Critics Choice Awards 2025: All We Imagine As Light and Citadel Honey Bunny lose out

At the 2025 Critics Choice Awards, Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light fell short in the final round. The popular film missed out on the Best Foreign Language Film award to the more critically lauded Emilia Pérez. In the other category, the other Indian nominee, Citadel: Honey Bunny, also lost.

Other contenders in the Best Foreign Language Film category

Flow from Latvia, I'm Still Here from Brazil, Kneecap from Ireland, and The Seed of the Sacred Fig from Germany were the other contenders for the awards. The first Indian film to ever win the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival was All We Imagine As Light in 2024. This made it a front-runner for accolades all across the world. Despite receiving nominations for the Critics Choice and Golden Globe awards, the film has not yet taken home any hardware from Hollywood's most prestigious ceremonies.

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All We Imagine As Light did not receive a nomination as India's official entry to the 2025 Oscars. Instead, Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film by the Indian Film Federation. Having said that, the film did not even get a nomination. 

The controversial musical crime film Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard and set in Spanish, has received multiple award nominations. It has also been criticised for the racist tweets written by Karla Sofía Gascón, the lead. In the wake of the scandal, the performer chose not to attend the Critics Choice Awards, as both Netflix and the film chose to separate themselves from her.

Citadel: Honey Bunny also misses out

At the awards, All We Imagine As Light wasn't the sole Indian nominee. The Prime Video series Citadel: Honey Bunny, starring Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Series. However, it failed miserably at the final stage, unable to match the popularity of Squid Game on Netflix. The two series faced competition from Acapulco, La Máquina, The Law According to Lidia Poët, My Brilliant Friend, Pachinko, and Senna.

On Friday night, February 7, 2025, the Critics Choice Awards took place in Los Angeles. Nominations for films and television were announced independently, as has been the case for the past four years.

Live streaming in India

Lionsgate Play (OTTplay Premium) in India began streaming the event live at 5:30 am.

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