One Battle After Another has now managed to do what no film has ever done in the history of awards. It has won every major critic award to date, including the National Board of Review, the Critics’ Choice, the Gothams, the National Society, etc. This tells me a few things. First, we live in extremely conformist times. Social media has created not so much critics’ groups but a large hive mind of like-minded people. But even knowing that, we can’t tell the whole story here. We also know there is the LARPing oppression that can’t be denied. One Battle is the mindset of today’s Left more than any movie I can think of in recent years. They believe they are living under a regime like Maduro’s in Venezuela, that Trump is as bad as the dictator who was just removed, which is what this film more or less tells us.
It would not have been hard to make the movie one step removed and show the activists living in a kind of fantasy world but it never gets there. They are fighting fascism, as most people — including almost every film critic and blogger and probably industry voter — believe. How to sell something like Shakespeare – beautiful and moving though it be, does it present a civilizational crisis?
But even that wouldn’t be enough. It is also the love for Paul Thomas Anderson, who has more than paid his dues, earned indie cred, and never made an “important” movie until now, although There Will Be Blood might also qualify. This movie absolutely checks all the boxes necessary for today’s film industry and film critics. So, hat tip to The Oscar Expert and the Brother Bro, who were saying this thing was over very early on. I was skeptical. I laughed. I may have mocked them, but they could see something I couldn’t, clearly.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the film critics, the Oscar blogs, and the Oscars themselves have become decoupled from American audiences, choosing instead to focus on overseas movies and audiences. So it’s okay to them that One Battle flopped here but made its money overseas. They care less that Sinners did really well here in the US. Audiences don’t matter as much these days as how this hive mind views specific films.
There was never another contender to emerge. It was Sinners vs. One Battle vs. Hamnet. To audiences, both Hamnet and Sinners were more liked than One Battle, but not to the critics. This is why we need to factor in audiences if we want to save the film industry. They still matter. Aren’t they why studios make movies at all?
So here are a couple of charts for you. The first is the critics’ awards since they began, and the second is the Best Picture tally so far.
And here are more charts, if interested.
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By: Sasha Stone
Title: One Battle After Another Greatest Film of All Time, According to Critics
Sourced From: www.awardsdaily.com/2026/01/05/one-battle-after-another-greatest-film-of-all-time-according-to-critics/
Published Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2026 19:03:39 +0000
