The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) crowned One Battle After Another the year’s best film, handing Paul Thomas Anderson’s sweeping American epic four major awards at its 60th annual voting meeting.
In addition to Best Picture, the film won Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Supporting Actor for Benicio Del Toro, and Best Supporting Actress for Teyana Taylor. The wins solidify the film as the critical consensus favorite of the season, following earlier top honors from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the National Board of Review.
That sweep places One Battle After Another in rare company. It becomes only the fourth film to claim all four major Best Picture prizes, joining Schindler’s List, L.A. Confidential, and The Social Network. As awards season accelerates, the film’s dominance reads less like momentum and more like inevitability.
Other titles made strong impressions across the ballot. Blue Moon delivered its best showing of the season, with Ethan Hawke winning Best Actor, alongside runner-up finishes for director Richard Linklater and screenwriter Robert Kaplow.
The Secret Agent continued its international run, winning Best Film Not in the English Language and earning runner-up mentions for Best Picture, Best Actor (Wagner Moura), and Best Screenplay (Kleber Mendonça Filho).
One of the night’s historic moments came in cinematography. Autumn Durald Arkapaw won Best Cinematography for Sinners, becoming the first woman of color and only the second woman ever to receive the honor. Sinners also picked up four runner-up mentions across Picture, Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Supporting Actor for Delroy Lindo, and Supporting Actress for Wunmi Mosaku.
Perhaps the most gratifying surprise was Kathleen Chalfant taking Best Actress for her performance in Familiar Touch, a win likely to send curious audiences searching out the underseen indie.
“This was a great year for movies and an especially resonant one for films about revolution and solidarity,” said NSFC chair Justin Chang, citing One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, It Was Just an Accident, My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow, and Sinners among the year’s standouts.
Chang was re-elected chair for 2026, with Joshua Rothkopf returning as vice chair. At this point, the message from critics is loud and clear. The battle is over. One Battle After Another won. Below is a full list of winners:
BEST PICTURE: One Battle After Another (57 points)
Runners-up:
Sinners (29 points)
The Secret Agent (27 points)
BEST DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another (54 points)
Runners-up:
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident (48 points)
Richard Linklater, Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague (39 points)
BEST ACTRESS: Kathleen Chalfant, Familiar Touch (45 points)
Runners-up:
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (39 points)
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value (37 points)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another (56 points)
Runners-up:
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value (47 points)
Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners (41 points)
BEST ACTOR: Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon (57 points)
Runners-up:
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent (43 points)
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners (36 points)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another (54 points)
Runners-up:
Delroy Lindo, Sinners (37 points)
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value (30 points)
BEST SCREENPLAY: Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident (53 points)
Runners-up:
Robert Kaplow, Blue Moon (50 points)
Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent (40 points)
BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: The Secret Agent (58 points)
Runners-up:
It Was Just an Accident (57 points)
Sentimental Value (38 points)
BEST NONFICTION FILM: My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow (56 points)
Runners-up:
The Perfect Neighbor (22 points)
Orwell: 2+2=5 (18 points)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners (50 points)
Runners-up:
Adolpho Veloso, Train Dreams (36 points)
Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another (29 points)
BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM: “Morning Circle” (Basma al-Sharif)
SPECIAL AWARD FOR A FILM AWAITING U.S. DISTRIBUTION: Landmarks (Lucrecia Martel)
FILM HERITAGE AWARDS:
— Cinema Tropical, for its tireless efforts to distribute, program and promote Latin American cinema in the U.S.
— The Film Desk, for releasing key movies from all over the world, in 35mm prints and on home video, and publishing books that have enriched the public’s knowledge of cinema.
— Ken and Flo Jacobs, an irreplaceable, gravitational center of the American avant-garde, with a shared artistic sensibility that helped define experimental cinema
REELated:
Frankenstein, Sinners, Six Flags among MUAHS nominations
