The Critics Choice Awards Are Becoming ‘Foreign’ to Oscar Voters’ Increasingly International Tastes

Though the 2026 Critics Choice Awards certainly felt business as usual, with comedian Chelsea Handler hosting for the fourth straight year at the ceremony’s third consecutive year at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, they did also represent the ongoing identity crisis that most televised awards shows are currently facing.

While much has been said by the team here at IndieWire about SAG’s Actors Awards now streaming on Netflix and the Oscars heading to YouTube in 2029, the most pressing thing about the Critics Choice Awards is not its broadcast partner as much as it’s the ceremony’s relationship to the Golden Globes.

How that comes up immediately is that this go-round, the shows swapped weekends, so that the Critics Choice Awards became the first major televised awards show of the year. For attendees, the benefit of that is to re-enter awards season off of holiday break in a more casual setting (again, this awards show is inside a hangar, the Golden Globes are at the Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom).

There’s a level of relief on the organizer’s side too, given that, just two years ago, the CCAs were jam-packed into a marathon week of awards shows that had been delayed by the strikes. Last year, the ceremony was delayed until February, much further into Oscars season because of the Los Angeles wildfires. The latter ended up working to the show’s benefit, as “Anora” winning Best Picture started the tide shift that clued everyone in on the film being the Oscars frontrunner.

This time, being first out the gate, the CCAs got to set the tone the way that the Globes usually do, and here lies that identity crisis.

Both awards are voted on by entertainment journalists, with the Golden Globes having more of an international focus than the widely American voting body for Critics Choice. Back in the more controversial years, before its 2023 revamp, the Golden Globes had a reputation for being more populist, wanting to give their awards to the most famous awards contenders, while Critics Choice developed a reputation as the awards show that was more predictive of who would win the Oscars.

Jon M. Chu at the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards held at the Barker Hangar on January 04, 2026 in Santa Monica, CaliforniaJC Olivera/Variety

However, just as they switched show dates this year, Golden Globes and CCAs have also switched what the perception of what their winners are. Consider this: the Golden Globes leaning into being the more international awards body puts them more in tune with the Academy Awards.

The love for “I’m Still Here” in particular was very influential on Oscars voters, especially when, as a result of the fires, they were given more time to watch films before choosing nominees. But the wins for fellow International Feature “Emilia Peréz” were also a bellwether for what was to come.

Meanwhile, the 2025 Critics Choice Awards winners were way more spread out, and arguably more populist, with the biggest surprise being that “Wicked” helmer Jon M. Chu won Best Director. He would go on to not even be nominated at the Oscars for directing the first half of the recent movie musical box office phenomenon.

When put in the position to develop the momentum for awards season winners, the 2026 Critics Choice Awards zigged in a lot of categories that even voters thought they would zag.

“One Battle After Another” winning Best Picture came as a surprise to almost no one. “Marty Supreme” star Timothée Chalamet winning Best Actor and “Hamnet” star Jessie Buckley winning Best Actress makes sense from an Oscar predictions standpoint, but many other influential critics circles have been voting in other ways. Many were predicting either “The Secret Agent” star Wagner Moura or “Blue Moon” star Ethan Hawke to win the former, and “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” star Rose Byrne to win the latter award. “Frankenstein” star Jacob Elordi and “Weapons” star Amy Madigan winning the supporting categories were the only film acting awards that felt climactic.

That said, 12 films won awards across 23 categories, so few people inside the ceremony could come off as unsatisfied. If there was one core issue with the telecast, it was which awards were given off-camera. The TV categories don’t have any craft awards, so only Best Animated Series, Best Foreign Language Series, Best Comedy Special, and Best Variety Series were given off-air.

But on the film side, while we were still in a time where it felt like certain categories were anyone’s game, the CCAs chose not to air the two major director contenders Ryan Coogler and Paul Thomas Anderson winning Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively, for “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another.” While Anderson got to speak elsewhere, the primary representatives for “Sinners” onstage ended up being Best Young Actor/Actress winner Miles Caton and Best Casting/Ensemble winner Francine Maisler. 

‘Sentimental Value’ stars Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas attend the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on January 04, 2026 in Santa Monica, CaliforniaJohn Shearer/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association

The even more baffling omission was no Best Foreign Language Film, which had “The Secret Agent” win a slight upset. Even if Oscar frontrunner “Sentimental Value” was not actually nominated in the category, the Best Foreign Language Film included several other nominees that are still in the conversation for a Best Picture Oscar nomination, including the other three Neon contenders: “It Was Just an Accident,” “No Other Choice,” and “Sirāt.”

Best Picture presenters Moura and his “The Secret Agent” director Kleber Mendonça Filho had one of the best jokes of the night, saying how that category would be the “foreign” one in their native Brazil. But comparing the 10 Best Picture nominees at the CCAs, where “Sentimental Value” is the only film not in English, to the 12 films nominated for Drama or Musical/Comedy at the Golden Globes, almost half of which are not in English, it does feel like the latter awards body is more in line with how the Oscars, which have had at multiple international Best Picture nominees the last two years is evolving.

In terms of highlights from the room, Elordi stood up for “Adolescence” star Owen Cooper when he won for the Netflix limited series, as the teen actor plays the younger version of Elordi’s character in the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures release “Wuthering Heights.” Despite the perception that his fellow nominees seemed unenthused at him winning, “Train Dreams” star Joel Edgerton immediately went to Chalamet’s table afterwards to congratulate him.

And super-producer Amy Pascal, who is believed to be an inspirational figure for the show, did stop by “The Studio” table to catch up with her former Sony colleague Seth Rogen, and the name “James Bond” was mentioned.