For your consideration: my Critics' Circle votes 2025

 

Director of the Year

1. Alain Guiraudie, Misericordia

2. Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another

3. Neeraj Ghaywan, Homebound

(Honourable mentions: Ryan Coogler, Sinners; Dominic Arun, Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra; Steven Soderbergh, Black Bag.)

Screenwriter of the Year

1. Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby

2. Nia DaCosta, Hedda

3. Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn, Roofman

(Honourable mentions: David Koepp, Black Bag; Tom Basden and Tim Key, The Ballad of Wallis Island; Zach Cregger, Weapons.)

Actress of the Year

1. Jennifer Lawrence, Die My Love

2. Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby

3. Danielle Deadwyler, 40 Acres and The Woman in the Yard

(Honourable mentions: Emily Bett Rickards, Queen of the Ring; Julia Garner, Weapons; Cate Blanchett, Black Bag; Sally Hawkins, Bring Her Back.)

Actor of the Year

1. Joaquin Phoenix, Eddington

2. Channing Tatum, Roofman

3. Mohanlal, Thudarum

(Honourable mentions: Tim Robinson, Friendship; Daniel Day-Lewis, Anemone; Kentucker Audley, Christmas, Again; Miles Teller, Eternity; Tovino Thomas, Narivetta; Michael B. Jordan, Sinners.)

Supporting Actress of the Year

1. Kirsten Dunst, Roofman

2. Shirley Henderson, I Swear

3. Carey Mulligan, The Ballad of Wallis Island

(Honourable mention: Naomi Ackie, Sorry, Baby; Nina Hoss, Hedda.)

Supporting Actor of the Year

1. Sean Penn, One Battle After Another

2. Russell Crowe, Nuremberg

3. Josh Lucas, Queen of the Ring

(Honourable mentions: Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein and On Swift Horses; Prakash Varma, Thudarum; Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another; Sean Bean, Anemone; Tom Burke, Black Bag; David Jonsson, The Long Walk; Lucas Hedges, Sorry, Baby; Delroy Lindo, Sinners.)

Breakthrough Performance of the Year

1. Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby

2. Robert Aramayo, I Swear

3. Miles Caton, Sinners

(Honourable mentions: Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another; Kalyani Priyadarshan, Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra; Posy Sterling, Lollipop; Aneet Padda and Ahaan Panday, Saiyaara.)

Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker

1. Tom Basden and Tim Key, writers, The Ballad of Wallis Island

2. Sophie Compton, co-director, Holloway

3. Victoria Mapplebeck, director, Motherboard

British/Irish Performer of the Year

1. Robert Aramayo, I Swear

2. Frank Dillane, Urchin

3. James McArdle, Four Mothers

(Honourable mentions: Posy Sterling, Lollipop; Sally Hawkins, Bring Her Back; Michael Fassbender, Black Bag.)

Young British/Irish Performer of the Year

1. Scott Ellis Watson, I Swear

2. Alfie Williams, 28 Years Later

3. Tegan-Mia Stanley Rhoads, Lollipop

The nominations for the 46th London Critics' Circle Film Awards will be announced this Monday at 11am on the LFCC YouTube channel, with the awards to follow on February 1, 2026; my top 20 films of 2025 list will run on this site at the end of the month.