Drive My Car takes home the Best Picture Award at the National Society of Film Critics Awards.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi cowrote and directed the Japanese drama Drive My Car, which is based on the short tale of the same name. The film follows Ysuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) as he directs an Uncle Vanya production while grieving the death of his wife.
The NSFC is made up of elected and eligible members from major news organizations. The annual awards recognize the best in acting, directing, screenplay, cinematography, and other aspects of onscreen and streaming films in the United States.
Any film that premiered on a screen or through a streaming platform in the United States during the year is eligible for consideration. Last year, the club bestowed its highest honor, Best Picture, on Chloe Zhao's Nomadland, a feat that the film repeated at the Oscars.
Critics from major papers and sources in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New Yorker, Christian Science Monitor, and NPR, are among the 60 members of the NSFC.
The organization's current chair is Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times.
List of winners:
Best Picture:
WINNER: DRIVE MY CAR (48 points)
RUNNERS-UP:
PETITE MAMAN (25 points)
THE POWER OF THE DOG (23 points)
Director:
WINNER: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, DRIVE MY CAR and WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY (46 points)
RUNNERS-UP:
Jane Campion, THE POWER OF THE DOG (36 points)
Céline Sciamma, PETITE MAMAN (28 points)
Actress:
WINNER: Penélope Cruz, PARALLEL MOTHERS (55 points)
RUNNERS-UP:
Renate Reinsve, THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (42 points)
Alana Haim, LICORICE PIZZA (32 points)
Actor:
WINNER: Hidetoshi Nishijima, DRIVE MY CAR (63 points)
RUNNERS-UP:
Benedict Cumberbatch, THE POWER OF THE DOG (44 points)
Simon Rex, RED ROCKET (30 points)
Supporting Actress:
WINNER: Ruth Negga, PASSING (46 points)
RUNNERS-UP:
Ariana DeBose, WEST SIDE STORY (22 points)
Jessie Buckley, THE LOST DAUGHTER (21 points)
Supporting Actor:
WINNER: Anders Danielsen Lie, THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (54 points)
RUNNER-UPS:
Vincent Lindon, TITANE (33 points)
Mike Faist, WEST SIDE STORY, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, THE POWER OF THE DOG (26 points)
Screenplay:
WINNER: Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, DRIVE MY CAR (46 points)
RUNNERS-UP:
Pedro Almodóvar, PARALLEL MOTHERS (22 points)
Paul Thomas Anderson, LICORICE PIZZA (20 points)
Cinematography:
WINNER: Andrew Droz Palermo, THE GREEN KNIGHT (52 points)
RUNNERS-UP:
Ari Wegner, THE POWER OF THE DOG (40 points)
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, MEMORIA (35 points)
Nonfiction Film:
WINNER: FLEE (41 points)
RUNNERS-UP:
PROCESSION and THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (28 points)
Film Heritage Award:
Distinguished critic-filmmakers Bertrand Tavernier and Peter Bogdanovich, who never lost their enthusiasm for other people's films and film history. Tavernier's book "50 Years of American Cinema and American Friends" and Bogdanovich's books "Who the Devil Made It" and "Who the Hell's In It?" were both excellent chronicles of their relationship with the cinema.”
Maya Cade's critical writings for the Black Film Archive, which promotes awareness of and access to Black films made between 1915 and 1979 and contains her critical essays that describe the project and explore the films in connection to one another and to cinema as a whole.
Special Citation for a Film Awaiting U.S. Distribution: "Returning to Reims," a documentary by Jean-Gabriel Périot based on Didier Eribon's memoir from 2009 about his French birthplace and the disparities of class and education that influenced him and his family.
