In a year largely defined by isolation and displacement, “Nomadland”, the melancholy and melancholy film that explores these themes in its tale of a woman living as a nomad after the recession a decade ago, was voted the best film of 2020 by the National Society of Film Critics.
“Nomadland” was a favorite while the group of critics announced the recipients of its 55th annual award on Saturday. Chloé Zhao, who wrote and directed the film, won the award for best director, while Joshua James won the award for best photography for his work in the drama. The film’s star, Frances McDormand, won the best actress award for her role as Fern, the 60-year-old homeless widow who travels west in a van in search of a job.
Zhao was the favorite among critics before the Oscars. Last month, she was voted best director by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. and the New York Film Critics Circle when each group announced their awards for 2020. The LAFC selected Steve McQueen’s “Small Ax” as the best film, while the NYFCC gave the award for Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow”.
In other categories in the acting categories, Maria Bakalova won the award for best supporting actress for her innovative performance (and in the headlines) in Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”, in which she played the teenage daughter of the accompanying title character. Borat on his travels to the United States Bakalova was also honored by the New York group of critics.
Isiah Whitlock Jr., from the left, Norm Lewis, Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters and Jonathan Majors in “Da 5 Bloods”.
(Netflix)
The best actor award went to Delroy Lindo for his role in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” as a Vietnam War veteran who returns to the country with three other comrades to find the remains of his leader – played by Chadwick Boseman in one of their final performances – and recover the gold they left behind during the war. Boseman was runner-up for his role in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”. Previously, Lindo won the NYFCC Best Actor Award. And Paul Raci was awarded the best supporting actor in society for his time as a deaf adviser who runs a sober house in the Midwest for addicted to the deaf in Darius Marder’s eloquent drama, “Sound of Metal”.
Meanwhile, Eliza Hittman’s adulthood drama, “Never Rarely When Always”, which tells the story of a teenager’s search for an abortion outside her hometown, where she needs parental consent, won her the prize best script.
Last year, the society’s best film award went to “Parasite” by Bong Joon Ho, a black comedy thriller about a family of con artists who devise a complex plan to enter the home of a wealthy family. The film won the Oscar for best film.
The national society, which has 60 members across the country, met virtually on Saturday to determine the winners by its usual weighted voting system. Any film released in the United States in 2020 was eligible for consideration – in a year when release strategies have changed due to the still violent COVID-19 pandemic – including films that debuted on the big screen or on streaming platforms.
The list of 2020 winners:
Best photo: “Nomadland”
Director: Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland”
Script: Eliza Hittman, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Cinematography: Joshua James, “Nomadland”
Actress: Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”
Actor: Delroy Lindo, “Da 5 Bloods”
Supporting actress: Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
Supporting actor: Paul Raci, “Sound of Metal”
Nonfiction film: “Time”
Foreign language film: “Collective”
Film Heritage Award: The society honored the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded by Cyrus I. Harvey and Bryant N. Halliday, the small, single-screen theater has been a haven for art cinema since 1953; Women Make Movies, the New York-based nonprofit media arts organization that supports filmmakers and distributes their work; and the currently hiatus Film Comment, the influential American cinema magazine founded in 1962.