Awards season has officially begun! The 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards was held last night in Los Angeles, which had A-listers dressed to the nines in their finest gowns to kick off Hollywood's most glamorous, and possibly most competitive, time of the year.
Held on Sunday night at the Barker Hangar in Sta. Monica, comedian Chelsea Handler took to the podium as master of ceremonies for the fourth year in a row. In her opening monologue, she gave a social commentary on the hit film Sinners, and the pending Warner Bros. / Discovery sale. She also made special mention of the series heating up screens all over the world, Heated Rivalry, describing it as "Gay men love it, women love it, straight men who say they aren’t gay but work out at Equinox love it!” She closed out her speech with a heartfelt tribute to the late director Rob Reiner (and his wife Michelle Singer-Reiner), calling him the 'nicest guy in Hollywood,' saying “Anyone who ever spent time with Rob Reiner knows that the minute you met him, he felt like an old friend."
On the film front
One of the big winners of the night was the Leonardo Di Caprio-led drama One Battle After Another, which centers around a burned-out revolutionary searching for his daughter. The film took home the evening's top nods with trophy for "Best Picture," while writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson won for both "Best Director" and Best Adapted Screenplay." In his acceptance speech, he said “This is the best time I ever had making a movie, and I feel like it shows.”
Another frontrunner was Ryan Coogler's vampire-Western Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan playing twins, which led the nomination count at 17, and won four. They got a trophies for "Best Original Screenplay" for Coogler, "Best Young Actor / Actress" for Miles Caton, "Best Musical Score," and the veery first "Best Casting and Ensemble" award. Matching them for trophy count was Netflix's Frankenstein, for "Best Costume Design," "Best Hair & Makeup," and "Best Production Design," as well as Jacob Elordi's first acting nod as "Best Supporting Actor" for the film's titular role.
Aside from Elordi, the recipients of the acting awards were distributed across various films. "Best Actress" went to Hamnet's Jessie Buckley, while Amy Madigan won "Best Supporting Actress" for "Weapons." One of Hollywood's most in-demand actors, Timothée Chalamet, took to the podium to receive his "Best Actor" award for A24's Marty Supreme, which he dedicated to girlfriend Kylie Kardashian, saying "I love you. I couldn't do this without you."
"Best Animated Feature" went to Netflix's runaway hit of 2025, K-Pop Demon Hunters, which also won for "Best Song" for Golden.
On the small screen
Perhaps not surprisingly, it was the biggest hits of the TV season that brought home the trophies during the Critics' Choice Awards.
HBO's critically-acclaimed original series The Pitt, and Hacks reaped the streamer a slew of well-deserved awards. Noah Wyle's winning streak continues, as he won "Best Actor In A Drama Series" for playing Doc Robby Rabinovitch in the critically-acclaimed medical drama, besting the likes of Sterling K. Brown, Mark Ruffalo, and Billy Bob Thornton. The Pitt also won "Best Drama Series," and "Best Supporting Actress in A Drama Series" for Katherine LaNasa. On the other hand, Jane Smart picked up another trophy for her mantel for playing aging comedian Deborah Vance in Hacks - a role she has won four Emmys previously.
Surreal seems to be the word of the year for AppleTV, as dystopian series Pluribus and Severance also picked up several trophies, including "Best Actress In A Drama Series" for Rhea Seehorn for the former, and "Best Supporting Actor In a Drama Series" for Tramell Tillman for the former. The streamer's comedy series, The Studio also won for "Best Comedy Series," "Best Actor In A Comedy Series" for Seth Rogen, and Best Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series" for Ike Barinholtz.
Here is the complete list of winners:
Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme
Jessie Buckley – Hamnet
Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein
Amy Madigan – Weapons
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler – Sinners
Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Adolpho Veloso – Train Dreams
Frankenstein
Kate Hawley – Frankenstein
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
Noah Wyle – The Pitt
Rhea Seehorn – Pluribus
Adolescence
Owen Cooper – Adolescence
Erin Doherty – Adolescence
The winners of the 31st Annual Critics' Choice Awards are selected by a group Hollywood film and TV critics. As it is the first awards ceremony of the year, it often sets the tone for the succeeding awards shows of the season.