How Critics Choice Awards 2026 winners celebrated their wins backstage

After Hollywood’s A-list toasted the critics’ favorite TV and films of the year at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night, the evening’s biggest winners made their way backstage to take photos and chat with press.

“Field of Dreams” alum Amy Madigan, who pulled off a surprise supporting actress win for her work as Aunt Gladys in the horror film “Weapons,” breezed into the winners circle with a glazed donut in hand.

After some requests from photographers, she reluctantly swapped the pastry for her silver starred trophy, waving it around and hamming it up for the cameras.

“I’ve got donut on my face! Ah, I don’t care!” she said with a giggle.

“KPop Demon Hunters” singer-songwriter Ejae, who took home best original song for the smash hit “Golden” alongside Mark Sonnenblick, reflected on how the song has evolved over the past year.

“It’s in sync with the intention of the song and how I felt writing it. For me, it was a hopeful song. It gave me hope that one day my dreams would come true. I still feel that now.”

In the TV world, “The Studio” won big for lead actor Seth Rogen, supporting actor Ike Barinholtz and best comedy series.

As a screen in the press room showed Jacob Elordi taking the stage for his “Frankenstein” supporting actor win, Rogen quipped, “Elordi won? For playing Frankenstein?”

Barinholz was quick to correct Rogen’s literary faux-pas: “He’s not Frankenstein! He’s Frankenstein’s monster,” he said, prompting belly laughs from Rogen and co-star Chase Sui Wonders.

Jean Smart entered the press room soon after, joking that her martini just kicked in as she fist-pumped and crunched her trophy like a 10-pound weight in her arms.

Jimmy Kimmel, who snagged the award for outstanding talk show, took a moment to ask some questions of his own to the photographers and reporters in the room.

“How does this work? You all take the exact same picture of me, then it’s a competition to see whose photos get used?”

After a resounding “yes” from the peanut gallery, he quipped: “And do you all hate each other?” to laughs from all the photographers (who assured him that they prefer to help each other out, not just compete for the best shot).

Not every winner made their way to the backstage press room: the Leonardo DiCaprio-led “One Battle After Another” crew, which took home trophies for best picture and best director Paul Thomas Anderson, opted to skip the photo op, as did “Marty Supreme” best actor victor Timothée Chalamet.