Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” has continued its romp through the early stages of awards season, winning the Best Film award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Sunday after previously being named 2025’s best by the New York Film Critics Circle, the Gotham Awards and the National Board of Review.
“The Secret Agent” was the runner-up for the LAFCA’s top award, which has gone to the eventual Oscar Best Picture winner five times in the last 10 years.
Anderson won the Best Director award, with Ryan Coogler finishing second for “Sinners.”
The gender-neutral acting categories, with two winners each in the lead and supporting categories, honored Rose Byrne for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” and Ethan Hawke for “Blue Moon” in lead, and Stellan Skarsgard for “Sentimental Value” and Teyana Taylor for “One Battle After Another” in supporting.
Runners-up were Timothee Chalamet for “Marty Supreme” and Wagner Moura for “The Secret Agent” in lead, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas for “Sentimental Value” and Andrew Scott for “Blue Moon” in supporting.
While Byrne has consistently won acting awards from the groups that have voted so far, and Skarsgard, Lilleaas, Moura, Chalamet and Taylor have been in play throughout awards season, the mentions for Hawke and Scott may help point other voters toward Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon,” which has largely flown under the radar since its Berlin Film Festival premiere in February.
Jafar Panahi won the screenplay award for “It Was Just an Accident,” with Eva Victor the runner-up for “Sorry, Baby.”
In the below-the-line categories, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” was the biggest winner. Its production designer, Hannah Beachler, won in her category over runner-up Tamara Deverell for “Frankenstein,” while cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw and composer Ludwig Göransson were runners-up to Adolpho Veloso for “Train Dreams” and Kangding Ray for “Sirāt,” respectively.
Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie won the editing award for “Marty Supreme,” while Andy Jurgensen took runner-up for “One Battle After Another.”
While the smash animated hit “KPop Demon Hunters” was named the best animated film by the New York Film Critics Circle, their West Coast colleagues made that blockbuster the runner-up to the more idiosyncratic French film “Little Amelie or the Character of Rain.”
“My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 – Last Air in Moscow” won in the nonfiction category over “The Perfect Neighbor.” “The Secret Agent” was named the best film not in English, with “It Was Just an Accident” finishing second.
The winner of the LAFCA best-film award has gone on to win the Oscar for Best Picture only 13 times in the 50 years the group has been voting, but five of those matches have come in the last decade with “Spotlight” in 2015, “Moonlight” in 2016, “Parasite” in 2019, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” in 2022 and “Anora” last year.
In other LAFCA categories, four winners and three runners-up went on to receive the Oscar. Only four of the critics’ 12 categories didn’t have some overlap with the Academy.
The other major regional critics group in the U.S., the New York Film Critics Circle, voted on Tuesday and gave its top award to “One Battle After Another.”
The list of winners and runners-up:
Best Film: “One Battle After Another”
Runner-up: “The Secret Agent”
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”
Runner-up: Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”
Best Lead Performances: Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” and Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”
Runners-up: Timothee Chalamet, “Marty Supreme” and Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”
Best Supporting Performances: Stellan Skarsgard, “Sentimental Value” and Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”
Runners-up: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value,” and Andrew Scott, “Blue Moon”
Best Screenplay: Jafar Panahi, “It Was Just an Accident”
Runner-up: Eva Victor: “Sorry, Baby”
Best Film Not in the English Language:”The Secret Agent”
Runner-up: “It Was Just an Accident”
Best Documentary/Nonfiction: “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 – Last Air in Moscow”
Runner-up: “The Perfect Neighbor”
Best Animation: “Little Amelie or the Character of Rain”
Runner-up: “KPop Demon Hunters”
Best Editing: Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”
Runner-up: Andy Jurgensen, “One Battle After Another”
Best Production Design: Hannah Beachler, “Sinners”
Runner-up: Tamara Deverell, “Frankenstein”
Best Music/Score: Kangding Ray, “Sirāt”
Runner-up: Ludwig Göransson, “Sinners”
Best Cinematography: Adolpho Veloso, “Train Dreams”
Runner-up: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, “Sinners”
Douglas Edward Experimental Film Prize: Albert Serra, “Afternoons of Solitude”; Thom Andersen, body of work
New Generation Award: Eva Victor, “Sorry, Baby”