The longest-acting movie awards voting committee got it done in about 3 1/2 hours this year, with the New York Film Critics Circle finally naming Focus Features’ Tar as Best film of 2022. The movie, which reps filmmaker Todd Fields return to the camera in 16 years also saw its star Cate Blanchett win Best Actress.
The NYFCC is known for bestowing wins to indie movies and the org can take as long as five hours to deliberate on the day they announce wins. Typically whatever film the group names as Best Picture doesn’t always translate to an Oscar Best Picture win, the last title to do so was 2011’s The Artist.
That’s not to say their winners aren’t in the Oscar mix. Last year, the NYFCC named Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car its Best Film with the pic continuing on to win Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. Jane Campion last year received Best Director for Power of the Dog, and went on to win Best Director at the Oscars. Among the NYCC’s previous Best Pics are Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow in 2020, Netflix’s back-to-back 2019 and 2018 wins respectively with The Irishman and Roma. Then there was A24’s Greta Gerwig directed movie Ladybird in 2017, preceded by La La Land (2016), Carol (2015) and Boyhood (2014). When it comes to a traditional major motion picture studio winning best picture at the NYFCC, it was Sony with American Hustle (2013), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and Social Network (2010).
Among the top honors this year from NYFCC were RRR‘s S.S. Rajamouli for Best Director, Martin McDonagh taking Best Screenplay for The Banshees of Inisherin and the pic’s Colin Farrell getting Best Actor. There’s also a few A24 movies: Ke Huy Quan for Best Supporting Actor from the biggest arthouse hit of the year, Everything Everywhere All at Once; Marcel the Shell With Shoes On for Best Animated Film, Best First Film for Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun with Farrell getting double recognized for the distrib’s sci-fi drama pic After Yang. Wells also wrote Aftersun which follows Sophie (Frankie Corio) who reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father (Paul Mescal) 20 years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t.
Other winners so far include Poland’s Oscar submission EO, where a donkey is the star, won Best International Film. Venice Golden Lion winner All the Beauty and the Bloodshed has won Best Non-Fiction Film.
“Today’s NYFCC winners reflect the broad range of our tastes, as well as what’s exciting audiences at cinemas today,” stated NYFCC Chair Jordan Hoffman. “It’s a stimulating group of movies, and our gala event in January is bound to be a memorable one.”
Founded in 1935, the New York Film Critics Circle is the oldest critics group in the country. The NYFCC’s membership includes critics from daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and the web’s most respected online publications.
The group’s award winner will be in early January in NYC.
BEST FILM
Tar
BEST DIRECTOR
S.S. Rajamouli, RRR
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, Tar
BEST ACTOR
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin and After Yang
BEST SCREENPLAY
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
EO (Poland)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Claudio Miranda, Top Gun: Maverick
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Keke Palmer, Nope
A24/Courtest Everett Collection
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
BEST NON-FICTION FILM
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
SPECIAL AWARDS
–Jake Perlin, curator, distributor and publisher in recognition of his indispensable contributions to film culture.
–dGenerate Films for their invaluable work bringing independent films to China.
–Jafar Panahi, for “dogged bravery as an artist, and for the humanity and beauty of a body of work created under the most oppressive circumstances.
BEST FIRST FILM
Aftersun
This year’s voting members include: Sam Adams (Slate), Siddhant Adlakha (freelance), Melissa Anderson (4 Columns), Michael Atkinson (freelance), Jason Bailey (Playlist), Richard Brody (New Yorker), Dwight Brown (NNPA Syndication), Kameron Austin Collins (Rolling Stone), Bilge Ebiri (New York), David Ehrlich (IndieWire), Kate Erbland (IndieWire), David Fear (Rolling Stone), Graham Fuller (freelance), Owen Gleiberman (Variety), Ed Gonzalez (Slant), Leah Greenblatt (EW), Steven D. Greydanus (National Catholic Register), Rafer Guzman (Newsday), Caryn James (BBC), Eric Kohn (IndieWire), Tomris Laffly (freelance), Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair), Violet Lucca (freelance), Soraya Nadia McDonald (Andscape), Sheila O’Malley (Rogerebert.com), Rex Reed (New York Observer), David Rooney (Hollywood Reporter), Nick Schager (Daily Beast), David Sims (The Atlantic), Kyle Smith (Wall Street Journal), Dana Stevens (Slate), Amy Taubin (Artforum), Peter Travers (ABC), Keith Uhlich (freelance), Elizabeth Weitzman (The Wrap), Stephen Whitty (freelance), Alissa Wilkinson (Vox), Alison Willmore (New York), Stephanie Zacharek (Time), and Esther Zuckerman (freelance).
