After a few delays due to the recent wildfires in Southern California, the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards were held on Friday, February 7, 2025. Chelsea Handler returned as the host for the third year in a row. The results of the Critics Choice Awards have historically been fairly accurate predictors of the Oscars in crucial categories and have signified shifting momentum in certain races. For instance, Emma Stone’s Critics Choice victory for Best Actress in Poor Things last year paved the way for her eventual Oscar win, in what had been a very tight competition with Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon). The Best Actress race is once again a close one, but other major categories like Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture are heavily contested as well.
The field of the 2025 Critics Choice Awards featured 18 films with multiple nominations, with leaders of the pack Conclave and Wicked garnering 11 nominations each. Dune: Part Two and Emilia Pérez both followed closely behind with 10 nominations, and The Brutalist had nine nods. However, there are a few important pieces of context to consider about the results of the Critics Choice Awards this year and their potential reflection (or lack thereof) of the upcoming Oscars results. Voting for Critics Choice concluded on January 10, shortly before a handful of major news stories broke about some of the prominent nominees, including The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez. There was an AI-related controversy with The Brutalist, specifically connected with certain elements of Adrien Brody’s vocalization of the Hungarian language. Additionally, Emilia Pérez star Sofía Gascón recently came under fire for a series of resurfaced tweets that were offensive to a wide array of minority communities. Thus, while these issues had no impact on Critics Choice voting, backlash from the Academy is still a distinct possibility.
With that said, both The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez walked away from the Critics Choice Awards with some hardware. Adrien Brody pulled away from a stacked Best Actor field to win for his performance as the Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth, beating out fellow nominees Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown), Daniel Craig (Queer), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), and Hugh Grant (Heretic). Emilia Pérez was honored with three wins – Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Song, and Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña). The Substance was another big winner of the evening, taking home Best Actress (Demi Moore), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Hair and Makeup. Wicked earned a pair of below-the-line awards for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design, in addition to John Chu’s win for Best Director in one of the bigger surprises of the evening, despite being left out of the Oscar nominations. Conclave was recognized with Best Acting Ensemble and Best Adapted screenplay, and nominations juggernaut Dune: Part Two emerged victorious in the Best Visual Effects category. As for the biggest prize of the show, Anora made history as the first film to win Best Picture at the Critics Choice Awards without winning a single other category. Considering Anora’s half-dozen nods from the Academy, Sean Baker’s film is in a prime position to have a good night on Oscars Sunday.
Another notable outcome from the Critics Choice Awards is Kieran Culkin’s win for Best Supporting Actor in A Real Pain. He continues to separate himself from a pack of strong contenders that just have not been able to match up to the outpouring of love for his performance that began way back in January 2024 when the film premiered at Sundance. It is also worth mentioning that Challengers – which was entirely shutout by the Academy – won the Critics Choice for Best Editing and Best Original Score.
The Critics Choice Association is a group of broadcast, radio, and online film critics and entertainment journalists made up of more than 580 members across North America. As a voting member of the organization myself, it is a privilege to recognize the talent behind the creation of cinematic art that speaks to our current moment and will also last for many years ahead.
For a full list of winners, visit https://www.criticschoice.com/
Featured Photo Credit: Critics Choice Association