2026 Critics Choice Shortlist Revealed! My Thoughts!

A few days back, the shortlist for the 2026 Critics Choice Awards were announced. That means that awards season is just beginning. Here’s my thoughts on the shortlist! What surprised me? What didn’t surprise me? Let’s talk about it!

NOTE: If you don’t know what the shortlist is, it’s the list of movies that are being narrowed down to be nominated at the Critics Choice awards. I believe the Critics Choice nominations are dropping Friday, December 5th. The movies on the shortlist are the films that are going to be nominated. The shortlist also doesn’t reveal the short list for the big categories, I believe it’s 10 of the technical and below the line categories.

Best Casting and Ensemble

Hamnet
A House of Dynamite
Jay Kelly
The Long Walk
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
The Plague
Rental Family
The Secret Agent
Sinners
Wicked: For Good

My Thoughts: If you had asked me to make my list of what would’ve been in this categories shortlist, I probably would’ve guessed most of these. The two that surprised me the most were A House of Dynamite, The Plague, and Rental Family. I haven’t seen The Plague, I didn’t even hear about this movie until I saw the shortlist. I guess it’s a small budget horror film with Joel Edgerton. If it comes to streaming I might need to check it out. A House of Dynamite is another one that showed up in a few different categories. Like most people, I found the film to be a little bit underwhelming considering the cast, source material, and the director but I didn’t hate it. With that said, this movie has one of the most stacked casts of the year with Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba, Willa Fitzgeral, Anthony Ramos, and several other familiar faces. Rental Family is one that I just saw last night and I thought it was charming. Besides Brendan Fraser I didn’t recognize any of the actors, but it was a solid ensemble and a bit shocking it made it on this list. As far as what’s not included, the one that immediately stuck out was no Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Both of the previous Knives Out films were nominated at Critics Choice in this category. Glass Onion even won that year it came out. The fact that the third one isn’t nominated is a bit crazy to me and shocking considering it’s probably the most star studded cast of the year. That’s really the only movie that I feel maybe should’ve gotten it. With that said, I haven't seen the movie yet I’ll see it later this week in theaters. But at face value, I feel like it should be on here.

Best Cinematography

28 Years Later
F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Jay Kelly
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
Nouvelle Vague
One Battle After Another
The Plague
Sinners
Train Dreams

My Thoughts: Once again, most of these movies I probably could’ve guessed would’ve been on here. I love Sinners is getting a lot of love here at the Critics Choice. I believe it’s the movie that’s shortlisted in all of these categories. Clearly Sinners is going to get a whole lot of nominations, I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes into all of these categories that it’s shortlisted for. F1 is another one that got a lot of recognition here and I love that. F1 is one of my favorite movies of the year and isn’t really in the conversation this year for Best Picture. I think it’ll do well in the technical categories just not in the above the line categories.

Best Production Design

F1
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Hedda
A House of Dynamite
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
Roofman
Sentimental Value
Sinners
Wicked: For Good

My Thoughts: Once again, interesting that A House of Dynamite showed up in here. The production design of the movie wasn’t an aspect that stook out to me as being a standout. But I guess enough critics thought so and decided to vote on it. It’s interesting that it got a lot of nominations considering that critics weren’t the most kind to this film. They didn’t hate, it’s fresh on Rotten Tomatoes but everybody seemed to be underwhelmed by it. One pick I do like and I hope gets nominated is The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I wasn’t as crazy for this movie as a lot of other people were, I thought it was good but not great. But I love that comic book movies are getting representation at these award ceremonies, those don’t normally happen. Frankenstein, Sinners, and Wicked: For Good are the clear front runners in this category. Those three are probably locks at the Oscars, one of those three movies is probably going to win. Another one that really surprised me is Roofman. I really dug this movie, it’s one of my favorite movies of the year. When I first saw this list I was a bit confused as to why it was on here. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that the way they transformed this store to look like Toys-R-Us from decades past is really incredible so it does it make sense that it’ll be on here. Again, several of the others ones like Hamnet and Marty Supreme are ones that I sort of expected to be on here.

Best Editing

F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
A House of Dynamite
It Was Just an Accident
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
One Battle After Another
The Perfect Neighbor
Sinners
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Weapons

My Thoughts: Hate to sound like a broken record but I sort of expected most of these movies to be on here. Editing is a bit of an underrated category because most people don’t think much of it. But in the editing nominations are also normally the front runners for Best Picture. Whatever five or six movies get nominated here are also likely to get in to Best Picture which is interesting. Love seeing Weapons on here, that’s my favorite movie of the year. I feel Critics Choice is probably the play where it’s going to get the most nominations which is awesome because I love that movie.

Best Costume Design

The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Frankenstein
Hamnet
Hedda
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
The Secret Agent
Sinners
Song Sung Blue
The Testament of Ann Lee
Wicked: For Good

My Thoughts: Once again, Frankenstein, Sinners, and Wicked: For Good are movies that I’m not surprised at all made it onto this list. Wicked: Part One took home the Oscar and Critics Choice last year so it’s probably a front runner to win. Once again, we got some comic book representation with Fantastic Four, the costumes in that movie are really good so I’m happy it’s here. We get some old time period piece dramas with Hamnet and The Testament of Ann Lee, I haven’t seen those movies but based on the trailers they make sense to be on this list.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

28 Years Later
Bugonia
Frankenstein
Hedda
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Kokuho
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
Superman
The Ugly Stepsister
Weapons
Wicked: For Good

My Thoughts: Here we get more superhero movies representation with Superman. I love that it has a chance, I don’t think it’s getting in but I love that movie. Frankenstein is an obvious one and how they transform Jacob Elordi into The Creature is very well done. I am a bit shocked that The Smashing Machine made it in. That movie turned out to be polarizing and it’s one of the biggest box office bombs of the year. Say what you will about the movie itself, the makeup design and the transformation for The Rock is very incredible and makes him unrecognizable in that role. With The Smashing Machine getting in, I think it also gets nominated I think that means that maybe The Rock gets a nomination here at Critics Choice. What’s another fun one here is we get multiple horror movies benign nominated with 28 Years Later, Sinners, Weapons, and Frankenstein if you want to count that as horror. Once again, like that there’s a nice diversity in this set of movies.

Best Visual Effects

F1
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Frankenstein
How to Train Your Dragon
Mickey 17
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
Predator: Badlands
Sinners
Sketch
Superman
Tron: Ares
Wicked: For Good

My Thoughts: This is one that doesn’t have too many that surprised me. I feel like this list is going to be very similar to the Oscar shortlist that we’ll get next month. One I probably would’ve added on this list would be Jurassic World: Rebirth. Say what you will about the movie, but I think the CGI and the look of the film is very cool. Gareth Edwards has a great visual style for his film and I feel it should be on here. Likewise, I think Thunderbolts* should be on here. That’s my favorite MCU film of the year and I think it’s just visually a very cool movie to look at. It’s well documented that a lot of the movie was practical but that they needed to have CGI in here at some points to enhance things. If there was CGI used in these sequences then they did a great job of hiding it and it should be recognized.

Best Stunt Design

Ballerina
F1
Frankenstein
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
One Battle After Another
Predator: Badlands
Sinners
The Smashing Machine
Superman
Thunderbolts*
Warfare
Wicked: For Good

My Thoughts: Another one that didn’t have too many big surprises on here. Most of these movies I probably would’ve guessed would’ve made it on this list. Of course, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning makes it on this list, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the winner at the ceremony. Thunderbolts* is a cool addition and I think that gets in because of Florence Pugh jumping off the building at the beginning of the movie and the behind the scenes footage is all over the internet. One that I wish would’ve made it onto this list was Novocaine. I think that movie has been swept under the rug and not remembered as the year has gone on. But that’s one of the best action movies of the year and that would’ve been a cool addition on the list. Likewise, The Running Man should be on here. I’m not sure if that film was released too late in the year and critics weren’t able to see it before they were nominated but that’s another one that should be on here. The Frankenstein addition is a bit weird to me. It seems like it’s nominated because critics love that movie and wanted to give it a bunch of nominations, but I don’t know if stunt design makes sense.

Best Score

Bugonia (Jerskin Fendrix)
F1 (Hans Zimmer)
Frankenstein (Alexndre Desplat)
Hamnet (Max Richter)
Hedda (Hildur Guðnadóttir)
A House of Dynamite (Volker Bertelmann)
Marty Supreme (Daniel Loptain)
One Battle After Another (Jonny Greenwood)
The Plague (Johan Lenox)
Sinners (Ludwig Göransson)
Sirāt (Kangding Ray)
Tron: Ares (Nine Inch Nails)

My Thoughts: Yet again this seems like an oblivious list. F1 and Sinners are the obvious picks on here, one of those two should take it home. One Battle After Another is another one that people were talking about. I haven’t seen most of these movies so I don’t know the scores for those movies. But one of the elements I’ve been seeing on social media in regards to Marty Supreme is the score, a lot of people are praising that as one of the best scores of the year. A House of Dynamiate and Bugonia are strange inclusions on the list, I don’t really remember the scores for those movies. But I guess enough critics did to make it on this list. One that I would put on here and one that I’m surprised wasn’t shortlisted was Michael Giacchino for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. That’s a score that ever since the trailer dropped and we get the operatic song of “Fantastic Four” people have been talking about it. When the movie came out, a lot of people were talking about that score.

Best Sound

F1
Frankenstein
Hamnet
A House of Dynamiate
If I’d Had Legs I’d Kick You
One Battle After Another
Sinners
Sirāt
Superman
Warfare
Wicked: For Good

My Thoughts: This will be the final category that we’ll talk about here. Once again for these movies that I’ve seen, these make sense for they’re on the list. F1 is an obvious one, that one could easily win this and take it home. Musicals normally have great sound design because of all that they’re trying to balance so Wicked: For Good being on here isn’t too terribly surprising in my opinion. I would maybe put Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning on here, I really liked the sound design in that movie, it’s very well done and cinematic. Given that this is likely the last Mission Impossible movie, I wish that some of these award shows would go all out with them and nominate in some of the smaller categories that make sense like sound and stunt design.

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2026 Critics Choice Shortlist Revealed! My Thoughts!

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