‘Drive My Car’ Named Best Picture by the National Society of Film Critics: Full Winners List
“Drive My Car” racked up several wins from the National Society of Film Critics January 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor. As “Drive My Car” won Best Picture, the organization’s rules determined that there would not be a separate Best Foreign-Language Film category.
The winners were a distinctly international affair, with Penélope Cruz winning Best Actress for “Parallel Mothers,” Hidetoshi Nishijima as Best Actor for “Drive My Car,” and Anders Danielsen Lie scoring Best Supporting Actor for “The Worst Person in the World.” Ruth Negga picked up Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Passing.”
The critics group convened in New York and Los Angeles to vote January 8 using a weighted scoring system, choosing winners and runners up across a variety of categories. Hidetoshi Nishijima received the the highest weighted score of any single award winner for his Best Actor prize.
Prior to the start of voting, the organization tweeted, “We dedicate our awards to the memory of Morris Dickstein and Michael Wilmington, two esteemed colleagues and longtime members. They wrote about movies in reviews, essays and books, with wit, warmth, passion and skill, and will both be deeply missed. We also dedicate our awards, with appreciation and gratitude, to Liz Weis, who is stepping down after serving 47 years as Executive Director of the National Society of Film Critics. For her decades of extraordinary leadership and tireless service, we owe her an immeasurable debt.”
The list of winners and runners up:
Best Picture: “Drive My Car”
Runners-up: “Petite Maman,” “The Power of the Dog”
Best Nonfiction Film: “Flee”
Runners-up: “Procession” and “The Velvet Underground”
Best Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”)
Runners-up: Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”), Céline Sciamma (“Petite Maman”)
Best Actress: Penélope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”)
Runners-up: Renate Reinsve (“The Worst Person in the World”), Alana Haim (“Licorice Pizza”)
Best Actor: Hidetoshi Nishijima (“Drive My Car”)
Runners-up: Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”), Simon Rex (“Red Rocket”)
Best Supporting Actress: Ruth Negga (“Passing”)
Runners-up: Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”), Jessie Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”)
Best Supporting Actor: Anders Danielsen Lie (“The Worst Person in the World”)
Runners-up: Vincent Lindon (“Titane”), Mike Faist (“West Side Story”), and Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”)
Best Screenplay: Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe (“Drive My Car”)
Runners-up: Pedro Almodóvar (“Parallel Mothers”), Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”)
Best Cinematography: Andrew Droz Palermo (“The Green Knight”)
Runners-up: Ari Wegner (“The Power of the Dog”), Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (“Memoria”)
Special Citation for a Film Awaiting U.S. Distribution: Jean-Gabriel Périot’s documentary “Returning to Reims,” which draws on Didier Eribon’s 2009 memoir about his French hometown and the inequities of class and education that shaped him and his family.
Film Heritage Award: The late Bertrand Tavernier and Peter Bogdanovich, distinguished critic-filmmakers who never lost their passion for other people’s movies and film history.
Film Heritage Award: Maya Cade for the Black Film Archive, which expands knowledge of and access to Black films made between 1915 and 1979, and includes her critical essays that define the project and consider the films in relation to each other and to the cinema overall.