The 2025 Critics Choice Awards were handed out on Friday evening. This is yet another precursor leading up to the Academy Awards on March 2, albeit not one that I’ve ever believed to make much of a difference in terms of Academy voting.
Sean Baker’s “Anora” won Best Picture out of a field of 10 nominees. In fact, that was the only award Baker’s film received. “Wicked,” “Emilia Pérez,” and “The Substance” tied for most wins with three each.
In what must surely be the surprise of the evening, Best Director went to Jon M. Chu (“Wicked”), who was not Oscar-nominated in the category. He joked, “I’m gonna win the Oscar! … I’m not gonna win the Oscar.”
It should be noted that CCA voting wrapped a few weeks before “Emilia Pérez” lead Karla Sofia Gascón‘s wild controversies. The broken ‘Emilia’ star did not show up to the ceremony, but the film did win Best Foreign Language Film, Best Song, and Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña.
Meanwhile, Demi Moore continued on the warpath as her performance in “The Substance” won Best Actress. Is she actually winning the Oscar? Surely, Gascón isn’t. Mikey Madison and Fernanda Torres are her biggest competitors.
The awards were fairly spread out, and some of the winners were predictably outlined by pundits. Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”) won Best Actor. Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”) won Best Supporting Actor. “The Substance” and “A Real Pain” won the screenplay prizes.
These CCA awards were voted on before January 10th because they were supposed to take place on the 12th. They were postponed twice. It’s very possible that, with narratives constantly changing, we might have had some different winners had the original date stuck around.
Is “The Exorcist” truly the greatest horror film ever made, or has time crowned a new champion of fear? Maybe it’s “The Shining,” ‘Texas Chainsaw,’ “Psycho,” or something entirely unexpected that still keeps you up at night.