New York Film Critics 2021: the winners

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In view of the closure for many months of most cinemas in the United States, one would have thought that the main associations of American critics were going to delay their winners for the year 2020. Like the Oscars, including the 93rd ceremony will only take place at the end of April 2021, then taking into account the films distributed across the Atlantic until February 28, ’21. However, the venerable New York Film Critics Circle, the association of New York critics, preferred to vote already yesterday by considering only films released on the American market this year. The 86th award ceremony will take place on an exceptional basis in the form of a video honoring the winners, broadcast on Sunday January 24, 2021.

In addition to the marked presence of films released on major online platforms, including Netflix (Best Actor, Supporting Actor and First Film) and Amazon Prime (Best Supporting Actress, Documentary and Photo), the choices New York critics show other peculiarities this year.

So, First Cow by Kelly Reichardt is the fourth Best Film directed by a woman, after Minesweepers and Zero Dark Thirty by Kathryn Bigelow et Lady Bird by Greta Gerwig. Chloe Zhao is the fifth Best Director honored, picking up the female torch from Jane Campion for The Piano Lesson, Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation and Kathryn Bigelow for Minesweepers and Zero Dark Thirty. With a minimum of chronological insight, you will therefore notice that this is the first time that two films directed by two different women have won the two main awards this year!

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On the interpretation side, Delroy Lindo is the third African-American actor to win Best Actor, after Denzel Washington in Malcolm X and Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. The late Chadwick Boseman is the fifth African American Supporting Actor following Morgan Freeman in The street, Samuel L. Jackson in Jungle Fever, Harry Belafonte in Kansas City and Mahershala Ali in Moonlight.

For the sake of completeness, among the ladies there are respectively two African-American actresses in leading roles (the two years spent with Regina Hall in Support the Girls and Lupita Nyong’o in Us) and four in supporting roles (Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls, Mo’Nique in Precious, Tiffany Haddish in Girls Trip and Regina King in If Beale Street could speak).

Da 5 Bloods Blood Brothers by Spike Lee is the first film to be doubly awarded for its African-American actors by New York critics.

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Finally, since the association began giving four acting awards in 1969, this is only the sixth time this year that none of the actors have been nominated for an Oscar before. The last time this happened was for films released in 2004, supposedly starring Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake, Paul Giamatti and Virginia Madsen in Sideways, as well as Clive Owen in Closer Between consenting adults. They all went on to go on to Oscar nominations for their performances except Giamatti who had to wait another year for a consolation nomination for Best Supporting Actor in From the shadow to the light.

Next step in this long-term film awards season: the fellow West Coast critics in New York, as the Los Angeles Critics Association will be making its choices known tomorrow!