Critics Choice Awards 2026: Paul Thomas Andersons One Battle After Another wins top honours

Acclaimed filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s blockbuster One Battle After Another bagged the Best Picture award at the 31st annual Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night. The evening also saw Anderson win the Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay awards.

The director, while accepting the Best Picture honour, credited the cast and crew for the film’s success. “Does anybody have anything that they want to say, to save me?” he asked the cast at one point. “Because, OK, I’d say this is the best time I’ve ever had making a movie. And I feel like it shows it’s just a testament to being with people that you love. Because, as somebody said earlier, this is fine, and this is fun, but it really is about the people that you work with it that’s all that there is at the end of the day,” as quoted by E! News.

A black comedy action thriller film written, also co-produced by Anderson, is loosely based and inspired by the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti in lead roles. It follows Pat Calhoun (DiCaprio), a low-level explosives man in a radical militant collective, as he attempts to save his daughter (Chase Infinity) from an enemy force that has reappeared after 16 years.

The news is hardly surprising to many, as One Battle After Another has already become a crowd-favourite as a potential Oscar contender. On Sunday, the National Society of Film Critics named the revolutionary epic as Best Picture. The film also won Best Director for Anderson, Best Supporting Actress for Teyana and Best Supporting Actor for del Toro.

In December, the film dominated the National Board of Review’s 2025 honours with a sweep, collecting five major prizes. The film is also expected to make a sweep at the 2026 Golden Globes as it is a key contender with nine nods.