Critics Choice 2025: The full winners list
Awards season is in full flow, and on February 7th, 2025, it was the turn of the Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles.
Chelsea Handler hosted the ceremony at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar. It was simultaneously celebratory and restrained, as so many in the city are still dealing with the devastating effects of the Los Angeles wildfires. In fact, Handler began the evening by paying tribute to first responders for their ongoing efforts battling the blazes, which drew a standing ovation from a table of first responders in the audience.
The wildfires have left 29 dead and burned more than 60 square miles of the city, laying waste to around 16,000 structures. “What we saw, and the scope of loss has been almost impossible to imagine,” Handler noted before letting television viewers know they could donate to people affected by the fires using a QR code on-screen. Several winners throughout the night also addressed the fires directly in their speeches, including Colin Farrell and Kathy Bates.
Heading into the ceremony, Conclave and Wicked led the way in film nominations, with 11 each, while Dune: Part Two and Emilia Pérez notched ten nominations. The Brutalist had nine nominations, while The Substance and Anora boasted seven.
Coming out of the ceremony, though, three films lead the way with three wins each: Wicked, The Substance, and Emilia Pérez. The reception in the building for the first two movies was rapturous, but the mood was notably more reserved for Emilia Pérez. Voting for the awards closed on January 10th, which was long before that musical’s star Karla Sofía Gascón became embroiled in controversy for racist tweets posted in recent years.
Interestingly, Anora didn’t pick up any awards except the big one, with Sean Baker’s comedy-drama landing ‘Best Picture.’ Adrien Brody took home ‘Best Actor’ for his performance in The Brutalist, the only prize won by that film, which has also recently been caught up in an AI controversy. Demi Moore continued her winning run by picking up ‘Best Actress’ for The Substance, which also landed ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for director Coralie Fargeat and ‘Best Hair and Makeup’ for its gruesome body horror transformations.
See the complete winners list below, with the full list of nominees for each category and the winners highlighted in bold.
Critics Choice 2025: The complete winners list:
‘Best Picture’
- A Complete Unknown
- Anora – WINNER
- The Brutalist
- Conclave
- Dune: Part Two
- Emilia Pérez
- Nickel Boys
- Sing Sing
- The Substance
- Wicked
‘Best Actor’
- Adrien Brody – The Brutalist – WINNER
- Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown
- Daniel Craig – Queer
- Colman Domingo – Sing Sing
- Ralph Fiennes – Conclave
- Hugh Grant – Heretic
‘Best Actress‘
- Cynthia Erivo – Wicked
- Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez
- Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hard Truths
- Angelina Jolie – Maria
- Mikey Madison – Anora
- Demi Moore – The Substance – WINNER
‘Best 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
‘Best Supporting Actress’
- Danielle Deadwyler – The Piano Lesson
- Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor – Nickel Boys
- Ariana Grande – Wicked
- Margaret Qualley – The Substance
- Isabella Rossellini – Conclave
- Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez – WINNER
‘Best Young Actor / Actress‘
- Alyla Browne – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- Elliott Heffernan – Blitz
- Maisy Stella – My Old Ass – WINNER
- Izaac Wang – Didi
- Alisha Weir – Abigail
- Zoe Ziegler – Janet Planet
‘Best Acting Ensemble‘
- Anora
- Conclave – WINNER
- Emilia Pérez
- Saturday Night
- Sing Sing
- Wicked
‘Best Director‘
- Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
- Sean Baker – Anora
- Edward Berger – Conclave
- Brady Corbet – The Brutalist
- Jon M. Chu – Wicked – WINNER
- Coralie Fargeat – The Substance
- RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys
- Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two
‘Best Original Screenplay‘
- Sean Baker – Anora
- Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, Alex David – September 5
- Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold – The Brutalist
- Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain
- Coralie Fargeat – The Substance – WINNER
- Justin Kuritzkes – Challengers
‘Best Adapted Screenplay‘
- Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez
- Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox – Wicked
- Greg Kwedar, Clint Bentley – Sing Sing
- RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes – Nickel Boys
- Peter Straughan – Conclave – WINNER
- Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts – Dune: Part Two
‘Best Cinematography‘
- Jarin Blaschke – Nosferatu – WINNER
- Alice Brooks – Wicked
- Lol Crawley – The Brutalist
- Stéphane Fontaine – Conclave
- Greig Fraser – Dune: Part Two
- Jomo Fray – Nickel Boys
‘Best Production Design‘
- Judy Becker, Patricia Cuccia – The Brutalist
- Nathan Crowley, Lee Sandales – Wicked – WINNER
- Suzie Davies – Conclave
- Craig Lathrop – Nosferatu
- Arthur Max, Jille Azis, Elli Griff – Gladiator II
- Patrice Vermette, Shane Vieau – Dune: Part Two
‘Best Editing‘
- Sean Baker – Anora
- Marco Costa – Challengers – WINNER
- Nick Emerson – Conclave
- David Jancso – The Brutalist
- Joe Walker – Dune: Part Two
- Hansjörg Weißbrich – September 5
‘Best Costume Design‘
- Lisy Christl – Conclave
- Linda Muir – Nosferatu
- Massimo Cantini Parrini – Maria
- Paul Tazewell – Wicked – WINNER
- Jacqueline West – Dune: Part Two
- Janty Yates, Dave Crossman – Gladiator II
‘Best Hair And Makeup‘
- Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener, Neal Scanlan – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
- Hair and Makeup Team – Dune: Part Two
- Hair and Makeup Team – The Substance – WINNER
- Frances Hannon, Sarah Nuth, Laura Blount – Wicked
- Traci Loader, Suzanne Stokes-Munton, David White – Nosferatu
- Mike Marino, Sarah Graalman, Aaron Saucier – A Different Man
‘Best Visual Effects‘
- Mark Bakowski, Pietro Ponti, Nikki Penny, Neil Corbould – Gladiator II
- Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, Paul Corbould, David Shirk – Wicked
- Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe, Gerd Nefzer – Dune: Part Two – WINNER
- Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft, Peter Stubbs – Better Man
- Visual Effects Team – The Substance
- Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story, Rodney Burke – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
‘Best Animated Feature‘
- Flow
- Inside Out 2
- Memoir of a Snail
- Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
- The Wild Robot – WINNER
‘Best Comedy‘
- A Real Pain – WINNER (TIE)
- Deadpool & Wolverine – WINNER (TIE)
- Hit Man
- My Old Ass
- Saturday Night
- Thelma
‘Best Foreign Language Film‘
- All We Imagine as Light
- Emilia Pérez – WINNER
- Flow
- I’m Still Here
- Kneecap
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig
‘Best Song‘
- ‘Beautiful That Way’ – The Last Showgirl – Miley Cyrus
- ‘Compress / Repress’ – Challengers – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
- ‘El Mal’ – Emilia Pérez – Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Camille – WINNER
- ‘Harper and Will Go West’ – Will & Harper – Kristen Wiig
- ‘Kiss the Sky’ – The Wild Robot – Maren Morris
- ‘Mi Camino’ – Emilia Pérez – Selena Gomez
‘Best Score‘
- Volker Bertelmann – Conclave
- Daniel Blumberg – The Brutalist
- Kris Bowers – The Wild Robot
- Clément Ducol & Camille – Emilia Pérez
- Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Challengers – WINNER
- Hans Zimmer – Dune: Part Two
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