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The Critics Choice Association (Cca) has announced the film nominations for the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards, and the mystery thriller Conclave and the stage musical adaptation Wicked are leading the pack this year, with 11 nominations going to each of them. Dune Part Two and the musical thriller Emilia Pérez follow close behind, with 10 nominations each. The winners will be revealed at the Critics Choice Awards gala hosted by Chelsea Handler, which will be broadcast live on E! on Sunday, January 12th, from 7:00 to 10:00pm Et / Pt. The gala is being held in the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. The show will also be available to stream the next day on the Peacock streaming service. And by the way, JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray is one of the critics whose votes are being counted for this event!

Cca CEO Joey Berlin provided the following statement: “This year brought...

It’s popes vs. witches. “Conclave” and “Wicked” both received 11 nominations for the the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards, which were announced Thursday morning. That put the two very different films in first place among nominees, followed by “Dune: Part II” and “Emilia Pérez” with 10 nominations each.

All four of the top nominees earned Best Picture nods, as did “A Complete Unknown, “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “Nickel Boys,” “Sing Sing” and “The Substance.” Directors of the top four were also recognized: Edward Berger, Jon M. Chu, Denis Villeneuve and Jacques Audiard.

“The Brutalist” and “Anora” also scored multiple nominations, with nine and seven, respectively.

Overall, the results were similar to Monday’s Golden Globe nominations, with a few actors cited here that had been snubbed at the Globes — including Marianne Jean Baptiste (“Hard Truths”), Danielle Deadwyler (“The Piano Lesson”) and Clarence Maclin (“Sing Sing”).

Sebastian Stan, who was Globe nominated twice...

The film nominations for the 2025 Critics Choice Awards have been unveiled!

The awards show celebrates both TV shows and movies, with the TV nominations having been announced last week. So, we now have the full list of nominees!

Wicked and Conclave are the top 2 nominated films this year, both garnering 11 nominations.

The 2025 Critics Choice Awards will air on January 12, 2025. Chelsea Handler will return as the host.

Keep reading to find out more…

Scroll down to see all the movie nominations this year…

Movie Nominations:

Best Picture

A Complete Unknown

Anora

The Brutalist

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

Emilia Pérez

Nickel Boys

Sing Sing

The Substance

Wicked

Best Actor

Adrien Brody – The Brutalist

Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown

Daniel Craig – Queer

Colman Domingo – Sing Sing

Ralph Fiennes – Conclave

Hugh Grant – Heretic

Best Actress

Cynthia Erivo – Wicked

Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez

Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hard Truths

Angelina Jolie – Maria

Mikey Madison – Anora

Demi Moore...

The Critics Choice Association has revealed the film nominees for the 2025 Critics Choice Awards.

Conclave and Wicked lead this year’s nominees with 11 nods each, including for the top prize of best picture.

The Critics Choice Association last week announced nominations in its TV categories, with Shogun scoring a leading six nods.

The winners across film and TV categories will be revealed during the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards, hosted by Chelsea Handler, which is set to take place on Jan. 12 at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar and will air live on E! from 7-10 p.m. Et/Pt, with the show moving to the NBCUniversal cable network from its previous home of The CW.

A complete list of this year’s film nominees follows.

Best Picture

A Complete Unknown

Anora

The Brutalist

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

Emilia Pérez

Nickel Boys

Sing Sing

The Substance

Wicked

Best Actor

Adrien Brody...

“Conclave” and “Wicked” lead the tally for all movies for this year’s Critics Choice Awards nominations with 11 nods each.

The Cca, celebrating its 30th year, announced three of the top categories live on NBC’s “Today” which included the 10 movies in the running for best picture: “A Complete Unknown,” “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “Conclave,” “Dune: Part Two,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Nickel Boys,” “Sing Sing,” “The Substance” and “Wicked.”

Among Hollywood’s biggest stars recognized for acting are Timothée Chalamet in best actor for his transformational turn as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s biopic “A Complete Unknown” and Mikey Madison’s breakout performance as a stripper who gets mixed with a Russian oligarch’s son in Sean Baker’s poignant dramedy “Anora.” The supporting actor and actress categories include Kieran Culkin from the heartwarming “A Real Pain” and Zoe Saldaña from the Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez.”

The Critics Choice Awards are...

The Critics Choice Association (Cca) has announced the first round of nominees for the film categories for the 30th annual Critics Choice Awards with “Conclave” and “Wicked” leading the pack with 11 nominations each going into the ceremony happening Sunday, January 12, 2025 at the Barker Hangar in Los Angeles.

The group’s picks for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress were announced by host Carson Daly on “Today” during the NBC morning show’s “Popstart” segment. While love for films like “The Brutalist” and “Emilia Pérez” were expected, with the films respective leads Adrien Brody and Karla Sofía Gascón being nominated as well, there were also some pleasant surprises like “The Substance” earning a Best Picture nod, and a Best Actress nod for Demi Moore. Fellow horror film “Heretic” also earned a Best Actor nomination for star Hugh Grant.

The Critics Choice Association also announced their 2025 TV nominees the previous week,...

Several directors of photography are in Oscar contention this year after reteaming with a director they had worked with previously. Some lensed $100 million-plus epics, while others shot films with tighter budgets. Whatever their situation, six of this year’s leading DPs gathered on Zoom in October for THR’s annual Cinematographer Roundtable to discuss their paths into the profession, their stance on VFX and the biggest challenges they faced on their projects this year.

The six roundtablists were Maria’s Ed Lachman, who previously worked with Pablo Larraín on El Conde; Gladiator II’s John Mathieson, who lensed the first movie as well as others from Ridley Scott’s filmography; Wicked’s Alice Brooks, whose collaborations with director Jon M. Chu include In the Heights; Emilia Pérez’s Paul Guilhaume, who shot Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District; Dune: Part Two’s Greig Fraser, who, of course, also shot...

Hyperbole can be an issue when writing about films. For the most part, I don't think those who traffic in gushing, pull-quote ready words of praise do so inauthentically. I simply think it's very easy to get excited about a movie, especially when that movie is good. Still, it's necessary to be realistic, just as it is to be honest. Yet every now and then, a movie comes along that warrants the most effusive praise possible. I'm telling you all of this so you understand where I'm coming from when I say that RaMell Ross' "Nickel Boys" is unlike any movie you've ever seen before. Ross has somehow invented a distinct, unique, and fresh cinematic language for his adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Nickel Boys," creating a film that feels like an actual memory plucked straight from someone's mind. Dream-like, harrowing, beautiful, stunning; all these words...

When he first met with Nickel Boys director RaMell Ross, cinematographer Jomo Fray was excited by the challenge of filming from a character’s perspective. “It was a completely different experience to anything I’ve ever shot,” says Fray. “As the cinematographer, you have to be present to the scene in a completely different way.”

Fray’s role became more performance based, and he had to pay close attention to the performances of Elwood and Tanner since he was shooting from their perspective. “I would watch rehearsals of Brandon (Wilson) and Ethan (Herisse), seeing how they were interpreting the characters’ physical motions, emotional movements… I’m inside the scene, so if something happens, I have to react and I have to react as the character whose perspective the camera is attached to.”

In addition to the movements and performances, Fray had to get into the minutiae of how it feels to see something.

Some movies are so special that you know you are watching something major despite its flaws. This is the case with Nickel Boys, the narrative feature debut of Academy Award-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross. With Nickel Boys, Ross takes an entirely distinctive approach to its subject matter, telling a story the likes of which we have seen before in a way that feels unlike anything else you’ve seen before.

Nickel Boys Review

Based on the novel by Colson Whitehead (The Underground Railroad), Nickel Boys tells the story of two teenagers subjected to awful treatment while living at a reform school in North Florida. The story is based on a real-life reform school that made national headlines in the late 2010s when dozens of unmarked graves of victims of the school’s staff were discovered.

Brandon Wilson stars as Turner in director RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys, from Orion Pictures. Photo credit: Courtesy of Orion Pictures.

The Hollywood Creative Alliance has announced the winners for the 2024 Astra Film and Creative Arts Awards on Sunday, Dec. 8. The organization hosted two ceremonies – a luncheon and dinner – at the Taglyan Complex in Los Angeles. Actor, comedian and writer Peter Kim hosted the Astra Creative Arts Awards and two-time Emmy and NAACP-winning comedian Loni Love hosted the Astra Film Awards.

Universal Pictures’ “Wicked” came out on top with eight wins including Best Picture, Best Director for Jon M. Chu, Best Actress for Cynthia Erivo, and Best Supporting Actress for Ariana Grande (tie with Zoe Saldaña). Coming in second place was Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part Two” and Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez” with four wins each. See the full list of winners below.

In addition, the Hollywood Creative Alliance honored costume designer Colleen Atwood with the Inaugural Artisan Icon Award, composer Kris Bowers received the Artisan Achievement Award, and cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi...

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association aka Lafca gathered over the weekend to name their award winners for 2024. This year, they chose Palme d’Or winner Anora as Best Picture, with The Brutalist coming in as the runner-up. Anora fared quite well overall with Lafca, also taking home Lead Performance for Mikey Madison and runner-up recognition for Sean Baker’s direction and screenplay.

Check out Lafca’s winners below:

Best Picture: Anora

Runner-Up: The Brutalist

Best Director: Mohammad Rasoulof – The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Runner-Up: Sean Baker – Anora

Best Lead Performance: Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Truths / Mikey Madison – Anora

Runners-Up: Demi Moore – The Substance / Fernanda Torres – I’m Still Here

Best Supporting Performance: Yura Borisov – Anora / Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain

Runners-Up: Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing / Adam Pearson – A Different Man

Best Screenplay: A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg

Runner-Up: Anora – Sean Baker

Best Cinematography: Nickel Boys – Jomo Fray

Runner-Up: The Brutalist – Lol Crawley...

Die amerikanische Filmkritik war schon in Cannes begeistert von „Anora“. Nun haben die Filmkritiker von Los Angeles die Arbeit von Sean Baker zum besten Film erklärt und geben ihm einen ordentlichen Oscarboost. Hansjörg Weißbrich wurde für seinen Schnitt von „September 5“ ausgezeichnet.

Sean Bakers „Anora“ mit Mark Eidelshtein und Mikey Madison (Credit: Upi)

Anders als die für ihre nicht allzu populären Entscheidungen bekannten Kollegen aus New York (bester Film: „Der Brutalist“) haben die Filmkritiker generell den Finger mehr am Puls der Zeit und wählen zumeist Titel, die dann später zumindest Oscarnominierungen erhalten werden.

Mal sehen, ob das in diesem Jahr auch wieder der Fall sein wird, aber zumindest steht fest, dass Cannes-Gewinner „Anora“ zumindest im Arthouse-Bereich Der Konsenstitel in den USA ist: Der Film von Sean Bakerwurde zum besten Film erklärt; Platz zwei (die Kritiker von L.A. benennen immer auch einen „Runner-Up“) geht an „Der Brutalist“ von Brady Corbet. Im...

Anora was named best film by Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) as the group announced its winners on Sunday (December 8).

Sean Baker’s madcap Palme d’Or-winning romantic comedy, financed by FilmNation and distributed in the US through Neon, is starting to build up a head of steam in the US awards season.

Mikey Madison tied in the gender-neutral best lead performer category with last week’s New York Film Critics Circlebest actress winner Marianne Jean-Baptiste from Hard Truths. Mike Leigh’s drama is distributed in the US by Bleecker Street.

Yura Borisov was named joint best supporting performer...

The complete list of winners for the 2024 Los Angeles Film Critics Awards held on Sunday (December 8).

The annual event was put on by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, commemorating its 50th anniversary this year, and reveals the association’s selections of the year’s best movie and performances.

This year, both Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg picked up awards for their movie A Real Pain, winning Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.

The LA Film Critics Awards can coincide with the Oscars – six past winners have gone on to win the Oscar since 2009.

Keep reading to find out all of the winners…

Check out the full list of 2024 LA Film Critics Awards winners below!

Best picture

Winner: Anora

Runner-up: The Brutalist

Best director

Winner: Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Runner-up: Sean Baker, Anora

Best lead performance

Winners: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths, and Mikey Madison, Anora

Runners-up: Demi Moore,...

Voting kicked off Sunday for the 50th Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) Awards.

After announcing John Carpenter as the recipient of this year’s Career Achievement Award, Lafca members recognized some of the year’s best films and talents during Sunday’s voting ahead of the awards ceremony on Jan. 11, 2025 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

Writer/director Sean Baker’s Anora took home Best Picture, also receiving runner-up for Baker in the Best Director and Best Screenplay categories. Anora star Mikey Madison won Best Leading Performance, along with Hard Truths‘ Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Her co-star Yura Borisov won Best Supporting Performance, along with A Real Pain‘s Kieran Culkin.

At last year’s Lafca Awards, The Zone of Interest won Best Picture, and runner-up Oppenheimer went on to win Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards.

Founded in 1975, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association is composed of LA-based...

Sean Baker’s raucous film “Anora” has been named the best movie of 2024 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, which announced its awards on Sunday. Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” took the runner-up spot.

“Anora” took three awards overall, also winning for actors Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov. Baker was also the runner-up in the directing and writing categories, edged out in director by exiled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof for “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and in screenplay by writer-director-actor Jesse Eisenberg for “A Real Pain.”

In the gender-neutral acting categories, the lead awards were swept by women and the supporting awards by men. Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Madison won the lead awards for “Hard Truths” and “Anora,” respectively, with Demi Moore and Fernanda Torres the runners-up for “The Substance” and “I’m Still Here.”

Supporting winners were Borisov for “Anora” and Kieran Culkin for “A Real Pain,” while...

Anora was named best picture of 2024 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca), which handed out its annual achievement awards Sunday, marking its 50th anniversary of honoring Hollywood talent on both sides of the camera.

The Brutalist was the runner-up.

Anora also scored two acting wins: Best lead performance went to Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths and Mikey Madison for Anora, while best supporting performance went to Yura Borisov for Anora and Kieran Culkin for A Real Pain.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails also were among the ceremony’s winners, taking home best score for Challengers. Mohammad Rasoulof took home best director for The Seed of the Sacred Fig.

The association previously announced science fiction legend John Carpenter as this year’s career achievement award, citing his “ability to spin stylish, prescient, genre-bending features of otherworldly menace and powerful emotion,” as well as the fact...

Days after the New York Film Critics Circle announced its annual winners, film critics in Los Angeles weighed in on the year’s best movies and performances.

“Anora” won a leading three awards: Best Picture and two acting trophies. Its filmmaker, Sean Baker, was also the runner-up for Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Acting winners included Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Hard Truths”) and Mikey Madison (“Anora”) for best lead performances, while Yura Borisov (“Anora”) and Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”) won the best supporting performance category. The runners-up in each respective category were Demi Moore (“The Substance”) and Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”), and Clarence Maclin (“Sing Sing”) and Adam Pearson (“A Different Man”). The Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards acting honors in genderless categories.

Read below for the full list of Los Angeles Film Critics Association winners.

Founded in 1975, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association “is comprised of Los Angeles-based,...

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named Sean Baker’s “Anora” its Best Picture for 2024. The critics group also awarded stars Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov with the Best Leading Performance and Best Supporting Performance, respectively. This year, the Lafca decided to spread the wealth and awarded two performers in each category, which remain gender neutral.

The Lafca spread the wealth around, but Baker also received the runner-up prizes for both Best Director and Best Screenplay. Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” was named runner-up in the Best Picture category.

With New York kicking off awards season with the Gotham Awards and the NYFCC releasing their winners, the West coast finally jumped into the fray, with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association announcing their winners for 2024 on Sunday, December 8.

Lafca previously unveiled that John Carpenter will be receiving the Career Achievement Award during its ceremony on Saturday, January 11, 2025 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles,...

Oscar-winning indie studio Neon emerged as the big winner at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s 50th annual selections of the best films and performances, clinching top honors for two of its major contenders: the poignant dramedy “Anora” and the politically-charged thriller “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.”

“Anora” took home the best picture prize, following in the footsteps of past Lafca winners turned Oscar darlings such as “The Hurt Locker” (2009), “Moonlight” (2016) and “Parasite” (2019). It seems like smooth sailing to the Dolby Theatre (at least for a nomination) for the Sean Baker dramedy that won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Mohammad Rasoulof directed, co-wrote and produced “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” under immense political pressure, resulting in the filmmaker being forced to flee Iran after facing an eight-year prison sentence and demands from authorities to withdraw the film from its Cannes premiere. His win...

This morning saw the announcements of the 40th edition of the Film Independent Spirit Awards. The big picture nominees include titles like the film festival darling The Substance, as well as Anora, which is getting high accolades for Mikey Madison‘s performance and Sean Baker’s writing and direction. A24 would naturally snag a ton of nominations that total a whopping 19. This beats last year’s 11-nomination count.

The Independent Spirit Awards will be taking place on Saturday, February 22, 2025, and is set to be held at Santa Monica beach. Former Saturday Night Live cast member Aidy Bryant will return as the host. The in-person ceremony will be available to stream live on IMDb and Film Independent YouTube channels, and across other social platforms. You can find the full list of nominations, courtesy of Deadline, below.

Best Feature (Award given to the producer)

Anora

Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan...

Nominations for the 2025 Independent Spirit Awards are in!

The awards show celebrates films budgeted at less than $30 million to produce and must be considered “independent.” There are also TV categories!

For the films, Anora and I Saw the TV Glow got six nominations each. Shogun got the most TV nominations with five total.

The show will take place on Saturday, February 22, 2025, with Aidy Bryant hosting.

Keep reading to find out more…

Scroll down for the full list of nominees…

Best Feature

Anora

Producers: Sean Baker, Alex Coco, Samantha Quan

I Saw the TV Glow

Producers: Ali Herting, Sam Intili, Dave McCary, Emma Stone, Sarah Winshall

Nickel Boys

Producers: Joslyn Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine

Sing Sing

Producers: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Monique Walton

The Substance

Producers: Tim Bevan, Coralie Fargeat, Eric Fellner

Best First Feature

Dìdi

Director/Producer: Sean Wang

Producers: Valerie Bush, Carlos López Estrada, Josh Peters...

Wow… has it really been 40 years? It sure has, and that’s a reason to celebrate! From our first year at a restaurant on La Cienega Blvd. to a worldwide live stream, the Film Independent Spirit Awards have grown a lot.

That first year the awards, then called the Findie (Friends of Independents) Awards, awarded both Marty & Joel Coen the Best Director prize. Since then, we’ve celebrated artists like Spike Lee, Ryan Coogler, Whit Stillman, Robert Rodriguez and Kasi Lemmons, among many, many others. Next month on the blog, we’ll take deep dive into all the history of the awards, so make sure to check back with us to read all about the last 40 years of the Spirit Awards!

This year, we’re headed back to the beach in Santa Monica with returning host and Saturday Night Live alum Aidy Bryant. The show, which will be held at the beach in Santa Monica,...

Nominations have been revealed for the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which will take place in Los Angeles on February 22. The film nominations were led by “Anora” and “I Saw the TV Glow” with six each. In the television categories, “Shōgun” garnered the most nominations with five, followed closely by “Baby Reindeer” and “English Teacher” with four apiece. Watch the announcement here and see the full list below.

Julio Torres did well here with four nominations across his feature directorial debut “Problemista” and Max series “Fantasmas.” Indies like “Dídi,” “Janet Planet,” “Sing Sing,” “Ghostlight,” “The People’s Joker,” “In the Summers,” “The Substance,” and “Nickel Boys” also had a good day, racking up multiple nominations across the board. Netflix enjoys multiple nods, for “The Piano Lesson” and “His Three Daughters,” two movies poised to enter into the Oscar race.

The 2024 Spirit Award winners were led by “Past Lives,” “The Holdovers,” and “American Fiction,...

The nominations for the 2025 Spirit Awards have been revealed.

Anora and I Saw the TV Glow lead with six nods each. On the TV side, Shogun dominates with five noms, followed by Baby Reindeer and English Teacher with four each.

Both Anora and I Saw the TV Glow are up for the top prize of best feature, where they’ll face off against three-time nominee Sing Sing (also up for best lead performance for Colman Domingo and supporting performance for Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin) and double nominees Nickel Boys (also up for best cinematography for Jomo Fray) and The Substance (also up for best lead performance for star Demi Moore).

Anora and I Saw the TV Glow are also up for best director (Sean Baker for Anora and Jane Schoenbrun for I Saw the TV Glow), lead performance (Mikey Madison for Anora and Justice Smith for I Saw the TV Glow...

Awards season is chugging right along. Next up are the Film Independent Spirit Awards, which honor the best and brightest in indie cinema and television. To qualify, a film's budget must not exceed $30 million, which means major blockbusters like Wicked and Gladiator II are, obviously, out of the running.

This year,...

Alessandro Nivola and Adrien Brody in ‘The Brutalist’ (Photo Credit: A24)

The oldest film critics group in the U.S. named The Brutalist as the best film of 2024. The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) winners were announced on December 3, 2024, with the pool of award-winners coming from independent films rather than the major studios.

“The NYFCC is proud of the exciting slate of winners selected this year and we look forward to honoring them all at our annual gala in January,” said NYFCC Chair David Sims of The Atlantic.

Last year, the NYFCC voted Killers of the Flower Moon as Best Film and Christopher Nolan as Best Director for Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer went on to win Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr), Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing Oscars.

New York Film Critics Circle 2024 Winners

Best Film:

The Brutalist

Best Director:

RaMell Ross,...

The New York Film Critics Circle has named The Brutalist as its pick for the best film of 2024.

Adrien Brody, who stars in the Brady Corbet-directed film, also won best actor for his performance as a Hungarian Jewish architect who immigrates to the U.S. after World War II to build a new life.

Nickel Boys also won two awards, for best director (RaMell Ross) and cinematography (Jomo Fray).

Best actress went to Hard Truths‘ Marianne Jean-Baptiste, while A Real Pain‘s Kieran Culkin was named best supporting actor and Between the Temples‘ Carol Kane won best supporting actress.

Sean Baker won best screenplay for Anora, while best animated film went to the animal-centric Flow.

All We Imagine as Light was named best international film, and No Other Land was named best nonfiction film. Best first film went to Janet Planet.

Last year, the NYFCC selected Killers of the Flower Moon...

After close to three hours of deliberation, the New York Film Critics Circle named Brady Corbet’s three-hour-plus epic The Brutalist as Best Film. The group also named the pic’s star Adrien Brody as Best Actor.

A24 snapped up the movie after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it earned a 13-minute ovation. The Brutalist stars Brody as László Tóth, a World War II Hungarian refugee architect in the U.S. and Guy Pearce as the complex real estate tycoon who enlists Tóth’s talents of Brody’s character. Corbet, who won the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice, shot The Brutalist in Hungary with tax credits for under $10M. It opens on December 20. A24 also will be showing the epic, which also stars Felicity Jones and Alessandro Nivola, in 70Mm.

The NYFCC handed its Best Director award to RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys director RaMell Ross,...

Voting for the 90th New York Film Critics Circle Awards has ended, and all true cinephiles’ eyes are directed to what films the prestigious critics group honored today: Last year, “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Oppenheimer” won the biggest prizes, giving a partial sign of where the Oscar race was going. But not a complete one, as “Killers” won Best Picture and Lily Gladstone won Best Actress at the NYFCC, both awards that were not repeated at the Oscars. NYFCC winner for Best Director Christopher Nolan did win that award at the Oscars a few months later, however.

Cinephilia, not Oscars prognostication, is the true value of the NYFCC awards. And to that end, “Flow,” one of the most acclaimed animated features of the year and one that the Academy should take close note of, received the first award at the voting for the 2024 awards held in NYC on...

Brady Corbet’s epic drama “The Brutalist” was named the best film of 2024 by the New York Film Critics Circle, which announced its annual winners on Tuesday.

RaMell Ross won the Best Director award for his narrative debut, “Nickel Boys.”

Marianne Jean-Baptiste won the Best Actress award for her scorching performance in Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” while Adrien Brody won Best Actor for “The Brutalist.”

Kieran Culkin was named best supporting actor for his role in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain.” Carole Kane was honored as best supporting actress for “Between the Temples.”

As the first major critics group to announce its awards, the NYFCC was able to give a little attention to its winners in a year in which few of the major categories have strong frontrunners. “The Brutalist,” a three-and-a-half hour drama starring Brody as an architect who comes to the United States after fleeing Europe during World War II,...

Brady Corbet’s historical epic “The Brutalist” was the big favorite at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, taking home two major prizes for best film and actor for Adrien Brody.

As the oldest critics’ group in the United States, the NYFCC is seen as a bellwether for awards season, with its best film winner often correlating with an Academy Award nomination for best picture. Since the Oscars expanded to 10 best picture nominees in 2009, only two NYFCC winners — “Carol” (2015) and “First Cow” (2020) — have failed to secure Oscar nominations in the category.

Brody’s win reignites his Oscar prospects surrounding his performance in Corbet’s historical epic, which has already been described as a towering achievement. The actor, who made history in 2002 as the youngest-ever best actor Oscar winner for “The Pianist” at age 29, could now become the youngest two-time winner at 51. However, he faces stiff competition from a strong...

The New York Film Critics Circle announced its winners on Tuesday, with “The Brutalist” winning Best Film and acting awards going to Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Hard Truths”), Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”), and Carol Kane (“Between the Temples”).

Other winners included RaMell Ross (Best Director for “Nickel Boys”), Sean Baker (Best Screenplay for “Anora”), Jomo Fray (Best Cinematography for “Nickel Boys), “Flow” (Best Animated Film), and “All We Imagine as Light” (Best International Film).

Brody won Best Actor for his performance in Brady Corbet‘s epic drama, which A24 will release later this month. A former Oscar winner for “The Pianist,” Brody is widely predicted to earn his second Oscar nomination next year and is considered a front-runner to win as well.

Jean-Baptiste won Best Actress from the New York group, an outcome that many observers predicted in the days before Tuesday’s voting. The actress has...

On December 5, the IndieWire Honors Winter 2024 ceremony will celebrate the creators and stars responsible for crafting some of the year’s best films. Curated and selected by IndieWire’s editorial team, IndieWire Honors is a celebration of the filmmakers, artisans, and performers behind films well worth toasting. We’re showcasing their work with new interviews leading up to the Los Angeles event.

Despite his film being an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel, director RaMell Ross has found it helpful to come out and give an introduction to any “Nickel Boys” screening that he can. “[I tell] people to not look too hard and to not try to figure it out, just to watch the film,” he said to IndieWire over coffee at a Beverly Hills hotel. “They go in specifically knowing the themes, expecting for it to be this really clear narrative, as opposed to something more experiential.

Earlier this week we shared part one of our conversation with Nickel Boys cinematographer, Jomo Fray. There, we talked about how he got involved with Nickel Boys, and his path to get there including being a Film Independent Project Involve Fellow. For part two, we get into the nitty gritty of shooting a film in first person Pov, and what advice Jomo has for emerging filmmakers.

This interview was conducted by another Project Involve fellow from his cohort, Film Independent’s own Joenique C. Rose.

I was going to ask about the technical part of the film because my mind was just blown. I hear you talk about the use of the body rig and the dolly and the remote head. I don’t know if you can describe it in a way where people who are going to be reading this will understand, but at least for some of those scenes,...

We here at Film Independent are excited about the new film Nickel Boys, and not just because it’s one of the most buzzed about movies of the fall. We have a special connection to the filmmaking team. Cinematographer Jomo Fray is a 2017 Project Involve Fellow.

He worked on the short film Emergency in his year as a cinematography fellow with producing fellow Joenique C. Rose. Joenique now works with us here at Film Independent, and we brought them together to talk about Nickel Boys and Jomo’s journey from Project Involve to where he is today.

Because it’s Thanksgiving week, we thought we’d give you a double serving and share with you this in-depth interview in two parts. Part one is below and look for part two later this week.

Okay, so first of all, I love Nickel Boys. I can’t wait to see it again in theaters.

“Nickel Boys” is unlike any film you’ve ever seen. The RaMell Ross drama is shot in first-person point of view, but the writer-director and cinematographer Jomo Fray had another of way of describing it.

“Pretty early on, we started using the term ‘sentient perspective’ instead of saying ‘Pov’ almost as a way to ground us in,” Fray tells Gold Derby during our Meet the Experts: Film Cinematography panel. “What I think RaMell was after was trying to think of an image that always felt like it was connected to a human body. It always felt like it was tied in in a very present tense way — a real person navigating an often hostile environment. It was one of those situations where even on the onset, it was like, ‘Ok, well, if we do want to do this sentient perspective, this first-person perspective, how do we find more traditional film grammar?...

Shooting Nickel Boys entirely from the characters’ first-person point of view — literally through their eyes — was a novel way to “center the experience” of the film’s subjects, writer-director RaMell Ross said at Saturday’s Deadline Contenders Film: Los Angeles event. It was also a daunting technical and conceptual challenge.

“It was all about unlearning everything that we thought we knew about traditional cinema and trying to reach for the oddest tools, to try to get something that felt really organic and inside the body,” director of photography Jomo Fray said in a panel discussion with Ross, co-star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and producer Jeremy Kleiner.

Related: 2024-25 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More

Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2019 novel, The Nickel Boys, the Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios film follows two Black teen-aged boys imprisoned in a harsh, Jim Crow-era Florida reform school, The Nickel Academy.

Contenders Film: Los Angeles, Deadline’s signature and original Contenders event, kicks off its latest edition this morning at 8:30 a.m. Pt at the DGA Theater in Hollywood, giving awards voters the opportunity to experience up close and personal the story of 21 of the awards season’s most acclaimed movies, and to hear directly from the talent responsible.

If you’re not attending in person, click here to launch the livestream.

The year 2024 has been a challenging one for the film community as the actors and writers strikes of last year threw the industry off balance and delayed many films, stopping some right in the middle of production and making it especially hard to stick to planned release dates. What is remarkable is the number of films that did manage to meet release dates and maintain the highest quality that has brought them to our event today.

What a lineup we have,...

Deadline’s 2024 Contenders Film: Los Angeles, an annual daylong awards-season kickoff event, hosted stars and talent of films competing for the top honors during the upcoming awards season.

The event featured 21 movies from various film studios, with actors, directors and more attending panels hosted at the Director’s Guild of America in Los Angeles Saturday, November 16.

Related: Deadline Studio At Contenders Film 2024 – Pamela Anderson, Kevin Costner, Tilda Swinton, Mikey Madison, Saoirse Ronan, Lupita Nyong’o & More

Morning panelists included actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, cinematographer Jomo Fray and writer and director RaMell Ross for Amazon MGM Studios’ and Orion Pictures’ Nickel Boys, star maisy Stella and director Megan Park for My Old Ass, producer Amy Pascal, scribe Justin Kuritzkes and director and producer Luca Guadagnino for Challengers.

Kevin Costner, composer John Debney and costume designer Lisa Lovaas spoke about Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, and Saorise Ronan spoke for both Apple TV’s Blitz and The Outrun.

“Nickel Boys” stars Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson took different approaches to tackling their roles in director RaMell Ross‘ adaptation of Colson Whitehead‘s 2019 novel. Prior to filming, Herisse dove into the Pulitzer Prize-winning book to prepare for his role of Elwood.

“I wasn’t familiar with the novel, nor was I familiar with the Dozier School for Boys,” he tells Gold Derby. “All of those things were presented to me in the email that had the self-tape request. I read the script, I did the tape, I sent it off into the void and then I picked up the book purely off of interest and knowing more about the story. I was familiar with ‘The Underground Railroad,’ I had read that, so I was familiar with Colson’s work. It wasn’t too big of a leap to go ahead and read this book.”

Wilson, who plays Turner in the movie,...

Amazon MGM Studios and Orion Pictures have announced “Nickel Boys” star Ethan Herisse will campaign for Best Actor this awards season (reported in an IndieWire exclusive). He will avoid direct competition from his main co-star Brandon Wilson, who drops down to Best Supporting Actor with fellow castmates Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Jimmie Fails, and Craig Tate. Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis Taylor (“King Richard”) will contend in Best Supporting Actress.

Directed by Academy Award nominee RaMell Ross, the film will debut December 13 in New York City and December 20 in Los Angeles. “Nickel Boys” stunned audiences when it premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in August, quickly earning Oscar buzz when festival director Julie Huntsinger noted, “You almost can’t speak after because it’s cinematically engaging, arresting. It is emotionally rewarding. It should be one of the most talked about films of the whole year.”

See ‘Nickel Boys’ director...

Fresh off its world premiere at Telluride and a plum spot opening the 2024 New York Film Festival, RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys,” an Orion Pictures release, has announced the categories in which it intends to campaign for this coming awards season.

Most notably, the adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, about two young Black men bonded by the horrific experience of being stuck in a 1960s reform school in Florida, will split the titular roles between two categories.

Ethan Herisse, who plays young Elwood, the character which viewers initially experience the film through, will compete in the Best Actor category. Brandon Wilson as Turner, the first friend Elwood makes at the school, whose eyes the audience eventually sees the film through as well, will campaign in the Best Supporting Actor category alongside co-stars like Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Jimmie Fails, and Craig Tate, who all have smaller,...

Acclaimed director RaMell Ross is using a unique filming approach for his adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Nickel Boys.” The film follows the story of two boys in a segregated 1960s Florida reform school. Unlike most movies, the camera will view events almost entirely from the boys’ perspective.

Ross said he aims to place viewers directly in the experiences of the boys. His method captures “the full spectrum of emotions” they endured. By shooting from the character’s point of view, audiences will see and feel what the boys saw and felt. This jarring experience seeks to deeply engage viewers in the story.

The film centers on Elwood, played by Ethan Herisse, and his friend Turner, portrayed by Brandon Wilson. Scenes set within the abusive Nickel Academy reformatory school uncover the challenges the boys faced. Brief glimpses of life outside also show how their time in the institution impacted them.

In adapting Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Nickel Boys” from page to screen, documentarian and filmmaker RaMell Ross and cinematographer Jomo Fray (“All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt”) were determined to make it a viewing experience that allowed audiences the full scope of beauty, terror, tragedy, and redemption experienced by the boys at the center of the novel. To do so, they shot the film almost entirely in first-person point-of-view, employing a range of techniques to create the impression that what you’re seeing is coming directly from the eyes of characters Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson).

“To give subjectivity to the Dozier School boys is fundamentally mind-blowing,” said Ross in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. “In literature, you’re allowed to write from the inside, but at least most cinema is from the outside. This allows them to see and to give them vision,...

At six of the last 11 Oscars, Best Cinematography has gone hand-in-hand with Best Director: Emmanuel Lubezki and Alfonso Cuaron for “Gravity” (2014); Lubezki and Alejandro G. Inarritu for both “Birdman” (2015) and “The Revenant” (2016); Linus Sandgren and Damien Chazelle for “La La Land” (2017); Cuaron doing double duty on “Roma” (2019) and Hoyte van Hoytema and Christopher Nolan for “Oppenheimer” (2024). Will that trend hold true this year? (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Cinematography.)

The academy usually regards award-winning cinematography as pretty pictures within an epic technical feat of filmmaking. While great lighting and framing are laudable on their own, having a movie that looks like it was difficult to shoot goes a long way to snagging an Oscar. Recent lensing winners “Avatar” (2009), “Inception” (2010), “Hugo” (2011), “Life of Pi” (2012), “Gravity” (2013), “Blade Runner 2049” (2018) and “1917” (2020) also took home the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

While the lensers of “Oppenheimer,” “Inception” and...

October is a great time to be a movie lover. The awards contenders are starting to roll out, genre films are obligatory for the Halloween season, and we start to see the indie palate-cleansers to wash away the popcorn hangover of the summer blockbuster. This month we have awards contenders with big stars like We Live In Time, or up-and-comers like Nickel Boys. We have intimate indies like La Cocina and exciting docs like Hollywoodgate and Nocturnes. All treats, no tricks this year. Check out what we’re excited about below.

We Live In Time

When You Can Watch: October 11

Where You Can Watch: Theaters (Limited)

Director: John Crowley

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Grace Delaney

Why We’re Excited: Directed by John Crowley, this decades-spanning romantic drama from scribe Nick Payne follows a couple, Almut (Pugh) and Tobias (Garfield). After award-winning chef Almut accidentally runs Tobias over with her car,...

Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ narrative feature debut, is the story of a stubborn world, resisting change. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, it’s an experimental rendition shooting mainly through Pov. We meet our protagonist not by looking at him, but by observing the world as he sees it. Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is the kind of Black young man society has always told him to be: patient, polite, non-threatening, and respectful of elders. When he sees a little girl pop up under his seat on the bus, he chats with her pleasantly. He’s good to his grandmother Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) and feels encouraged by his teacher (Jimmie Fails). Quiet and observant, Elwood looks at the world and sees promise for a better future. It’s the 1960s in Jim Crow-era Florida; his subjugation is the status quo, but Elwood believes times are changing. He believes in Dr.

Amazon MGM Studios and Orion/Plan B’s “Nickel Boys” has a new release date. Directed by Academy Award nominee RaMell Ross, the film was originally scheduled to release October 25 in New York City and November 1 in Los Angeles, but will now debut December 13 in NYC and December 20 in LA.

Featuring critically acclaimed performances from Oscar and Emmy nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and from breakout stars Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson, the film recently had its successful world premiere at Telluride and opening night at the New York Film Festival.

See ‘Nickel Boys’ director RaMell Ross and cast on making Black pain ‘communal’ on New York Film Festival opening night

Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, “Nickel Boys” chronicles the powerful friendship between two young African American men navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida. “Most of us don’t know about schools like Dozier,...