‘Drive My Car’ named 2021 New York Film Critics Circle best film

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Drive My Car

Source: The Match Factory

‘Drive My Car’

In a typically left-field selection New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) has named Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Japanese Oscar submission Drive My Car best film while heavyweight The Power Of The Dog earned three top awards.

The results from the first awards this season by a major US critics group saw Jane Campion named best director, Benedict Cumberbatch best actor and Kodi Smit-McPhee best supporting actor for Netflix’s The Power Of The Dog, which looked like it might scoop the top prize as NYFCC announced its winners on Twitter on Friday (December 3).

That film and its individual winners will remain among the frontrunners for the Academy and other awards bodies as the season progresses but for now the spoils go to Hamaguchi’s widely admired drama which launched in Cannes and topped Screen’s jury grid.

Lady Gaga was named best actress for House Of Gucci and reinforced the notion – if any reminder were needed – that she is a formidable performer on screen following her Oscar-nominated debut in 2018’s A Star Is Born. Kathryn Hunter was named best supporting actress with the only win on the day for Joel Coen’s New York Film Festival opener The Tragedy Of Macbeth.

The NYFCC selections come a day after National Board Of Review anointed Licorice Pizza its best film and the Gothams gave its best film prize to The Lost Daughter earlier in the week. Both those films earned NYFCC recognition too for Paul Thomas Anderson’s screenplay and best first film for Maggie Gyllenhaal.

In other prizes Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Danish animation Flee was named best non-fiction film and Joachim Trier’s Norwegian drama The Worst Person In The World took foreign language honours.

West Side Story directed by Steven Spielberg claimed NYFCC’s cinematography award for Janusz Kaminski and is an emerging force in awards season after it received glowing reviews this week.

In recent years NYFCC has swung between conservative and left-field selections for its best film winner. Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow won last year and was an admired drama that otherwise gained almost no traction with awards voters, while more broadly robust contenders The Irishman and Roma from Netflix won in 2019 and 2018, respectively. Among the group’s more eccentric picks of recent years was Tiffany Haddish, who famously won best supporting actress for Girls Trip in 2017.

New York Film Critics Circle winners in full:

Best Film: Drive My Car

Best Director: Jane Campion, The Power Of The Dog

Best Screenplay: Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson

Best Actress: Lady Gaga, House Of Gucci

Best Actor: Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power Of The Dog

Best Supporting Actress: Kathryn Hunter, The Tragedy Of Macbeth

Best Supporting Actor: Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power Of The Dog

Best Cinematography: West Side Story, Janusz Kaminski

Best Non-Fiction Film: Flee

Best Foreign Language Film: The Worst Person In The World

Best Animated Feature: The Mitchells vs. The Machines

Best First Film: The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Special awards:

Marshall Fine for his years of service as NYFCC’s general manager and decades on the NY film scene.
Diane Weyermann, posthumous award for supporting daring and impactful filmmaking at Sundance and Participant.
Maya Cade for the creation of the Black Film Archive.