The National Society of Film Critics has voted Nickel Boys as The Best Picture of 2024. The Society, which is made up of more than 60 of the country’s most prominent movie critics, held its 59th annual awards voting meeting on Saturday (1/4). Critics voted at in-person gatherings in Los Angeles and New York, and also participated virtually from across the country.
Nickel Boys also picked up the Best Cinematography honor for DP Jomo Fray.
Also picking up two honors apiece were All We Imagine as Light, Hard Truths and A Real Pain. Payal Kapadia was named Best Director for All We Imagine as Light, which was named Best Film Not In The English Language.
Hard Truths won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin, respectively.
And A Real Pain garnered Best Screenplay for Jesse Eisenberg, and Best Supporting Actor for Kieran Culkin.
Earning Best Actor distinction was Colman Domingo for Sing Sing.
No Other Land was named Best Nonfiction Film.
Here’s a full rundown of the winners and runners-up (with point totals) as voted by the National Society of Film Critics:
BEST PICTURE: “Nickel Boys” (47 points)
Runners-up:
“All We Imagine as Light” and “Anora” (34 points)
BEST DIRECTOR: Payal Kapadia, “All We Imagine as Light” (49 points)
Runners-up:
RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys” (42 points)
Sean Baker, “Anora” (33 points)
BEST ACTRESS: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths” (79 points)
Runners-up:
Mikey Madison, “Anora” (35 points)
Ilinca Manolache, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” (32 points)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Michele Austin, “Hard Truths” (55 points)
Runners-up:
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, “Nickel Boys,” and Natasha Lyonne, “His Three Daughters” (39 points)
BEST ACTOR: Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing” (60 points)
Runners-up:
Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist” (51 points)
Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave” (45 points)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” (52 points)
Runners-up:
Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist” (50 points)
Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown,” and Adam Pearson, “A Different Man” (41 points)
BEST SCREENPLAY: Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain” (47 points)
Runners-up:
Radu Jude, “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” (46 points)
Sean Baker, “Anora” (45 points)
BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: “All We Imagine as Light” (49 points)
Runners-up:
“Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World” (41 points)
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (28 points)
BEST NONFICTION FILM: “No Other Land” (70 points)
Runners-up:
“Dahomey” (51 points)
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” (24 points)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jomo Fray, “Nickel Boys” (80 points)
Runners-up:
Lol Crawley, “The Brutalist” (38 points)
Jarin Blaschke, “Nosferatu” (21 points)
BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM: “The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire”
SPECIAL CITATION FOR A FILM AWAITING U.S. DISTRIBUTION: “No Other Land”
FILM HERITAGE AWARDS:
— Scott Eyman, for his outstanding books on film artists and epochal shifts in moviemaking, most recently with “Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided,” a revelatory study of the nexus of American politics and American pop culture.
— IndieCollect, which, since its founding in 2010 by Sandra Schulberg, has met the challenge of preserving independent films with a rare sense of artistic responsibility.
— To Save and Project: The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation, for more than two decades of superb restorations and diverse programming from all over the world, in collaboration with archives, foundations, studios and other organizations.
