Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After another won its second best feature award in two days as New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) gave the adventure epic its top award on Tuesday morning.
The Warner Bros release won the top prize at Monday night’s Gothams in New York. The NYFCC has been known to make eccentric selections in the past and while the group has not selected an eventual best picture Oscar winner since The Artist in 2011, Anderson’s film is a lauded heavyweight this season and is tipped by many to go the distance.
One Battle After Another claimed a second award on Tuesday, taking best supporting actor for Benicio del Toro.
Jafar Panahi cemented his status as an Oscar frontrunner with the directing award for It Was Just An Accident, mirroring the Gothams. The Iranian filmmaker is touring with his Cannes Palme d’Or winner just as it emerged this week that Iranian authorities have sentenced him in absentia to one year in prison and imposed a two-year travel ban. Panahi lives in France, and his film is France’s Oscar submission this season. Neon holds North American rights.
NYFCC recognised a South American superstar in the best actor category, giving its best actor award to Wagner Moura for his role in The Secret Agent. Kleber Mendonca Filho’s slow-burning thriller about a Brazilian academic on the run from the authorities under the country’s dictatorship in the late 1970s. The Secret Agent also won best international film and is Brazil’s Oscar submission and is also at Neon.
Rose Byrne won best actress for playing a stressed-out mother in A24’s anxiety-inducing dark comedy If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, one of the standouts from Sundance that has placed the Australian actress among the frontrunners for major awards in the coming months.
Supporting actress honours went to Amy Madigan for her chilling turn as Aunt Gladys in the Warner Bros horror Weapons, marking the first major honoour for another performer who is expected to loom large over awards season.
And My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air In Moscow was named best documentary, the day after it won the same category at the Gothams. The film is being self-distributed in the US.
NYFCC winners:
Best film: One Battle After Another
Best director: Jafar Panahi, It Was Just An Accident
Best actor: Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best actress: Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Best supporting actor: Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
Best supporting actress: Amy Madigan, Weapons
Best international film: The Secret Agent
Best animated film: KPop Demon Hunters
Best documentary: My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air In Moscow
Best cinematography: Sinners
Best screenplay: Marty Supreme
Best first feature: Eephus
Special Awards: Screen Slate, Museum Of The Moving Image.
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