Timothée Chalamet accepts the award for best actor for "Marty Supreme" during the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, January 4, 2026, at The Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, California. CHRIS PIZZELLO / CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP
Timothée Chalamet's Oscars campaign earned a major boost Sunday as he scooped the best actor prize for Marty Supreme at the Critics Choice Awards, the first major gala of this year's Hollywood awards season. He defeated rival Leonardo DiCaprio, whose raucous political thriller One Battle After Another took the night's top prize for best picture, as well as best director and best adapted screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson.
In Marty Supreme, Chalamet plays a 1950s table tennis champion consumed by grand ambitions. Loosely based on a true story, and benefiting from the Franco-American actor's unique viral campaign, the film directed by Josh Safdie has become an unlikely global hit.
"Josh, you made a story about a flawed man with a relatable dream," said Chalamet. "And you didn't preach to the audience about what's right and wrong, and I think we should all be telling stories like that, so thank you for this dream."
The movie is loosely based on the life of table tennis star Marty Reisman, a man driven by the belief that he can achieve fame and fortune through a sport little known in the United States. Chalamet – the Dune superstar and two-time Oscar nominee who recently portrayed Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown – rigorously trained in table tennis for the role.
