The big favorite at the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) Awards was Brady Corbet’s historical epic The Brutalist. It took home the prize for Best Film and another for Best Actor for Adrien Brody.

The NYFCC is celebrating its 90th anniversary. The membership includes more than 50 journalists from various publications.

A Bellwether for Awards Season

The NYFCC is the oldest critics’ group in the United States and is considered a predictor of the awards season. The Best Film winner at NYFCC often correlates with an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Only two NYFCC winners have failed to secure Oscar nominations since the Oscars expanded to include 10 Best Picture nominees in 2009. Those two NYFCC winners were Carol (2015) and First Cow (2020).

Described as a “towering achievement,” Brody’s performance in Corbet’s film seems destined to be nominated for an Oscar after his NYFCC win, which is considered a bellwether for the Academy Awards. In 2002, Brody made history as the youngest-ever Best Actor Oscar winner for The Pianist at the age of 29. Now 51, he could become the youngest two-time winner. However, there is stiff competition from Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown, Ralph Fiennes in Conclave, and Colman Domingo in Sing Sing. Domingo beat Brody at the Gotham Awards.

Unpredictability of an Awards Season

In what Variety has dubbed “the year without a frontrunner,” the winners at this year’s NYFCC underscore the difficulty of predicting who will triumph in this awards season. At the Gotham Awards, RaMell Ross was the surprise winner for Best Director. He repeated his win at the NYFCC for the drama Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Critics are buzzing about Ross’ work on the Amazon MGM title. The film also earned a Cinematography prize for Jomo Fray’s first-person point-of-view work. These wins have solidified its place in the awards conversation, though it remains to be seen if the film can maintain its momentum.

The East Coast group heavily focused on independent films this year. To boost visibility, smaller films often rely on early awards like those from the NYFCC.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste won Best Actress for her role in Mike Leigh’s drama Hard Truths. She earned rave reviews for her portrayal of a woman on the verge of mental collapse after the film debuted in Toronto. The Bleecker Street film now has momentum entering the awards season. Jean-Baptiste joins an exclusive list of NYFCC Best Actress winners, including Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady and Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine. Hard Truths opened in limited release on December 6.

Kieran Culkin took the award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain. Culkin, who previously won an Emmy for his role in Succession, portrays a free-spirited young man traveling to Poland with his cousin to explore his Jewish heritage in this darkly humorous drama.

The NYFCC’s biggest surprise was Carol Kane winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in Nathan Silver’s indie film Between the Temples. In the film, she plays a music teacher preparing for her Bat Mitzvah. The film, from Sony Pictures Classics, has become a favorite among critics. Kane, who is 72, is the winner of two Emmys and hasn’t been nominated for her film work since Hester Street in 1975.

The annual awards gala will be held at TAO Downtown on January 8, 2025, in New York City.

The Complete List Of Winners

Best Film: “The Brutalist” (A24)

Director: RaMell Ross, “Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios)

Actor: Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist” (A24)

Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, “Hard Truths” (Bleecker Street)

Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” (Searchlight Pictures)

Supporting Actress: Carol Kane, “Between the Temples” (Sony Pictures Classics)

Screenplay: “Anora” (Neon) — Sean Baker

Animated Film: “Flow” (Janus Films/Sideshow)

Cinematography: “Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios) — Jomo Fray

First Film: “Janet Planet” (A24) — Annie Baker

International: “All We Imagine as Light” (Janus Films/Sideshow)

Non-Fiction Film: “No Other Land” (ImmerGuteFilme)

Student Prizes: Alexander Swift (Undergraduate, Vassar) and Drew Smith (Graduate, NYU)

Special Award: To Save and Project: The MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation