‘Sinners’ Tops San Diego Film Critics Society Award Winners, Takes Best Picture

Sinners topped the 2025 San Diego Film Critics Society end of year Awards winning Best Picture, Best Director for Ryan Coogler and Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan.

Other performance awards including Best Actress was shared between Jessie Buckley for Hamnet and Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, and Stellan Skarsgård won Best Supporting Actor for Sentimental Value.

Eva Victor (again) won Best First Feature, Director for Sorry, Baby; Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 won Best Documentary and It Was Just an Accident won Best Foreign Language Film.

Complete list of winners of 2025 San Diego Film Critics Society Awards

Best Picture
Winner: Sinners
Runner Up: One Battle After Another

Best Director
Winner: Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Runner Up: Yorgos Lanthimos, Bugonia

Best Actor
Winner: Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Runner Up: Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams

Best Actress
Winner: Jessie Buckley, Hamnet; Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
Runner Up: Sean Penn, One Battle After Another

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Amy Madigan, Weapons
Runners Up: Nina Hoss, Hedda; Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners

Best Comedic Performance
Winner: Da’vine Joy Randolph, Eternity
Runner Up: Molly Gordon, Oh, Hi!

Best Youth Performance (for a Performer Under the Age of 18)
Winner: Cary Christopher, Weapons
Runner Up: Jacobi Jupe, Hamnet

Best Original Screenplay
Winner: Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Runner Up: David Koepp, Black Bag

Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: Will Tracy, Bugonia
Runner Up: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another

Best First Feature (Director)
Winner: Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby
Runner Up: Kristen Stewart, The Chronology of Water

Best Documentary
Winner: Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5
Runner Up: Billy Joel: And So It Goes

Best Animated Film
Winner: K-pop Demon Hunters
Runner Up: Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: It Was Just an Accident
Runner Up: Sentimental Value

Best Editing
Winner: Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme
Runner Up: Andy Jurgensen, One Battle After Another

Best Cinematography
Winner: Adolpho Veloso, Train Dreams
Runner Up: Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another

Best Production Design
Winner: Tamara Deverell, Shane Vieau, Frankenstein
Runners Up: Hannah Bleachler, Monique Champagne, Sinners; Kasra Farahani, Jille Azis, The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Best Visual Effects
Winner: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Runners Up: Fantastic Four: First Steps, Frankenstein

Best Costume Design
Winner: Paul Tazewell, Wicked: For Good
Runners Up: Ruth E. Carter, Sinners; Kate Hawley, Frankenstein

Best Sound Design
Winner: Warfare
Runner Up: F1

Best Use of Music
Winner: Sinners
Runner Up: Hedda

Best Stunt Choreography
Winner: Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning
Runner Up: Sinners

Best Ensemble
Winner: Black Bag
Runner Up: Sinners

Breakthrough Performance
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another

Special Award for Body of Work
Josh O’connor: Wake Up, Dead Man, The Mastermind, The History of Sound, Rebuilding

Special Award: Best Animal Performance
Indy the Dog, Good Boy