2025 Critics’ Choice Winners

A month on from the Golden Globes and the next major Oscar precursor has announced its winners. While there is no strong correlation between Critics’ Choice and the Academy, with only “Nomadland” (2020) and “Oppenheimer” (2023) winning at both ceremonies in the past ten years, it still provides an opportunity for stars and filmmakers to get on stage as part of their award season campaign.

While most awards on the night played out rather predictably, there were a handful of surprises that add firther questions to an already unpredictable Oscar race. The first major shock of the night was Coralie Fargeat‘s win for “The Substance” in Original Screenplay. While considered a contender in the category, many, including myself, expected the award to go to Sean Baker for “Anora”, particularly given that it announced later in the night that the comedy drama was the winner of Best Film, despite receiving no other awards. This could show the movie’s overall strength with voters, who still awarded it the top prize despite missing out in categories such as Screenplay, Director and Actress.

The biggest surprise of the night however was in director, where Jon M. Chu walked away with the honours, despite missing out on a nomination all together at the upcoming Academy Awards. This offers very little going forward in terms of predictions, but I imagine with no competitive winner, Brady Corbet still looks safe for his first Oscar win.

Other category winners that missed out on Oscar nominations include Score and Editing, with both awards going to “Challengers”, a film completely shut out by the Academy on nomination morning a couple weeks ago. The acting categories on the other hand are becoming more and more predictable, with Adrien Brody, Demi Moore, Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldana all repeating their Globes’ success.

Full list of winners at the 30th Critics’ Choice Awards:

Best Picture

• “Anora” – Winner
• “The Brutalist”
• “A Complete Unknown”
• “Conclave”
• “Dune: Part Two”
• “Emilia Perez”
• “Nickel Boys”
• “Sing Sing”
• “The Substance”
• “Wicked”

Best Director

• Jacques Audiard “Emilia Perez”
• Sean Baker “Anora”
• Edward Berger “Conclave”
• Jon M. Chu “Wicked” – Winner
• Brady Corbet “The Brutalist”
• Coralie Fargeat “The Substance”
• RaMell Ross “Nickel Boys”
• Denis Villeneuve “Dune: Part Two”

Best Actor

• Adrien Brody “The Brutalist” – Winner
• Timothee Chalamet “A Complete Unknown”
• Daniel Craig “Queer”
• Colman Domingo “Sing Sing”
• Ralph Fiennes “Conclave”
• Hugh Grant “Heretic”

Best Actress

• Cynthia Erivo “Wicked”
• Karla Sofia Gascon “Emilia Perez”
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste “Hard Truths”
• Angelina Jolie “Maria”
• Mike Madison “Anora”
• Demi Moore “The Substance” – Winner

Supporting Actor

• Yura Borisov “Anora”
• Kieran Culkin “A Real Pain” – Winner
• Clarence Maclin “Sing Sing”
• Edward Norton “A Complete Unknown”
• Guy Pearce “The Brutalist”
• Denzel Washington “Gladiator II”

Supporting Actress

• Danielle Deadwyler “The Piano Lesson”
• Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor “Nickel Boys”
• Ariana Grande “Wicked”
• Margaret Qualley “The Substance”
• Isabella Rossellini “Conclave”
• Zoe Saldana “Emilia Perez” – Winner

Best Young Actor/Actress

• Alyla Browne “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”
• Elliott Heffernan “Blitz”
• Maisy Stella “My Old Ass” – Winner
• Izaac Wong “Didi”
• Alisha Weir “Abigail”
• Zoe Ziegler “Janet Planet”

Best Ensemble

• “Anora”
• “Conclave” – Winner
• “Emilia Perez”
• “Saturday Night”
• “Sing Sing”
• “Wicked”

Best Original Screenplay

• Sean Baker “Anora”
• Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum and Alex David “September 5”
• Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold “The Brutalist”
• Jesse Eisenberg “A Real Pain”
• Coralie Fargeat “The Substance” – Winner
• Justin Kuritzkes “Challengers”

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Jacques Audiard “Emilia Perez”
• Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox “Wicked”
• Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley “Sing Sing”
• RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes “Nickel Boys”
• Peter Straughn “Conclave” – Winner
• Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts “Dune: Part Two”

Best Cinematography

• “The Brutalist”
• “Conclave”
• “Dune: Part Two”
• “Nickel Boys”
• “Nosferatu” – Winner
• “Wicked”

Best Editing

• “Anora”
• “The Brutalist”
• “Challengers” – Winner
• “Conclave”
• “Dune: Part Two”
• “September 5”

Best Costume Design

• “Conclave”
• “Dune: Part Two”
• “Gladiator II”
• “Maria”
• “Nosferatu”
• “Wicked” – Winner

Best Production Design

• “The Brutalist”
• “Conclave”
• “Dune: Part Two”
• “Gladiator II”
• “Nosferatu”
• “Wicked” – Winner

Best Score

• Volker Bertelmann “Conclave”
• Daniel Blumberg “The Brutalist”
• Kris Bowers “The Wild Robot”
• Clement Ducol, Camille “Emilia Perez”
• Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross “Challengers” – Winner
• Hans Zimmer “Dune: Part Two”

Best Song

• “Beautiful That Way” “The Last Showgirl”
• “Compress/Regress” “Challengers”
• “El Mal” “Emilia Perez” – Winner
• “Harper and Will Go West” “Will & Harper”
• “Kiss the Sky” “The Wild Robot”
• “Mi Camino” “Emilia Perez”

Best Hair and Make-Up

• “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”
• “A Different Man”
• “Dune: Part Two”
• “Nosferatu”
• “The Substance” – Winner
• “Wicked”

Best Visual Effects

• “Better Man”
• “Dune: Part Two” – Winner
• “Gladiator II”
• “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
• “The Substance”
• “Wicked”

Best Comedy

• “A Real Pain” – Tie
• “Deadpool & Wolverine” – Tie
• “Hit Man”
• “My Old Ass”
• “Saturday Night”
• “Thelma”

Best Animated Feature

• “Flow”
• “Inside Out 2”
• “Memoir of a Snail”
• “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
• “The Wild Robot” – Winner

Best Foreign Language Film

• “All We Imagine as Light”
• “Emilia Perez” – Winner
• “Flow”
• “I’m Still Here”
• “Kneecap”
• “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”

Films with most wins:

• “Emilia Perez” – 3
• “The Substance” – 3
• “Wicked” – 3
• “Challengers” – 2
• “Conclave” – 2
• “A Real Pain” – 2
• “Anora” – 1
• “The Brutalist” – 1
• “Deadpool & Wolverine” – 1
• “Dune: Part Two” – 1
• “My Old Ass” – 1
• “Nosferatu” – 1
• “The Wild Robot”- 1

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