The National Society of Film Critics Awards has bestowed its marquee honor, Best Picture, upon The Rider (Sony Pictures Classics), director Chloé Zhao’s spiritual western drama. Zhao was a runner-up for Best Director, an honor that went to Alfonso Cuaron for Roma (Netflix), which topped the competition with three wins–the other two being for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography (for Cuaron).
Earning distinction as Best Non-Fiction Film was Bing Liu’s documentary Minding the Gap (Hulu, Kartemquin Films, ITVS).
Best Actor and Actress were Ethan Hawke and Olivia Colman, respectively, for First Reformed (A24) and The Favourite (Fox Searchlight).
Best Supporting Actress and Actor were Regina King and Steven Yeun, respectively, for If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna Pictures) and Burning (Well Go USA Entertainment).
Here’s a full rundown of award honorees:
Best Picture: The Rider
Runners-Up: Roma, Burning
Best Non-Fiction Film: Minding the Gap
Runners-Up: Shirkers, Amazing Grace
Best Foreign Language Film: Roma
Runners-Up: Cold War, Burning, Shoplifters
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron for Roma
Runners-Up: Lee Chang-Dong (Burning), Chloe Zhao (The Rider)
Best Actress: Olivia Colman for The Favourite
Runners-Up: Regina Hall (Support the Girls), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk
Runners-Up: Elizabeth Debicki (Widows), Emma Stone (The Favourite)
Best Actor: Ethan Hawke for First Reformed
Runners-Up: Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate), Ben Foster (Leave No Trace), John C. Reilly (The Sisters Brothers, Stan & Ollie)
Best Supporting Actor: Steven Yeun for Burning
Runners-Up: Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Brian Tyree Henry (If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
Best Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón for Roma
Runners-Up: James Laxton (If Beale Street Could Talk), Lukasz Zal (Cold War)
Best Screenplay: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider and Ian Martin for The Death of Stalin
Runners-Up: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (The Favourite)
Film Heritage Award: To the team of producers, editors, restorers, technicians and cineastes who labored for decades to bring Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind to completion for a new generation of movie lovers.
Film Heritage Award: To the Museum of Modern Art for restoring Ernst Lubitsch’s 1923 film Rosita, starring Mary Pickford.
Special Citation for a Film Awaiting U.S. Distribution: A Family Tour (Ying Liang, Taiwan/Hong Kong/Singapore/Malaysia)
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More