The Critics Choice Awards are off and running with Australians Sarah Snook and Jacob Elordi taking out awards.
Snook won Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television with All Her Fault.
Snook had not prepared a speech, saying her husband commented in the car that she seemed distant.
Suddenly clocking how little time she had to deliver a speech, Snook quickly thanked the network, and the cast and crew.
"We had an awesome time with the crew shooting really difficult stuff," Snook said.
All Her Fault streams on Binge in Australia and went up against Adolescence for Best Limited Series, with Adolescence coming out on top.
The Netflix series had already won three awards back-to-back.
Erin Doherty won Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television, Owen Cooper took out Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television, and Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television went to Stephen Graham.
"I'm the only person I don't recognise in this room," Graham joked.
Jacob Elordi wins for Frankenstein
Jacob Elordi continued the winning streak for Aussies, taking out Best Supporting Actor for Frankenstein, which is on Netflix.
Elordi expressed surprise, singling out a special thank you for director Guillermo del Toro.
"You made my dreams when I was 11," Elordi said.
He ended his acceptance speech on a sweet note.
"And thank you Mum and Dad."
Best Actor went to Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme. He singled out his fellow nominees, who included Australian Joel Edgerton, Michael B Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke and Wagner Moura.
Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for Hamnet. She was up against Australian Rose Byrne in that category.
"I am nothing without all of you here," Buckley said.
"I love being part of this village."
KPop Demon Hunters slays
Best song went to Golden from KPop Demon Hunters. Australian Nick Cave was in that category with Train Dreams.
KPop Demon Hunters also won Best Animated Feature.
The very first award handed out at the ceremony went to Sinners star Miles Caton, who won Best Young Actor.
Caton thanked director Ryan Coogler.
"Thank you for seeing whatever you could see in that poorly-lit audition video," Caton said.
One Battle After Another took out Best Picture.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson was rather understated in his acceptance speech.
"This is really fantastic, fantastic news," he said to laughter.
Chelsea handles the celebrity audience
This year's ceremony was the fourth back-to-back Critics Choice gig for comedian and host Chelsea Handler.
Known for her acidic tongue, Handler wasted no time getting stuck into the celebrities in attendance, first lasering in on One Battle After Another star Leonardo DiCaprio's New Year's Eve activities.
"Leo almost didn't make it tonight because he was trapped on a boat in St. Barts," Handler said.
"It was just like the Titanic, but worse, because Jeff Bezos was there."
DiCaprio made it just in time for the Critics Choice ceremony but missed the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala over the weekend, as he was unable to fly due to air traffic control issues following the attack on Venezuela.
While praising Ryan Coogler's Sinners, Handler took a swipe at Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav off the back of last year's bombshell news that the legacy studio will be sold to Netflix.
"Sinners is the story of brothers who start this really fun place for entertainment and then vampires show up, suck the life out of everybody and burn it all to the ground. Fun fact, the original name of the main vampire was David Zaslav," Handler said to big laughs.
Handler wrapped up her opening speech by honouring Hollywood legend Rob Reiner and his wife Michele who died late last year.
"Everyone in this room knows that the nicest guy in Hollywood was Rob Reiner," Handler said of the When Harry Met Sally... director before praising the couple's "decency".
"I think we can all agree that we definitely need more of that, so let's use tonight as a reminder of that decency and as a reminder of everything Rob and Michele represented and fought so hard for," she said.
What does this mean for this year's Oscars?
As the first major awards ceremony of 2026, Critics Choice is an important indicator of the names we'll be seeing as the Academy Awards inch closer.
In terms of the big four Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress) we have had a small glimpse at what could play out in the next few months.
Chalamet's month-long onslaught of media stunts to promote his starring role in Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme seems to have paid off as he took the Critics Choice Best Actor award over category favourite DiCaprio. It's still early but the young buck might just edge out DiCaprio for the big award.
Buckley's Best Actress Critics win for her intense Hamnet performance puts her on more stable footing to take out the corresponding Academy Award, but she'll still have to beat favourite Byrne, who has been winning smaller awards for weeks for her work on If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.
Byrne isn't Australia's only hope for this year's Oscars though: Elordi's surprise Critics Choice Best Supporting Actor win — in a category stacked with stalwart names such as Sean Penn and Stellan Skarsgård — for his performance as the monster in Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein raises his Academy Award chances significantly.
Frankenstein and fellow horror film Weapons thoroughly trod on Wicked: For Good's hopes for any Oscar's gold this year. The former took out multiple Critics Choice production awards, which is where Wicked saw its few wins at the 2025 Oscars. Ariana Grande's Oscar dreams also took a hit as Weapon's Amy Madigan was crowned the Critics Choice for Best Supporting Actress.
The most elated person out of the 2026 Critics Choice Awards' winners would have to be Paul Thomas Anderson. The veteran director took home Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for One Battle After Another, significantly raising its chances at this year's Oscars over fellow favourites Sinners and Marty Supreme.
However, there is still a huge chunk of awards season to get through before the Academy Awards in March, so there's still plenty of time for favourites to shift.
