American Critics Vote On the Best of 2022

National Society of Film Critics Votes on 57th Annual Awards

The National Society of Film Critics on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023, chose “Tár” as Best Picture of the Year 2022. See the following pages for all votes in Best Picture and other categories for outstanding film achievement.

The Society, which is made up of 62 of the country’s most prominent movie critics, held its 57th annual awards voting meeting online using a weighted ballot system.  

Justin Chang was re-elected chair and Joshua Rothkopf was elected vice-chair for 2023. If you have questions, contact Justin Chang (justin.chang@latimes.com) or Joshua Rothkopf (rothkopf@gmail.com).

AWARDS FOR THE YEAR 2022

BEST PICTURE
1. “Tár” (61 points)
2. “Aftersun” (49 points)
3. “No Bears” (32 points)

BEST DIRECTOR
1. Charlotte Wells, “Aftersun” (60 points)
2. Park Chan-wook, “Decision to Leave” (47 points)
3. Jafar Panahi, “No Bears” (36 points)

BEST ACTRESS
1. Cate Blanchett, “Tár” (59 points)
2. Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (38 points)
3. Tilda Swinton, “The Eternal Daughter,” and Michelle Williams, “The Fabelmans” (27 points)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1. Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin” (57 points)
2. Nina Hoss, “Tár” (43 points)
3. Dolly de Leon, “Triangle of Sadness” (35 points)

BEST ACTOR
1. Colin Farrell, “After Yang” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” (71 points)
2. Paul Mescal, “Aftersun” (55 points)
3. Bill Nighy, “Living” (33 points)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1. Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (45 points)
2. Brian Tyree Henry, “Causeway” (35 points)
3. Barry Keoghan, “The Banshees of Inisherin” (27 points)

BEST SCREENPLAY
1. Todd Field, “Tár” (61 points)
2. Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin” (42 points)
3. James Gray, “Armageddon Time” (18 points)

BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
1. “EO” (43 points)
2. “No Bears” (37 points)
3. “Decision to Leave” (34 points)

BEST NONFICTION FILM
1.  “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” (46 points) 
2. “Descendant” (40 points)
3. “All That Breathes” (27 points)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1. Michał Dymek, “EO” (62 points)
2. Hoyte van Hoytema, “Nope” (37 points)
3. Kim Ji-yong, “Decision to Leave” (34 points)

FILM HERITAGE AWARDS

1. Jeanine Basinger, one of our most esteemed and important film scholars, whose work at Wesleyan University and beyond has continually bridged the divide between Hollywood and academia, film studies and movie love.
2. Screen Slate, published and edited by Jon Dieringer, an essential daily online publication that has done much to build and sustain the filmmaking, theatrical exhibition and film critical communities of New York City and by extension the world at large.
3. Turner Classic Movies, for a rich array of programming that ranges deep and wide in the history of cinema, a service too easily taken for granted by audiences and worthy of the utmost care and attention from its corporate owners.

DEDICATION

We dedicate our awards to Sheila Benson, an esteemed Society member and the warmest, most gracious of colleagues. As film critic for the Los Angeles Times and other publications, she wrote about movies with infectious joy and enviable skill. We miss her dearly.

THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS

The National Society of Film Critics counts among its members many of the country’s leading film critics. Its purpose is to promote the mutual interests of film criticism and filmmaking. Founded in 1966, the Society differs from other critical associations in a number of significant ways. In the first place, it is truly national. Secondly, membership is by election. The 62 members include the critics from major papers and outlets in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Its members include critics of not just the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone and the New Yorker, but also Slate, Indiewire, Deadline, the Christian Science Monitor and NPR.

The Society represents movie criticism in the United States by supplying the official critic delegate to the National Film Registration Board of the Library of Congress and abroad as the official American representative in FIPRESCI, the international federation of members of the film press.

Besides responding to specific issues, such as imprisoned filmmakers, film preservation, or the ratings system, the Society regularly meets early in January to vote on the Society’s awards for the finest film achievements of the year.

The Society’s most recent anthology, published in December 2019, is “For Kids of All Ages: The National Society of Film Critics on Children’s Movies.” Prior anthologies include “The B List: The National Society of Film Critics on the Low-Budget Beauties, Genre-Bending Mavericks, and Cult Classics We Love”; “The X List: The National Society of Film Critics’ Guide to the Movies That Turn Us On”; and “The A List: 100 Essential Films”. In the 1990s, the Society published “Produced and Abandoned: The Best Films You’ve Never Seen”; “Foreign Affairs,” its counterpart for non-English-language films; “Love and Hisses,” a guide to the most controversial films and issues; “They Went Thataway: Redefining Film Genres”; and “Flesh and Blood: The National Society of Film Critics on Sex, Violence, and Censorship.” Earlier, the Society published six volumes of annual reviews, as well as “The National Society of Film Critics on Movie Comedy” and “The Movie Star.” The group can genuinely be said to represent the best of contemporary American film criticism.

Source: National Society of Film Critics nsfcmail@gmail.com