Director Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow earned Best Feature distinction at the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) Awards today (12/18). The Best Director honor went to Chloe Zhao for Nomadland.
Da 5 Bloods and Never Rarely Sometimes Always were the only two films to win more than one award. Each garnered two honors with Never Rarely Sometimes Always scoring Best Screenplay for Eliza Hittman and Best Actress for Sidney Flanigan. Da 5 Bloods saw Delroy Lindo win for Best Actor and the late Chadwick Boseman for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, Spike Lee, director of Da 5 Bloods, won a special award for his short film New York, New York Love Letter, a salute to the Big Apple during the pandemic.
Maria Bakalova was named Best Supporting Actress on the strength of her performance in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. Time won for Best Documentary while Wolfwalkers took the Best Animated Film mantle. Radha Blank came up a winner for Best First Film on the basis of The 40-Year-Old Version. Bacurau earned recognition as Best Foreign Language Film. And Shabier Kirchner was named Best Cinematographer for his lensing of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology
Lee wasn’t the only Special Award winner. Also taking a special honor was Kino Lorber for its Kino Marquee Virtual Cinema.
The NYFCC selection for Best Feature frequently goes on to perform well on the Oscars front. Recent NYFCC Best Features included The Irishman, Roma, Lady Bird and La La Land which all wound up with Academy Award nominations for Best Picture.
Here’s a full rundown of NYFCC 2020 winners:
Best Picture
First Cow
Best Director
Chloe 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 Cinematographer
Shabier Kirchner
SMALL AXE
Best Animated Film
Wolfwalkers
Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary)
Time
Best Foreign Language Film
Bacurau
Best First Film
Radha Blank
THE 40-YEAR-OLD VERSION
Special Award
Kino Lorber
KINO MARQUEE VIRTUAL CINEMA
Special Award
Spike Lee
”NEW YORK NEW YORK” LOVE LETTER
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More