by Nathaniel R
The televised awards shows are about to take over but before they do, the NSFC has had their say. They're always the last major critics group to chime in, and unlike the other two members of the critical trinity (LAFCA & NYFCC) they have not chosen Roma. Instead that honor went to Chloe Zhao's rodeo injuries drama The Rider. I recently caught up with this arthouse sleeper hit and though I found it gorgeous and moving, it struck me as a bit modest in its artistic goals, or at least a touch repetitive about achieving them. So to each their own as far as "very best" goes but it's the kind of film that deserves to find ardent fans so it's wonderful that critics have gone to bat for it here and there. It's had such a long run; the film was actually an Indie Spirit nominee in 2017 due to its festival premieres so it's been kicking around with awards for an entire year now!
The full list of NSFC winners and a few more comments after the jump...
Best Picture: The Rider
Runners-Up: Roma and Burning
Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Runners-up: Lee Chang-dong, Burning, and Chloé Zhao, The Rider
Cuarón won all of the big three critics prizes.
Best Actress: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Runners-Up: Regina Hall, Support the Girls and Melissa McCarthy,Can You Ever Forgive Me?
I finally saw Support the Girls -now streaming on Hulu - so I get what the fuss is about. That said I still believe Regina wouldn't have been up for so many critics prizes given the tiny film and the deceptively "small" performance if NYFCC hadn't honored her at the beginning of the season. Why? Well, she's doing so much with the material but in very subtle ways in a film that never calls attention to its ACTING in the way most films that win acting prizes do. The point is that NYFCC remains influential and they used their platform for good :)
Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Runners-Up: Elizabeth Debicki, Widows and Emma Stone, The Favourite
Regina King, like Cuarón, won all three of the big critics prizes. Looove King in that movie but would it have killed one group to give Debicki a win? And why is the venerable NSFC supporting category fraud with clear lead Emma Stone? I cannot anymore with all these critics who dont realize how disrespectful this is to supporting actors. Critics are supposed to be using their critical thinking skills. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING! The Favourite has three leads but if you break down the plot Emma is basically the "leadiest" of the leads, haha!
Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed
Runners-Up: Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate, Ben Foster, Leave No Trace, and John C. Reilly for two films (The Sisters Brothers and Stan & Ollie)
Ethan Hawke won all three of the big critics prizes.
Best Supporting Actor: Steven Yeun, Burning
Runners-Up: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Brian Tyree Henry for three films (If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
All four acting winners are great performances so that's nice. Hopefully Oscar will also go with four greats, even if it's not these four.
Best Foreign Language Film: Roma
Runners-up: Cold War, Burning, and Shoplifters
Interestingly enough all four of these films split the big three critics prizes (LAFCA had a tie)
Best Non-Fiction Film: Minding the Gap
Runners-Up: Shirkers, and Amazing Grace
Best Cinematography: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Runners-Up: James Laxton, If Beale Street Could Talk and Lukasz Zal, Cold War
I'm so so sad that no critics groups could bring themselves to go there and look beyond Roma all season for this prize. Obviously Roma's visuals are awe-inspiring but so are these other two films!
Best Screenplay: Armando Iannucci, David Schneider and Ian Martin, The Death of Stalin
Runners-Up: Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, The Favourite
This is the only category (other than foreign film) where the big three critics groups all went with something different.