The New York Film Critics Circle has named Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age story “Lady Bird” the best film of 2017, with that film’s star, Saoirse Ronan, also capturing the group’s best actress prize.
Sean Baker won the best-director award for his indie hit “The Florida Project,” which picked up another award for supporting actor Willem Dafoe.
Both “Lady Bird” and “The Florida Project” are distributed by A24, which won the top Oscar for “Moonlight” last year and now figures to have two formidable players in this year’s race as well.
Timothee Chalamet was named best actor for his performance in Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name,” while the biggest surprise in the NYFCC voting was a supporting-actress win for Tiffany Hadish for the comedy “Girls Trip.”
Robin Campillo’s drama about the AIDS crisis in Paris, “BPM (Beats Per Minute),” was named best foreign-language film, while Agnes Varda and JR’s playful travelogue “Faces Places” was chosen best nonfiction film.
Pixar’s “Coco” won the award for animated film. Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” took the prize as the best first film.
Paul Thomas Anderson won the screenplay award for “Phantom Thread,” while Rachel Morrison was voted the cinematography award for “Mudbound.”
The NYFCC consists of 42 New York-based print and internet critics. The group was founded in 1935, making it the oldest organization of film critics in the country.
While the organization likes to present itself as a “principled alternative” to the Oscars, the two awards have overlapped quite a few times over the years. The New York film critics’ choice as the year’s best film has gone on to win the Oscar for Best Picture 31 times in 82 years, though agreements have become more infrequent in recent years. Only four films have won both awards in the last 20 years, and the last to do so was “The Artist” in 2012.
Since then, the NYFCC award has gone to “Zero Dark Thirty,” “American Hustle,” “Boyhood,” “Carol” and “La La Land,” while the Oscars have honored “Argo,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Birdman,” “Spotlight” and “Moonlight.”
Last year, five of the NYFCC winners also won the Oscar: actors Casey Affleck and Mahershala Ali, animated film “Zootopia,” documentary “O.J.: Made in America” and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan for “Manchester by the Sea.” In the six other categories that the two awards share – Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Film – the NYFCC winner was nominated for but did not win the Oscar.
The awards will be presented at a dinner on Jan. 3, 2018 at Tao Downtown.
The 2017 New York Film Critics Circle winners:
Best Film: “Lady Bird”
Best Director: Sean Baker, “The Florida Project”
Best Actor: Timothee Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
Best Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Best Supporting Actress: Tiffany Hadish, “Girls Trip”
Best Screenplay: “Phantom Thread,” Paul Thomas Anderson
Best Nonfiction Film: “Faces Places,” Agnes Varda and JR
Best Animated Film: “Coco,” Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina
Best Foreign-Language Film: “BPM (Beats Per Minute),” Robin Campillo
Best First Film: “Get Out,” Jordan Peele
Best Cinematography: “Mudbound,” Rachel Morrison
Special Award for Career Achievement: Molly Haskell