Brady Corbet’s epic drama “The Brutalist” was named the best film of 2024 by the New York Film Critics Circle, which announced its annual winners on Tuesday.
RaMell Ross won the Best Director award for his narrative debut, “Nickel Boys.”
Marianne Jean-Baptiste won the Best Actress award for her scorching performance in Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” while Adrien Brody won Best Actor for “The Brutalist.”
Kieran Culkin was named Best Supporting Actor for his role in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain.” Carol Kane was honored as Best Supporting Actress for “Between the Temples.”
As the first major critics group to announce its awards, the NYFCC was able to give a little attention to its winners in a year in which few of the major categories have strong frontrunners. “The Brutalist,” a three-and-a-half hour drama starring Brody as an architect who comes to the United States after fleeing Europe during World War II, has been a critical favorite since its debut at the Venice Film Festival in August.
In the acting categories, Culkin and Brody are considered locks for Oscar nominations, while Jean-Baptiste is on the bubble and Kane is a real longshot.
Meanwhile, Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’ wordless “Flow” was chosen as the year’s best animated film over big-studio productions like “Inside Out 2,” “The Wild Robot” and “Moana 2.”
“No Other Land,” the documentary filmed over five years by Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers in Gaza, won the award for non-fiction film a little more than 12 hours after it won in the same category at the Gotham Awards. Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine As Light” did the same thing in the Best International Film category.
Sean Baker, on the other hand, won the screenplay award for “Anora” the day after his film came into the Gotham Awards as the most-nominated movie but failed to win anything.
Annie Baker’s “Janet Planet” was named the year’s best first film. Jomo Fray won the cinematography award for the way he implemented Ross’ point-of-view approach in “Nickel Boys.”
Since 1938, the winner of the NYFCC has gone on to win Best Picture more than two dozen times, but the two groups have agreed more infrequently in recent years. The last time the critics chose the eventual Oscar winner was 12 years ago, when “The Artist” won both awards. Since then, the NYFCC has gone for the likes of “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Boyhood,” “Carol,” “La La Land,” “Roma,” “First Cow,” “Drive My Car,” “Tar” and a pair of Martin Scorsese movies, “The Irishman” and last year’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Over the last 20 years, the NYFCC winner has been nominated for the top Oscar 17 times, with the only exceptions being “United 93” in 2007, “Carol” in 2016 and “First Cow” in 2020.
The New York Film Critics Circle consists of 45 critics based in New York City. The group was founded in 1935 and has been voting on the year’s best films since 1936. Next year marks the organization’s 90th anniversary, a milestone that will be celebrated when the NYFCC holds its awards ceremony on Jan. 8, 2025.
The winners:
Best Film: “The Brutalist”
Best Director: RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys”
Best Actor: Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”
Best Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths”
Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
Best Supporting Actress: Carol Kane, “Between the Temples”
Best Screenplay: Sean Baker, “Anora”
Best Animated Film: “Flow”
Best International Film: “All We Imagine As Light”
Best Non-Fiction Film: “No Other Land”
Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, “Nickel Boys”
Best First Film: “Janet Planet”
Special Award: To Save and Project: The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation
Student Awards: Alexander Swift (Undergraduate, Vassar) and Drew Smith (Graduate, NYU)
