The National Society of Film Critics Honors Past Lives!


On December 6th, the National Society of Film Critics named Past Lives the best film of 2023!

Here are all of the winners from NSFC!

Best Picture
Winner: PAST LIVES (51 points)
Runners-up: THE ZONE OF INTEREST (49 points) OPPENHEIMER (44 points)

Best Director
Winner: Jonathan Glazer, THE ZONE OF INTEREST (65 points)
Runners-up: Todd Haynes, MAY DECEMBER (42 points) Christopher Nolan, OPPENHEIMER (41 points)

Best Actress
Winner: Sandra Hüller, ANATOMY OF A FALL and THE ZONE OF INTEREST (61 points)
Runners-up: Emma Stone, POOR THINGS (56 points) Lily Gladstone, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (44 points)

Best Actor
Winner: Andrew Scott, ALL OF US STRANGERS (52 points)
Runners-up: Jeffrey Wright, AMERICAN FICTION (39 points) Cillian Murphy, OPPENHEIMER (29 points)

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, THE HOLDOVERS (58 points)
Runners-up: Penélope Cruz, FERRARI (32 points) Rachel McAdams, ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET. (23 points)

Best Supporting Actor
​Winner: Charles Melton, MAY DECEMBER (51 points)
Runners-up: Robert Downey, Jr., OPPENHEIMER, and Ryan Gosling, BARBIE (31 points, tie)

Best Screenplay
Winner: Samy Burch, MAY DECEMBER (53 points)
Runners-up: Celine Song, PAST LIVES (50 points) David Hemingson, THE HOLDOVERS (36 points)

Best Cinematography
Winner: Rodrigo Prieto, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (55 points)
Runners-up: Łukasz Żal, THE ZONE OF INTEREST (45 points) Hoyte van Hoytema, OPPENHEIMER (44 points)

Best Nonfiction Film
Winner: MENUS-PLAISIRS — LES TROISGROS (64 points)
Runners-up: 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL (25 points), KOKOMO CITY (19 points)

Best Film Not In The English Language
Winner: FALLEN LEAVES (65 points)
Runners-up: THE ZONE OF INTEREST (51 points) ANATOMY OF A FALL (44 points)

Best Experimental Film: Jean Luc-Godard’s TRAILER OF A FILM THAT WILL NEVER EXIST: PHONY WARS

Film Heritage Award: Criterion Channel, for an adventurous, wide-ranging, finely curated selection of films, ranging from American independents to world cinema to short films to classic Hollywood, making readily available the kind of repertory cinema that every city should have.

Film Heritage Award: Facets, Kim’s Video, Scarecrow Video and Vidiots, for maintaining wide-reaching libraries of films on disc and tape and making those libraries available to the general public.

Special Citation for a Film Awaiting U.S. Distribution: Víctor Erice’s CLOSE YOUR EYES

Lisa’s Way Too Early Oscar Predictions for February


Well, with the 2018 Oscars finally out of the way, we can now shift our focus to the 2019 race.

As of February, that race is totally cloudy.  The predictions below should be taken with a grain of salt because 1) they’re mostly wild guesses and 2) the Oscar race never starts to become clear until after the summer.  You could probably argue that doing predictions this early in the year is a pointless exercise but here we are!

Best Picture

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Call of the Wild

Captain Marvel

Harriet

The Irishman

The Last Thing He Wanted

Little Women

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

The Report

Toy Story 4

 

Best Director

Greta Gerwig for Little Women

Kassi Lemmons for Harriet

Chris Sanders for Call of the Wild

Martin Scorsese for The Irishman

Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

 

Best Actor

Christian Bale in Ford v Ferrari

Robert De Niro in The Irishman

Taron Egerton in Rocketman

Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Ian McKellen in The Good Liar

 

Best Actress

Amy Adams in The Woman In The Window

Cynthia Erivo in Harriet

Saoirse Ronan in Little Women

Emma Thompson in Late Night

Alfre Woodard in Clemency

 

Best Supporting Actor

Willem DaFoe in The Last Thing He Wanted

Matt Damon in Ford v Ferrari

Harrison Ford in Call of the Wild

Al Pacino in The Irishman

Brad Pitt in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

 

Best Supporting Actress

Annette Bening in The Report

Nicole Kidman in The Goldfinch

Janelle Monae in Harriet

Margot Robbie in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood

Meryl Streep in Little Women

 

After checking out my pointless predictions for February, be sure to check out my even more pointless predictions for January!