NY Film Critics Circle Awards 2024: Unexpected Triumphs and Notable Snubs

The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) Awards, a significant early indicator of the Oscars race, have announced their 2024 winners, revealing a landscape of surprises and notable omissions.

Big Winners:

• Best Film: The Brutalist, Brady Corbet's historical epic, also secured the Best Actor award for Adrien Brody, potentially setting him up for a second Oscar win.
• Best Director and Best Cinematography: RaMell Ross and Jomo Fray won for their work on Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, generating buzz within the Academy's Director and Cinematographer branches.
• Best Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste impressed critics with her performance in Mike Leigh's Hard Truths, a win that boosts this smaller film's profile.

• Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin took home the award for his role in Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain, adding to his already Emmy-winning success.
• Best Supporting Actress: A major surprise! Carol Kane was awarded for her role in Nathan Silver’s indie film, Between the Temples.

Other Notable Wins:

• Best Animated Film: Flow, a dialogue-free animated fantasy.
• Best First Film: Janet Planet.
• Best Non-Fiction Film: No Other Land, a documentary on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
• Best International Film: All We Imagine as Light (also a Gotham Award winner).

Notable Snubs:

High-profile films like Netflix's Emilia Pérez and The Piano Lesson, Paramount's Gladiator II, and Universal's Wicked were noticeably absent from the winners' list, highlighting the unpredictable nature of this year's awards season.

Complete List of Winners:

<table> <tr><th>Category</th><th>Winner</th></tr> <tr><td>Best Film</td><td>“The Brutalist” (A24)</td></tr> <tr><td>Director</td><td>RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios)</td></tr> <tr><td>Actor</td><td>Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist” (A24)</td></tr> <tr><td>Actress</td><td>Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths” (Bleecker Street)</td></tr> <tr><td>Supporting Actor</td><td>Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” (Searchlight Pictures)</td></tr> <tr><td>Supporting Actress</td><td>Carol Kane, “Between the Temples” (Sony Pictures Classics)</td></tr> <tr><td>Screenplay</td><td>“Anora” (Neon) — Sean Baker</td></tr> <tr><td>Animated Film</td><td>“Flow” (Janus Films/Sideshow)</td></tr> <tr><td>Cinematography</td><td>“Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios) — Jomo Fray</td></tr> <tr><td>First Film</td><td>“Janet Planet” (A24) — Annie Baker</td></tr> <tr><td>International</td><td>“All We Imagine as Light” (Janus Films/Sideshow)</td></tr> <tr><td>Non-Fiction Film</td><td>“No Other Land” (ImmerGuteFilme)</td></tr> <tr><td>Student Prizes</td><td>Alexander Swift (Vassar), Drew Smith (NYU)</td></tr> <tr><td>Special Award</td><td>To Save and Project: The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation</td></tr> </table>

The 90th annual NYFCC awards gala will be held on January 8, 2025.