. and Canada — full of broadcast, radio, online critics and entertainment journalists.
If awards season is a conversation between art and industry alignment, this year’s Critics Choice Awards made its stance unmistakably clear, elevating a slate of winners that reflected both formal ambition and cultural urgency.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” earned the evening’s top honor — Best Picture — along with Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, becoming a top contender for the rest of the awards season. The fierce political drama emerged as a clear critical favorite for its exhilarating genre filmmaking, blending maximalist chaos, dark comedy and visceral action into a story that feels urgently relevant. The film even broke the record for most actor nominations, earning seven.
In the acting categories, Timothée Chalamet won Best Actor for his portrayal of a grossly ambitious 1950s table-tennis player in “Marty Supreme.” The film, directed by Josh Safdie, is a masterclass on characterization and unpredictability. Audiences watch Marty (Timothée Chalamet) hustle through postwar New York City that functions as a pressure cooker of ambition, identity and survival. At its center, Chalamet delivers a ferocious character who is charismatic yet a morally slippery antihero.
For Best Actress, Jessie Buckley secured the title for her powerful performance in “Hamnet.” Critics praise Buckley for transforming grief into something elemental and quietly radical, anchoring the film’s meditative power with one of the year’s most indelible portrayals of loss.
Both wins have put these films high on the list of potential Oscar nominees.
Furthermore, “Sinners” and “Frankenstein” received top honors in multiple categories at the Critics Choice Awards.
Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” took home four awards, including Miles Caton winning Best Young Actor and other trophies in key technical and writing categories. “Sinners” is easily one of 2025’s most formidable films and arguably the best film to come out of this past year, with “Marty Supreme” being a close second. “Sinners” directly confronts guilt, faith and power with unsettling clarity. It’s a beautifully tense picture that results in a work that is as intellectually bracing as it is emotionally corrosive. The film frames the blues as sacred, becoming a large part of the plot’s transcendence between life and death while carrying the weight of Black history and survival. “Sinners” secured its place this awards season as one of the most haunting and enduring films.
Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” tied “Sinners” with four awards, most notably Jacob Elordi took home Best Supporting Actor for his chilling performance as the Creature. Del Toro’s adaptation restores tragic humanity to the Creature and provides a critique of Frankenstein instead, grounding spectacle in emotional weight.
As for animation, “Kpop Demon Hunters” received Best Animated Feature as well as Best Song for the picture’s original track, “Golden.” EJAE is the songwriter for the soundtrack as well as the singing voice for the film’s main character, Rumi.
The year’s strongest television series collected numerous awards as well, showcasing the depth and diverse selection of television programming currently available. “The Pitt” won Best Drama Series, while “The Studio” took home Best Comedy Series, with Seth Rogen and Jean Smart receiving top acting honors in comedy categories.
Netflix’s British series “Adolescence” led in television awards, including Best Limited Series. The four-episode drama offers a glimpse into toxic masculinity and the incel subculture through a raw, unfiltered lens, each episode filmed in a single continuous take.
Owen Cooper portrays a young boy accused of murdering his female classmate in this jarring and skin-crawling coming-of-age story. With no prior acting experience, “Adolescence” marks Cooper’s screen debut — a performance that has already secured him two prestigious awards, including Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series at the Critics Choice Awards. The series is groundbreaking in its immersive filming techniques and nuanced performances that contribute to its raw, emotionally honest storytelling.
The Critics Choice Awards provided a vital glimpse ahead as to how the rest of the industry’s award season would go. They often accurately predict where the Oscars and other seasonal honors tend to go, making these first honors so pivotal. Their selected winners match Academy Award winners in roughly 73% of cases across the top six categories. With major wins for the films “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners,” along with actors Chalamet and Buckley, this year’s ceremony displayed likely front-runners for the Academy Awards to come.
The CCA is regarded highly and serves as an excellent barometer of artistic achievement and audience appeal, and as the awards season of Hollywood progresses, the buzz from the Critics Choice Awards will only grow louder. The ceremony rarely crowns surprises, instead it clarifies priorities, and this year was no different. This year’s Critics Choice Awards illustrated a growing appetite for films and series that challenge and entertain at the same time.
All eyes will be on the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) Awards and ultimately the Oscars to see whether this early critics’ praise translates into broader industry recognition.
Fiona Clancy is an Arts & Entertainment Staff Writer for the winter 2026 quarter. She can be reached at clancyf@uci.edu.
Edited by Annabelle Aguirre
