The National Society of Critics selected its 59th Awards on Saturday and honored Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” with four awards. The Warner Bros. release took Best Picture, Best Director (Anderson), Best Supporting Actress (Teyana Taylor), and Best Supporting Actor (Benicio Del Toro). This is Anderson’s second film to win the organization’s top honor after “There Will Be Blood” in 2008.
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Ethan Hawke took Best Actor for “Blue Moon,” while Kathleen Chalfant unexpectedly won Best Actress for “Familiar Touch.” Jafar Panahi won Best Screenplay for “It Was Just An Accident.” Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent” won Best Film Not In The English Language. “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow” took Best Nonfiction film. Autumn Durald Arkapaw won Cinematography for “Sinners.”
“One Battle After Another” becomes just the fourth film in history to win the National Society of Film Critics, National Board of Review, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and New York Film Critics Circle. The other three are “Schindler’s List,” “L.A. Confidential,” and “The Social Network.” Only the former also won the Oscar for Best Picture. Overall, the only other NSFC winners to take the top Academy Award trophy are “Annie Hall,” “Unforgiven,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Spotlight,” “Moonlight,” “Parasite,” and “Nomadland.” While it has only lined up nine times in 58 previous years, it has occurred five times in the last 16.
A complete list of this year’s winners and runner ups are as follows:
BEST PICTURE: “One Battle After Another” (57 points)
Runners-up:
“Sinners” (29 points)
“The Secret Agent” (27 points)
BEST DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another” (54 points)
Runners-up:
Jafar Panahi, “It Was Just an Accident” (48 points)
Richard Linklater, “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague” (39 points)
BEST ACTRESS: Kathleen Chalfant, “Familiar Touch” (45 points)
Runners-up:
Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” (39 points)
Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value” (37 points)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another” (56 points)
Runners-up:
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value” (47 points)
Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners” (41 points)
BEST ACTOR: Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon” (57 points)
Runners-up:
Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent” (43 points)
Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners” (36 points)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Benicio del Toro, “One Battle After Another” (54 points)
Runners-up:
Delroy Lindo, Sinners” (37 points)
Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value” (30 points)
BEST SCREENPLAY: Jafar Panahi, “It Was Just an Accident” (53 points)
Runners-up:
Robert Kaplow, “Blue Moon” (50 points)
Kleber Mendonça Filho, “The Secret Agent” (40 points)
BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: “The Secret Agent” (58 points)
Runners-up:
“It Was Just an Accident” (57 points)
“Sentimental Value” (38 points)
BEST NONFICTION FILM: “My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow” (56 points)
Runners-up:
“The Perfect Neighbor” (22 points)
“Orwell: 2+2=5” (18 points)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, “Sinners” (50 points)
Runners-up:
Adolpho Veloso, “Train Dreams” (36 points)
Michael Bauman, “One Battle After Another” (29 points)
BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM: “Morning Circle” (Basma al-Sharif)
SPECIAL AWARD FOR A FILM AWAITING U.S. DISTRIBUTION: “Landmarks” (Lucrecia Martel)
FILM HERITAGE AWARDS:
— Cinema Tropical, for its tireless efforts to distribute, program and promote Latin American cinema in the U.S.
— The Film Desk, for releasing key movies from all over the world, in 35mm prints and on home video, and publishing books that have enriched the public’s knowledge of cinema.
— Ken and Flo Jacobs, an irreplaceable, gravitational center of the American avant-garde, with a shared artistic sensibility that helped define experimental cinema.
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Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of Hollywood's most respected awards journalists, covering the Oscars and Emmys beat with the access and institutional knowledge that comes from decades reporting at the center of the industry. Based in West Hollywood, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, HitFix, and Vox, among others.
