Gracie Abrams and Paul Mescal. Getty Images for BAFTA
After three awards shows, all in Los Angeles, Hollywood’s A-list is heading across the pond. Yes, it’s time for the BAFTAs, the annual ceremony that honors the best in British and international cinema. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the BAFTAs are once again taking place at Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre tonight, Feb. 22, but with a new host. This year, Alan Cumming is taking over duties from David Tennant, who hosted the ceremony for the past two years.
A mere four days into the new year, and the first awards show of 2026 is upon us. Tonight, the Critics’ Choice Awards celebrate the best in film and television, recognizing the finest actors, directors, writers, costume designers, editors and more in the industry.
Along with the usual categories, the 31st Critics’ Choice Awards will include four new honors, for Best Variety Series, Best Sound, Best Stunt Design and Best Casting and Ensemble. Chelsea Handler is hosting the awards show for the fourth year in a row, and the ceremony will once again take place at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California.
Sinners leads the film pack with a staggering 17 nods, followed by One Battle After Another‘s still-impressive 14, while Netflix’s limited series, Adolescence, scored the most for television with six, followed by another Netflix show, Nobody Wants This, with five.
Before the awards are handed out, however, the stars will walk the red carpet in the first major fashion moment of 2026. Last year’s show brought us standout looks like Margaret Qualley in ethereal Chanel, Colman Domingo in a brown leather Hugo Boss ensemble, Cynthia Erivo in black peplum Armani Privé and Mikey Madison in vintage Giorgio Armani, so we’re just going to have to wait with bated breath to see what this season’s nominees bring to the table. Below, see the best red carpet fashion moments from the 2026 Critics’ Choice Awards.
Leighton Meester and Adam Brody. Getty Images
Leighton Meester and Adam Brody
Jessica Biel. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Jessica Biel
in Lanvin
Jacob Elordi. Getty Images
Jacob Elordi
in Bottega Veneta
Elle Fanning. WWD via Getty Images
Elle Fanning
in Ralph Lauren
Ariana Grande. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Ariana Grande
in Alberta Ferretti
Chase Infiniti. WireImage
Chase Infiniti
in Louis Vuitton
Amanda Seyfried. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Amanda Seyfried
in Valentino
Natasha Lyonne. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Natasha Lyonne
Britt Lower. Getty Images
Britt Lower
in Bottega Veneta
Michael B. Jordan. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Cri
Michael B. Jordan
Jessica Williams. WWD via Getty Images
Jessica Williams
Keri Russell. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Keri Russell
Meghann Fahy. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Meghann Fahy
Adam Sandler and Jackie Sandler. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Adam Sandler and Jackie Sandler
Jessie Buckley. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Jessie Buckley
in Dior
Rose Byrne. Getty Images
Rose Byrne
in Valentino
Ego Nwodim. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Ego Nwodim
in Carolina Herrera
Kristen Bell. Getty Images for Critics Choice
Kristen Bell
in Elie Saab
Michelle Randolph. Getty Images for Critics Choice
It’s hard to quantify the success of TheSocial Network. It made $224 million at the box office against a $40 million budget; it was nominated for eight Oscars, winning three; it recently placed at No. 10 on both the New York Times’ industry poll and readers poll for the best movies of the 21st century. So … let’s make another one, right? That always goes well. The Social Network’s “follow-up” is in development at Sony with Aaron Sorkin returning to direct in addition to writing the script. Below, everything we know about the sequel that’s not exactly a sequel, including the latest cast members.
The movie, which is not a direct sequel to the original film, is titled The Social Reckoning,per Variety.
The film will be based on 2021 Wall Street Journal reports “The Facebook Files,” by Horwitz. Based on leaked internal documents from Facebook, the reports claim Facebook allowed celebrities and public figures (like Donald Trump) to post content that regular users (like activists) would not be allowed to post, then did not tell its Oversight Committee. They also allege that Facebook’s response to human and drug trafficking on the site was “weak” and that Facebook knew that Instagram is “toxic” for teen girls but downplayed the negative effects publicly. The documents that the reporting was based on were gathered and disclosed by Haugen, a product manager on Facebook’s civic integrity team.
Jesse Eisenberg is not attached to return as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, Succession star Jeremy Strong is taking over the part, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Hard to imagine J. Strong in a curly wig, but based on the similar cringe-o-meter ratings between “L to the OG,” from Succession,and Zuckerberg serenading his wife with “Get Low,” the casting isn’t out of nowhere. Despite his role as Zuck, Strong will not be the lead of the film. That honor will be shared between Anora’s Oscar winner Mikey Madison, who will play Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and The Bear star Jeremy Allen White, who will play the journalist who wrote Haugen’s secrets up, Jeff Horwitz. They’ll all be joined by comedian Bill Burr in an unknown role. Maybe himself?
Additional cast members include Sinners star Wunmi Mosaku as well as the recently announced Billy Magnussen, former Mary Lincoln Betty Gilpin, Gbenga Akinnagbe, and Anna Lambe of True Detective: North Country.
The Social Reckoning will be released in a little over a year, on October 9, 2026. Get zucking ready.
By now, it’s no secret that Sean Baker is known for his keen ability to give insight into the world of a certain kind of working-class ilk (even if this insight is occasionally deemed by some as “exploitative” or “poverty porn” [as was the case with The Florida Project]). Not just sex workers (as he also did in 2015’s Tangerine), but undocumented immigrants (2004’s Take Out) and even “aged out” male porn stars (2021’s Red Rocket). With Anora, Baker’s pièce de résistance (based on the film winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes—the first American move to do so since 2011’s The Tree of Life), he returns to his favorite kind of working-class hero yet again: the sex worker.
Like Halley (Bria Vinaite) in The Florida Project, Anora “Ani” Mikheeva (Mikey Madison, in her undeniable breakout role) is a stripper. Unlike Halley, she isn’t averse to having sex with select clients outside of the club (called Headquarters). In this instance, Ivan a.k.a. Vanya Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn): the twenty-one-year-old son of a Russian oligarch…though Anora won’t unearth that important detail until a bit later. And even when she does find out, it still seems unbelievable seeing as how this man-boy comes across as being so guileless, so utterly “unsmooth.” But also funny, as far as Anora can tell. And you know what they say: being able to make a woman laugh can go a long way as a man (clearly).
So when he invites her over to his mansion in the Mill Basin part of Brooklyn (the mansion in question was, at one point, actually inhabited by a Russian oligarch), she accepts this offer—this “business transaction.” This encounter leads to another and before Anora knows it, Vanya is presenting her with a “proposition.” Not at all dissimilar to the one Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) did to Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) in Pretty Woman (though some viewers’ gut reaction might be to draw a slight comparison to 2019’s Hustlers due to the stripper instead of “prostitute” element).
A movie, incidentally, that was originally titled $3,000 (or just 3000)—the amount Edward agrees to give Vivian for her to spend the week with him. Anora, instead, gets $15,000 (inflation and all that). And, in a moment of dialogue that is almost certainly an homage to Pretty Woman in Anora, Vanya starts his offer at ten thousand, to which Anora replies, “Fifteen.” He agrees, with Anora admitting she would have stayed for ten, and Vanya saying he would have gone up to thirty thousand. It mimics Vivian telling Edward, “I would’ve stayed for two thousand” and him smirking, “I would’ve paid four.”
As soon as the money matter is settled, Anora packs her bags to stay with Vanya and, just as Vivian before her, she’s essentially there to be at his beck and call, with plenty of “lovin’” to provide in between (so much “lovin’,” in fact, that Baker and his wife/frequent producer, Samantha Quan, effectively served as the “intimacy coordinators” of the movie by demonstrating what sex positions that Madison and Eydelshteyn should be in for their various fuck scenes). Vanya’s overt inability to please a woman (which isn’t always a mark of inexperience so much as a common defect in most men) doesn’t even seem to bother Anora. After all, she’s getting paid. And besides, she has a good time with him. A “good time” that is, of course, furnished in large part by all the available money that Vanya has at his disposal to spend. Whether this means throwing a lavish, drug-addled New Year’s Eve party at his mansion or jet-setting off to Vegas on a whim because one of his friends tells him that’s where they had the best ketamine, money is the anthem of “no desire left out of reach.”
And what Vanya seems to desire (for more than just a week) is Anora, still insisting her name is Ani (pronounced like Annie not Ah-nee). Even if playing up her “exotic” background has done nothing but work in her favor, particularly since part of the reason Vanya was “referred” to her at Headquarters is because she’s the only one among the dancers who can speak a bit of Russian thanks to her Brighton Beach upbringing (also attributing her knowledge to a Russian grandmother that never learned to speak English).
And so, in this moment, when Vanya first becomes captivated by Anora, one might say it fits the Pretty Woman tagline of: “She walked off the street, into his life and stole his heart.” Only it doesn’t take long to understand the most fundamental difference of all between Pretty Woman’s narrative and Anora’s: one deals with a man pursuing a woman who happens to be a sex worker, and the other deals with a boy pursuing a woman who happens to be a sex worker. And that distinction makes all the difference in the world, as Anora must soon find out the hard way. But before her rude awakening, it truly does feel as though she’s “hit the jackpot,” as one of her friends and fellow strippers, Lulu (Luna Sofia Miranda)—think of her as the Kit De Luca (Laura San Giacomo) of the movie—tells her in the midst of her walking out of the club for good.
Lulu, however, is actually genuinely happy for Anora. Whereas Diamond (Lindsey Normington), another girl who works at the club and serves as a regular adversarial force in Anora’s life, seethes about the news, jadedly predicting that the marriage won’t last more than two weeks. Unfortunately, Diamond’s “prophecy” will turn out to be accurate, as Anora’s “bliss” (mainly lolling around while Vanya does drugs and/or plays video games) is violently interrupted by the appearance of two goons under the instruction of Toros (Karren Karagulian), Vanya’s godfather and the proverbial whipping boy of his parents when something goes wrong.
As for the goons, Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov), they’re quick to realize that Anora is their only leverage once Vanya bitches out and flees the scene, leaving his so-called beloved to fend for herself. It is in this moment that Anora should be aware that she’s been had, that everything Vanya said was total bullshit, making him far worse than what the pearl-clutchers would call a prostitute because he feigns his emotional intimacy with so much more skill. But no, Anora is convinced that Vanya will come through for her, that the reason he ran off is to figure out a solution so that they can stay together, even as his parents try to rip them apart from their remote position in Russia.
Naturally, they’re not staying “remote” for long, telling Toros that they’ll be in town the next day to sort out this “nonsense” (to use a word now automatically associated with Sabrina Carpenter). All the while, Anora remains shockingly (and naively) steadfast in her belief that the marriage isn’t going to end, that Vanya and she will find a way to “work it out,” to make his parents accept the “reality” of their nuptials—ostensibly forgetting that rich people can create whatever reality they want, whenever it suits their purpose.
Thus, the Pretty Woman comparisons stop at the abovementioned key plot point of Vanya enlisting Anora as his escort for the week. Unless, of course, one chooses to go with the original version of Pretty Woman, 3000, which includes an ending that finds Edward tossing Vivian out on her ass and throwing the money at her once she’s back on the street to quiet her down, so to speak. Otherwise, Anora is less Pretty Woman and much more Nights of Cabiria vis-à-vis the cad-ish behavior of the man who is supposed to “rescue” her from her former existence.
It’s no secret that director Sean Baker has a knack for storytelling. Whether he’s filming on an iPhone or casting first-time actors to play on-screen versions of themselves, Baker knows how to make his films feel real. It was evident in the raw nature of The Florida Project and Tangerine, and his newest film Anora is no different. While many of his previous films center sex workers, Anora in particular is an ode to dancers and the huge role fashion plays in their lives.
After winning at Cannes and generating tons of box office buzz, Anora is on its way to becoming a quintessential New York City story. The movie—which boasts itself as a modern Cinderella story—follows a dancer named Anora, played by Mikey Madison, whose world is turned upside down when she meets the son of an oligarch named Ivan. And luckily for the film’s costume designer Jocelyn Pierce, Baker deeply understood the importance of fashion in Anora’s world.
Like most of Baker’s films, a lot of research was involved. For Anora, Pierce studied Brighton Beach (where a big part of the film takes place), and the sex worker community to put together the film’s looks. Anora doesn’t skimp on authenticity, and the clothes are proof enough. Because although Anora is a piece of fiction, it acknowledges that there are real life versions of its characters.
For dancers, Anora is an honest portrayal—which is partly because the background dancers in the film were played by actual dancers. And in addition to acting alongside Mikey Madison, they brought pieces from their own wardrobes for Pierce to pick through. Tiny details like this don’t go unnoticed, especially since sex workers rarely feel accurately portrayed.
Beyond consulting with dancers, Pierce found that styling the characters was a collaborative effort—she called on independent designers, archival collections, and the methodical actors that played them to form the looks. And even though you can’t help but be drawn to Anora’s Russian sable coat or her Herve Leger bandage dress, Pierce finds that the film’s most subtle outfits were often the ones formulated with the most intention.
How did you approach styling Anora?
Working with somebody like Sean [Baker]—he’s so authentic and grounded in the reality of these characters. We started meeting dancers and really doing research on the streets of Brighton Beach, and there was this sort of cultural anthropological dig of like, “Who are the real versions of these people that we’re representing?” And so we took the mood board, and started to ground it in reality. Mikey had so many opinions. When you work with a good actor, it’s like they ultimately know what’s best for their character, and film is such a truly collaborative art form. Mikey did so much research and was truly fully immersed. Her opinions really mattered to us, and that collaboration formed so many of the looks.
Anora in her fur coat. Photo courtesy of Neon.
Do you reference anything in particular for her outfits?
It’s hard to have one answer, because it’s a collage. Like with anybody’s personal style, it’s a collage of influence. I was thinking about it the other day, the themes of “the American dream” color so much of the film. I think, partly by nature, the fact that it’s a New York film, there’s a lot of black and neutrals and metallic. But when it comes to color, we did choose to pop blue and red. And it dawned on me the other day that it’s such a subtle hint to the theme of the the American dream. In the fittings, we were thinking about referencing Pretty Woman a few times, but Sean had never seen Pretty Woman. I mean, maybe that’s changed since then. He was also like, “No, I don’t want to do strong references to other films, this is our own reality.” Yeah, no cheeky nods there.
Fashion plays a huge role in sex work, how did you attempt to convey that in the film?
All of the girls in the club are actual dancers and sex workers, and a lot of them either told us where to go, or they’d bring in their own clothes and let us pull from their own wardrobes. In the theme of Sean being so authentic, he didn’t want movie dancers. He has so much reverence and respect for them, that to be truthful was paramount. A lot of those clothes are their own, and we would sort of choose where to place them. It is such a big part, obviously, of their work. It’s such a fun and playful aesthetic—especially on film, everything is so shiny. It’s so sparkly, it’s super fun. And all of those girls really had their own special sauce and their own identities, and it was nice to let them shine.
The dancers in Anora. Photo courtesy of Neon.
One of my favorite moments is when we see Anora on the train wearing normal winter clothes instead of her flashy work clothes. What did you think about when styling those more understated looks?
One of the dancers had said to Sean, “All the girls have Uggs, all the girls leave the club in big, baggy clothes.” There’s a practical aspect to it, and a lot of them were saying that you don’t want to be followed or harassed on your way home. I love that moment too, especially when the film sort of starts with such a bang, and then there’s something so vulnerable about seeing her cozy and tired on the train.
Even though the film is contemporary, the outfits don’t feel super micro-trendy—it feels like Anora has a real sense of personal style. How did you accomplish that?
Oh, that’s so sweet. Thank you. I think we ultimately tried to stick with really classic silhouettes. I think sometimes in film, when you’re doing something that’s so of the moment, something can look so dated or so tired by the time it comes out. I love the dress that Anora wears for her first date with Ivan. It’s that Herve Leger electric baby blue bandage dress. That to me, says so much because it’s such a classic silhouette, and that dress, that designer, it’s so aspirational. We dress for the job we want, you know. We would pull a lot, and then in a fitting, Mikey would sort of play around and could sense what felt right. She was so methodical and deeply in character. Between us, we could find the thing that felt like personal style and felt really grounded in who she was.
What is the significance of the fur coat, did you have a specific picture in your mind when pulling it?
Sean definitely had that in mind. We designed the shape of it, but it was based off of a reference that Sean had sent me of [Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable] a Japanese film. It’s Russian sable, and in terms of status, you can’t go any higher than that—and he had written that into the script. I love that look, and I love that she’s in it for so long, because there’s something really powerful about that silhouette, especially in those moments where she’s trying to regain control.
Sean Baker’s inspiration for Anora’s fur coat. Photo courtesy of Everett Collection.
The film is already so well received, how does the recognition feel as the costume designer?
I’m so excited. I can’t believe everybody’s seeing this film. Of course they are, you know, it’s Sean Baker. But I’ve been making indie films for like 15 years, and so often you put your heart and soul into something, and not many people see it. Sometimes making a film that’s grounded in reality is a lot harder than making a film that’s period or fantastical or highly stylized, because it’s all in the tiny details of nuance. It might not look like much to the naked eye, but there are all of these little personal decisions and conversations that create such a beautiful collage.
I liked how Anora wore jean shorts when she eloped, was that a conscious decision to show how spur of the moment it was?
It was. We auditioned a few looks, and some of them had a clear wedding stamp on them, like white lace, or a white dress. And then we were like, “This happens so spur of the moment, it has to be something from her suitcase.” We had this cream bustier top and I don’t remember who had the idea, but we were just like, “What if she wore it with cutoff jean shorts?” And it was, like the sexiest, coolest vibe. It’s so simple, but it made so much sense. It just felt so in line with Anora and it also had that edge that Mikey has. I love Mark [Eydelshteyn] in that scene too, because he’s wearing a custom printed blazer and basketball shorts. To me, it felt like a perfect representation of his character. He can afford these luxury, custom pieces of art, but at the end of the day, he’s still a kid.
Anora’s wedding look. Photo courtesy of Neon.
Besides Anora, are there any characters that you really enjoyed costuming?
Igor wears the same look throughout the entire movie, and it’s really sort of basic. He’s in track pants, a hoodie, and sneakers—it seems so plain, but it was so thought out. Yura [Borisov] is so methodical. We kept seeing guys on Coney Island that were wearing that same outfit. We were like, “This is so real,” because we initially tried to take a bigger swing with him. There was so much evidence of that being a sort of uniform for a typical guy in that neighborhood. After the first day of fittings, when we decided on his look, he asked if he could wear his costume home, and he wore it everyday. He wore it to work, he wore it from work, he wore it on the weekends. He lived in it, and he aged it down. He even made his own little holes in the jacket. He literally lived in it, and it became a second skin. There’s something about that costume that hits me in the gut. Sometimes with costume design, it’s not the big fashion moment, it’s not the wow moment—it’s the human in it, and that was so beautiful to witness. Someone turned something that was sweatpants and a puffer coat into a soul. It was so gorgeous.
Yura Borisov as Igor. Photo courtesy of Neon.
What is your favorite look from the film?
You know, there’s a few heartbreaks, because we shot so much in Vegas, and a lot of it got cut. Some of my favorite looks never made the film. As they say, kill your darlings. We worked with a lot of independent designers and a lot of small New York brands and artists. We worked with Gabriel Held Vintage in Brooklyn, whose archive is absolutely stunning. We rented that white lace two piece set that Anora wears, that might be my favorite—just personally, I wish I could walk around in that. It’s hard to have a favorite, because I fell in love with so many moments.
Anora in the two piece lace set. Photo courtesy of Neon.
What did you hope to accomplish as the film’s costume designer?
Using your community, like young artists and independent designers, is so special because it’s not fast fashion. The beautiful support that we had from so many of these artists, and how so many people were willing to collaborate and make us custom things. We always said, “Let’s keep it as independent, archival, and New York as possible.” Keeping it real was super important. That’s what I always try to drive home. Independent, archival, and New York.
Sean Baker‘s latest film Anora, which took home the top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has debuted its first trailer.
Mikey Madison, best known for her work on the FX series Better Things, stars as the titular character, as a New York sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch.
The trailer for the Neon movie sees Anora heading to Las Vegas and running into a little, white chapel, after which she and her new husband are pursued by fixers trying to break up the new marriage. Along the way, there is plenty of partying, private jets, and shopping for furs. The film has drawn comparisons to the Julia Roberts standby Pretty Woman.
Anora, Baker’s follow-up to Red Rocket, earned high praise from critics out of Cannes, where is took home the Plame d’Or.
Reads THR‘s festival review, “As a character, played by Mikey Madison with a sweetness that humanizes even the most transactional situations and a defensiveness that makes her dangerous when threatened, Anora, who goes by Ani, stands alongside the defiantly resilient protagonists of Baker’s last handful of films, from Starlet and Tangerine through The Florida Project and Red Rocket.”
Anora will be released in theaters on October 18 via Neon.
