Did the 2026 Critics Choice Award nominations just signal a big Oscar shakeup?
The Critics Choice Association dropped its award nominations this morning, wrapping up a week of major accolades that have the potential to reshape the Oscar race. While the Critics Choice Awards don't always get their winners to line up with the Academy's, the CCAs do a solid job of helping set the Oscar field. With that in mind, here are five major takeaways from the 2026 Critics Choice Award film nominations.
Sinners has bite
Ryan Coogler's vampire-blues mashup earned an impressive 17 nominations to lead the CCA pack and solidify its place among the top Oscar contenders. Sinners showed strong support across all categories, both above and below the line. The usual suspects were represented — including Best Picture, Coogler for directing and writing, Michael B. Jordan for his dual role — and the fast-charging Wunmi Mosaku parlayed her win earlier this week at the Gotham Awards into a supporting actress nod. While he didn't crack the supporting actor race, breakout star Miles Caton did pick up a nod for Best Young Actor/Actress, which isn't a bad consolation prize. The film also racked up nominations for cinematography, editing, casting, stunt design, production design, visual effects, costume, hair and makeup, score, and song.
One Battle is still the film to beat
In a day that began with its announced sale to Netflix, Warners had plenty to celebrate at the CCAs besides the Sinners sweep. The studio's other awards behemoth, One Battle After Another, finished close behind in the overall nomination tally, with 14 (giving it a grand total of 36 nominations, the most of any company). Paul Thomas Anderson's film remains No. 1 in the Gold Derby predictions for Best Picture after a week that saw it dominate from coast to coast, sweeping the National Board of Review, winning big at the Gotham Awards and New York Film Critics Circle, and landing a spot alongside Sinners (and many of the other key CCA nominees) on AFI's best-of 2025 list.
The Netflix flex
Speaking of Netflix, the streamer finished second with 27 overall film nominations, behind Warners' 36. Tops among the Netflix slate was Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, which tallied 11 nods. While the creature feature was expected to dominate in the craft categories, it had a surprisingly strong showing above the line as well, with nominations for Best Picture, del Toro for directing and adapted screenplay, and Jacob Elordi for supporting actor. With the exception of Best Picture, Frankenstein is on the fringes of those other races in the Gold Derby predictions, and today's CCA results might help push del Toro's passion project over the edge.
Two other on-the-bubble Netflix players had solid showings that could help their fortunes at upcoming awards: Train Dreams notched five nominations and Jay Kelly tallied four, with both represented in the Best Picture race. Clint Bentley's Train Dreams keeps building momentum — it could very well contend in adapted screenplay, cinematography, and song at the Oscars — and following up his Independent Spirit Award bid, star Joel Edgerton keeps making a strong case for Best Actor. Critics have hailed his performance, and the CCA nod could help bump him up from the sixth spot in Gold Derby's Oscar race.
Though Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly missed out on a Best Actor CCA bid for George Clooney, Adam Sandler picked up a needed nomination for supporting actor, Baumbach and Emily Mortimer scored for original screenplay, and the film also picked up a casting/ensemble nod.
A wobbly Wicked?
What a difference a year makes. Last year, Wicked tied with Conclave to lead all Critics Choice nominees with 11 bids. The sequel, Wicked: For Good, had a chance to improve upon that total with two potential Best Song candidates along with possible repeats in the other categories. Instead, beset by not-as-Good reviews, For Good wound up with fewer nominations. While seven nominations isn't nothing (one of the new tunes earned a nod), the sequel is showing signs of trouble as the awards season kicks off, especially with star Cynthia Erivo being MIA in the Best Actress field. Erivo is the only one of Gold Derby's projected Best Actress Oscar nominees who didn't make the CCA cut. We'll see if she is able to defy gravity one more time and salvage her chances.
Accident-al omission
With big wins at Gotham and the New York Film Critics Circle, Jafar Panahi and his Palme d'Or-winning It Was Just an Accident seemed like locks for Best Director and Best Picture. But today's CCA nominations provided a big speed bump. Neither Panahi nor his film showed up in the marquee races at Critics Choice, having to make do with a single nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film. The CCAs might just be a blip that could be erased by the Golden Globes on Monday, but it could also show that the final slot in Best Director is far from settled, with the likes of del Toro and Marty Supreme's Josh Safdie, both of whom picked up Critics Choice bids, lurking just outside the Oscar field.
The 31st Critics Choice Awards, hosted by Chelsea Handler, will air live on Jan. 4 on E! and USA Network.
