Even with plenty of results going exactly as predicted, the 2026 Critics Choice Awards still managed to keep everyone on their toes Sunday night. The first televised awards show of the year gave the Oscar race a jolt of fresh intrigue, as the 31st annual ceremony reminded us how quickly momentum can flip. Sure, established juggernauts like One Battle After Another and Sinners collected their expected haul — but a handful of key upsets have officially reshuffled the Oscar conversation.
TV delivered a few curveballs of its own, too, even if those categories felt a bit like an epilogue after September’s Emmys. From surprise acting triumphs to craft wins that blindsided the pundits, these were the biggest snubs and surprises of the night.
SURPRISE: Jacob Elordi wins Best Supporting Actor for Frankenstein
Looks like Frankenstein wasn’t just one creature feature after another for CCA voters. Elordi’s performance as the not-so-good doctor’s very verbal monster was the upset victor for Best Supporting Actor, finishing ahead of the One Battle After Another duo of Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn, as well as Sentimental Value’s Stellan Skarsgård. Consider the Euphoria star’s Oscar hopes to be officially… alive! For what it’s worth, the Critics Choice winner in this category has gone on to an Oscar nomination every year for three decades, and the last nine consecutive winners have parlayed this trophy into an Oscar win.
SNUB: It Was Just an Accident
After a slew of early wins at the Gotham Awards, the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review, Jafar Panahi’s Cannes-winning drama missed out on winning its one and only CCA category for Best Foreign Language Film. The Secret Agent nabbed that statuette instead, reflecting the Brazilian movie’s undeniable surge in the recent weeks.
SURPRISE: Train Dreams wins Best Cinematography
Sinners was heavily favored in our odds to scoop up the Best Cinematography prize, but Adolpho Veloso’s evocative, emotional lensing of Clint Bentley’s elegiac frontier yarn inched ahead with CCA voters. In fact, many of those same voters rushed the Train Dreams table to congratulate Veloso on his victory.
SURPRISE: F1 wins Best Editing
On paper, One Battle After Another had this locked — it led the odds and looked like the kind of prestige contender Critics Choice voters usually gravitate toward. But anyone who’s watched even five minutes of F1 should’ve seen this coming. The show’s blister-fast racetrack sequences and razor-sharp montage work have been a technical standout all season. In hindsight, the upset feels almost inevitable: when your editing literally makes hearts race, voters tend to notice.
SURPRISE: Janelle James wins Best Comedy Supporting Actress for Abbott Elementary
Hannah Einbinder won the Emmy in September, Hacks is a critics’ darling, and this race felt like an afterthought. Cut to Janelle James storming the stage for her first Critics Choice win after four consecutive nominations for Abbott Elementary. The scene-stealer pulled off the comedic upset of the night, toppling the heavy favorite with a deserving performance that voters clearly couldn’t resist.
SURPRISE: Sarah Snook wins Best Limited/Movie Actress for All Her Fault
Apparently Sarah Snook decided she’s not done collecting hardware. The Succession Emmy winner — who already holds two Critics Choice Awards — extended her awards-season hot streak with a surprise victory for Peacock’s All Her Fault, surpassing odds leader Michelle Williams (Dying for Sex). Snook’s chilling, tightly coiled performance has been gaining steam for weeks, and this win could officially rocket her to frontrunner status heading into the Golden Globes, where she’s nominated again.