Jafar Panahi on the set of IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT | © Neon
In the blink of an eye, the awards season goes from a sleepy little non-starter into a breakneck race for gold. In the past few days, various organizations announced their prizes, so it's time to start doing more of these round-ups. Though, if things continue to go the way of these first few groups, you'll soon grow tired of reading One Battle After Another at the top of these things. PTA's critical darling won the top honor at the Gotham Film Awards, from the New York and Atlanta critics, as well as the NBR.
But that wasn't the only story of the past few days. Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi has, again, been sentenced to prison, banned from travelling or making films. As the It Was Just An Accident auteur has been living outside Iran since his last travel ban was lifted in 2023, the proceedings were conducted in absentia, and Panahi remains free. However, he has said he'll return to Iran to complete his sentence after the season ends. May these awards and encompassing media circus provide a platform for the director to speak up before he is silenced once more…
That said, it's inappropriate to reduce his plight to a matter of prizes and steps on the way to potential Academy gold. Indeed, when faced with many of these plaudits, some are prone to say they don't matter. Usually, this means they don't have much effect on the Oscar race or serve as predictors. However, do we really want these institutions honoring film to reduce themselves to punditry? They should be rewarding the best of cinema in their voters' view, celebrating artists, giving them and their works a spotlight. So, they do matter in their own way, especially when they deviate from dominant narratives and elevate a film that doesn't have many eyes on it.
With that in mind, let's see those winner lists and examine the picks. Because Oscar punditry is still in demand at The Film Experience, I'll touch on that, of course. Still, the honoring of great art should always be the priority.
GOTHAM FILM AWARDS
Best Feature: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Director: Jafar Panahi, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Outstanding Lead Performance: Sopé Dìrísù, MY FATHER'S SHADOW
Outstanding Supporting Performance: Wunmi Mosaku, SINNERS
Best Original Screenplay: Jafar Panahi, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Best Adapted Screenplay: Harry Lighton, PILLION
Best Documentary Feature: MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART I – LAST AIR IN MOSCOW
Best International Feature: IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Breakthrough Director: Akinola Davies Jr., MY FATHER'S SHADOW
Breakthrough Performer: Abou Sangaré, SOULEYMANE'S STORY
Earlier, when the Gothams announced their nominees, some – including me – grumbled about how mainstream and even studio-bound a lot of the ballot seemed. These awards have been about spotlighting independent cinema, so why are they doing tributes to Netflix movies? In any case, while it's still possible to criticize how commercial and Oscar-bound a couple of these choices are, the winners list managed to redeem the whole affair and prove the early critics – again, myself included – wrong.
The night's big winners were OBAA and Jafar Panahi, with the former starting what's looking like a Best Picture sweep. The latter marked his first public appearance after the news of his sentence and managed to deliver three acceptance speeches. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, nor the message more urgent – a fitting reflection of the film being honored.
Voters from the various juries were even more inspired in other categories. Sopé Dìrísu and Akinola Davies Jr.'s victories should draw more eyes to My Father's Shadow, one of the year's best and most criminally underdiscussed films. Wunmi Mosaku's win is an unexpected wrinkle in the expectations of many critics regarding the Sinners cast. In the eyes of many, the men seemed more likely to garner buzz, but maybe it was her all along, so steadfast and evocative as the film's emotional anchor and voice of reason. Abou Sangaré is a tremendous pick for Breakthrough Performer, too. Actually, he might be my favorite single win of the lot. Also, this is the second year in a row where all of the Gotham acting awards go to Black thespians.
Finally, Pillion and My Undesirable Friends have a snowball's chance in hell of actually crashing the Oscar race, so their celebration here feels even more important. The former has the star power to be in consideration, but the subject matter is bound to turn more mainstream voters off. It's a pity, as Lighton's adaptation of the Box Hill novella is a thing of beauty, changing the text in radical manners while preserving much of its essence. As for Julia Loktev's documentary, it's a five-hour mammoth of a thing, a marathon watch for those brave enough to try it. In other words, the doc needs all possible promotion, any help, and visibility.
NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Best Film: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Director: Jafar Panahi, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Best Actress: Rose Byrne, IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU
Best Actor: Wagner Moura, THE SECRET AGENT
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan, WEAPONS
Best Supporting Actor: Benicio del Toro, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Screenplay: Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie, MARTY SUPREME
Best Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, SINNERS
Best Animated Film: KPOP DEMON HUNTERS
Best Non-Fiction Film: MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART I – LAST AIR IN MOSCOW
Best International Film: THE SECRET AGENT
Best First Film: Carson Lund, EEPHUS
Best Film, Director, and Documentary are all Gotham repeats, so let's not spend much time on them. Except, perhaps, to point out that Panahi making it to the Oscar five is looking more and more probable.
Where things get interesting is those acting awards. For months, folks have been underestimating Amy Madigan as a viable contender, dismissing her as an internet thing. Well, here she is, proving the naysayers wrong. A similar thing could be said for Benicio del Toro, whose effortless-looking stint in One Battle After Another seems like the kind of achievement that's too low-key to earn voters' support. Sean Penn was seen as OBAA's main bid in Supporting Actor, though perhaps it isn't so. Also, thank heavens for a slate of supporting winners with not a lead in sight.
Wagner Moura got the NYFCC some of the biggest social media engagement they've ever seen and, like del Toro, marks the rare occasion when a deliberately low-key approach wins out over the more ostentatious showstoppers. He's also the first Latin actor to win this prize from the NYFCC. Rose Byrne is on the opposite end of the demonstrativeness spectrum, pushing so hard she risks grotesquerie, alienation, even revulsion. It's a major get for Byrne, who joins an elite group of performances that has recently included Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Lily Gladstone, and Cate Blanchett.
Some folks were surprised by Eephus' win, though they shouldn't have. Not only is it a wonderful little piece of meditative, melancholic Americana, but Lund was once a working film critic in New York. Another winner that might have benefited from some hometown advantage was Marty Supreme, the most New York movie of the season and a high-wire act that, at the last minute, slots its thematic thesis into place in a way that retroactively enriches all that came before. While I'm much less excited about Josh Safdie's work than many critics, it's still an understandable and worthy choice for such a prize.
Sinners' cinematography victory is also understandable, though I find Autumn Durald Arkapaw's work exceedingly inconsistent. For punditry's sake, you'd better pencil her in as an early-season favorite. The same should be said for KPop Demon Hunters. If the Netflix hit could score with this particular group, then it would seem the race is over. For context, in the last few years, the NYFCC has awarded Flow, The Boy and the Heron, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Wolfwalkers, and I Lost My Body. Recently, only The Mitchells vs. The Machines fits into the same model of the Kpop flick, streaming origins and all.
ATLANTA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Top 10 Films:
- ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
- SINNERS
- WEAPONS
- HAMNET
- MARTY SUPREME
- IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
- NO OTHER CHOICE
- SENTIMENTAL VALUE
- TRAIN DREAMS
- THE SECRET AGENT
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Runner-up: Ryan Coogler, SINNERS
Best Lead Actress: Jessie Buckley, HAMNET
Runner-up: Rose Byrne, IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU
Best Lead Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Runner-up: Michael B. Jordan, SINNERS
Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan, WEAPONS
Runner-Up: Teyana Taylor, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Supporting Actor: Benicio del Toro, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Runner-up: Sean Penn, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Breakthrough Performance: Chase Infiniti, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Voice Performance: Arden Cho, KPOP DEMON HUNTERS
Runner-up: Jason Bateman, ZOOTOPIA 2
Best Ensemble Cast: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Runner-up: SINNERS
Best Stunt Work: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING
Runner-up: F1
Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler, SINNERS
Runner-up: Zach Cregger, WEAPONS
Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Runner-up: Maggie O'Farrell & Chloé Zhao, HAMNET
Best Cinematography: Michael Bauman, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Runner-up: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, SINNERS
Best Animated Film: KPOP DEMON HUNTERS
Runner-up: ARCO
Best Documentary: THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR
Runner-up: THE ALABAMA SOLUTION
Best International Feature: IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Runner-up: NO OTHER CHOICE
Best First Feature: Eva Victor, SORRY, BABY
Chase Infiniti is going to sweep most of the regional critics groups' Breakthrough categories, isn't she? Not an undeserved honor, but, as a firm believer in spreading the wealth, I hope some associations are more creative than the Atlanta voters. Still thinking of awards season repetition, it's notable that the supporting categories went to the same folks who won New York. Indeed, it's even more notable that Penn was in the running here, so there's not even the argument that the voters might have considered him a lead and took him out of their Best Supporting Actor ballots. He came close here, but del Toro dominates.
It's also worth pointing out that, though Byrne didn't win here, she's still very much in the conversation, alongside the presumed Oscar frontrunner. Many of Neon's European festival purchases are also showing strength. Punditry aside, it's marvelous to see so many non-English-language films in a collective top ten.
NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW
Best Film: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Actress: Rose Byrne, IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Supporting Actress: Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, SENTIMENTAL VALUE
Best Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Breakthrough Performance: Chase Infiniti, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler, SINNERS
Best Adapted Screenplay: Clint Bentley & Greg Kwendar, TRAIN DREAMS
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, SINNERS
Outstanding Achievement in Stunt Artistry: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING
Best Animated Feature: ARCO
Best Documentary: COVER-UP
Best International Film: IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Best Directorial Debut: Eva Victor, SORRY, BABY
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK
While not a critics organization, the National Board of Review is often lumped together with the various critics honors of the season. This year, they went gaga for OBAA, with DiCaprio repeating his Atlanta victory in the Best Actor category. Infiniti in breakthrough and del Toro in Supporting Actor are other repeats. In fact, so far this season, American awards-wise, del Toro is the only supporting actor to win any prize.
Byrne keeps getting love, for which I'm very thankful, even if it doesn't turn into an Oscar nomination. Many of any given year's best performances are never even in the conversation or honored with plaudits. To see Byrne's fearless turn receive such wins is a blessing in itself. As is Lilleaas' win here. Some of you may know that I'm not the world's biggest Sentimental Value fan, but her work is exceptional. Moreover, she's not committing egregious category fraud like her co-star and Best Supporting Actor hopeful Stellan Skarsgård.
Finally, something other than KPop Demon Hunters gets some love in the Animated categories, and we also have Laura Poitras' latest showing up in Documentary. Sorry, Baby feels like the Infiniti equivalent of Directorial Debut awards, while Sinners is claiming supremacy in Cinematography. Coogler got the Original Screenplay prize for the same vampire flick, and Train Dreams proves an interesting Adapted Screenplay honoree.
Per tradition, the NBR also announces their top tens, which do not include their topmost favorites. So… these are actually top elevens and sixes if you remember One Battle After Another, It Was Just An Accident, and Cover-Up are their favorite film, international feature, and documentary, respectively. I guess their Independent Films selection is an actual tenner, so there's that.
Top Films:
- AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH
- F1
- FRANKENSTEIN
- JAY KELLY
- MARTY SUPREME
- SINNERS
- RENTAL FAMILY
- TRAIN DREAMS
- WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
- WICKED: FOR GOOD
Top 10 Independent Films:
- THE BALTIMORONS
- BRING HER BACK
- FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHER
- FRIENDSHIP
- GOOD BOY
- IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU
- THE MASTERMIND
- REBUILDING
- SORRY, BABY
- URCHIN
Top 5 Documentaries:
- 2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA
- COME SEE ME IN THE GOOD LIGHT
- MY MOM JAYNE
- NATCHEZ
- ORWELL: 2+2=5
Top 5 International Films:
- LEFT-HANDED GIRL
- THE LOVE THAT REMAINS
- THE SECRET AGENT
- SENTIMENTAL VALUE
- SIRAT
Damn, they included almost all of Netflix's contenders across the board. Which makes the one absence all the more notable – no love for A House of Dynamite? All in all, their top ten is awfully mainstream, stuffed with studio and blockbuster fare. Not even the poor reviews Wicked: For Good received kept it from scoring here. The biggest surprise falls into the conventional side of things, too, with Rental Family fighting its way back into the conversation after a tepid reception.
On the Independent Film front, it's nice to see the NBR actually supporting If I Had Legs I'd Kick You beyond its leading lady. Also, Bring Her Back and Urchin stand out like two sore thumbs, the only non-American productions of the lot. However, in the former's case, it was an A24 project, despite its Australian team.
The docs are mostly respectable choices, though I can't say I'm too enthused about the latest Peck. As for the international films, the big surprises are Sirat and The Love That Remains over No Other Choice. I'm especially pleased about the Icelandic experiment in tonally-twisted domestic theater, a fascinating feature that deserves more love than it's been getting so far. Playing out of competition at Cannes probably didn't help, but it was legitimately better than, at least, a third of the main selection, if not more. Going back to the Spanish desert tragedy, this mention, along with its fresh Spirit Award nomination, might inspire Neon to change up some of its plans regarding the season and the campaigns they've been building up to this point.
What do you make of these early awards? Are you excited about an OBAA sweep or dreading months of endless repetition?