Writer-director Todd Field’s Tár topped two marquee categories at the New York Film Critics Circle competition today (12/2)–Best Film, with Cate Blanchett also earning Best Actress distinction in the title role..
Also coming away with two wins was The Banshees of Inisherin with Best Screenplay for its director, Martin McDonagh, and Best Actor for Colin Farrell. Actually Farrell garnered his award for two performances, the other being for his role in After Yang.
The big surprise was S.S. Rajamouli winning Best Director for RRR.
Best First Film went to director Charlotte Wells for Aftersun.
Claudio Miranda, ASC garnered the Best Cinematography honor for Top Gun: Maverick.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On–directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp won for Best Animated Film.
Topping the Best Nonfiction Film category was director Laura Poitras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. Named Best International Film was EO, directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.
Ke Huy Quan won for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Meanwhile Keke Palmer surprised with a Best Supporting Actress win for Nope.
The New York Film Critics Circle, founded in 1935, is the oldest critics group in the country, with members from newspapers, magazines and online publications. This year's winners were voted on and announced today. The group will hand out its awards at a dinner in early January.
Here’s a full rundown of winners as well as Special Award recipients.
Best Film:
Tár
Best Director:
S. S. Rajamouli, RRR
Best Actor:
Colin Farrell, After Yang and The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett, Tár
Best Supporting Actor:
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Supporting Actress:
Keke Palmer, Nope
Best Screenplay:
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Animated Film:
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Best Cinematography:
Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick
Best Non-Fiction Film:
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Best International Film:
EO
Best First Film:
Aftersun
Special Awards:
Jake Perlin, curator, distributor, publisher, in recognition of his indispensable contributions to film culture; dGenerate Films, for their invaluable work bringing independent films from China to a wider audience; and 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.
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