Nomadland, the American film, won big at the National Society of Film Critics’ (NSFC) annual awards, bagging four awards, including the Best Picture Award, on Saturday. The film is also an official entry for the 93rd Academy Awards.
While Chloe Zhao won the award for the Best Director, Frances McDormand took home the Best Actress Award.
The film, which revolves around the life of a nomadic woman living in the American West, also bagged the award for Best Cinematography.
Nomadland won the Best Picture Award with 52 points. No other film that was contesting this year, won in more than one category.
The 55th annual awards was decided through a weighted ballot system, where the members voted for their top three choices.
The first, second, and third choices were allotted the points 3, 2, and 1, respectively. As per the association, if no winner is declared on the first ballot, the category goes to a second ballot, this time without proxies. Voting continues with as many rounds as needed until a nominee receives the most points and appears on a majority of ballots.
Among other films, Delroy Lindo won the Best Actor Award for Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, while Maria Bakalova and Paul Raci won the Supporting Actors’ awards for their performances in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and Sound of Metal, respectively.
Eliza Hittman won the Best Screenplay Award for Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Romanian film Collective won the Best Foreign Film Award, while Time won the Best Non-fiction Film Award.
Last year, director Bong Joon Ho’s Korean film Parasite won the Best Picture Award.
Recommended
Initiated in 1966 by Joe Morgenstern, the NSFC comprises over 60 film critics from several American publications, like The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Christian Science Monitor, to name a few.
Voting had commenced on Saturday and results were announced on the same day. While the award ceremony is usually held at the New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center, the event was held virtually this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.