During a busy week for the awards race, the New York Film Critics Circle weighed in with its picks for the year’s best in movies, bestowing its top prize on The Brutalist.
Brady Corbet’s 215-minute epic also picked up the best-actor award for Adrien Brody, who stars as a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who emigrates to the United States and hopes to achieve the American dream.
The NYFCC, which was founded in 1935, is made up of critics from newspapers, magazines, and online publications who meet in New York to vote on their winners every December. They often back films that go on to be strong contenders in the Oscar race, and can give a boost to a film that needs momentum during this key time ahead of voting. They selected Killers of the Flower Moon as the best film last year and Tár in 2022. Their winners come just a day after the star-studded Gotham Awards took place in New York, where Sing Sing earned two acting awards and A Different Man took the best-film prize.
Nickel Boys director RaMell Ross was honored with the best-director prize, which comes on the heels of his win for the same award the night before at the Gothams. The film has had a very good couple of days, with actor Brandon Wilson also picking up the breakthrough-performer award at the Gothams and cinematographer Jomo Fray winning at NYFCC.
The group awarded Marianne Jean-Baptiste best actress for starring in Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, a strong endorsement for the actress who is competing in a very crowded Oscars category. Both The Brutalist’s Brody and A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin solidified their places as strong front-runners in the lead- and supporting-actor races with their wins here. The group’s choice for supporting actress was a bit of a surprise, going to veteran actor Carol Kane for Between the Temples.
All We Imagine as Light, which took the prize for best international film, was not picked by India as its submission for the Oscars international-feature category, despite strong reviews. The film, directed by Payal Kapadia, hopes to compete in other categories despite the snub.
The complete list of winners is below:
Best Film: The Brutalist
Best Director: RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys
Best Screenplay: Sean Baker, Anora
Best Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths
Best Actor: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Best Supporting Actress: Carol Kane, Between the Temples
Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Best Animated Film: Flow
Best International Film: All We Imagine as Light
Best First Film: Janet Planet
Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
Best Nonfiction Film: No Other Land
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