As awards season turns the corner, the National Society of Film Critics announced their annual honors and championed a slightly unexpected Best Picture winner, “Nickel Boys.” RaMell Ross’ artistic achievement surpassed Sean Baker’s “Anora” and Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine As Light.” Kapadia took best Director over Ross and Baker.
READ MORE: “Anora” named Best Picture by LA Film Critics
Jomo Fray also won Best Cinematography for “Nickel Boys.”
Notably, Marianne Jean-Baptiste won Best Actress. The “Hard Truths” star also won the New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association honors for her performance. She was followed by “Anora’s” Mikey Madison and Ilinca Manolache from “Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of the World.”
Colman Domingo won Best Actor for “Sing Sing” edging out “The Brutalist’s” Adrien Brody and “Conclave’s” Ralph Fiennes.
“A Real Pain’s” Kieran Culkin became only the third Supporting Actor winner to take the NSFC, the NYFCC, LAFCA, and that National Board of Review for the same performance. The other two were “The Florida Project’s” Willem Dafoe and “Terms of Endearment’s” Jack Nicholson. Runners-up in this category were Guy Pearce for “The Brutalist,” Edward Norton for “A Complete Unknown,” and Adam Pearson for “A Different Man.”
In another much-needed win for “Hard Truths,” Michelle Austin took Supporting Actress, the most prestigious win of an impressive career mostly in the U.K. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor of “Nickel Boys” and Natasha Lyonne of “Her Three Daughters” followed.
In the closest race of the day, Jesse Eisenberg took Best Screenplay for “A Real Pain” by one vote over Radu Jude for “Do Not Expect Too Much” who came in second by only one vote over Baker for “Anora.”
“No Other Land” took Nonfiction Film while “All We Imagine As Light” won Best Film Not in the English Language.
Founded in 1966, the National Society of Film Critics comprises over 60 film critics from across the United States.
A complete list of this year’s winners, runners up and honorees are as follows:
Best Picture: NICKEL BOYS (47 points)
Runners-up:
ANORA and ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (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 Actor: Colman Domingo, SING SING ( 60 points)
Runners-up:
Adrien Brody, THE BRUTALIST (51 points)
Ralph Fiennes, CONCLAVE (45 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 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 Supporting Actress: Michele Austin, HARD TRUTHS (55 points)
Runners-up:
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, NICKEL BOYS, and Natasha Lyonne, HIS THREE DAUGHTERS (39 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 Cinematography: Jomo Fray, NICKEL BOYS (80 points)
Runners-up:
Lol Crawley, THE BRUTALIST (38 points)
Jarin Blaschke, NOSFERATU (21 points)
Special Citation for a Film Awaiting U.S. Distribution: NO OTHER LAND
Best Experimental Film: THE BALLAD OF SUZANNE CÉSAIRE
Film Heritage Award: 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.
Film Heritage Award: 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” (2023), a revelatory study of the nexus of American politics and American pop culture.
