National Society of Film Critics Votes on 56th Annual Awards

The National Society of Film Critics (USA), which is made up of 59 of the country’s most prominent movie critics, on Saturday, January 8th, 2022, held its 56th annual awards voting meeting online and chose Drive My Car as Best Picture of the Year 2021.

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BEST PICTURE:
1. “Drive My Car” (48)
2. “Petite Maman” (25)
3. “The Power of the Dog” (23)

BEST DIRECTOR:

*1. Ryusuke Hamaguchi (46)  – “Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”
2. Jane Campion (36) – “The Power of the Dog”
3. Céline Sciamma (28) – “Petite Maman”

BEST SCREENPLAY:

*1. “Drive My Car” (46) –  Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe
2. “Parallel Mothers” (22) – Pedro Almodóvar
3. “Licorice Pizza” (20) – Paul Thomas Anderson

BEST NONFICTION FILM:

*1.  “Flee” (41)
2. “Procession” (28)
3. “The Velvet Underground” (28)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

*1. “The Green Knight” (52) – Andrew Droz Palermo
2. “The Power of the Dog” (40) – Ari Wegner
3. “Memoria” (35) – Sayombhu Mukdeeprom

BEST ACTRESS:

*1. Penélope Cruz (55) – “Parallel Mothers”
2. Renate Reinsve (42) – “The Worst Person in the World”
3. Alana Haim (32) – “Licorice Pizza”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

*1. Ruth Negga (46) – “Passing”
2. Ariana DeBose (22) – “West Side Story”
3. Jessie Buckley (21) – “The Lost Daughter”

BEST ACTOR:

*1. Hidetoshi Nishijima (63) – “Drive My Car”
2. Benedict Cumberbatch (44) – “The Power of the Dog”
3. Simon Rex (30) – “Red Rocket”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

*1. Anders Danielsen Lie (54) – “The Worst Person in the World”
2. Vincent Lindon (33) – “Titane”
3. Mike Faist (26) – “West Side Story”
3. Kodi Smit-McPhee (26) – “The Power of the Dog”

SPECIAL CITATION for a Film Awaiting U.S. Distribution: Jean-Gabriel Périot’s documentary “Returning to Reims”

FILM HERITAGE AWARDS:

1. Maya Cade for founding the Black Film Archive, which expands knowledge of and access to Black films made between 1915 and 1979, and includes her critical essays that define the project and consider the films in relation to each other and to the cinema overall.

• The late Bertrand Tavernier and Peter Bogdanovich, distinguished critic-filmmakers who never lost their passion for other people’s movies and film history. Both crowned their careers with invaluable chronicles of their engagement with the cinema: Tavernier with the with the documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema” and the books “50 Years of American Cinema and American Friends,” and Bogdanovich with the books “Who the Devil Made It” and “Who the Hell’s In It?”

DEDICATIONS:

We dedicate this year’s awards to the memory of two esteemed colleagues and longtime members who are no longer with us. Morris Dickstein brought warmth, enthusiasm and prodigious analytic skills as a literary critic and cultural historian to writing about movies in journals like Dissent and Partisan Review and in books like “Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression.” Michael Wilmington wrote beautifully and passionately about cinema as a critic for many publications, includingthe Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, and co-authored the critical study “John Ford.” They will both be deeply missed.

We also dedicate our awards, with deepest appreciation and gratitude, to Liz Weis, who is stepping down after serving 47 years as Executive Director of the National Society of Film Critics. For her decades of extraordinary leadership and tireless service to the organization, we owe her an immeasurable debt.

Source: NSFC