The New York Film Critics Circle has named “ Tár ” as its best picture of the year, with Todd Field’s contemporary drama about a renowned conductor and composer also nabbing best actress for Cate Blanchett’s leading performance.
The group met Friday in New York to vote on and announce its selections for the year.
Best director went to S. S. Rajamouli for the Telugu-language action film “ RRR.” Laura Poitras’ Nan Goldin documentary “ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed ” was named best nonfiction film and “EO,” a Polish drama about a donkey, won best foreign language film.
Colin Farrell won best actor for two of his performances this year, in Kogonada’s future-set sci-fi drama “ After Yang,” in which he plays a father trying to repair his young daughter’s android, and in Martin McDonagh’s “ The Banshees of Inisherin,” where he is suddenly defriended by his longtime pal (Brendan Gleeson).
McDonagh also won best screenplay for the film about the ripple effects the friendship breakup has on the inhabitants of a small island off the west coast of Ireland in 1923.
Farrell, Blanchett, McDonagh and Poitras all also won awards at the Venice Film Festival in September.
Ke Huy Quan was named best supporting actor for his turn in “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” close on the heels of his Gotham Award, while Keke Palmer got best supporting actress for Jordan Peele’s thriller “Nope.”
“Today’s NYFCC winners reflect the broad range of our tastes, as well as what’s exciting audiences at cinemas today,” NYFCC Chair Jordan Hoffman said in a statement.
The group is known for spreading awards across a wide swath of the year’s films: Even “Top Gun: Maverick” picked up an award, for Claudio Miranda’s cinematography.
Other winners included Charlotte Wells' “ Aftersun,” selected as best first film, and Dean Fleischer-Camp's “ Marcel the Shell with Shoes On ” for best animated film.
The jailed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was also singled out for a special award “for his dogged bravery as an artist, and for the humanity and beauty of a body of work created under the most oppressive circumstances.”
The New York Film Critics Circle, founded in 1935, is the oldest critics group in the country, with members from newspapers, magazines and online publications. The group will hand out its awards at a dinner in early January.
Last year, the group chose Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” as its best picture and Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” the year before that.
