The New York Film Critics Circle on Friday named “Drive My Car,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s intimate three-hour epic and Haruki Murakami’s short story adaptation, the best film of the year.
Hamaguchi’s film, about a widowed actor played by Hidetoshi Nishijima, has been widely hailed since its debut earlier in the year at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won for best screenplay. “Drive My Car,” which recently opened in limited theatrical release, is Japan’s submission to the Academy Awards. It’s only the second time in the last four decades that the critics’ top honor went to a non English-language film. (The other was Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” three years ago.)
Jane Campion’s Montana gothic drama “The Power of the Dog” led all films with three awards. Campion took best director, Benedict Cumberbatch won best actor and best supporting actor went to Kodi Smit-McPhee.
The New York critics, as it typically does, otherwise spread its honors around. Best actress went to Lady Gaga for her performance as Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci.” Kathryn Hunter won for her ghostly witch in Joel Coen’s upcoming Shakespeare adaptation “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” Paul Thomas Anderson took best screenplay for his coming-of-age comedy “Licorice Pizza.”
Michael Rianda’s robot apocalypse-family road trip comedy “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” won best animated film. Best cinematography went to Janusz Kamisnki for Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” revival. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Elena Ferrante adaptation
“The Lost Daughter” took best first film for writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal. Best documentary went to Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated refugee tale “Flee.” And Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World,” a chronicle of youth and love in Oslo, Norway, won for best foreign language film.
The group also announced several special awards: Maya Cade, for creating the Black Film Archive, a catalogue of Black films from 1915 to 1979 that are available online; the late Diane Weyermann, a film executive who helped produce social-issue documentaries like “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Citizenfour”; and Marshall Fine, the film critic and general manager of the NYFCC.
The New York Film Critics Circle, founded in 1935, will hand out its 89th awards during a ceremony on Jan. 10. Last year, the group picked Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” as its best film. The year before that, it selected Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.”
Here’s a rundown of the winners:
- BEST FILM: “Drive My Car”
- BEST DIRECTOR: Jane Campion for “The Power of the Dog”
- BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: “West Side Story,” Janusz Kaminski
- BEST SCREENPLAY: “Licorice Pizza,” Paul Thomas Anderson
- BEST FIRST FILM: “The Lost Daughter,” Maggie Gyllenhaal
- BEST NON-FICTION FILM: “Flee”
- BEST ANIMATED FILM: “The Mitchells vs. the Machines”
- BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM: “The Worst Person in the World”
- BEST ACTOR: Benedict Cumberbatch for “The Power of the Dog” BEST ACTRESS: Lady Gaga for “House of Gucci”
- BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Kathryn Hunter for “The Tragedy of Macbeth”
- BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Kodi Smit-McPhee for “The Power of the Dog”
- SPECIAL AWARD: Maya Cade for the creation of the Black Film Archive.
- SPECIAL AWARD: Marshall Fine for his years of service as NYFCC’s General Manager and decades on the NY film scene.
- SPECIAL AWARD: Diane Weyermann, posthumous award for supporting daring and impactful filmmaking at Sundance and Participant.
- SPECIAL AWARD: Maya Cade for the creation of the Black Film Archive.
