As devastating wildfires ravaged Los Angeles, film insiders at Wednesday night’s New York Film Critics Circle Awards paid emotional tribute to their friends and colleagues on the opposite coast. “My heart is with absolutely everyone in Los Angeles county,” said The Brutalist writer-director Brady Corbet, accepting best picture honors at the gala onstage at New York City’s Tao Downtown.
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Indie auteur Jim Jarmusch presented best screenplay to Anora’s Sean Baker and declared from the podium that the wildfires are “brought to you by climate deniers,” adding, “People are saying that ‘woke’ is a bad word, but I think it’s time we wake the fuck up!”
Baker then shared his own condolences for those affected by the Los Angeles fires, which have brought awards season to a standstill, even delaying the Oscar nominations announcement. After thanking leading lady Mikey Madison, who was in attendance at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Baker jokingly insisted that his mother would not agree with the choice to give him this award.
“That’s true,” he continued. “I don’t think she even made it through Red Rocket”—his sexually explicity 2021 film starring Simon Rex. “After she saw half of it, she asked me what was next, and I pitched Anora to her over the phone, and she literally said, ‘Sean, people don’t want to see that!’” Over laughs from the audience, Baker added, “I love my mom. She’s the best and actually she’s why I’m here, because she introduced me to cinema. She just hates my movies.”
Baker continued to charm the crowd of New York-based journalists by reading excerpts from his screenplay that repeat the phrase “Ani and Ivan have sex” with new locations swapped in. “You guys just awarded that best screenplay,” he joked. “You can’t take this back!” Baker concluded his remarks by thanking the critics’ group for their validation. “I’m encouraged to continue to write and make these films that will eventually receive scathing and demoralizing reviews from the one and only Richard Brody,” he quipped, referring to The New Yorker’s chief film critic—who, suffice it to say, didn’t love Anora. “Let’s just avoid eye contact tonight. But rest assured my mom will read your reviews,” Baker said.
The relatively loose, untelevised evening elevated the prospects of Oscar frontrunners like Anora and The Brutalist, as well as Kieran Culkin, whose role in A Real Pain earned him the best-supporting-actor prize. That honor was presented by a now-brunette Claire Danes, Culkin’s co-star in the 2002 film Igby Goes Down. “We’ve been doing this a long time,” she said. “When we worked on Igby Goes Down, we were children. We now have children. So many of them. What is going on?”
Culkin slinked into his seat, tugging on his left ear as Danes praised his performance. “That was incredibly kind. I wish I was listening,” a tearful Culkin cracked upon taking the stage. “God, that was really nice. I don’t even know what to do. I’m just going to drink my martini and try to process that. You are a very, very lovely person. I love you a lot.”
The evening also boosted the profiles of undersung films like Nickel Boys—a double winner for RaMell Ross’s direction and Jomo Fray’s cinematography—and best international film winner All We Imagine as Light, which was not submitted by India for Oscar consideration. “Jodie Foster has seen our movie. Twice!” filmmaker Payal Kapadia rejoiced upon accepting her honor.
And then there were wins for Hard Truths’ Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Between the Temples’ Carol Kane, who have both been blanked by most major awards voting bodies. They won for best actress and supporting actress, respectively. “It really is a wonderful thing when the art is received in the way it was intended,” said Baptiste. Kane devoted her speech to some of the filmmakers she’s worked with during her storied career, including Mike Nichols, who “saved my life,” as well as Hal Ashby, Sidney Lumet, Woody Allen, Rob Reiner, and Tina Fey, among others.
But the crossover effect of exciting filmmakers and the critics who embrace them was best encapsulated in Janet Planet writer-director Annie Baker’s acceptance speech for the best-first-film-award. “I was so pleased and surprised when I got this honor, especially when I read the list of film reviewers in this organization. So many of them didn’t like the movie,” she said to hearty laughter from the audience. “But that made it even more exciting, that you could have mixed feelings about something and still decide you want that person to keep making things.”
Here’s the full list of winners:
Best Picture: The Brutalist
Best Director: RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys
Best Actor: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Best Actress: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths
Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Best Supporting Actress: Carol Kane, Between the Temples
Best Screenplay: Sean Baker, Anora
Best Cinematography: Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
Best Animated Film: Flow
Best International Film: All We Imagine as Light
Best Non-Fiction Film: No Other Land
Best First Film: Janet Planet
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