‘Anora’ wins Best Picture at Critics Choice Awards

Anora won Best Picture at Friday’s Critics Choice Awards. It was the Neon film’s only victory of the night, preventing an 0-for-7 shutout, and the first time in Critics Choice history that a film won the top award and nothing else.

Twice delayed by the Los Angeles wildfires, the 30th Critics Choice Awards was the first stop of a weekend that could clarify the open Best Picture Oscar race, but Critics Choice didn’t quite do that in a ceremony that spread the wealth with a couple of surprise wins. Jon M. Chu (Wicked) pulled off a shocker in Best Director, while Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) upset Sean Baker (Anora) in Best Original Screenplay.

While Critics Choice is not an industry award, 17 of its previous 29 Best Picture winners went on to claim the Oscar. However, there have been five mismatches in the last 10 years, most recently three years ago when Critics Choice awarded The Power of the Dog and the Oscars crowned CODA. There wasn’t much of a race the past two years, with juggernauts Oppenheimer and Everything Everywhere All at Once dominating.

Voting for this year’s Critics Choice winners also concluded on Jan. 10 — the ceremony was initially scheduled for Jan. 12 before moving to Jan. 26 and then Feb. 7 — so there was no impact from the Oscar nominations or Karla Sofía Gascón‘s ongoing social media controversy. The Emilia Pérez star, who lost Best Actress to Demi Moore (The Substance), did not attend the ceremony and is not expected at other events this weekend. Emilia Pérez won its three expected categories: Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Original Song for “El Mal.”

SEE Full list of Critics Choice Awards winners

Anora, second in the Gold Derby Oscar odds for Best Picture, will next try to win Best Picture at Saturday’s Producers Guild of America Awards, where it is fourth. The PGA is an industry award, and like the Oscars, it uses a preferential ballot to determine the winner.

The Directors Guild of America Awards are also on Saturday, but the Best Director race is less unclear. While he lost the Critics Choice Award, which he was favored to win, The Brutalist‘s Brady Corbet is the overwhelming frontrunner for DGA and the Oscar.

Critics Choice winners included Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) for Best Actor, Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) for Best Supporting Actor, and Conclave for Best Adapted Screenplay. See the complete list of winners here.