It’s the 60th year of the National Society of Film Critics. We met up in New York / Los Angeles / Zoom to vote today. We also have a couple of fun categories – like Best Experimental Film – and also a special citation for a film awaiting US distribution. This category is how I saw Víctor Erice’s Close Your Eyes and it quickly became the best film I saw that year, with or without distribution. (It did eventually get a release!) And then we vote on our Film Heritage Awards, given out to people and/or organizations who contribute to our cinema world. Happy with our choices.
BEST PICTURE
One Battle After Another
Runners-up: Sinners, The Secret Agent
BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Runners-up: Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident, Richard Linklater, Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague
BEST ACTRESS
Kathleen Chalfant, Familiar Touch
Runners-up: Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs Id Kick You, Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
BEST ACTOR
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Runners-up: Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent, Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
Runners-up: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value, Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
Runners-up: Delroy Lindo, Sinners, Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value
BEST SCREENPLAY
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Runners-up: Robert Kaplow, Blue Moon, Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent
BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The Secret Agent
Runners-up: It Was just an Accident, Sentimental Value
BEST NONFICTION FILM
My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow
Runners-up: The Perfect Neighbor, Orwell: 2+2=5
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Sinners
Runners-up: Adolpho Veloso, Train Dreams, Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another
SPECIAL CITATION FOR A FILM AWAITING U.S. DISTRIBUTION
Landmarks, directed by Lucrecia Martel
BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM
Morning Circle, directed by Basma al-Sharif
FILM HERITAGE AWARDS
Cinema Tropical, for its tireless efforts to distribute, program and promote Latin American cinema in the U.S.
The Film Desk, for releasing key movies from all over the world, in 35mm prints and on home video, and publishing books that have enriched the public’s knowledge of cinema.
The late Ken and Flo Jacobs, an irreplaceable, gravitational center of the American avant-garde, with a shared artistic sensibility that helped define experimental cinema.
