by Nathaniel R
Florida Film Critics Circle is the fourth major critics group to announce prizes and they've handed First Cow the top honor. For the curious when we say "major" we mean critics groups that existed before the absolute explosion of awards bodies -- which took place all throughout the Aughts and into the 2010s as well -- since they have a solid awards history and are unlikely to suddenly vanish as occassionally happens with smaller regional critics groups. Plus they are never a spin-off or offshoot of an already existing much longer-running critics prize from the same locale. ANYWAY... there hasn't been as much variety as we were expecting in this strange year. Among single films (excluding LAFCA's "collection" curveball) Only First Cow and Nomadland have picked up Best Picture prizes. Nobody but Chloe Zhao has won Best Director. Florida stays very closely in line with what we've heard so far but since they have a few additional craft categories we get a couple of new winners, too...
BEST PICTURE First Cow
Runner up: Nomadland/Trial of the Chicago 7/Minari
BEST ACTOR Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Runner up: John Magaro, First Cow
BEST ACTRESS Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Runners up: Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom/Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
Runner up: Brian Dennehy; Driveways
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Runner up: Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari
The winner and runner up here are the only two winners from critics groups thus far.
BEST ENSEMBLE Mangrove
Runner up: The Trial of the Chicago 7
Steve McQueen's Small Axe anthology continues to do well with critics prizes, reminding us that being released late in the year is always a boon for awardage! It's not just the Oscar voters who like new toys best.
BEST DIRECTOR Chloé Zhao, Nomadland
Runner up: Kelly Reichardt, First Cow, Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Though there hasn't been much variety in critics prizes yet, this is the category where there's the least variety. Zhao has won every Best Director prize thus far.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Runner up: Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Charlie Kaufman, I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Runners up: Chloé Zhao, Nomadland/ Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Erik Messerschmidt, Mank
Runner up: Shabier Kirchner, Lovers Rock
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Murray Barber, Possessor
Runner up: Andrew Jackson, Tenet
BEST ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION Donald Graham Burt, Mank
Runner up: Helen Scott, Lovers Rock
BEST SCORE Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross/Jon Batiste, Soul
Runner up: Ludwig Göransson, Tenet
Soul seems popular in this category. But Reznor and Ross have competition from themselves for a Best Score nomination since they also composed for Mank.
BEST DOCUMENTARY You Don’t Nomi
Runner up: Dick Johnson is Dead
Fun choice.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Los Fuertes
Runner up: Minari
Los Fuertes, also known as The Strong Ones is a Chilean film. It's mostly been limited to queer film festivals. Strange to have Minari be a runner up for Best Film (when this one is not) but not win this but these oddities often happen in critics awards since the voting is generally done by either discussions or voting rounds and on a category by category basis.
BEST ANIMATED FILM Soul
Runner up: Wolfwalkers
BEST FIRST FILM Promising Young Woman
Runner up: The Father
BREAKOUT AWARD Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Runner up: Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
THE GOLDEN ORANGE AWARD ENZIAN Theater
MEANWHILE...
The Boston Online Film Critics Awards (BOFCA), which began in 2012 and should not to be confused with the long running famous Boston Society of Film Critics (which we already covered) have also announced their Nomadland-loving prizes which go like so.
Best Picture NOMADLAND
Best Director Chloé Zhao, NOMADLAND
Best Actor Delroy Lindo, DA 5 BLOODS
Best Actress Frances McDormand, NOMADLAND
Best Supporting Actor Paul Raci, SOUND OF METAL
Best Supporting Actress Maria Bakalova, BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
Best Screenplay Charlie Kaufman, I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS
Best Ensemble MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM
Best Score Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, SOUL
Best Cinematography Joshua James Richards, NOMADLAND
Best Editing Chloé Zhao, NOMADLAND
Best Documentary THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF
Best International Film BACURAU
Best Animated Film WOLFWALKERS
1. NOMADLAND 2. FIRST COW 3. DA 5 BLOODS 4. NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS 5. MINARI 6. LOVERS ROCK 7. I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS 8. PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN 9. MANK 10. DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD