- - “One Battle After Another” Crowned Best Movie of the Year at 2026 Critics Choice Awards

Tommy McArdleJanuary 5, 2026 at 3:27 AM

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Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Leonardo Di Caprio in "One Battle After Another" -

One Battle After Another took home the top film prize at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards

Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson accepted the honor at the end of the ceremony

The other nominees included Bugonia, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Jay Kelly, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value, Sinners, Train Dreams and Wicked: For Good

One Battle After Another is the year's best movie, according to the 2026 Critics Choice Awards.

On Sunday, Jan. 4, the film won Best Picture over fellow nominees Bugonia, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Jay Kelly, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value, Sinners, Train Dreams and Wicked: For Good.

Paul Thomas Anderson, who also won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay earlier in the evening, accepted the honor.

"This is really fantastic, fantastic news. We'll take it," said Anderson, 55, onstage. "A lot of great films. It's great to be in this room. It's great to be a part of all of this. It's great to have this cast behind me."

Elsewhere in the speech, the filmmaker said, "I'd say this is the best time I ever had making a movie, and I feel like it shows. It's just a testament to being with people that you love. Because as somebody said earlier, this is fine and this is fun, but it really is about the people that you work with. That's all that there is at the end of the day."

One Battle After Another, which is now streaming on HBO Max, is Leonardo DiCaprio's latest movie and Anderson's first film since 2021's Licorice Pizza. The movie is a sprawling tale of political revolution and father-daughter bonding starring DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Sean Penn and Chase Infiniti.

DiCaprio received a nomination for Best Actor, and his costar Infiniti was also nominated for Best Actress. Both Benicio del Toro and Penn were nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and Taylor was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

JC Olivera/Variety via Getty

Paul Thomas Anderson on Jan. 4, 2026

Also nominated, Bugonia, Emma Stone's latest collaboration with Yorgos Lanthimos, sees the two-time Oscar winner play a pharmaceutical company CEO named Michelle who is abducted by a man named Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis), who have grown convinced she is an alien conspiring to take over life on Earth.

Frankenstein is Gullermo del Toro's adaptation of Mary Shelley's iconic 1818 monster novel. Jacob Elordi starred as the Creature in the movie, while Oscar Isaac portrayed the titular Dr. Frankenstein; the movie's cast also includes Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Charles Dance and Christoph Waltz.

Hamnet is director Chloé Zhao's adaptation of author Maggie O’Farrell's 2020 novel, which stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his wife Agnes. The movie is a fictional story about the Shakespeare family's life and the death of William and Agnes' son Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), which leads William to write the iconic play Hamlet. Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn and Noah Jupe also star in the film.

Jay Kelly stars George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern and Billy Crudup; the movie features Clooney as its title character, a movie star who embarks on a trip through Europe with his manager Ron (Sandler) as he reflects on his life and career in the film industry. Grace Edwards, Stacy Keach, Riley Keough, Emily Mortimer, Isla Fisher, Patrick Wilson, Nicôle Lecky, Thaddea Graham, Jim Broadbent, Eve Hewson, Alba Rohrwacher, Lenny Henry, Josh Hamilton and Greta Gerwig also appear in the movie, which was directed by Noah Baumbach.

Marty Supreme sees Timothée Chalamet portray a man named Marty Mauser, a pro table tennis player who dreams of winning the world championships in 1952. Much of the movie's story revolves around Marty's chaotic efforts to make enough money to travel to Japan and compete in a tournament there; Kevin O'Leary, Odessa A'zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher costar among a large ensemble cast.

Sentimental Value stars Stellan Skarsgård as an aging film director whose attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) are made difficult after Nora turns down a part in his next movie. When an American actress (Elle Fanning) accepts a role in the film, she is thrust into the family's complicated dynamics.

Sinners leads all movies at this year's Critics Choice Awards with 17 total nominations. Writer-director Ryan Coogler's period piece stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twins Smoke and Stack in 1932 Mississippi, who return to their hometown in the state to open a nightclub for Black patrons, only to see opening night crashed by a vampire (Jack O'Connell) drawn to the musical talents Sammie (Miles Caton).

Jordan, as well as costars Wunmi Mosaku and Miles Caton, received nominations for their performances in the movie. Sinners' ensemble cast, which also includes Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Omar Miller, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Yao and more, won the new Best Casting and Ensemble category.

Train Dreams is an adaptation of Denis Johnson's novella; the movie stars Joel Edgerton as a man named Robert Grainier who lives in the Pacific Northwest at the beginning of the 20th century. The movie follows Robert's career in the railroad industry and romance with wife Gladys (Felicity Jones); William H. Macy and Kerry Condon also costar.

Wicked: For Good is the second half of director Jon M. Chu's two-part adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked. The movie stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Glinda, and follows the pair's friendship in the time after Elphaba's falling out with the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).

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