‘One Battle After Another’ wins Critics Choice honors

Director Paul Thomas Anderson accepts Critics Choice Award for best picture for "One Battle After Another" — Director Paul Thomas Anderson also took home best director and best adapted screenplay awards

(Image credit: JC Olivera / Variety via Getty Images)

What happened

“One Battle After Another” won best picture at the 31st Critics Choice Awards Sunday, becoming only the fourth film to win the “Big Four” critics’ awards, after earning top honors from the New York Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review and Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Director Paul Thomas Anderson also won best director and best adapted screenplay awards for the film.

Timothée Chalamet won best actor for “Marty Supreme” and Jessie Buckley was awarded best actress for “Hamnet.”

Who said what

The Critics Choice Awards, “presented by a group of more than 500 broadcast critics and journalists in Santa Monica, Calif., usually follow the Golden Globes and often rubber-stamp the same set of winners,” The New York Times says. But with the Golden Globes going second this year, “pundits were curious to see which direction the Critics Choice voters would take.”

Each of the early pre-Oscars awards “has its own identity, influence and taste profile,” Variety said, but the Critics Choice Awards “tend to reflect broader industry consensus,” and they boosted “Anora” to its triumph at last year’s Academy Awards. “This is the best time I ever had making a movie, and I feel like it shows,” Anderson said at last night’s ceremony.

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What next?

Of the three other movies to sweep all four early critics’ awards — “Schindler’s List” (1993), “L.A. Confidential” (1997) and “The Social Network” (2010) — only “Schindler’s List” went on to win the Oscar for best picture. The Golden Globes are on Sunday

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.