The nominations for the first-ever Critics Choice Film Awards, an initiative by the Film Critics Guild and Motion Content Group, were announced by Actor Vidya Balan and Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar at an event in Mumbai. A pan-India platform, the Critics Choice Film awards aim to recognise and honour the best of Indian Cinema across 8 languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, and Bengali for the year 2018.

Hailing the credibility and integrity of the awards, Zoya Akhtar reminisced about the time when her debut film Luck By Chance had lucked out at the box office, but how she survived that difficult period due to the support she received from the critics. Vidya Balan added that while her own film's criticism may not be music to her ears, she always listens and takes all the feedback from the critics very seriously.