Oppenheimer tops Critics Choice Awards with eight wins

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer laid down the gauntlet ahead of the Oscars, winning eight Critics Choice Awards on Sunday evening in Los Angeles.

The epic's haul included best picture, best director for Nolan and best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr.

But it missed out on several other acting prizes, with its star, Cillian Murphy, losing out to The Holdovers' Paul Giamatti in the best actor race.

Barbie won six prizes, plus the SeeHer award for America Ferrera.

Ferrera, who plays Mattel employee Gloria in Greta Gerwig's blockbuster, gave a powerful speech as she accepted the prize, which is given for advocating for gender equality, portraying characters with authenticity, defying stereotypes and pushing boundaries.

Ferrera said the best use of storytelling is to "hold the truth that we are all worthy of being seen".

"Brown, indigenous, Asian, trans, disabled, any body type, any gender, we are all worthy of having our lives richly and authentically reflected," she said.

"Receiving the SeeHer award for my contributions to more authentic portrayals of women and girls couldn't be more meaningful to me because I grew up as a first generation Honduran American girl in love with TV, film and theatre, who desperately wanted to be a part of a storytelling legacy that I could not see myself reflected in."

She added that it "seemed impossible" when she began working 20 years ago "that anyone could make a career of portraying fully dimensional Latina characters" but credited creatives "who were daring enough to rewrite outdated stories and to challenge deeply entrenched biases".

Ferrera also thanked Gerwig for proving that "unabashedly telling female stories does not diminish your powers, it expands them".

She signed off her speech saying: "This is for every kid yearning to break in. I see you and you got this."

Barbie's prizes included best comedy, best original screenplay and best original song for Mark Ronson's I'm Just Ken, sung by Ryan Gosling.

Emma Stone won best actress for her portrayal of Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Things, a young woman who is bizarrely brought back to life by having a baby's brain implanted in her head by an unorthodox scientist.

She said: "Playing Bella was one of the greatest joys in my life and I got to unlearn a lot of things in playing her."

The upcoming Oscar race for best actress is being viewed by many film buffs as a two-horse race between Stone and Killers of the Flower Moon's Lily Gladstone, who picked up best actress in a drama at the Golden Globes earlier this month.

Giamatti's Holdovers co-star, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, won best supporting actress.

There was one more acting prize for Oppenheimer, best ensemble.

Wife and husband team Gerwig and Noah Baumbach won best original screenplay for Barbie, while Cord Jefferson picked up best adapted screenplay category for his directorial debut American Fiction, based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett.

Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford was also honoured with the career achievement award, and was rewarded with a standing ovation.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse won best animated feature, while French thriller Anatomy of A Fall was named best film in a foreign language.

The Critics Choice also honours TV shows and performances, with Netflix's Beef, HBO's Succession and FX's The Bear winning best limited series, drama and comedy series, respectively.

Succession also scooped best actor in a drama series (Kieran Culkin) and best actress in a drama series (Sarah Snook).

The Bear stars Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Ross-Bachrach, and all took home acting prizes, as did Beef's Steve Yeun, Ali Wong and Maria Bello.