It is worth noting that “Anora’s” Best Picture win was mainly made possible by its guild wins at the PGA, DGA, and WGA. It is another thing to see just how thoroughly “Anora’s” guild performances bailed out its near shutout at the “Big Four” televised awards, where it was actually shut out at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards, won only 2 BAFTA awards and just one in an Oscar category, and only won Best Picture at the Critics Choice Awards.
It is especially glaring compared to how all other Best Picture winners in the expanded era did at these four awards shows. And as these stats show, “Anora” actually had the worst combined performance at the Globes, CCAs, BAFTA, and SAG of any Best Picture winner in this era – ironically, right after “Oppenheimer” had the best performance of the era.
2023: “Oppenheimer” – 8 CCAs, 5 Globes, 7 BAFTAs, 3 SAGs = 23 wins overall [4 Best Picture wins]
2011: “The Artist” – 4 CCAs, 3 Globes, 7 BAFTAs, 1 SAG = 15 wins overall [3 Best Picture wins]
2022: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” – 5 CCAs, 2 Globes, 1 BAFTA, 4 SAGs = 12 wins overall [2 Best Picture wins]
2010: “The King’s Speech” – 2 CCAs, 1 Globe, 7 BAFTAs, 2 SAG = 12 wins overall [2 Best Picture wins]
2014: “Birdman” – 7 CCAs, 2 Globes, 1 BAFTA, 1 SAG = 11 wins overall [1 Best Picture win]
2020: “Nomadland” – 4 CCAs, 2 Globes, 4 BAFTAs, 0 SAG = 10 wins overall [3 Best Picture wins]
2017: “The Shape of Water” – 4 CCAs, 2 Globes, 3 BAFTAs, 0 SAG = 9 wins overall [1 Best Picture win]
2012: “Argo” – 2 CCAs, 2 Globes, 3 BAFTAs, 1 SAG = 8 wins overall [4 Best Picture wins]
2009: “The Hurt Locker” – 2 CCAs, 0 Globes, 6 BAFTAs, 0 SAG = 8 wins overall [2 Best Picture wins]
2013: “12 Years a Slave” – 3 CCAs, 1 Globe, 2 BAFTAs, 1 SAG = 7 wins overall [3 Best Picture wins]
2018: “Green Book” – 1 CCA, 3 Globes, 1 BAFTA, 1 SAG = 6 wins overall [1 Best Picture win]
2019: “Parasite” – 1.5 CCAs, 1 Globe, 2 BAFTAs, 1 SAG – 5.5 wins overall [1 Best Picture win]
2015: “Spotlight” – 3 CCAs, 0 Globes, 1 BAFTA, 1 SAG = 5 wins overall [2 Best Picture wins]
2021: “CODA” – 1 CCA, 0 Globes, 2 BAFTAs, 2 SAGs = 5 wins overall [1 Best Picture win]
2016: “Moonlight” – 2 CCAs, 1 Globe, 0 BAFTA, 1 SAG = 4 wins overall [1 Best Picture win]
2024: “Anora” – 1 CCA, 0 Globes, 2 BAFTAs, 0 SAG = 3 wins overall [1 Best Picture win]
Until its best-televised performance by a wide margin at the Oscars, the only awards “Anora” won on TV were Best Picture at the Critics Choice and Best Actress and Best Casting at the BAFTAs. As it turned out, it had just as many combined wins at the non-televised PGA, DGA, and WGA awards as it did on television until Oscar night.
It is a common talking point that the critics and festival awards early in the season don’t matter since the televised and industry awards are where momentum really starts to take shape. However, the televised awards seemed determined to shut down any “Anora” momentum at every turn, to the point where it was only the second movie in this era to survive two TV shutouts and the first since “The Hurt Locker” in 2009 when the expanded ballot first arrived.
Nonetheless, various excuses could be made for it, and not just the one where guild voters loved “Anora” that much more. Since the Golden Globes and BAFTA have more internationally based voters, the theory holds that they would naturally embrace films like “Conclave,” “The Brutalist” and “Emilia Pérez” harder – even though international voters launched “Anora” in the first place by giving it the Palme d’Or at Cannes. While “Anora” maxed out its potential SAG nomination package, the more baity ensemble of “Conclave” and the more narrative-driven campaign of Demi Moore helped to give it misleading losses in Best Ensemble and Best Actress.
Truthfully, the only utterly bizarre outcome for “Anora” in these shows was winning a sole Best Picture prize at the Critics’ Choice. Yet arguably, the Critics’ Choice is the least important of these four shows and had a bizarre night all around this year with additional shockers like Jon M. Chu’s Best Director win. Though, as these stats show, while other Best Picture winners overcame shutouts at SAG, the Globes, and BAFTA, no winner in this era has survived getting blanked at Critics Choice – making that “Anora” solo Best Picture win perhaps the most important of the season.
Of course, since “Anora” won the PGA and DGA the very next night, it made its televised performances before and after that night look irrelevant. Even so, movies that pull off this kind of doubleheader usually do just as well or nearly as well on TV. At the least, if “Anora” lost everything at the CCAs before winning PGA and DGA anyway, it would have looked far more improbable than it does now.
The “Anora” Critics Choice win kept alive a streak where every Oscar Best Picture winner won the highest honor in at least one of the pre-Oscars award shows. Whether it is a late comeback winner like “Moonlight,” “Parasite,” or “CODA,” a sweeper like “Oppenheimer,” or a film that won big at these shows but didn’t get a Best Picture level win until SAG like “Birdman,” Oscar winners need to get at least one precursor Best Picture on TV before Oscar night.
The closest comparison to “Anora” is “Moonlight,” which only won Best Picture Drama at the Globes, a Best Ensemble prize at the CCAs, and two televised Best Supporting Actor wins for Mahershala Ali at the CCAs and SAG. However, “Moonlight’s” excuse for such a lacking performance at the televised awards was the dominance of “La La Land,” which swept most of those awards and the PGA/DGA as well – one of many reasons why “Moonlight’s” Oscar night shocker is the biggest outlier result of the era. “Anora” didn’t have the excuse of a “La La Land” like competitor to blame its losses on, not even “Conclave” when it won at BAFTA and SAG.
“CODA” had “The Power of the Dog” to blame for most of its televised losses in 2021, as its mere five combined wins included three for Troy Kotsur, one for Best Adapted Screenplay at BAFTA and one Best Ensemble win at SAG. With “Spotlight,” its five combined televised wins were mainly made up of three from the CCAs in Best Picture, Best Ensemble, and Best Original Screenplay before it only won Best Ensemble at SAG and Best Original Screenplay at BAFTA afterward. “Parasite” tied for Best Director at the CCAs and won three Best International Film awards before the tide turned with its Best Original Screenplay BAFTA win and Best Ensemble at SAG. And “Green Book” used the cushion of three Golden Globe wins to absorb losses in everything but Best Supporting Actor at every other televised show before the Oscars.
Of those films, “CODA” and “Green Book” came from behind late with PGA wins, “Spotlight” narrowly held onto its early lead through the strength of SAG and Best Original Screenplay wins, and “Parasite” broke ground as an unprecedented international Best Picture winner. None of those films won both PGA and DGA like “Anora,” but all of them were sweeping or had comfortable leads in at least one major category before the Oscars, thanks to the televised awards. In contrast, “Anora” never won a Best Screenplay or Best Director award on TV, only had Mikey Madison win BAFTA and only won a Best Picture prize on a telecast at the Critics Choice – yet it swept all those categories in the only show that counted at the end.
As such, for at least the next few years to come, “Anora” will be used as the shining example for all films that barely win anything at the CCAs/Globes/BAFTA/SAG quartet. And unlike “Parasite,” “CODA,” and “Spotlight” at SAG, as well as “Moonlight” and “Green Book” at the Globes, “Anora” never really had one signature, tide-turning showcase win on television that made up for its losses elsewhere – since the solo Critics Choice win was overshadowed by its guild wins 24 hours later, and since Madison’s tide-turning BAFTA win came after “Anora” most likely wrapped up Best Picture anyway.
Regardless, pundits and fans will still look to the Critics Choice, Golden Globes, BAFTA, and SAG as the big momentum-shifting events of the 2025-26 season since winners like “Anora” remain the minority in this era. Will we go back to a winner like “Oppenheimer” that sweeps both on and off the air, a winner like “Everything Everywhere All at Once” that only sweeps half the awards shows, or will the wait for the next “Anora” be a short one after all?
Did you think “Anora” would go on to win Best Picture or did its low televised win haul make you believe something else would prevail? How do you feel about it as our latest Best Picture winner? Please let us know on on Next Best Picture’s X account.
You can follow Robert and hear more of his thoughts on the Oscars & Film on X @Robertdoc1984
