> At a Glance
> – One Battle After Another claimed Best Picture at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards
> – Paul Thomas Anderson also won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay
> – The film beat nine other nominees including Sinners, Wicked: For Good, and Bugonia
> – Why it matters: Anderson’s political-revolution drama sets an early awards-season marker and boosts streaming numbers on HBO Max
Paul Thomas Anderson’s sweeping father-daughter drama One Battle After Another dominated the 2026 Critics Choice Awards on January 4, capping its night with the ceremony’s top prize.
Best Picture Victory
The Warner Bros. release topped a competitive field of ten nominees, among them Sinners (17 nominations), Wicked: For Good, Bugonia, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Jay Kelly, Marty Supreme, Sentimental Value, and Train Dreams.
Anderson, 55, collected the trophy after already securing Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay earlier in the evening.
> Paul Thomas Anderson said onstage:
> > “This is really fantastic, fantastic news. We’ll take it… I’d say this is the best time I ever had making a movie, and I feel like it shows.”
Star-Studded Contenders
- Bugonia – Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons in Yorgos Lanthimos’s alien-abduction satire
- Frankenstein – Jacob Elordi as the Creature and Oscar Isaac as Dr. Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro’s gothic retelling
- Hamnet – Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley in Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel
- Jay Kelly – George Clooney and Adam Sandler on a career-reflecting European trek, directed by Noah Baumbach
- Marty Supreme – Timothée Chalamet as a 1950s table-tennis hopeful
- Sentimental Value – Stellan Skarsgård as an aging director trying to reconnect with his daughters
- Sinners – Michael B. Jordan in dual roles opposite a music-loving vampire
- Train Dreams – Joel Edgerton as a railroad laborer in Denis Johnson’s Pacific-Northwest tale
- Wicked: For Good – Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande continuing the Broadway adaptation
Cast Recognition
Leonardo DiCaprio earned a Best Actor nomination for anchoring the winning film, while co-star Chase Infiniti received a Best Actress nod. Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn compete in Best Supporting Actor; Teyana Taylor is up for Best Supporting Actress.
Key Takeaways
- One Battle After Another becomes an early Oscar frontrunner after its Critics Choice sweep
- HBO Max streams the picture now, likely to see viewer spikes post-victory
- Sinners leads overall nominations (17) but missed the top prize
- Anderson’s first film since 2021’s Licorice Pizza continues his awards momentum
The Critics Choice win positions Anderson’s political-family epic squarely in the thick of awards-season conversation as guild and academy voting begins.
