The New York Film Critics Circle Honors The Brutalist

Posted on December 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The New York Film Critics Circle has announced their picks for the best of 2024 and it was a good day for The Brutalist, RaMell Ross, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Kieran Culkin, and — in probably the biggest surprise of the voting — Carol Kane! As for the social media reaction, there are a lot of happy Brutalist fans but there’s also currently a lot of very angry Wicked stans.

Here are the winners:

Best Picture: The Brutalist

Best Director: RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys

Best Actor: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

Best Screenplay: Sean Baker, Anora

Best International Feature: All We Imagine As Light

Best Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths

Best Supporting Actress: Carol Kane, Between the Temples

Best Non-Fiction Film: No Other Land

Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys

Best First Film: Janet Planet

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Best Animated Film: Flow

The New York Film Critics Circle Honors Killers Of the Flower Moon!

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the New York Film Critics Circle announced their picks for the best of 2023, with Oppenheimer picking up awards for Cinematography and Direction while Killers of the Flower Moon won both Best Picture and Best Actress.

I guess the most unexpected result of the voting was Franz Rogowski’s victory for Best Actor. Over the next few days, we’ll see if that’s an outlier or if Rogowski is going to emerge as a legitimate Oscar contender.

Here are the winners!

Best Film: “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)

Best Director: Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)

Best Actor: Franz Rogowski, “Passages” (Mubi)

Best Actress: Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)

Best Supporting Actor: Charles Melton, “May December” (Netflix)

Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)

Best Screenplay: “May December” (Netflix) — Samy Burch, Alex Mechanik

Best Animated Film: “The Boy and the Heron” (GKids)

Best Cinematography: “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) — Hoyte van Hoytema

Best First Film: “Past Lives” (A24) — dir. Celine Song

Best International: “Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)

Best Non-Fiction Film: “Menus-Plaisirs-Les Troisgros” (Zipporah Films) — dir. Frederick Wiseman

Special mention: The NYFCC awarded cash prizes to two regional students — Mick Gaw (New York University, undergraduate) and Katherine Prior (Brooklyn College, graduate) — focusing on film criticism and journalism.

Special Award: Karen Cooper for her five decades of creative leadership as director of Film Forum.

The New York Film Critics Circle Honors TAR, Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Ke Huy Quan, Keke Palmer, and S.S. Rajamouli!

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

And awards season is here!

Today, the New York Film Critics Circle announced their picks for the best of 2022! The NYFCC is one of the many critics groups that will be announcing their picks over the upcoming weeks. The NYFCC is considered to be one of the better precursors out there so a win is definitely a big deal. (Last year, for instance, the NYFCC started the movement that eventually led to Drive My Car picking up a Best Picture nomination.)

Here are the NYFCC winners for 2022:

Best Picture: TAR

Best Director: S. S. Rajamouli, RRR
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, TAR
Best Actor: Colin Farrell, After Yang and The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Screenplay: Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Best International Film: EO
Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick
Best Supporting Actress: Keke Palmer, Nope
Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Non-Fiction Film: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Best Animated Feature: Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
Best First Film: Aftersun

SPECIAL AWARD 1: Jake Perlin, curator, distributor, publisher, in recognition of his indispensable contributions to film culture.

SPECIAL AWARD 2: dGenerate Films, For their invaluable work bringing independent films from China to a wider audience

SPECIAL AWARD 3: Jafar Panahi, for his dogged bravery as an artist, and for the humanity and beauty of a body of work created under the most oppressive circumstances.

The New York Film Critics Circle Honors Lady Gaga and Drive My Car!

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their picks for the best of 2021 today and there were some surprises. I don’t think anyone was predicting that Drive My Car would win Best Film. But that’s part of the fun of an unpredictable awards season. Occasionally, there’s a surprise or two.

Here are the winners in New York:

Best Film
Drive My Car

Best Director
Jane Campion – The Power Of The Dog

Best Screenplay
Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza

Best Actress
Lady Gaga – House Of Gucci

Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power Of The Dog

Best Supporting Actress
Kathryn Hunter – The Tragedy Of Macbeth

Best Supporting Actor
Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power Of The Dog

Best Cinematography
West Side Story

Best Animated Feature
The Mitchells vs. The Machines

Best Non-Fiction Film
Flee

Best Foreign Language Film
The Worst Person In The World

Best First Film
The Lost Daughter

Special Awards
– Maya Cade for the creation of the Black Film Archive
– Diane Weyermann, posthumous award for supporting daring and impactful filmmaking at Sundance and Participant
– Marshall Fine for his years of service as NYFCC’s General Manager and decades on the NY film scene

The New York Film Critics Circle Honors First Cow

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Earlier today, the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) announced their picks for the best of 2020!

And here they are:

Best Film
First Cow

Best Director
Chloé Zhao – Nomadland

Best Screenplay
Eliza Hittman – Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Best Actress
Sidney Flanigan – Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Best Actor
Delroy Lindo – Da 5 Bloods

Best Supporting Actress
Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Best Supporting Actor
Chadwick Boseman – Da 5 Bloods

Best Cinematography
Small Axe (All Films)

Best Animated Feature
Wolfwalkers

Best Non-Fiction Film
Time

Best Foreign Language Film
Bacurau

Best First Film
The Forty-Year-Old-Version

Special Awards
Kino Lorber, for their creation of Kino Marquee, a virtual cinema distribution service that was designed to help support movie theaters, not destroy them.
Spike Lee for inspiring the New York community with his short film “New York New York” and for advocating for a better society through cinema.

New York Film Critics Circle Honor The Irishman, Banderas, and Nyong’o!

Posted on December 4, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The New York Film Critics Circle just voted on and announced their picks for the best of 2019! (It took about four and a half hours, which is quick by NYFCC standards.) The Irishman winning Best Picture isn’t a shock but just check out some of the other winners! The Safdie Brothers for best director! Lupita Nyong’o and Antonio Banderas for best lead performances! Check out all the love given to international films!

Now, just because a critics group embraces a film or performance, that doesn’t mean the Oscars will do the same. (Last year, for instance, Regina Hall was deservedly named best actress but was snubbed by the Academy.) Still, these awards will keep these names in the conversation and both Banderas and Nyong’o — who, despite their acclaimed performances, have been overshadowed by Adams Driver and Sandler and Renee Zellweger — will probably see at least a little renewed interest as a result of these wins.

Here are the NYFCC winners!

Best Picture: The Irishman
Best Director: The Safdie Brothers for Uncut Gems
Best Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Best Actress: Lupita Nyong’o in Us
Best Actor: Antonio Banderas in Pain & Glory
Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern in Marriage Story and Little Women
Best Supporting Actor: Joe Pesci in The Irishman
Best Cinematography: Claire Mathon, Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Best Non-fiction Film: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov, “Honeyland” (NEON)
Best Foreign Language Film: “Parasite” (South Korea)
Best Animated Feature: Jérémy Clapin, “I Lost My Body” (Netflix)
Best First Film: Mati Diop, “Atlantics”
Special Award For Career Achievement: Randy Newman
Special Award: Indie Collect

The New York Film Critics Circle Honors Roma, Hawke, and Hall!

Posted on November 29, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their picks for the best of 2018 earlier today. The victories for Roma, Regina King, and Richard E. Grant are not surprising, as all three of them have been getting awards buzz for months.

Ethan Hawke’s victory for First Reformed is a bit more surprising because, even though his performance was widely acclaimed, I think a lot of people assumed that First Reformed came out too early in the year to be an awards contender. (That’s proving to not be the case, which is a good thing because Hawke’s performance definitely deserves consideration.)

The biggest surprise was Regina Hall’s victory for Support the Girls, a film that I haven’t seen yet, Is this going to lead to Oscar glory or is this going to be one of those fluke awards that occasionally happens during awards season? Time will tell but it’s unexpected awards like this that make me love this time of year.

(And yes, I will be watching Support the Girls as soon as I can. That’s another good thing about awards season. It can inspire you to take a chance on movies that you might otherwise have missed.)

BEST PICTURE: “Roma” (Netflix)
BEST DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma” (Netflix)
BEST ACTOR: Ethan Hawke, “First Reformed” (A24)
BEST ACTRESS: Regina Hall, “Support the Girls” (Magnolia Pictures)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk” (Annapurna Pictures)
BEST SCREENPLAY: “First Reformed” by Paul Schrader (A24)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Alfonso Cuaron, “Roma” (Netflix)
BEST ANIMATED FILM: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman (Sony Pictures Animation)
BEST NON-FICTION AWARD: “Minding the Gap” by Bing Liu (Hulu)
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: “Cold War” by Pawel Pawlikowski – Poland (Amazon Studios)
BEST FIRST FILM: Bo Burnham, “Eighth Grade” (A24)
SPECIAL AWARD: David Schwartz, stepping down as Chief Film Curator at Museum of the Moving Image after 33 years AND Kino Classics Box Set “Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers”

The New York Film Critics Circle Embraces Lady Bird

Posted on November 30, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On Thursday, the New York Film Critics Circle announced their picks for the best of 2017! For best picture, they selected Lady Bird. If nothing else, that’s a relief to those of us who were scared the entire precursor season would be dominated by The Post.

Here are the winners:

Best Film – “Lady Bird”
Best Director – Sean Baker, “The Florida Project”
Best Actor – Timothee Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Best Actress – Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Best Supporting Actor – Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Best Supporting Actress – Tiffany Haddish, “Girls Trip”
Best Screenplay – Paul Thomas Anderson, “Phantom Thread”
Best Animated Feature – “Coco”
Best Non-Fiction Film – “Faces Places”
Best Foreign Language Film – “BPM (Beats Per Minute)”
Best Cinematography – Rachel Morrison, “Mudbound”
Best First Film – Jordan Peele, “Get Out”
Special Achievement Award – Molly Haskell

La La Land, Moonlight, and Manchester By The Sea Wins With The New York Film Critics Circle

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The New York Film Critics Circle met today and announced their picks for the best of 2016! The awards were pretty evenly divided between the three films that are rapidly emerging as the early Oscar front runners — Manchester By The Sea, Moonlight, and La La Land!

Here are the winners!

BEST FILM: “La La Land”
BEST DIRECTOR: Barry Jenkins for “Moonlight”
BEST ACTRESS: Isabelle Huppert for both “Elle” and “The Things to Come”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Michelle Williams for both “Manchester by the Sea” and “Certain Women”
BEST FIRST FILM: (TIE) “The Edge of Seventeen” and “Krisha”
BEST SCREENPLAY: Kenneth Lonergan for “Manchester by the Sea”
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: “Toni Erdmann”
BEST ANIMATED FILM: “Zootopia”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – Mahershala Ali for “Moonlight”
BEST ACTOR – Casey Affleck for “Manchester by the Sea”
SPECIAL AWARDS: One for editor Thelma Schoonmaker, the other for Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” 25th Anniversary Restoration