It’s a new year and new awards season as 2026 kicks off with the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night.
Marking her fourth consecutive time in the role, comedian Chelsea Handler will return to host the year’s first of multiple star-studded ceremonies en route to the Oscars.
Honoring both film and TV, the Critics Choice Awards will be back on E! for its second year in a row, with its live broadcast from Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar also airing across the USA Network beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
Below, everything you need to know about how to watch the ceremony and who’s poised to win.
How to watch the Critics Choice Awards
In addition to watching live on E! and USA, viewers can also catch the broadcast on USANetwork.com as well as on the apps for USA, E!, SYFY and Oxygen. The event will be available for steaming on Peacock the following day.
Top contenders for the big screen
Ryan Coogler’s smash horror hit “Sinners” — starring Michael B. Jordan as twin bootleggers — is up for a whopping 17 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor for Jordan. “Sinners” also scored multiple below-the-line nods, among them Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Visual Effects.
Among the other prominent contenders for Best Picture is Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” which is also leading the Golden Globe nominations and is widely predicted to take home the Academy Award’s top prize in March.
The epic, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland,” is tapped for an additional 13 categories at the Critics Choice Awards, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Best Actress (Chase Infiniti).
Also vying for Best Picture are Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” and Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” — tied with 11 nods each — as is Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” which is up for eight awards, including Best Actor for Timothée Chalamet.
Other top contenders include Joseph Kosinski’s “F1” and Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” with seven nominations each, followed by Clint Bentley’s “Train Dreams” at five and Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” with 4.
Both “Sentimental Value” and “Train Dreams” are up for Best Picture, as are Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” and Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked: For Good.”
The small screen’s big nominees
The hit Netflix limited series “Adolescence,” about a young boy accused of murdering a classmate after falling prey to online discourse, is tapped for the most television nominations at six, among them Best Limited Series. Stars Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper, Ashley Walters, Erin Doherty and Christine Tremarco are all nominated in the acting categories.
Cooper, at just 15 years old, made history in September when he became the youngest performer to ever win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series.
Among the shows competing with “Adolescence” are “All Her Fault” and “Death By Lightning,” tied with four nominations each.
In the comedy series categories, “Nobody Wants This” leads the pack with five nominations, followed closely by “Ghosts” and “Hacks” with four nods each.
Top contenders for Best Drama Series include “Severance,” “The Diplomat” and “The Pitt,” the latter of which won the Emmy in September despite “Severance” having the most nominations of the year.
Plenty of presenters
In addition to the A-list nominees, Critics Choice viewers can expect to catch some of their favorite stars presenting on Sunday.
Among those famous faces will be Allison Janney, Ava DuVernay, Billy Bob Thornton, Colman Domingo, Jeff Goldblum, Justin Hartley, Kaley Cuoco, Noah Schnapp, Quinta Brunson, Regina Hall, Rhea Seehorn and William H. Macy.
